Making Holiday Cheer

At the store we do "secret snowman." I know its ridiculous. Takes pc-ness to a whole new level. But whatever. We have $10 to make or buy a small something or somethings to make our person happy. The idea is to sneak the gift to them during their shift and reveal or not reveal yourself.
I wanted to make something and knitting is one skill that as far as I know, none of the other girls have. But what can I knit with $10? Well, with Knit Pick's help, I can make a pair of slippers. But I couldn't stop there I wanted to do something new.
Like dye with Kool Aid. It's cheap and creates beautiful colors. It was my first time and I learned a couple things.

The hand painting takes a little more koolaid than I had. I didn't want any white spots, but even after buying three more envelopes of a lighter shade of pink to overdye the whole thing, there were STILL white spots. So I gave up.

But in the end the too dark purple and the too white white worked out.

I'm not done yet, but here on my swatch you can see the specks of purple and white are quite attractive in the fabric. I'm pleased. I'm mixing the superwash wool with a strand of acryllic to give the slippers more warmth and cushiness, but also durability.

Can't wait till they're done!

But the slippers aren't the only home-made holiday cheer I am making this week!

It's time for our annual Creature Comforts and Christmas Cookies Party!
And that means coookies!

Lots and lots and lots of cookies. I didn't count, but approximately 240 of them. We have over 40 people coming to our house sunday night. So that is only about 6 cookies per person. So you can see that I really do need to make such a large amount.

I love my cookie cutters. Most of these you see here cutting up the gingerbread belonged to my grandmother. She passed them down to my mom and mom has passed them on to me.

These are my favorites. But they need a cookie recipe that doesn't rise too much so you don't lose the details of the pressing. When I was a kid we used to put coconut on santa's beard and use food coloring to tint his cheeks pink.

I was so lucky to have Shannon come over and help me with the last batch. Which was from her cookbook by the Odessa, Texas Junior League. The lemon-sugar cookie recipe was awesome and the press cookie cutters came out pretty good with the recipe. (MUST remember for next year.)

We also decorated some of the cookies I had made earlier in the day. Only two plates, just enough to get people started before they decorate more themselves. I love having her help with this part of the process, especially now that we don't work together anymore. It's our private holiday celebration. And then at the party we can both talk to all of the other people we haven't seen in ages. Oh, I can't wait! I just hope they all fit...