Your Favorite Christmas Cookie Recipe

 

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie recipe? Here's mine. Easy to make, fun to decorate, and a surprise kiss or star in each!

 

 

Chocolate-Filled Christmas Bon-Bons

 

3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 dozen chocolate kisses or chocolate stars

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

If using chocolate kisses, cut the tops off before starting. You will have to force yourself to eat the tops, or give them to a spouse or child.

Mix shortening, sugars until fluffy. Add the egg, extracts and beat well. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix well. Form dough into 1-inch balls. Press each ball around a chocolate star or kiss until it is completely enclosed. (If dough is soft and sticky, add an additional 1/4 cup flour.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets. Decorate with icing and/or sprinkles and jimmies in Christmas colors.

Recipe will make 3 1/2 dozen.

What is your favorite Christmas cookie recipe? Have you started baking yet?

Your Favorite Christmas Movie?

Do you have a favorite Christmas movie, one you never tire of watching? Ours is Silent Mouse, a made-for-TV movie from the 80's. Starring Lynn Redgrave as the narrator, Silent Mouse is the story of how the famous carol, Silent Night, was written, with a bit of literary license thrown in.

The main character is a mouse named Nonny. Her full name is A. Nonny Mouse. I love that!

Unfortunately, it's only available on VHS. We keep looking, hoping to find it on DVD. We've played our copy over 20 times--it's that delightful!

So. . . what about you? What's your favorite Christmas Movie?

What About YOU? Baking or Cooking?

 

The #1 reason I welcome autumn is for the baking I get to do.

 

Baking is therapy for my over-active, always-planning, merry-go-round mind. It relaxes and refreshes me.  Consuming the finished product is fun, too.

 

 

Today’s What About You Question: Would you rather bake, or cook?

What About YOU? Memorable Music

This week's What about YOU question focuses on music.

What do you like to listen to:

1. When you work
2. When you relax
3. When you play?

Do you like to sing along? And dance? Been to any great concerts this year?

Let's chat...

What About YOU?

I am reinstating the What About YOU? feature on Mirth and Worth, which was very popular when I ran it a couple of years ago. If you'd like to read former posts, see below:

http://jeanettelevellie.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-about-you-do-you-love-your-nation.html

http://jeanettelevellie.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-about-you-your-impossible-dream.html

http://jeanettelevellie.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-about-you-favorite-season.html

And now, the What About YOU question for this week:

What is your favorite funny movie? You may say more than one, if you just can't decide. Ready, set, go!

Discombobulated Priorities

Stock xchange images

When I whined to my friend Cammie about time pressure and discombobulated priorities, her wise question poked me in the heart. “If you knew you had only two years to live, how would you be spending your time?” My answer was immediate: “I would not be cleaning house!”

Bing images

But what would I do if I knew I only had two years left? Spend more time with my family, take that long-dreamed-of cruise, pray often for pre-Christain loved ones, and talk my husband into taking square dance lessons. This little exercise sure helped me see where my heart lodged, and what means the most to me.

Now it's your turn.

If you knew you only had two years to live, what would you do with those

104 weeks, 730 days, 15,330 hours?

What About YOU? When Clothes Become Friends

Today's What About YOU question? Do you have items of clothing you think of as friends?

As I type, I am wearing a pair of baggy pants splashed with bright red Hawaiian flowers on a black background. They shout, they sing, they hula dance in the street. But they are comfortable, and I need that on days I color my hair (shhhh! Don't tell!!!).

I also have on a ratty, paint-stained, once-black sweatshirt with "I'M BLESSED" across the front in rainbow block letters. I never wear this out in public, or I might be arrested by the Classy Clothes Police.

What About YOU? Have you a secret garment or two that you heart like a friend?
Please tell.

What About YOU? Favorite Christmas Gift

photo by flikr

Today's What About You Question: What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?

I was eight the year Easy Bake Ovens hit the stores. My mom, a single parent, could not afford a gift of that size. When I spotted a huge gift under my aunt and uncle's Christmas tree with my name on it, my heart leaped with hope.



photo by flikr

 Do you think I got my wish? Could this be why, forty-some years later, I still love to bake?

Your turn...

One Million Dollars, Tax Free




photo by flikr

  This week’s What About You? Question:

 

If someone handed you a million dollars today, tax-free,
what would you do with it?

 

 

I would:

• Give 1/3 to the Lord--mostly missions;
• Invest 1/3;
• Buy two houses with the last 1/3:

one for us to move to when we retire, & the other one for my mom.

 

(The painting on the right is my dream home)

 

Your turn…

What About YOU? Cooking vs. Baking



The handsomest preacher east of the Pecos on his 59 1/2 birthday

 When my husband reminded me that yesterday was his "half birthday," I decided to make him a half birthday cake. I poured half a prepared cake mix into a pan, baked it, cooled it, and cut it in half. Was he surprised when he returned home from Bible study to find a half birthday cake on the counter, smiling up at him!

I love to bake. It relaxes my always-spinning, forever-creating, mystery-solving, never-silent brain. It is flour/egg/sugar/spice therapy, and far less expensive than a psychologist!


Today's What About You Question: Do you prefer cooking or baking? Or perhaps both?  

What Abou YOU? Favorite Comic Strip

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know you better. Ready for today's? What is your favorite comic strip? Or, do you even read the comics?

I hope you can read the above strip of Baby Blues. My husband doesn't get why I laugh every time, but you have to be a mom or former mom of little ones to understand.

Your turn...

What Abou YOU? Bible Questions

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better. Ready for today’s? Do you have a Bible question that itches to be answered?


Every now and then my husband does what he calls, “You asked for it.” On a Sunday morning, he hands out slips of paper and encourages his congregation to write questions they’d like answered in a sermon. Then he preaches on those topics Sunday nights.

I know you can’t be at our church the next few months to hear your questions answered, but if you could, what would you ask?

What About YOU? Worst Job

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better. Ready for today’s? What was the worst job you’ve had?

When I was a senior in high school, I lied about my age to get a job as a waitress. I thought it would be fun. Until I started. The training was the old-fashioned trial-and-error method, the manager hollered at me for every error, and the tips were lame. I made it through the first day, and then returned to my fast food job the next day. I never thought I’d be so tickled to sell greasy burgers and fries! And I never lied about my age again.

Your turn…

What Abou YOU? Favorite Singer or Band

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better. Ready for today’s? What is your favorite singer or band?

For pure worship, I vote for Michael W. Smith every time. His music moves me into the presence of God like no one else’s. For musical versatility and revelation of the Lord’s mercy, Nicole C. Mullins. I’m also crazy about Third Day.

If you can narrow your fave down to one, I applaud you!

Your turn…

What Abou YOU? Nothin' Doin'

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better. Ready for today’s? Do you allow yourself the luxury of doin' nothin'?

As I watched my husband walk accross the parking lot to zip into the market for some fruit, I wondered what I could do for the five minutes I was alone in the car. Grab the novel I'd started and find out how Martina escaped? Journal? Pray? I decided on nothing. Exhausted from two long trips in a row, I was emotionally and physically spent. Surely I didn't need to cram every minute full of activity.

How yummy to sit and DO NOTHING. Although it only lasted five minutes, I felt refreshed and relaxed when Kevin returned to the car with my grapes. I should do this more often. I think I may be more productive if I allow myself time to think once in awhile.

What about YOU?

What About YOU? Your Impossible Dream

This week's What About You question is on Sunday, instead of Monday. Ready?

What is your Impossible Dream?

Possibly because we’ve lived in parsonages most of our married life, I long to own some property and our own home. My dream property will abound with trees who clap their hands in praise to the Lord. I will pray among them, write in the comfort of their shade, and glory in the turning of their leaves when fall comes.

Your turn…

What About YOU? Quiet or Loud?

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better.

Ready for today’s?

Are you quiet or loud?

I bet you’ve already guessed which I am. Although I’m learning to listen as I age—I discovered that I already know everything I know—my natural bent is to laugh loud, talk fast so I can fit more in, and sing ‘til the goblet breaks. I love my nutty personality, unless I’m interrupting someone I need to listen to. Then I must back up and ask the Lord to help me can it once again.

Your turn…

What About YOU? Your Favorite Meal

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better. Ready for today’s? What is your favorite meal?

Because it comes at the end of the day when most of my rushing and fussing is through, I most enjoy dinner—or supper, if you are from the Midwestern U.S. I take time for breakfast, but usually rush through it with a list of twenty-seven agenda items on my mind, and I spend lunch blogging, answering emails and Face booking. So, the evening meal is my most relaxed and fun.

Ice cream and Andy Griffith reruns usually follow supper, so that gives me another reason to enjoy it best.

Your turn…

P.S. Please join me Wednesday and Friday for an interview and book drawing with the incomparable Tosca Lee!

What About YOU? Favorite Part of Nature

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better.

Okay, ready for today’s?

What is your favorite part of nature?

I love trees. When I was a child, my brother, our babysitter’s kids, and I played for hours in a eucalyptus grove that embraced us with its tangy scents; as an adult, I spent my sweetest vacations camping among California’s evergreen forests. One of my dearest-held dreams is to own a home surrounded by trees.

What about YOU?

What About YOU? Do You Follow Yourself?

Every Monday I ask a question, to get to know YOU better.

Ready for today's?

Do you follow yourself? 

When I first started blogging, I noticed a blogger who followed themselves. That's silly, I thought. But now that I've lived in Blogsylvania for almost two years, I understand. If I believe in my message, I should follow myself. This is why I've added that dinky little Jeanette face to my list of followers. I'm not arrogant. But I do believe I have something of value to say, and I believe in the ONE who's called me to say it: Jesus. He's the Audience of ONE I care most about following.

What about you? Do you follow yourself? And what do you say about Jesus?