Around town and at home

 Although today is a miserably rainy, windy, stormy day, recently we have had some warmer clear weather that was great for driving around our neighborhood at night and viewing the pretty decorated houses. 

The house below is just down the street from our house. We will bring the grandkids to see it for sure.

This is known on social media as the "Big Santa" house.

 It is a few blocks away from our house. Yes, the Santa is taller than the two story house. 

We had about 6 inches of snow at the beginning of the week.

The view out our front window was a winter wonderland.

 I love baking on snowy days, so I made chocolate thins (a new recipe for me that is just okay) and Raspberry Walnut Thumbprint cookies. The latter are a Christmas time staple that I make every year. You can find the recipe under the Baking tab.

You can see some more recipes scattered around these cookies. I will be working on them this weekend. I like to make the clams and cream puffs early and put them in the freezer until needed. I have also put half of every cookie dough in the freezer to use later or to have my grandchildren help with when they are here.

You can see in the photo above a Prairie Schooler Santa that has been made into a pillow. It still needs some braid around the outside, but at least it can be on display.

I finished another Prairie Schooler Santa into a pillow also. This one has its braid completed. 

 I worked on the braid while baking the chocolate cookies.

Another hat has been almost completed. The seam needs to be sewn. This one is for Hubby. 

I have started a green one also for donation. My mother in law has requested another hat as she has lost/misplaced the last one that I made for her. I will be knitting a whole lot of hats over the next few weeks. 

I quilted the centers of two more blocks on Having a Ball and have marked one of the blocks for the rest of its quilting. 

As I listen to the wind whip around our home, I think I will head to the kitchen and start on my Christmas Butter Cookies. The butter should be softened by now. 

Merry Christmas!

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!