Christmas Wishes

Wishing You All a Merry Christmas!



Love from the Deti Family... 2010.



Cookies, Gifts and Spastic Teenagers!

Hayley had her 4th Annual Cookie and Gift Exchange yesterday.  It was a great way to kick off the Christmas Break!  The girls were extremely energetic and they did a fantastic job with their cookies! 



Maddy P., Casey, Sarah, Hannah, Savannah, and Hailey.



Kaleigh and Hayley drawing numbers for the gift exchange.





Mari, McKenna, and Rachel



Here's a selection of some of the beautiful cookies that the girls made...



Maddy Ashley's delicious snowflakes.





Rachel's adorable Santa Cookies.  These won the prize for 'Most Creative'!



Savannah's Peanut Butter Cups.

 


Hayley's supercute Melting Snowman Sugar Cookies.  We got the idea for this one on Smashed Peas and Carrots.

 


I think these were Kaleigh's cookies... so darn cute!





These were the winning cookie for the 2010 party!  They were absolutely yummy!  Miss McKenna made them.  They were S'mores cookie that she and her mom made up.  The base was homemade graham cracker.  Then there was a drizzle of peanut butter.  Then they made homemade marshmallow that they piped on top of the graham cracker!!  It was topped off with a drizzle of chocolate syrup and a sprinkling of powdered sugar!  So, so good!



The winners:  Miss Rachel and Miss McKenna!




This years group of SPAZZES!!!

 

Gourmet Food High!

I am so excited right now!  Lisa and I just made an awesome discovery!  It was so awesome that I decided to purchase in BULK!!  Here's the story... Lisa and I were running an errand together this morning, but I made her make one stop prior to getting to our final destination. 

See, I had this groupon that I had to redeem and since we were going to be in the area I thought it'd be easy for me just to run in and pick up my purchase.  If you don't know what Groupon is click here! 

Anywaaaaay, I had purchased a coupon (for $10!) for the following items:  3 snowman cookies, 3 gingerbread cookies, 6 candy canes, & 2 boxes of custom flavored tea cookies, so when we went into this warehouse to pick up my goodies we were met with the sight of pallets and pallets of these beautiful sweets that they were just about giving away!  My heart started palpitating and my mind was going a mile a minute to figure out who I could give these gorgeous treats to.  I sooooo love a good bargain!

The prices were so AMAZING that we bought five cases of treats!  I think the total cost for the five cases was only twenty dollars!!  If my math is correct the cost per gorgeous treat was only about ten cents!

Since I'm on the Teacher Appreciation Committee at Luke's elementary school, I bought two cases of the big swirly suckers for all of the teachers and staff!  I printed off little tags and tied them to the dowel of the suckers and tomorrow morning I'll place this nice little Christmas surprise in their mail boxes!  I know that they are going to bring lots of smiles to our wonderful teachers!

They do not have a store front and I am not sure what the hours and/or days that this warehouse will be open, but if you're interested in checking it out here's the phone number that I found on the tag:  206.903.0500.  They are located in Tukwila on 68th or W. Valley Hwy. just around the corner from the Southcenter Home Depot.  Let me know if you make it down for the deals!

One Sweet Day...

The kids and I have always decorated gingerbread houses every Christmas Season, but this year we invited all of the local cousins over for an afternoon of decorating.  With three different families contributing, we had quite the selection of candy!  There definitely wasn't a shortage of sugar!  I was actually kind of surprised how long everyone stayed focused at this project.  I would say that half of them (the girls!) actually completed their entire house... we lost the boys about 2/3 of the way through which I still thought was pretty impressive!  Here's a shot of the kids as they're just getting started.

Luke and Ashlie totally focused....

Cody shortly before he lost his focus!  :)

This is the first year that Hayley finished her entire house!

Tatum (and her cute freckles!) shingling her house with lifesavers.

Dylan decided to use an assortment of candy for his roofing material!

We had a ton of candy leftover... did you know that it saves perfectly fine in zip lock baggies for the following year?  Just make sure you store it in a dry area inside your home rather than in your garage or an outdoor storage shed.  Another tip:  purchase your gingerbread at an after-Christmas sale.  They save beautifully for the following year!

 Hayley is currently trying to teach her old mom how to use 'Picnik'.  I went a little crazy with the special effects, but hey, it's really addicting!  I couldn't stop...

A close-up shot of their completed houses.  Too cute!  This will hopefully be an annual 'Cousins Tradition'!

Hayley's house is on display on my desk.

Spiced Molasses Ginger Cookie Recipe

2 cups sifted all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup dark molasses

ice water

sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350. 
2. Lightly butter cookie sheets... or better yet use Silpat Sheets ... I LOVE THEM!
3. Sift fist 6 ingredients into medium bowl.
4. Using electric mixer, beat shortening, butter and brown sugar in large bowl until fluffy.
5. Add egg and molasses to butter mixture and beat until blended.
6. Mix in dry ingedients.
7. Refrigerate dough one hour.
8. Roll dough into 1 1/4 inch balls.  Dip quickly into ice water, then toll in sugar to coat
9. Arrange on prepared sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.
10. Bake until cookies are pale golden and cracked on top but still soft to touch, about 10 minutes.
11. Let stand one minute before removing from cookie sheet.  Best to use a metal spatula.

Let me know how you like them!

13th Annual Cookie & Ornament Exchange

I can't believe I've hosted an annual cookie exchange for thirteen years now!  I started it the year Hayley was born and for the most part the same friends have been coming back every year.  I also love to include at least one new friend every year (that was you Sherry!).  Sometimes this event can cause me a little stress and I never truly feel prepared for it, but every year after the party is over I'm always so glad that I've done it again... it's such a fun tradition and for me it marks the start of our Christmas Season.  Everyone bakes seven dozen cookies to share with each other and, wow, we had some delicious ones again this year. 



Here's a shot of the cookie table.





The talented and crafty Miss Megan made me my adorable chicken wire Christmas crown!



It was quite an agressive ornament exhange.  There was a lot of stealing this year!



Me, Lisa, Anna, and Jane taking a break after sampling all of the delicious cookies.





Megan, Tammy, Shannon, Stephanie, and Kathy... the old Des Moines neighbors.





I made a Spiced Molasses Ginger Cookie that I had gotten out of a Bon Appetit magazine years ago. They didn't win, but they did get some votes! Classic Christmas cookie.





Kathy made a gorgeous and delicious Key Lime White Chocolate Cookie.





Lisa made The Original Peppermint Blossoms... yummy and cute!





Darlene's healthy anti-oxidant loaded Dark Cocoa Kisses.





Stephanie's super good Carmelita's.






Mrs. Potter didn't have time to bake this year, so her contribution were the Keebler Iced Animal Crackers.

 

And the winning cookie this year is..... Gina's Chocolate Mudslide Cookies!



Tammy is our official 'vote counter' every year...



Here's the happy winner with her prize!

 


Group shot of everyone with their supercute ornaments!

 

Thanks for coming everyone!  Merry Christmas!

Want to check out the photos from last year's Cookie Party?  Click here.