Kinder-Hochstuhl - German Highchair

We finally have a highchair for our grandson.  What do you say, 'that's not a high chair!"??  Many years ago, when we had a toddler of our own, she had just turned one when my hubby was stationed in Germany.   We needed a highchair and found an ideal one at a local German store in our small German town.  Never imagined we would still be using it 25 years later....

This is what it looked like as of yesterday morning.  Christmas Eve morning, 2011!!  Hubby was supposed to get it re-upholstered months ago but nooooo, waited until Christmas eve to get it done.  It took us a good three hours to finish this project, a good three hours I could've used getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner... Anyway, I think our daughter used this up until she was done with her pre-school years.

So we had it in storage ever since.

We almost gave up on it thinking it wouldn't last much longer after pulling it out of storage seeing how tattered and battered it looked but we realized all it needed was a new upholstery job.

Tada!  and there it is!  I sent hubby to JoAnns and he was brave enough to enter the store.  He bought about 1 1/2 yds. of this fabric and one piece of a square sponge.  It used to have a tray but that got lost somewhere along the way.

We used fabric glue and a staple gun to put it together.  Obviously, our hands were full which is why we didn't take any pictures.  It took about four hours to complete the job between the two of us since we really didn't know what we were doing.

We were thrilled to say the least when we first bought this highchair because . . . .

it also converts to a small table.  Isn't it cool??!!

He took a liking to it from the get-go!  Oh, we had to use a belt or scarf to tie him in.  I guess that's where the tray came in handy.  The scarf worked and he was able to eat at the table with us, in his own chair.

I shared this with:

Epic Fail Part II

As with most 1 1/2 year olds, sitting on Santa's lap is not their #1 priority.  The reason why this one is titled, "Epic Fail Part II" is because his first (professional)  Santa visit was an event that was guaranteed to either make a mother pull her hair out or pee her pants from laughing too hard.

This whole episode didn't even last a minute and he was back to his old self soon after.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve and Day 2011

Finnish Pulla (Coffee Bread)

Place these dough ingredients into breadmaker in this order:
3/4 cup warm milk
2 eggs at room temperature
4 tbsps. butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsps. ground cardamon
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 packet or 2 tsps. instant yeast

GLAZE

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk

2 tbsps. butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together but add the milk a little at a time until the glaze is smooth, not pasty, not watery but smooth. Cover and set aside

Remember these babies?  I don't see or hear many people using them these days anymore.  Do you have one and use it?  I haven't used mine in over a year since we moved to Spottswood Place.  It feels so great to put this to good use again.

Start by pouring in the 3/4 cup milk 

Add the 2 eggs

 4 tbsps butter

Add the 1/2 cup sugar

Add the 1 tsp. salt

Add the 2 tsps. cardamom.  This spice is SOOOOO amazing.  It's so Christmas-y for me.

Add all 3 1/2 cups bread flour, make sure it covers over all the other ingredients

Finally, sprinkle in the 2 tsps. instant yeast

Set your bread maker to the "dough" feature, sit back and relax.....

....or stand there and watch it but that would be kinda silly

When the ringer goes off, punch the dough down, close the lid and let rise again

When the ringer goes off again, take the dough out and place on floured surface.  Divide the dough in half.  Place one half in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth.  With the other half, divide into three pieces

Take each piece of dough and roll - don't laugh at my rolls, I know I need a kitchen scale and I'll get one someday

With your fingers dipped in water, pinch three ends together so they stick well.  Braid and then repeat the same method with the other ends, fold both ends under.  Brush melted butter over dough.  Now take the other  1/2 of dough and make another braided loaf

Place both loaves on a cookie sheet, cover with parchment paper....

.....as well as with a warm damp cloth, let rise 20 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350F degrees.   Uncover and bake for 17 minutes for two loaves and 12 minutes for one loaf or until golden brown.

Take the glaze, stir if needed and then drizzle over the warm loaves

I like a lot of drizzle. 

I dressed this one up to take to a party.

I really don't want to share this....., would you?

This one ended up being ours.  Wrap and decorate because your family deserves pretty and delicious goodies all dolled up too.

The first time I ever had Pulla Bread was when my sister-in-law made it years ago for Christmas.  I never had it before and I was in heaven and couldn't get enough.  She is Finnish and I believe her parents came from Finland so this is a recipe they make for Christmas.  I may have asked her for the recipe way back then, I don't remember but I know I pulled this one off the internet several years ago and have stuck with it.  When you make this bread, you'll be amazed at the lovely aromas filling up your kitchen and home.  I'm convinced cardamom can be used as an air freshener all by itself.   Hubby came in from the other room and commented on how good the house was smelling and how it was making him hungry.  I think I'm going to make another batch tomorrow.  This makes for a lovely gift to give to others.  I took this to a party today and was immediately complemented on it - what's better than serving a baked goodie fresh out of the oven??  I score!!! :)

I shared this recipe with:

Amy Grant/Vince Gill "The 12 Days of Christmas"

 Amy Grant and I go back a long, loooooong way.  It’s hard to believe that she’s in her early 50’s (like me) but yet looks like she’s still 16 (unlike me).  My daughter and I got to go to her and her hubby's (Vince Gill) “ The 12 Days of Christmas” concert last night in Roanoke, VA.  This is my second time seeing her in concert.  This is my daughter Elise’s first time and it’s been a long time coming.  Throughout the this post, I will have pictures from last night concerts.  They all pretty much look the same, except that the backdrop is in different colors.  In some you can see Amy and Vince in some just barely, sorry about the quality, I converted from a bberry to an ip.  Must say, bberry's camera was much better quality.

"Tender Tennessee Christmas"

I grew up in El Paso, Texas.  I attended the local Baptist church which was back then, the largest Baptist church in the city of almost 350,000 back in the early 70’s, which is also where hubby and I met.  When we were first engaged in the early 80’s, he started to move some of his stuff into my apartment, a big load consisted of music albums.  Albums galore! “yeeesh” I thought to myself, “this guy really likes music”.  Come to find out he was a member of one of those music clubs where you can start off your membership with 10 album selections for only .99₵.  Remember those?  These music clubs had in their clause something about sending selections of “their” choice.  If you liked it  you kept it if not, then you could send it back.  Anyway, I saw that hubby had an album that he hadn’t even opened yet (telling me he wasn’t interested) and for some reason it caught my eye.  Maybe it was because the front cover had a picture of a young girl around my age, compare to all the other albums he had which were “older” folk, southern gospel groups which I’m not very fond of although I may listen to a Gaither song here and there.   Checking out the titles of the songs on this album of the pretty young girl, “My Father’s Eyes”, “Fairytale”, “Always the Winner”, etc.,  got me curious so I decided to open and listen to it thus beginning my admiration of not only her voice and style of music, but the songs she sang of her “Prince” and Lord, Jesus.  I was a young mother, wife and the songs she sang encouraged me in my newfound faith which gave me reassurance, hope and I admit, a skip in my step.  As Amy continued to grow in the business and as each album was released be rest assured, I had it in my collection.  One day in said church, it was a Sunday evening service which was more relaxed and laid back, some of the youth girls were talking with others just before the service started and I noticed one of them had a t-shirt on of Amy’s “Unguarded” concert tour.  Apparently this young girl attended that concert and I was proud of myself for recognizing it and at the same time envious that she got to go see Amy sing. I was determined back then that I would make it a point to attend an Amy Grant concert someday.  It wasn’t until we lived in upstate New York that Amy came to Geneva, NY about an hour away from where I lived.  My good friend Sue and I went and I was so thrilled that I finally got to see Amy.

Fast forward about twenty years, early Fall 2011 there’s a commercial on tv advertising the Amy Grant/Vince Gill “12 Days of Christmas Concert” coming to Roanoke in December!!  I immediately texted my daughter to tell her and I believe her reply was, “EEEEEEEEEEK!!!!”.  Tickets for the concert were purchased as soon as they were on sale and the countdown began.  The day arrived, and with Roanoke being a little over an hour away, and on our way there, every now and then I would glance at Elise with a big “EEEEEEK” smile and she would smile back with her “EEEEEEEK” smile too.  Can you tell we were excited?   How fun to go to a concert with my young adult daughter.  A moment I will cherish forever.  She admits that she heard Amy Grant while still in the womb. Hmmmm, I wonder if there's any truth to that?

Pre-Concert Picture

The stage backdrop was lit up with of a row of blue Christmas trees and silver lights.  Faux snow was on the ground embedded with musical instruments, microphone stands and chairs, ready to go – let’s get this show started!

Amy sang a lot of her songs from the several Christmas releases she has out,  all the while dressed so elegantly.  She changed into three different outfits.  My favorite one was the one I called her “Mrs. Claus” outfit.  It was so adorable and like I said elegant.  I don’t know anything about styles but it kinda reminded me of the type of combination jacket/skirt Jacqueline Onassis would wear.  It was a Christmas red, two piece outfit.  Long sleeves with the ends white faux fur, thick and plush, simply gorgeous and as she walked out on stage in that outfit, Vince called her his “beautiful, baby doll”.  So cute.  What’s more amazing is that she mentioned that she found the outfit up in their attic and that it belonged to her grandmother.  WOW!!  The whole audience simultaneously said, “awwwwww”.  

Here she is in her beautiful "Mrs. Claus" outfit

The most moving part after she told us how precious her mom was to her, told a story or two about her mom and that this would be the first Christmas without her.  I knew that her mom had passed away this past year but had forgotten about it until she mentioned it.  My throat started to hurt and eyes welled up with tears as I’m sure everyone else’s in the audience.  That first Christmas without that loved one is always the hardest.  I’d say the whole first year.  But life goes on and I’m sure our loved ones who have gone on would want us to move on.  Amy then followed with her song, “Heirlooms”.

I believe she's singing "Heirlooms" in this one.  Here's she's wearing a beautiful purply/iridescent gown .  I'm convinced she can wear a burlap sack and make it look good.

We had a wonderful time at the concert.  What a way to spend the holiday season, I wish she would come every year!  We would make it a tradition.  Or maybe we could make a trip out to Nashville and make that a tradition.  Wouldn’t that be fun?

At the end of the concert singing "Emmanuel"

I rambled on.  I guess all I could’ve just said was that I went to a Christmas concert last night and thoroughly enjoyed it but what fun would that have been?!!