PBB

Peanut Butter Bars were the fun of the night.  Jul tried hard to stir the icing, but he’s a bit small to be of much help.  I enjoyed making them and of course, tasting them to ensure that they were not poisoned.  Yes, yes I did.  For those who have never had Peanut Butter Bars, here is the recipe.  I believe it is from Taste of Home magazine, but I can’t remember.  Friends gave it to us years ago (as in the mid nineties!) and well, we’ve loved them ever since.

Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (I think they said creamy, but we’ve used both just fine)
1 egg
1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats (regular or quick cook both work)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

ICING:
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda and salt; gradually into creamed mixture and mix well. Spread into a greased 13 x 9 baking pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes.  Combine icing ingredients; drizzle over the top. Cool completely. Cut into bars.

EAT!… Jul will… if we give him half a chance!

SUCKERS!

Ok, so they’re Tootsie Pops, but suckers made a better title.  I went the easy route on Sunday mornin’.  I didn’t feel like doing anything major for it, so I fell back on ye olde candy thing.  The kids love it, of course.  Voila.  He tried to hide them all on the top of the shelf, but alas, he just didn’t manage to eke out the other one.  It’s a lot of work carrying something larger than you!

Oh, and thanks to the lovely ladies from “Do Not Grow Weary,” our Elf has a name.  His name is Jul, which is Norwegian for Christmas.  Their suggestion was for Navidad or something or another in German.  Weishunteit.  God bless ‘em.  However, I decided that if I have bestekids and am Bestemor and Kevin is Bestefar (since Norwegian is such a cool language), then we should have a nice little Norse Elf.

Jul.  I’m guessing it is pronounced as if it was Brenner’s first name.  Ahh… the king…

I digress.

Here he is after his thievery.  Ornery cuss.

Elf

Elves.
They are the folk of Tolkien and the North Pole.  I’m talking “North Pole Variety.”  So, this year I hear about the “Elf on the Shelf.”  Apparently he’s a little tyke that sits around watching the family and reporting behavior to Santa.  Well, we don’t “do” Santa around here and I don’t like the idea of a Yuletide Narc in the house.  Then again, I do love that they’ve removed the omniscient aspect of Santa with this new thing.

But some people take the Elf to new levels of coolness.  Theirs are the mischief makers– the little darlings get into all kinds of trouble at night.  Maybe they make a mess with the socks or have a tea party with the Calico Critters.  Perhaps they made “Sugar Angels” in the powdered sugar left over from cookie baking.

Ok, that part I can get into.  So I started thinking about it.  Our Elf doesn’t have to have anything to do with Santa at all.  He can just be a cool little dude that points out what’s going on in the advent boxes.  That got the juices flowing.

One problem.  No Elf.

I went shopping.  Yes I did, I went shopping.  Called Baxendales my “go to” place for cool unique things.  Nope.  she had some that were 20 inches tall and 145 dollars, but I didn’t think I’d want to risk sugar angels with something so expensive.  So, I went to Kmart.  Not an Elf in the store.  Walmart.  Nope.  Disillusioned but not despairing, I came home with plans to make said Elf.  I had everything I needed and after several hours of hand sewing, voila.  We have been Elved.

The first night was simple.  I put smarties in our advent boxes, made a trail of them across the floor, and went to bed.  The kids loved it. Lorna has adopted the little guy as her playfellow.

I promised myself that it was time to do things that weren’t just “more candy” and easy– you know, the things that make life fun and memorable that we let other things crowd out because they’re more urgent?  Yeah.  Those things.  So, what did I do?  I’ll tell ya.

I have been wanting to see the new movie “Hugo” ever since I saw the first preview.  I decided to be daring and take the kids without even previewing.  We’re talking amazing thing here.  So, I went to see when it was released, discovered it was Nov 23, and made the tickets.  Then I put the Elf on the box to guard it and went to bed.  B.E.D.  I love that thing.  Just sayin’.

The next morning, the kids were excited.  Hugo.  AHA!  (name that movie).  Anyway, I went to see what time it started.  It didn’t come to our town.  *insert weeping and wailing fiddles here*  We settled for Arthur Christmas.  To be honest, I hadn’t wanted to see it at all.  However, the other options were The Muppets (not hardly), Happy Feet 2 (no thank you), or Puss in Boots (NO!).  Sooooo Arthur Christmas it was.  Stay tuned for my review.  Just a hint.  I’m buying it.

Then came Friday night.  It was time to do something but I wasn’t sure what.  Do I hide the presents and then shred a bunch of paper and ribbon under the tree?  Oh, wouldn’t that be hilarious.  Might have to do it, but not yet.  It’d be more fun if there was a game hidden under there to play that the Elf “got into.”  So, then there were things like hot cocoa (didn’t want to go to the store for that either) and finally I gave up.  I decided it was cookie night.

So, at one o’clock en la manana, I mixed cookies.  Put the dough in the fridge to cool.  Timer set for 2 hours.  I wait.  Then I make cookies.  Plate those suckers, take a couple of bites out of one, stick them AND Elf in the box, and voila.  Done.  Cookies for breakfast.  I am such a good mom.  All that health food.  Eggs, flour, beans (vanilla), dairy (butter)… we’re talkin’ the works!

It’s ten thirty-two.  We’re about to start a movie.  I have no idea what I’m doing for tomorrow.  Just sayin’.

What do my kids think of the Elf?  They think he’s a funny looking little doll that gives hints to what the advent treat of the day is.  It never occurred to them that it could be anything else.  After all, that’s how I used him.

Oh, and Elf needs a name.  I might even have a cool little blog prize for the one to give me the perfect name.  Right now, I’m workin’ with Bernadina, but I really kind of like something “gender neutral.”