Yule 2019 - Yuletide Calendar

[Mr. Pooka]

Congratulations Sanguine_Dragon, Sweetintoxikation, @phoenix Stardancer, melodysangel and shlee on being the first 5 in! I'll add your bells to your inventories tomorrow or feel free to send in any extra instructions on who and how you'd like be to add them! (-8

and super awesome Shlee, (-8 that was festively great! I've totally got an extra set of bells for you and a third pair for you to gift to anyone you'd like, (-8 (just post here or PM me if you'd like to make it a surprise!)


The second part of the contest is still open for anyone else wishing a chance for some Yule Bells, (-8

[shlee]

Dec 3, 2019 17:05:27 GMT -5 Sweetintoxikation said:

I really need to start doing that too! XD I'll portion it out later for tomorrow and Thursday. Since that should finish off the soup as it stands amount wise. My biggest issue is that as I've gotten older (RIP) I can't do as much spicy soups back to back. Heartburn sets in. Which is sad. BUT isn't making 'too much' soup by definition the point of soups and stews?

Or is that just my brain. xD

*cuddles in happily*

And YES. I love the MANY uses for bells. I have these little table centerpieces I 'spruced up' last Christmas that have some bells in them and then the ones I wear to Dicken's faire and then the door and trees.. MUAHAHAHAHAH

I'm Christmas CRAZY.
'

I... am making stew tomorrow for the second time since my friend came to visit at the end of October (third time we'll be eating it, as we ate the frozen leftovers from last time within the first week she was here)... and like, I double the recipe I have, so 2kg of stew meat, which is nearly 4.5 lbs of beef. You can imagine it makes a lot. I do not mess around when it comes to soups and stews, because they freeze so well, and especially in the winter it's so nice to have something like that you can just pop in a pot and heat up on those terribly cold days. So yeah, "too much" is the definition!

Speaking of bells, my boyfriend's mom is a handbell choir conductor, which I think is really awesome. That's on top of being a voice choir conductor, and an accomplished mezzo soprano herself. I think there's something magical about bells; doesn't help that my mom's favorite movie is It's A Wonderful Life, and the whole "every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings" thing, so... yeah.

I've been listening to Christmas music since it started playing on my old hometown radio station like.. the day before my birthday back in November, and I cannot wait for it to come. We're baking traditional German Christmas cookies tomorrow, my friend and I, since that's my gift every year to the States (along with some store bought stuff and all that) and I'm thinking I might pull some of our decorations out as well. Still not sure about getting a real tree for our living room downstairs because... year old cat and also room... but we have a small fake one we bought last year that we decorated and put up in Kilian's grandmother's living room (she lives on the second story, it's like a duplex, they call it a "two family house"), so we'll probably put that one up again up there. It was really nice.

Anyway, I'm rambling, so like.. back to your regularly scheduled programming!

[Angel_of_Music]

I love that picture Pooka, that's awesome

*hears Mr. Pooka, rings the bell she posted* XD

Congrats you five. I have some bells, but they're packed away

[PookaWitch]

The Christmas Ninjas sneak into houses and put stars on top of trees. XD
I drew that years ago for a Yuletide sphinx event. I had people tossing ninja stars at a tree to see if they could top it with the star. lol

[Sweetintoxikation]

I love my cats but YEA. We have two larger fake trees for this very reason. The one that goes into the livingroom can only ever be shatterproof ornaments because of Seifer (our youngest feline), LOVES to 'play' with the 'shiny balls clearly left for him' every year. XD

All my very nice and BREAKABLE ornaments are put up on our smaller/sparce Tree I set up in the office. Because it's safe from cats.

[PookaWitch]

XD Yeah, that's why we haven't had a tree. Runic is a hellion for climbing high and playing with things. I doubt a tree would last.

[Angel_of_Music]

I remember that event. I think it's one I missed due to parent unit being a pain XD

*pounces Toxi, licks* Mine now

[Mr. Pooka]

Besides stews (which I could eat every day, and Pooka would be happy for me to make every day so long as I made her something else to eat instead, (-8) I also have made it a habit to pack up leftovers from big meals right way in portioned freezer packages...

There is no way we can eat a whole ham or turkey ect, so when I make them they become future meals all set up with the trimmings and all in the same package. (separated if necessary, to keep some of the various trimmings from getting to mixed up) ..but it's nice to just pull out a bag with turkey, stuffing, veggies and sides all ready to go, (-8 I don't think these keep as well for long periods but at least months which is nice!

Ooo, and one last topical thing I really like to do! After a big turkey (or similar) I'll make a ton of lovely stock. Then I'll freeze it in usable portions, like for example I use my rice cooker measuring cup to portion out just the right amount to make some rice so in the future I can just pull out the bag add rice we're good to go! Keeping smaller amounts is also nice for when you just need a bit for a recipe...


Now, I'm heading to make Pooka something for dinner, (-8 Hopefully in the near future I'll have some spare time to type up more Katterheim and area notes, (-8 I've got a giant storm of info I'd like to share!

[PookaWitch]

GWAH! I found the ninja tree too!

[Cameron]

Ring the Bells!


What cute bells. All of the variations are great too!!

No singing from Cam today. I caught myself a little crud over the weekend and my poor voice was taken. >.< Congrats you five at snagging those low hanging bells! 💜

Soups and stews are life! They’re great especially during the cold months, but really I love soup year round. Recently made a large pot of chili with some elk meat that was donated from a friends hunting trip. I’ll have to pop over and share my recipe because I really do think it’s great! A tad bit on the spicy side at times. Especially when I used chorizo.

I am seriously musing over Katterheim and this years Yule theme!

[Sweetintoxikation]

I remember that event so well. XD

And I remember giggling over Jade's ninja stars.

AND now..I want hot cocoa. XD

[Mr. Pooka]

Oooo, that sounds awesome Cameron! ...er the chili not the feeling sick... I'd always love a chili recipe, (-8 I'm a little short on elk though... We actually have them up here now through a release/reintroduction program. The only problem was that they were actually released just north of Elliot Lake in the wonderful wilds of Northern Canada... but they just all walked to the farms just south of here and moved in which makes literally no one happy! It would be awesome to at least even see an Elk in the wild while I'm wandering... and this year I saw mostly just a lot of wolf tracks everywhere! (there's a pic of the tracks of a wolf that followed me one day when I was out in the summer homethread...)

Oh, in the very near future I'm going to take Pooka out into the wilds to this really nice spot so we can have a small fire and actually roast some chestnuts over an open fire! (plus probably some marshmallows and something else yummy) (-8 I'll totally need to take some pictures of the festive wilderness of it all!

also I haven't got the Drinking horns into inventories if anyone was peeking, my computer is acting up and needs a shut down before I can seem to make it work again.

....and I've got a ton of fun Katterheim notes to get out there!

[wolfrysk]

Ring the Bells!

[Moophles]

Ring the Bells!

[melodysangel]

we actually had stew for supper just now It..was not MA friendly but I had some anyway and will just bear the concequences

Also..I remember that game! Christmas ninja!