Early Christmas gift from L*K

Just for you...here's a little holiday freebie to make your season merrier!  Click here for the December freebie.

This little piece is a companion to the Moon Over Blackbird freebie we posted in October on our website.

We've already celebrated "Thanksmas" at our house. What is Thanksmas? It's the combined holiday you celebrate when you share/rotate the holidays with your adult children's families.

Our daughter Sarah and husband Jeff flew in to Wichita from Chicago for the long Thanksgiving weekend. They really appreciated our sunny, unseasonably warm temps - it was 65-70 degrees during their 4 day stay. Thankfully they flew back to the windy city BEFORE the big storm hit and closed the airports.

Thanksgiving feast with our family of 8

Christmas sweater cookie puzzle - if only they were edible!

We enjoyed all our usual Thanksmas traditions....cooking, baking, eating, working a Christmas puzzle, visit to Nifty Nut House (Wichitans will understand!), trip to N and J's (great Lebanese food) and Molino's (fave Mexi food), walks around our lake, annual Ebright talks and more.

Wichita Note: If you're ever in Wichita, schedule a quick trip to the Nifty Nut House near downtown. It's a giant building with an unbelievable selection of fresh nuts, candy and snacks. You can't walk in there without smiling. It's bustling all year long, but around the holidays it's slammed. The cheerful employees always welcome you to the Nut House and smile while they weigh and package your selections. Which makes me think...where did I hide that cajun snack mix?

We also added a new activity to our holiday fun - we decorated TINY gingerbread houses. I found some patterns online and baked the houses earlier in the week. I crafted 3 different house styles from "construction gingerbread". Gingerbread for houses is edible (I definitely ate some), but is a little harder than usual gingerbread. Note to self: When baking more than one style of house, be sure and keep the pieces separate next time - so confusing.

Hard at work with our pastry bags full of royal icing

Extreme concentration from Sarah and Jeff

Our finished "tiny house" village dusted with powdered sugar sitting in a "drift" of Epson salt!

My kitchen tree with leftover gingerbread

I used extra "construction gingerbread" to squeeze out these pointy heart cookies. Thankfully I remembered to poke holes in them for hanging BEFORE baking. I think they're pretty cute!

I still have 2 unassembled houses in my pantry. I'm looking forward to assembling them myself...leisurely. Here's how I picture it: me in my comfy clothes, looking outside at softly falling snow, a Hallmark Christmas movie in the background on TV, sipping a cup of hot tea. Maybe?!

***L*K CONFESSION

Hello, my name is Linda and I am addicted to Hallmark Christmas movies. It happens every year. Even though the plots are predictable and repetitive, even though every woman has the same hairstyle (soft waves!), even though everyone looks model-perfect all the time, even though it is ALWAYS gently snowing (never blowing), even though someone has always lost their "Christmas spirit" and even though there are a huge number of obscure PRINCES wondering around the US looking for mates....I find these irresistible. 

I'm not sure I have ever watched/listened to an entire Hallmark Christmas movie. I just like them in the background during the holiday season while I'm putzing around my kitchen. 

Want to share a favorite Christmas tradition at your house???

LEAVE A COMMENT below and share the holiday fun!

It's THANKFUL time!

Halloween has passed in a blur of sugar cookies (I'm trying to learn how to make the pretty kind!), scary movies (well, not TOO scary), and my favorite fun-sized candy bars.

Frosting pastry bag 101 - their expressions reflect how I feel holding a pastry bag

FUN "Old timer" FACT:
Can you believe fabulous fun-sized candy bars weren't even invented when I was a youngster? I know! Not until 1968 were these delicious bite-size wonders invented with Snickers and Milky Way being the first to the "tiny party". On the other hand, in the olden days we used to score entire candy bars, if we were lucky!

Can you believe it will be Thanksgiving in only 3 weeks???
I sure can't!! I'm still cutting outdoor flowers and bringing them inside to enjoy.

We're hosting the annual Thanksgiving gathering at our house this year. Sarah and Jeff (daughter and son-in-law) will be home from Chicago and my brother, sis-in-law and nephews will complete our not too big gathering.

Our spatchcocked bird!

As usual I will trust the turkey to Jeff (those big raw birds completely gross me out) and Sarah and I will tackle the remainder. The last time Jeff was in charge he spatchcocked our big bird. If you don't know what that is, look it up. Our festive bird was flattened out like road kill and he tasted great.

Give Thanks Free Design

Here's a little Thanksgiving freebie that you can complete before the big day. I'm sure you've got tons of cooking and holiday prep on your schedule, but...there's always time for a quick stitch. And if you don't get to it this year, Thanksgiving rolls around every November!

Here is the link to the actual pattern.

****And ONE more thing...the miniature experts over at Zappy Dots just added a Moon Over Blackbird Needle Nanny to their L*K collection. This little dot matches the autumn freebie I shared with you on a previous post (picture below). It's amazing how adorable a design looks on a tiny magnetic dot...and it's useful, too.

Moon Over Blackbird Needle Nanny Link

Moon Over Blackbird freebie

In case you missed it earlier, here's the link to the Moon Over Blackbird freebie pattern. 

Enjoy your November, everyone!