Big Christmas party!

I was going to save this video until a bit nearer the big day, but as View and Queen of Sheeba have already sent it to me, I'd better use it before you ALL see it on youtube and send it to me again! Hahaha! Thank you, View and QoS.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Dogs are not completely innocent...

Alternative Christmas trees

These Christmas trees are incredibly creative. Some are minimalist while others are very personalised, but they all depart from the norm...

This is a first!

This is my very first post written on the i-pad. I'm not terribly clever with new gadgets and was doing the posts on the old computer because I had not realized that I needed to get the Blogger app for the i-pad until Billy told me...

It seems appropriate to inaugurate Blogger on i-pad with a huge thank you and very best wishes to all my What Time friends. 

Happy Christmas!

Methinks Annette loves Christmas

Pallottine sent us some photos of Annette's Christmassy handywork. The last batch arrived on November 15 and Annette was already starting on the outside!

Merry Christmas, Holidays, Season, etc, etc, to a very busy Annette, Pallottine and all the lovely gang that congregates here!

Some comforting music

Grammy97 would like to share this lovely flash mob video with all of us:



Thank you, Grammy.

Time for some festive songs

Sleuth sent me the first video and I had bookmarked the second. We love our pets and animals in general, so this is a fitting way to wish all What Timers a happy festive season! [There's a fading celebrity out there complaining that a pet is not appropriate for a Christmas card...]





The guy who made these is the same guy who gave us the now classic video of the talking dog:



(You may watch all his great videos on his youtube channel.)


Happy holidays to all of you and your loved ones!

Lebkuchen

These lovely cookies were mentioned in the last thread, so I searched for a relatively simple recipe to share with you. You may vary the icing, using chocolate or almond instead. This recipe yields 72 cookies.

Ingredients

Cookies
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup diced candied citron peel
1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts

Icing
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, stir together the honey and molasses. Bring the mixture to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the brown sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lastly the egg.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Add the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the citron and hazelnuts. Cover dough and chill overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Using a small amount of dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into small rectangles and place them 1 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until no imprint remains when touched lightly.

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (soft ball stage). Remove from heat and stir in the confectioners' sugar.

Quickly brush the icing over the cookies while they are still hot (Important!) and remove them to wire cooling racks. If icing becomes sugary while brushing cookies, re-heat slightly- adding a little water until crystals dissolve.

Store in an airtight container with a few pieces of apple peel for a few days to mellow.

Alternative glazing ideas

Chocolate glace:
200g (7 oz) powder (icing) sugar, sifted
30 g cocoa, sifted
enough hot water to make thick runny mixture to brush on

Almond glace:
200 g (7 oz) powder (icing) sugar, sifted
1 or 2 drops of almond extract
enough hot water to make a thick runny mixture to brush on

Getting into the Christmas spirit

Tumbleweed sent me this touching Christmas story:

A couple was Christmas shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve and the mall was packed. Walking through the mall the surprised wife looked up and noticed her husband was nowhere around and she was very upset because they had a lot to do. She used her cell phone to call her husband because she was so upset, to ask him where he was. The husband in a calm voice said:

"Honey, remember the jewelry store we went into 5 years ago where you fell in love with that diamond necklace that we could not afford and I told you that I would get it for you one day?"

His wife said crying:

"Yes! I remember that jewelry store."

He said, "Well, I'm in the bar next to it."

*****

Mrsgunka sent me some seasonal cartoons:

And a video of some very fancy Christmas lights:



Thank you, Tumbleweed and Mrsgunka.

All I Want For Christmas

Sleuth posted this video on the Wednesday thread, but as HMS Ocean will be back in Plymouth today, it seems appropriate to show it in a post. Thank you, Sleuth.



The BBC reported:

Pop star Mariah Carey has tweeted the crew of a Royal Navy warship after they made a Christmas video using one of her songs to celebrate their homecoming.

HMS Ocean's crew mimed to her 1994 hit All I Want for Christmas Is You and put it online.

After watching it, the singer tweeted: "This is the best thing I've ever seen, you guys just made my day! Happy Happy Christmas!!! x0x0 to the troops."

The ship will be back in Plymouth on Friday after a seven-month deployment.

More than 1,000 friends and family are expected to meet the ship.

HMS Ocean left Plymouth - initially for a seven-week training exercise - in April, but was then diverted to Libya to support the UN air mission during the uprising against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Lt Kelly Cleeve, who filmed and edited the video with WO Mick Wakeham and the aviation department, said it had been a stressful time and recording the song had been "a way to boost morale and give the guys a bit of a diversion".

Lt Cleeve said the idea for the video came when the crew was told the ship would be back in Plymouth for Christmas.

She said Maria Carey's song was the most appropriate choice as "as all we wanted for Christmas was to get back in time to celebrate."