Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Christmas biscuits..........



Yesterday was another busy out all day day for me. I left daisygirl and daisyboy4 home alone and this is what they got up to.....

Christmas biscuits...

Not sure how hygenic it is to have daisyboy4 on the bench with the dough but they had so much fun. The recipe came from the Advent sheet that was in the newsletter at church.




Jesse Tree Biscuits:

1 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup oats

Blend butter, sugar,extract, salt. Add flour and mix thoroughly. Stir in Oats. Chill dough. Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness cut and bake at 180C for 8 - 10 minutes. Ice if you like.



And here is what is left after we took some for afternoon tea, lunches today and packed some up for Daisyboy7's class party this morning.


They even cleaned up the kitchen so by the time I got home last night from the hospital all was as it should be.

Quick note daisyboy20 came through the op with only a minor hiccup and is safely in bed and feeling sore and sorry this morning.


Christmas Trivia: The Jesse Tree

This is a popular Advent tradition ( well if you are catholic/christian although I believe in some Jewish sects there is also a similar thing for hannukah). A jesse tree named after the father of David is a tree that is decorated gradually throughout Advent with symbols or pictures of biblical persons associated with the coming of Jesus. This includes among others Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph and Mary. The creation of a Jesse Tree serves as a reminder of the preparatory nature of the Advent season.

I think the key word in that explanation is "gradually" our lead up to Christmas should be gradual a small piece every day.

December 2 on our Advent calendar is "decorate" today I will dig out the baubles and candle holders and put them around the house we aren't here for Christmas itself we will be at my brothers beach house so the tree up there will be a live one which we must make decorations for shells, driftwood, paper stars etc. But we will still have some decorations around the house to remind us of the gradual lead up to Christmas.

And finally............

I have always been a little scared of growing orchids they seem like they need a lot of fuss, but no not really they can be ignored just like all my other garden plants and in return they give you this......................

Have a wonderful - gradual - day

daisymum

6 comments:

Joolz said...

Hi DaisyMum

"She's making a list...and checking it twice... she's gonna find out who's been naughty or nice..." I hope your advent calender 'list' goes to plan. I wish I wasn't working then I could have some time to 'plan'.

Those biscuits look great. Got a laugh out of seeing daisyson4's knees in the picture. Little monkey! How good are your kids to clean up after themselves - can they teach my 18 & 15 year olds??

Now that Grad, Schoolies and the 18th are out of the way, I am so looking forward to Christmas! We are not buying presents for other members of the family so that is a load off. So over the next few weeks I just need to tweak the pressy buying a bit and them I am done. For lunch I just have to do a potato bake, tossed salad and cook a small turkey roll and slice it cold. Easy and stress free.

Sounds like things have settled down at your place a bit.

Cheers - Joolz

jacqui jones said...

love the biscuits
we have those on our list too

i love the slow build up..:)

Teena said...

Am loving it! My church (down the street) that i volunteer at is having carols tonight as its the only night we are not expecting a storm. We are doing another carols to the streets closer to the big day but is yet (with all these storms) the date to be determined! Love doing this, my kids love having a sing-a-long to the neighbours holding an LED light (instead of burnie burn candle) they sing and dance and are the stars of the show, the neighbours all come out on their front lawns and sing along with us, so lovely and warm and fuzzy.

I love Christmas....so much joy, and so much to be thankful for.
xoxoxox

Anonymous said...

My son wants to make daisy4son biscuits. looks like something fun to do next week when we're home from school.

Teena said...

Oh .... the orchid is beautiful too, like you i am afraid to grow them, the queensland climate scares me into growing most ornamental plants, i should pluck up the courage shouldn't i.
xoxox

Ngaire said...

OOooh those biscuits look yummy! Your orchid looks gorgeous!