10 Weeks Until Christmas

We are experiencing cooler weather, but the rain is back. Although we need the rain, it puts a halt on garden clean up, and fall herb garden dehydrating. I may need more spice jars in the mean time.

Two doctor appointments are off the calendar now. We have found yet another new-to-us place to walk trails. I pulled 10 summer tops from the closet, and about half are being donated. Took 4 boxes of items to a thrift store, and passed one Christmas decoration on to a kiddo.

I donated one Christmas book to a free little library. I got to about page 60 and just could not read the rest (did not like it at all). I forgot to take a photo of it, but that is one less Christmas book on my shelf.

Visited a flea market (indoor) and found a Christmas book display. I ended up buying one book (gulp!).

Bought this "blind date with a Christmas book" at the "Christmas in October" event (see below) we went to.

Three new recipes for the holidays tried - ham and swiss cheese pinwheels (gulp - recipe called for puffed pastry). We did not like them. We really liked the one recipe with the homemade dough (and when baked can be frozen - Pigs in a Blanket).

Peanut butter bars - no bake, from AllRecipes. I used organic ingredients and the peanut butter I used is homemade from a store in Amish country (peanuts), and it had tiny bits of peanuts in it.

Very easy to make by the way. I used dark chocolate for the top. I wanted to not only try this for the holidays (much easier and quicker to make than traditional buckeyes), and for potlucks.

In trying new recipes, I finally used my miniature measuring do-hickey that I got free from doing an online Pampered Chef show way back in 2020. Ha! Best way to measure peanut butter by the Tablespoon.

I sent the rest of the bars to my husband's work, and asked for honest opinions. These were not the super sweet peanut butter type treats, as the peanut butter I used was simply peanuts.

The results? Well, first of all, we tasted it right after I pulled it from the refrigerator (and still cold). We were both saying "meh" to it.

I had pulled it from the fridge, cut it up and by the time it go to my husband's work, it was room temperature. He said it was all gone in an hour or so. He also said it is 100% better when it's room temperature. Guess who has to make it again to try it again? Yep. Like I said though, it's very easy to make.

Sunflower Seed Brittle. A keeper recipe for sure! Yum!

I found the recipe in a library book:

Recipe from Gooseberry Patch Homemade Christmas.

ISBN: 978-1-6209-3443-2

Very easy to make and delicious, if you like sunflower seeds. Not hard as a rock to eat, and hard to eat just one piece.

We went to a "Christmas in October" craft event (almost 300 vendors). I bought one item for the advent gift project. Would I go next year? Maybe. It was a lot of "stuff" I would not use. It was a very nice set up to look for gifts however.

Visited a very small Christmas Village that is locally owned, and all proceeds (100% according to the owner) go to Children's charities. We laughed when we pulled in, as it is very very small, with very small buildings, but we both fell in love with it, bought some items, and plan to go back. It's only open in the late fall up until Christmas.

Bought 4 more advent gifts for the advent project of mine. One of the purchases ended up crockpot meal cookbooks from a thrift store. I mean why not? $1.50 for a book they may just need with their busy work schedules.

Another advent gift - magazines from the dollar tree store. I found one store that was still selling magazines for $1.25 each (almost all stores now have stopped selling magazines for $1.25, or stopped selling them all together). I found one on freezer meals, one pot meals and thrifty decorating for the kids.

Remember the crocheted cord keepers I crocheted for an advent gift? The plastic snaps do not work for the cotton yarn. I am looking into metal snaps or snaps you sew on. The plastic ones might work if you use a thinner yarn.