She wants ice cream cone cupcakes for the sleepover with her friends this evening. I made cake batter using the directions on a white cake box mix, divided the batter into three parts, and colored the batter green, pink, and blue. We filled the cones about 2/3 full. Setting the cones in a mini muffin tin helped hold them upright.

After baking, the cones were top heavy and some of them fell over as I pulled them from the oven. The frosting will cover any flaws. If I make these again, I will try wedging the cones into the muffin tins with aluminum foil.

I used buttercream frosting to ice the cupcakes.

I think she’ll like them.

~~Rhonda

Before (and after!) dinner, touring the house to view the Christmas trees was at the top of everyone’s list. Then it was time for some sit down chat.

Purse pew…

Two ladies had to leave early and a few ladies were not able to come at all. DH took a picture of the rest of us before the party ended.

A fun evening! Now we move on to the public house tour, tomorrow evening and Saturday afternoon. All proceeds will benefit our church’s mission fund. Our Home Extension group usually has an ornament exchange at our annual Christmas party, but this year the ladies decided to give donations to the mission fund instead. They donated $119! A great start for the weekend fund raiser! Thank you, HEA friends!!

~~Rhonda

Mary arranged for the cakes and they were lovely! One chocolate, one vanilla…delicious! And look at those cute little booties!

I made a variation of Daniel’s Cookie Bar Bites for this party.

And here’s how they’re made…

After baking and cooling the cookie bars, I used a small 1 1/4″ heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut the cookies. Next time, I won’t cut the edges off the cookie bars before cutting the hearts. That would have given more stability to cutting near the edge of the cookie bars.

Years ago (while in college), I found this little heart cookie cutter at a yard sale in a tin with lots of other cookie cutters. I use it every year at Christmas when making Sour Cream Sugar Cookies.

Cut, dip, sprinkle…cut, dip, sprinkle.

A helpful tip…when dipping these, I turn the heart over and make the bottom of the cookie bar the top of the heart. The heart on the left is bottoms up. You can see how uneven the top of the cookie is on the heart to the right.

The heart on the left was dipped with the top of the cookie bar up. The one on the right was dipped with the bottom of the cookie bar up. Dipping with the bottom up gives a more defined shape and a much smoother coating.

I used almond bark for dipping the cookies. I melt it in the microwave for 3 minutes at 50% power, then stir to melt any remaining lumps. If the coating gets too hot, it will sag on the cookies and have a rough uneven finish.

Cute and easy. They just take a little time to make. I watched Dr. Who and a little of “Ghandi” while I made these.

~~Rhonda

• crackers and cheese spread (I left out the chicken.)
• pear/walnut salad
• roast beef (Delicious! Got rave reviews.)
• boiled red potatoes
• carrots and parsnips
• stir-fried sugar snap peas with cherry tomatoes
• almond cake for dessert

Three of the guests came at 7:00, and the others about 7:30, after other obligations. Everyone congregates in the kitchen at our house, so the first three were treated to crackers and cheese spread at the kitchen table, served with kalamata olives. Yummy. DH and I joined them and enjoyed it, too. After our pre-dinner snack, we were surprised by carolers, young people from church. It started our evening with a special Christmas treat.

Lot of chatting, stories, laughter, and good times with these dear friends.

The above punch is one of my favorite punch recipes. It can be served hot or cold. I served it hot at the home extension party last week and served it cold at this one. Our weather has been warmer this week than last and cold punch sounded better than hot.

Spiced Punch

The base:

• 4 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 4 three-inch cinnamon sticks
• 12 whole cloves
• 2 T. minced fresh ginger root

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered for one hour. Strain. The base can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Add:

• 8 c. of apple juice
• 8 c. of cranberry juice
• 2 c. orange juice
• 1 c. lemon juice

Makes 16 servings. May be served hot from a crock-pot or cold, over ice.
From “McCall’s Favorite Christmas Ideas” magazine. 1992, p. 108.

I’m working on a post with the Petit Four recipe and will post the recipes for the other dishes I served last night, as well. Enjoy! ~~Rhonda

After touring the house to see the decorations and the trees, we sat down to enjoy the delicious food. It was quite a feast!

We had so much good food, some of it had to overflow to the drinks table.

Even DD enjoyed the treats.

Cookie Buddies – my friends Laurie, Bethany, and Gary kept the kitchen running and the cookie trays full, along with my sister Genny, who missed getting her picture taken. Because of their tremendous help, we were able to concentrate on greeting our guests.

I put up a “grand-baby tree” in the hall of the addition.

It was decorated with baby items, pictures of the twins, baby footprint ribbon, and blue/pink glass balls, and a fuzzy pink baby blanket served as a tree skirt. This tree garnered a lot of comments. It was a favorite along with the “glass” tree in our bedroom.

Just before the open house, DD1998 added the holly berries to the wreath we painted on the door to the addition. We use poster (tempera) paint. Easy and a fun decoration. DD uses her finger to make the berry dots. This door was originally the front door of the house DH’s father was born in and lived in all his life.

DD1984′s tree had paper doves on it.

DD1987′s tree was decorated with twiggy stars and felt ornaments.

I changed the little tree in the corner of the kitchen counter to display framed pictures of our family.

Saturday afternoon Gary brought over his latest creation…the windows for the door to the downstairs bath! They are beautiful!! Thank you, Gary!

Tomorrow I will post more. Now I’m headed for bed and a good night’s sleep! ~~Rhonda