Wrapping up for Christmas

The blessed Nativity of our Lord will soon be here.  It's always a wonderful time of year that I always look forward to.  I love decorating the tree, baking Christmas cookies,  wrapping the gifts and attending the magical Christmas service at church. 

This will be my 5th Christmas here in sunny California.  Since that time, I have grown quite fond of my new memories here.  Every year there's a radio station that starts playing Christmas songs 24/7 along with the audio channels on the TV.  And, there are so many old Christmas movies that you can watch on TV.  There are a couple of neighborhoods in our area that really put on a wonderful Christmas lighting event.  The only thing I miss (a little bit) is a white Christmas.  I would like to have snow for two days and then have it disappear and be warm and green again.  But, of course, that won't happen.

The Presents are Wrapped:

Lilly really enjoyed herself yesterday:

 

The Cookies are Ready!
Last year I posted a recipe for Egyptian Petit Four Cookies.  I thought I would update the picture and give you a traditional way of putting them together.  In the previous post, I had put them together with white chocolate.  Here's a photo of them with apricot jam and coconut.  This is how they would traditionally be:

I also made my Grandma's Danish kleiner.  It's a yearly tradition that I make these for my children so here's a picture of them:

Almost every culture has a fried dough and the Danes are no exception.  These cookies are fried in shortening.  Here's how they look when they are done:

We didn't attend my husband's company party this year.  It was held in Washington state but we did get to attend a couple of local parties.  Here's a picture of my husband with Vicki, one of the Housewives of Orange County.  She hosts an annual Christmas party for her clients and she is a wonderful, smart and very nice person.  I don't watch her show but she runs her own business and is a real professional:

That about wraps it up for this blog post.  My little grandson has been with us these past two days since my daughter has the flu.  I do hope she will recover for the Christmas holiday.  We are so fortunate to be close to family in times of need.

I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and the very best for the New Year.  I am so thankful to have met such dear people through this blog.  Please don't be shy to comment and say "hello".  And be sure to stop by Handmade Monday

Merry Christmas,
Pat & Lilly, too!