Christmas Everywhere!

You know how you tell yourself every year that you are going to keep it simple and take your time and not stress when the holidays come?!? You know how you never listen to your sage advice at 10:30 pm the day before your kids Holiday parties at school or parties at work?!? Is that just me??? :)

Well, we have been busy the past couple of nights trying to cram in our last minutes crafts and baking and prepping and wrapping and taking care of babies and everything else in the mix. I was still trying to throw projects in to the mix last night on the way home. Patrick looked at me and said "enough!". So I had to cut a few things I really wanted to do, but since I was up until midnight last night anyways, I guess that was ok. :)

So we made ornaments, cookies, garbage candy, fudge, pumpkin bread and these adorable (or at least the idea was adorable!) Rudolph Sausage Balls.

(if you look closely in the background, you can see some of Alex's sugar cookies!)

I think they turned out ok. I would have preferred those Christmas Tree shaped pretzles because I think they would have looked more like antlers. I couldn't find them anywhere in my sprint through the Walmart. These pretzles kind of make them look like mice, but I guess they could also be Christmas Mice! :) Anyways, they were super easy to make:

Make your sausage balls (I made a double batch as Gabe and Alex were both taking these to their parties today). You can find a recipe online just about anywhere, but I use the following for a double batch:
4 cups of bisquick (I have also used pancake mix in a pinch!)
2 lbs of sausage (two small "rolls")
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (I actually just throw in a few handfuls until it looks right.)
mix, roll in to balls, bake at 350 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes

Once your sausage balls are cooked, and while they are still warm, take a knife and cut a small slit in the top. Stick your pretzles in the slit so they stick up like antlers. If you do it while they are still warm, they "stick" to the pretzles a little better to keep them in longer.

Once your "reindeer" have cooled completely, you can put on a nose with one of those gel icing tubes or get creative and use just about anything (mini m&m's or red hots or anything red!). I used a glitter gel icing tube I found at Walmart and just put a smidge on the sausage balls where a nose would be.

Done!

You could also go a bit further and put eyes on with a black gel tube or mini m&m or something like that. I was already "in trouble" for not keeping it simple last night so I didn't go that far.

I think this wasn't a bad trial run. I may have to experiment some more to come up with some better ideas - you know maybe when I don't have so many irons in the fire!

I still have a few more things to get done for Christmas this year, but we are on the downhill slope for now - unless I see some more cute ideas I just HAVE to try out!

Merry Christmas!

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