November 2008
2 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon flavoring
Let butter soften so it can be worked by hand. Beat egg in mixer and set aside until the flour, baking powder, and salt are sifted. Add sugar and butter, egg and flavoring and mix well in a large bowl by hand until the flour is used. Place on lightly floured board. Roll 1/8 inch thick. Cut in various shapes and add sugar or Christmas decorations to the tops. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 325 for 6 to 8 minutes. Makes 3 dozen.
I have the privilege of having one of my sisters in the kitchen with me for this special holiday edition. Janna Bingham Williams from Cabot has graciously provided us with her time and knowledge of cookie baking and decorating!
When asked what Janna enjoys about baking and decorating cookies, she says, “Making iced sugar cookies reminds me of my childhood and the feeling of getting a huge treat! As kids we would go to Ed’s Bakery and often we would walk out with a cookie.”
How many cutters do you own?
With Halloween over and the retail stores rapidly changing their floor displays to holiday decorations, Family Service Agency Consumer Credit Counseling Service has assembled for consumers some money management advice to keep the holiday season happy and free of debt stress.
With this in mind, FSA-CCCS offers the following information and advice on how to avoid overspending and maintain good financial health during the upcoming holiday season:
FSA-CCCS Tips for holiday shopping:
Develop a spending budget
It’s a ritual we started with our very first Christmas together and look forward to every year — the annual Thanksgiving night viewing of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. My husband and I (now with little ones in tow) go purchase our favorite “movie night snacks” the day before, put on our warm and fuzzy pajamas after the yearly Thanksgiving Dinner at Cracker Barrel (yes, I did just write that), and pile on the couch together beneath a big blanket and the warm glow of our own adaptation of a Chevy Chase masterpiece illuminating our roofline.
Updating your home décor from autumn to the holiday season doesn’t have to mean breaking the bank or making hundreds of trips to the attic. With a little tweaking, some fall decorations will fit right into your Christmas plans.
Barbara Parish, manager/designer at Tipton & Hurst in Conway, demonstrated how to reuse fall items for Christmas by simply adding some season-appropriate pieces.
To liven up your gatherings this holiday season, why not try some Christmas themed games? There are lots of games that are fun for all ages, from eight to eighty! Here are a few of our favorite Christmas party games that anyone can play:
Musical Gift Game
This is a holiday variation on the classic game “Musical Chairs.” Have all your guests sit in a circle. Then pass around a wrapped gift while playing a Christmas song. Stop the music at some point in the song. Whoever is holding the gift gets to keep it!
Christmas Movie Trivia
Spotting the home of Phillip and Kim Gullic in the Savannah Park neighborhood, parallel to the Conway Country Club, takes little effort. A looming wreath with twinkling lights woven into the circular greenery is complimented by bursts of gold, burgundy, and dark brown. Tri-stacked pumpkins bookcase the door.
Living on top of Round Mountain in a home with possibly the best view in town, Linda Roser of Conway is surrounded by stunning examples of how nature decorates itself for different seasons. Although it may be difficult to improve on this design scheme, Linda is a master at adding glitz and glamour to create wonderful decorative pieces for fall and Christmas.
I walk down the spacious stone pathway and up the steps to Gena Turner’s front door, where she is waiting to greet me. “I’m just lighting some candles,” she says, as I catch the scents of pine and cinnamon. Her home, located in the Canterbury Place subdivision of West Conway, is a mixture of classic and current with stone archways and lanterns accompanied by modern vases and furniture.
Jessica Havard greets me at the door to her Nottingham subdivision home with a warm smile; you immediately feel at home in her presence. She invites me in, and I am taken with the inviting atmosphere of her home and have the distinct feeling it would feel the same way without the plethora of Christmas decorations that surround us.