Category: nest

Categories
eat nest things to do

Photo Friday #4


mmm…choco mint snaps = yummy end of january goodness.

i love how they crack when they bake = beautiful.

**UPDATE** (feb. 3)
ok here’s the recipe 🙂

4 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup light corn syrup
2 1/2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
additional sugar for rolling (or powdered sugar)

Melt chocolate squares in the top of a double boiler over simmering water; set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, using an electronic mixer at medium speed, cream together the shortening and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and blend well. Add reserved chocolate, corn syrup, water and extracts and blend well. Stir in flour mixture until just blended. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in additional sugar and place about 2-inches apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Cool a few minutes on baking sheet and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Have a party in your mouth.

Categories
nest play things to do

2008 Video Christmas Card

So we have our very own tradition of video Christmas cards. If you did not know us last year or didn’t see it, you can click here to watch last year’s!

 

Here’s this year’s!

ENJOY!

Categories
celebrate nest play things to do

Christmas Preparations

So finally {2 days before Christmas} I feel prepared for Christmas. This season has been quite busy but over the course of a few weeks we finally got our tree/decorations up, baked a bunch of goodies, and got all the shopping/wrapping done! yippee! 

So here’s our lovely tree from Home Depot. We have quite an eclectic mix of ornaments, each with their own story 🙂

 

And we weren’t too thrilled with the tree toppers last year so we went with this guy, our penguin in a reindeer hoodie! We like him 🙂

 

And I can’t go long before having a blog post about food can I?? Well, these goodies are long gone already. I made them for a couple parties and work friends. Peanut blossoms, peanut butter bars, peanut brittle, sugar cookies, rum balls and snickerdoodles = YUM. I’ll gladly share any recipes if you’re interested, just leave me a comment. (I also made stroepwafels with my mom today but they will get their very own post)

And here is my Tante (aunt) Dicky! She lives in Holland and was out for my Opa’s (grandpa’s) birthday (which I will also post about later) She’s a pretty cool lady…I like her. We are going to plan a trip to visit her ASAP!!!!

Categories
nest things to do

how to decorate for fall with less than $5

Gourds.
They are really cheap and you can get them in just about any grocery store. If you’re like me and want to decorate for holidays but just don’t want to spend a ton of money to do it and don’t have the year-round storage space, then this is the way to go! They’re colorful, they’re Autumn-y, they’re cheap and you can throw them out when you’re done with them.

I especially like all the different kinds there are and how they each have their own character. Now, if only they were edible, then they would be even more useful!! And maybe I’ll even grow my own someday in that future garden I talked about in an earlier post, wahoo!

P.S. new post on SidebySide…check it out!!

Categories
nest play things to do

photo a day – 9

I think I’ll start naming my “photo a day”s from now on…I think they need titles 🙂

Port comes from Porto (in Portugal). Don’t know why I never put that one together but anyway, it’s good! It’s a wonderfully sweet dessert wine. I like to drink it out of these little crystal glasses my Oma (grandma) gave me…makes me feel like we’re classy, at least a little bit.
Categories
nest play things to do

Photo a day – 7 and 8


Dr. Mario…definitely our favorite video game right now. I don’t play video games but jared downloaded this for our Wii a couple months ago and I hadn’t played it in years! It turned out that I remembered how to play it and I was pretty good. It’s the only game I can beat him at!! Well, at least I thought I was good until I played Lindsayand she is impressively, no, freakishly good at it..yikes girl! Anyway, Laura and I are probably a better match. 

Do you like our mii characters? They look just like us!

So I’m adding one photo as an addendum to the photo a day 3 just to prove how often this happens. This happened today and I can say I’ve never seen my name spelled with a “u” before! The lady calling out my name (not the same person who wrote it) couldn’t figure out what it said, I just started laughing!