[juliamom2009]

On the baking note, it’s not Christmas in my house until I bust out the pizzelle iron and make my trademark pizzelles – I’ve made them since I was a kid – given them to relatives, friends, co-workers, teachers, coaches in Massachusetts, Texas, California, Toronto. That’s the sign of the holidays in my house…

[Tamara]

May I ask, what are pizelles? I handed out camdy canes to the class I work with on Momdays and that is about all I have done Christmas wise – too wrapped up in being in survival mode I guess. We have ‘t even put the tree up yet but that will happen tomorrow. Today I am finishing the Christmas shopping and getting food. I am not doing huge amounts of baking this year as I am on a mission to shrink the size down further. But it won’t deter me from actually eating Christmas food. I will have a free day where there will be good stuff to eat but it won’t be hige amounts because I want no Christmas kilos to shed there is still enough there already.

Lotta I love Bounty balls. I had grand ideas to try making stollen this year but dyou think I’d have the time? Maybe next Christmas.

[meleliza]

Pizelles are an Italian cookie/waffle type thing made at Christmas time. They’re large, flat and round with intricate snowflake designs that you achieve with a machine like a waffle iron. Very tasty. They usually have a slight anaise flavor like biscotti. We have lots of Italians in these parts, so they smell like christmas as to me too! In fact, we live just a few blocks from the Italian market and the bakeries already smell like pizelles.

[Sarvi]

Pizelles, yum. I used to not care for the flavor of anise but have come to appreciate it as I’ve gotten older. We’re taking a social media break for our winter holiday but see you on the other side!

[Tamara]

Have a fabulous holiday season with your family Sarvi!

Interesting! I have never heard of them before, not even my Italian teacher at school shared that piece of info with us. I have to google how to make them now.

Whilst shopping yesterday I finally found a mini doughnut tray. It is part of a kit that I plan to use up for the Christmas party tomorrow night. So happy to finally have one for the oven.

[with love Heidi]

Mini donoughts sound great! We just decorated the biscuits we made a couple of days ago and will decorate the tree tomorrow 🙂

[meleliza]

My Charlie is going to be OK we think. The specialist – oral maxillar facial surgeon, how’s that for a specific specialty? – says his jaw healing as well as can be expected. He has to stay on soft foods for another month! When we will have another follow up. He is in good spirits because soft foods include cake. He was very careful to ask about that. The soft foods thing is a lot of work for me, so is fighting with him to eat it. But it could have been so much worse. I have found it emotionally draining to think about how very much worse it could have been.

[mcholley1]

Meleliza, 3 days ago, my three year old son slipped away and ran up behind a neighbor’s 30 year old horse and was kicked in the head. He was wearing a helmet…as we had just ridden up to their house on our bicycles for a visit and hadn’t even had time to take helmets off yet. It has all been very traumatic and scary, but he is miraculously just fine other than a nasty laceration above his right eye. 48hours has passed with a big sigh of relief. The helmet took the blow and was crushed where he was hit. The “what-if?” factor has been very difficult in our household as well. As has my guilt that I could have done things differently to prevent it in the first place (even though it all happened so quickly I don’t know quite how). I must say that hearing your story so recently has been strangely comforting to me through this entire ordeal. And, we too have unfortunately become familiar with oro-maxillo-facial surgery. I’m glad someone does that for a living. 🙂

So happy for you that Charlie is going to mend okay.

[Tamara]

I do believe I am about to say that I am very thankful I live minus both stairs and horses! I was almost kicked by a horse when I was younger. Being naive about how to treat them but I was thrown backward out of shock not from force of the horse’s action. Still I don’t think I ever went riding again.

The mini doughnuts were eaten in one sitting but the glaze was botched thanks to my ditching all sugar from the cupboard – I had to use natvia to stand in place of icing sugar.

[Mama_Knowles]

meleliza, I am so glad to here Charlie is on the mend. I hope he has a great Christmas. : )

[Nicole]

I am so glad that Charlie is getting better Melanie. So very pleased.

Oh no MC, poor poor little K, and poor you!

Thank goodness for bike helmets. I make mine wear theirs every time they get on their bikes. Even on farm.

[meleliza]

Thank you everyone for the kind thoughts. MC, thank goodness he had that helmet on! Some kids really can just slip away like that and there wasn’t anything better you could have done. I guess the moral is that these things just happen sometimes and it’s really scary. I’m so glad he’s going to be OK. It really throws you, doesn’t it? Lots to be grateful for this holiday season. Charlie is at least happy he’ll be able to play with his Christmas toys.

Melanie

[mcholley1]

Thanks for the concern, friends. After this, I’d be okay if he wore a helmet every time he stepped out of the house! I am so very grateful!

Our six year old was present for the whole bit and has been having a bit of a rough week herself, emotionally. We were able to take both kids to share some carrots and apples this afternoon with some horses we know well (and from the other side of a fence). Maybe a little early and a bit unorthodox of us…but both children were in much better spirits and more relaxed this evening.

Still trying to sort out a soy/gluten/dairy free pumpkin pie recipe for my dear husband and his many food allergies!

[Tamara]

Oh mcholley that sounds like a challenge. I had no clue pumpkin pie had soy in it. But then again it isn’t something we traditionally have on our table in Australia. All I know is the thought of a headache at the base of the head after an increase in sugar is something I have chosen to avoid this season. We are a bit lucky in this house with having no allergies but at the same time we have in recent times over indulged on the sugar a bit too much. I would hate for my husband to be diagnosed with something that would end up the same as what his mum died of. So we have shaped up the food cupboard and sugar has been evicted (hence the dodgy looking doughnut glaze).

I am just freaking out because my fil and the fiancé have invited themselves to our house for Christmas. Not really in the mood for their company to be frank! So we are working on polite ways to tell them now is not the right time. I was hoping for a ” just the four of us” Christmas. We haven’t had one of those in a long long time.

I do hope you come up with a wonderful allergy food free pumpkin pie mcholley.

[meleliza]

MC, my older son was really upset by his brothers accident too. In fact, when he went back to school, the teacher said he was upset all day long. C fell right in front of me, but Phil came running to help me. He got me gauze, band aids, a robe for his brother when he got cold and anything else I asked him to get. So he might have gotten a good look at the chin laceration, which was ugly. I also think that at 8, he has a concept that it could have been much worse.