I thought I’d share a couple of favorite recipes from this holiday season.

I turned my mother on to the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog, which is, in a word, fabulous, and I don’t even really enjoy cooking. She made Ree’s bread pudding with whiskey sauce Christmas weekend and we were all practically licking our plates. OK, so we did lick our plates. This stuff is so good it’s not funny and I’m not even a fan of bread pudding. I am now a convert. I have seen the light! Ree used good ole Tennessee Jack Daniels. Everything goes better with Jack.

I made this artichoke feta dip Christmas day and my family devoured it. The pimientos make it nice and festive, too. I clipped the recipe years ago from the Sunday newspaper coupons.

Artichoke Feta Dip

1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained, chopped

1 8 oz. pkg. Feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1 cup regular or light mayo (I use light)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 2 oz. jar diced pimientos, drained

Mix all ingredients

Spoon into 9-inch pie plate or 3-cup shallow baking dish

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until slightly browned.

Serve with assorted crackers, veggies, or pita triangles.

Makes 2 cups.

I also made this chocolate pie Christmas Day because I had to redeem myself for totally screwing it up last Saturday. I doubled the ingredients and forgot to double one key ingredient and the pie was liquid. One of my co-workers at my last job brought it to a holiday potluck and I had to have the recipe. I think those end up being the “keepers” from year to year.

Chocolate Silk Pie

1 1/2 cups sugar (my mother suggested I cut back on the sugar…I’ll let you be the judge)

3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

3 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted (I use fully leaded buttah)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 deep dish pie crust, frozen

Combine sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Pour chocolate mixture into frozen pie crust. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven on preheated baking sheet for 30 to 35 minutes or until center puffs. Cool completely. Garnish with whipped topping, if desired.

My sister-in-law made Southern Living cheese grits last weekend and they were awesome.

Hubby and I are going to have a nice New Year’s Eve dinner date and I’m really looking forward to it. What about you? Any big plans?

See you in 2008!

Dear Santa:

At precisely 6:27 a.m. Christmas morning (that particular sequence of glowing digital numbers is permanently seared into my memory), Miss C bounded into our bedroom, excited about the forthcoming bounty from your sleigh. Some favorites are the singing disembodied Barbie Island Princess doll that could seriously scar someone for life if they were on drugs, a Play Doh center that appeals to mama’s anal retentiveness as all the pieces stow away neatly inside, and enough play makeup to outfit a whole chorus line of drag queens.

I, however, was a little disappointed. Couldn’t you have answered my wish Santa? Huh? Santa? Hello?

Look, I haven’t bothered you in years. Not since I really wanted that Bionic Woman doll in what, 1975, 1976? And I didn’t even hold a grudge when my pleas for a Nintendo video game system in high school apparently went unheard. Rumor has it that was the year Mrs. Claus caught you spiking the elf’s egg nog and banned you from your weekly Friday night poker game, so I could understand the oversight.

Miss C is in the ask mama and daddy all types of questions age and I really could use that parenting guide I wished for on how to answer all of these things her growing mind grapples with daily. I studied the pregnancy guides and newborn baby books like I was cramming for the GMAT, but now I am left to scratch my head and silently churn out nothing better than “uh, uh, uh” to such hard-hitting questions as, “When is God’s birthday?,” “Who made God?,” “How are babies made?,” and “Can Santa hear me when I make a wish?”

This parenting gig is only going to get tougher and the questions aren’t going to get any easier so please next year at least let me borrow that parenting guide, OK? I promise to return it after I’ve scanned every page and opened up an eBay shop selling it for $99 a copy.

I’d really appreciate it. Otherwise I’ll be serving up plain skim milk for your fat ass come December 2008.

Love,

Blonde Mom

I can’t stop eating this stuff.

Miss C tasted it and then promptly asked if she could “keep it” in her room.

I nearly wrestled her to the ground.

I’ve got PMS and I don’t want anyone touching the sweets but me.

Little girls in new matching button down Tinker Bell pajamas.

The smell of fresh Play Doh.

Chocolate peppermint bark candy.

A quaint country church that looks like something from The Waltons.

A Christmas Eve answering machine message from Santa.

A Christmas afternoon walk and saying hello to all of our dog neighbors.

The sweet voice of a 2-year-old saying, “Merry Christmas Mommy. I wuv you.”

Listening to the Raffi Christmas cassette tape that belonged to my niece and nephew (now in college and high school.)

Laughing with family.

Babies wearing footed Christmas rompers.

New soy candles.

A visit from Panty Claus. (Mama needed some new underdrawers.)

Homemade oatmeal raisin cookies from neighbors.

A room illuminated only by Christmas tree lights.

The sound of crunching candy canes.

Miss C hearing Santa flying over our house Christmas Eve night, even if it was just the central heat turning on.

Reading my childhood copy of Twas the Night Before Christmas to the girls.

Being off from work for most of this week.

Miss C telling me at bedtime, “This was the best Christmas ever!”

Getting to sleep in past 7 the day after Christmas because my children have a Santa hangover.

What are some of your favorite things from this Christmas?

Surprise Santa Sighting, originally uploaded by blondemom.

Merry Christmas everyone! I’ll see you after the holiday.

p.s. Most of the elements on this scrapbook page are from the Valentine’s Day digital scrapbook kit from Shabby Princess. She has great stuff!

Dear Grandmotherly Type in the White Chevy Malibu:

Why, oh why, did you have to do a flagrant u-turn in the school parking lot yesterday so you could cut in front of my car?

Yes, it was raining, but you had an umbrella.

And I did not.

The Bijon Frise sporting a Santa hat riding in the mini van in front of me today totally made up for yesterday, though.

Signed,

Blonde Mom

p.s. I finally mailed our Christmas cards yesterday. And you?

A big thanks to Debunot for the wonderful box of goodies I got in the mail yesterday as part of her Christmas gift exchange!

The box contained some cookies, a pink koozie, and this little gem:

I now have an excuse to buy the matching bag! I ditched my diaper bag a long time ago, despite the fact that we’re still not in potty training nirvana. A mother can dream, can’t she?

Miss C helped open the box and grabbed this little goody immediately and said, “OH I want that!”

Hands off shortie. This is mama’s. I kind of miss the days she was mesmerized with torn boxes, cheap bows, and tissue paper.

I’ve been doing some last-minute shopping today in the pouring down rain. There’s something about 50 degree rainy weather that is not very festive. The last Santa present has been purchased by his lovely assistant–she drives a Pathfinder, not a sleigh, to assure she can maneuver through the traffic. Santa’s assistant has been to two different WalMart stores since yesterday (damn she’s dedicated or an idiot or stubborn or all three) to find the Biggest Littlest Pet Shop set only to leave empty handed and head for Target, which is where she probably should have gone in the first place.