Sylvia's Scenario

I tweaked the original Moscow Mule drink so it became a festive cocktail on Christmas and everyone loved them.  We will definitely make them again.  I always like to make one special cocktail drink, along with the usual beer, wine and sodas.  I made simple syrup infused with rosemary, then used rosemary as a garnish.  I also made some sugar-coated cranberries for an additional garnish to give it that festive look.  (roll damp cranberries in sugar and stick on a toothpick)  We had my brother and his family over for Christmas dinner, along with my sister and her husband, and my nephew and his family.  Nick is here from Japan and Lauren was here with her boyfriend, Ari, for a total of 15 people for Christmas dinner this year.  Our Holiday Moscow Mules started the party off on the right foot and soon everyone was in a very festive mood.  Try them, you'll like them.    Makes 1 drink 1.  Fill copper Moscow Mule mug with c...

Merry Christmas, everyone! 

Another package arrived at my doorstep today.  I love hearing the doorbell ring this time of year.  I ripped open the package and found  Aunt Velma's Waffle Cookies  from my sister in Washington, DC.  This is her family's Christmas tradition and I love being a recipient!  My sister was a guest blogger last year telling the story of Aunt Velma and her waffle cookies.  It is such a wonderful story and makes a wonderful family tradition. Today, I finished my baking.  I made   Russian Tea Cakes and  Cookie Press Cookies . I think I have plenty of goodies around here now with my Christmas cookies, Aunt Velma's Waffle Cookies, and fruit cake that I received on Tuesday.  With Nick coming from Japan next week, we can never have too much food in the house. I mailed our  almond roca  to my siblings on Wednesday, o ur   family tradition .   Tonight, I am taking a sampler of my cookies over to a...

Is there anything better to do on a rainy day than to make Christmas cookies? Can't think of anything.  What is it about rain that makes you want to cook, drink coffee, bake, or take a nap?  Such is life in Seattle, I guess.  Time to start baking Christmas cookies. The last 3 days have been fairly nice and yesterday was actually sunny.  But today is a good day to stay inside.  Even the cats don't want to go outside. So today, I made my first Christmas cookies of the season, one of my favo rites,  Chocolate Snowflake Cookies .  I'm in a baking mood and this is a good time of year to bake.  Turn on the oven and warm the house up with aroma of baking cookies.   There will be plenty for everyone.    

We have officially finished decorating for Christmas.  Bruce put away all the boxes today, I cleaned up and now we can enjoy it all.  At least for awhile...until I started working on Christmas dinner which I'm doing at our house this year. So, today we started figuring out the dinner table.  One long table did not work in our dinning room without being too crowded.  So, we tried side-by-side and it worked a lot better for the 15 people coming. There is plenty of room this way and we both liked it.  I will be "tweaking" the table for a least a week so I always start setting it early.  We had two tables side-by-side last year for the Christmas party and it worked out very well. We are so excited to experience Christmas this year in our new home.  We bought a live Christmas tree this year and put our old, artificial tree in the spare bedroom.  (You can see where the built-in lights are no longer working) Now, a...

Last night, we went down to Alki beach to see the Christmas ships.  The Christmas ships have been traveling around and stopping at local beaches all month.  We thought this was a good opportunity for us to experience them since Alki is our neighborhood beach.  The Christmas ships are a 60 year old Seattle tradition.  There is a choir on board who sing Christmas carols while they linger around the beach for about 20 minutes before moving to their next destination. At Alki beach, there were complimentary refreshments at the bathhouse which were quite nice. I enjoyed some hot chocolate  and Bruce enjoyed some muffins. Outside, there was a band playing and a nativity scene with Mary holding baby Jesus, shepherds and angels. We headed over to the bon fire which many of the beaches will have for the Christmas ships. It was not very cold on this evening.  I remember freezing next to the bon fire while watching t...