The house is quiet our company is asleep, Mr and our grandson went out hunting this morning, so I thought I would pop on the computer and finish up this post I had started a couple of days ago before our company came.

I did a bit more baking and I think this will be the last, if I eat anymore cookies I'm going to turn into a cookie ;0

I do love making kiss cookies.  I've posted way back in 2008 a tip on how not to bite into a hard chocolate kiss on your kiss cookie.

Wow, have I really been blogging that long.

Hint on the Kiss cookies, I bake mine for 6 minutes then put the chocolate kiss on, then I put the cookies back in the oven for 3-5 minutes more.  You won't be biting into hard chocolate anymore.

Once you try this you will never go back to biting into a hard chocolate kiss.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve, any plans of celebration or are you going to quietly bring in the New Year?

I think we are going to quietly bring in the New Year.

I've been reading a blog Chickens in the Road for years and have been reading her posts on candle making and finally I got up enough courage to try it myself.  I also saw on SouleMama's blog where she made her candles in tea cups, and after reading that post I knew I had to make candles.  So off I went after purchasing my supplies I headed to the thrift store to see what I could come up with in regards to what I was going to put the wax in.  I hit pay dirt with these pretty glass cups, I think they went to a punch bowl set.

I think wanting to make candles stems from getting a candle making kit for Christmas when I was a child and never ever making them.  Talk about childhood issues right ☺ LOL  No seriously, I wonder why I waited so long to do this.

Love, love, love.

I wanted to keep on making candles, but I have to burn these first.

{this moment}

a friday ritual...

a single photo...

no words...

capturing the moment from the week...

something to pause...

savor...

and remember.

We had a traditional Christmas this year, it was quiet and simple.  The menu was simple, the day was quiet.

I made homemade eggnog from this recipe, I used raw milk, farm fresh eggs, my homemade vanilla and our maple syrup.

We didn't have all the traditional foods on Christmas eve, we just couldn't eat it all so we had some on Christmas day, rieska, smoked salmon and rice pudding.

I have to show you my all time favorite gift which was from Mr, I already played around with it some and it is AWESOME!!!

We've had snow falling the past couple of days and it's beautiful!

The feeders have been full and the birds have been eating as much as we have.

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas.

and

a blessed

New Year to come!

  Enjoying our winter visitors on the ridge.

Also known as midwinter.  We spent a wonderful day outside burning the huge brush pile that has grown over the past couple of years.  It was the perfect day to do it, the trees were all covered in ice and the ground was covered in snow, so the chance of anything catching fire was pretty low.

It's no wonder Sadie burnt one of her paws digging in the burn pile for mice.

Looking around I spied the sauna and loved what I saw.

Mr and I took a drive on the RTV around our property.

Heading to the fruit trees they looked so neat with the icy snow on them.  We had some freezing rain yesterday and this is what came from it.

The look from the road.

What a wonderful way to spend the day.  I eventually went inside and finished up making my Christmas butter cookies with the last of the dough, and Mr headed to the barn to do some things that needed to get done and didn't since we had been sick, and now that we are feeling back to normal it's back at it for us.

I'm feeling really blessed this holiday season, after being so sick for a week I realize how fragile life really is and I'm going to enjoy each and every moment of my life.

The dough chilled long enough in the fridge this morning,

for me to make my Christmas butter cookies,

and my Finnish prune tarts.

I still have a few more types to make.  The tarts are going to be on our Finnish Christmas menu as one of the desserts (if they last that long).

I'm joining Vee in her December Note Card Party,

and I went with winter scenes from last winter.

To see more from Vee's Note Card Party,

just click on the links.

I know I have talked about taking sauna, so the other day when we took sauna I brought my camera along.

In the winter Mr gets fresh snow to melt for washing up and throwing steam.  We don't have running water and we finally have electricity instead of using an oil lamp which is very quaint and cozy at night, but electric lights are much safer.

When the hot water reservoir gets hot enough we fill the buckets so that we are not washing up with cold water.

Any water left in the buckets from the last time the sauna was used will freeze in the winter, then we have to melt it down.

This is the most traditional as you can get for a sauna.

Sauna has always been a big part of both of our lives growing up and as adults.  I've only come to really appreciate having a sauna at our fingertips.