Territorial Capital Museum Christmas Tree Display 2023

I visited Lecompton, KS to see the Christmas Tree display two weekends ago. Always worth the trip! Aunt Netters in downtown Lecompton is a must stop too! 

271 Christmas trees this year! Display runs through January 7, visit if you can! 

Snowmen Pretzels

 Stitch night in December includes treats. I opted to bring dill pickle dip (recipe can be found under the label Appetizer) and pretzel ring snowmen!

They were a mess, but a lot of fun to make once I realized I could only do 3 at a time or else the bark would harden making it hard to attach the eyes, nose and buttons.

The eyes and some of the buttons were mini chocolate chips.  The noses were either orange tic tacs or orange mini M&Ms.  Some of the buttons were mini M&Ms.

To adhere them together, you first laid down a thick strip of almond bark and then laid 3 pretzel rings on top. Fill the rings with melted almond bark and then add eyes, nose and buttons. 

Final Finish of 2017

I forgot to share my final 2017 cross stitch finish;

 

Prairie Schooler Christmas Sampler stitched on 18ct Aida using called for threads (DMC). I hope to frame this myself or finish it into a flat fold. 

2017 Christmas Ornaments

I only stitched one ornament this year. A Mill Hill kit called Jangles. It's one of five in the series. I loved stitching it and would love to stitch the others in the series some day. I finished the back with white craft felt and added a ribbon so he could be hung from the tree. 

 

My friend Sue gifted me these two cat Mill Hill ornaments for my birthday. I added ribbon so that I could hang them as ornaments. 

 

I have plans for two or three ornaments for 2018. 

Hamburger Chowder

Hamburger Chowder has been in my family for at least three generations.  The recipe has changed some over the years based on people's preferences. 




Hamburger Chowder The Original


1 lb. ground beef, brown until crumbles
2 c water
2 c tomato juice
1 pkg frozen mixed vegetables
1 c potatoes peeled and diced
1/2 c celery sliced
1/4 c onion diced
1/4 c barley


Mix together ground beef, water and tomato juice.  Add vegetables, potatoes, celery, onion and barely.  Cook until vegetables and barley are done (approximately 30 min). 

Hamburger Chowder my mother's version


1 lb ground beef, brown until crumbles
1 large can tomato juice
1 large tomato can full of water
1 pkg frozen mixed vegetables
peeled and diced potatoes

Hamburger Chowder my version!


1 lb ground beef, brown until crumbles
1 large can tomato juice
1 large tomato juice can of water
1 pkg frozen mixed vegetables
up to 5 lbs of peeled and diced potatoes!

My mother never had any use for the left over tomato juice, so she added the entire can and upped the amount of water.  She also likes a lot of broth in the soups she eats.  She also dropped the added celery, onion and barley probably for ease or because she's picky (its true).  I on the other hand, do not like a lot of broth in my soup and upped the amount of potatoes.  I've been known to peel and dice an entire 5 lb bag of potatoes for this soup. 

Of note!  Don't get the mixed vegetables with lima beans, though honestly I'd eat them.  They don't have much taste.

Above I my mother's bowl with a lot of broth and below is my bowl with little to no broth.

I made this Christmas day and served it to my parents with baked garlic rolls (store made) and a small fruit salad.  We had pie leftover from our holiday gather on Christmas Eve.

Other than having them over for lunch and doing a few chores that morning, I spent most of Christmas cross stitching with this big baby in my lap.  I think I'll repeat this for New Years Eve night and New Years Day, especially with highs only in the single digits and wind chills well below zero.

 

Christmas Greetings!

As mentioned in my previous post, some years I like decorating, other years not as much. The same applies to sending Christmas cards. While I didn't decorate much this year, I did manage to send fifty plus Christmas cards out and forget to send several others! Those were sent out at News Years. Along with my cards I sent a short letter that included three of my favorite recipes from the previous year. All three recipes can be found in previous posts. While I don't know that I'll mail as many cards next year (or maybe I'll send more!), I hope to repeat sharing a few of my favorite recipes. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a few recipes in return! 

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happt New Year! 

Winter Decorations

Some years I’m in the mood to decorate for Christmas, other years not as much.  This is one of the latter years.  I brought up the Christmas tree, but took it back down after a few days having decided not to decorate it this year.  Rather I decorated the mantle and the front porch and called it good for this year. 

As a reminder, where was my autumn mantle;

 

And here is my winter mantle;

 

This will remain up through February.  I think its still missing something, but I don’t know what.  Maybe I’ll figure it out by next year!  It's certainly better than last years;

 

Josey and Lyncoln were a lot of help (not)!

 

 

Heres how I decorated the porch;

 

Nothing too exciting, but pretty at night. There are also plastic, flickering candles in most of the windows.  

2016 Christmas Ornaments

I decided last minute to stitch my parents little ornaments.  Christmas was on Sunday, I began stitching the Wednesday before and finished them on Christmas Eve. The designer is Prairie Schooler and it's a freebie from several years ago. I added my parents names and the year, on mine I just put my name. 

 

I finished them in hoops and glued green felt to the back. It was too last minute to finish them any other way. 

 

I think they're cute and I may do this again next year.