Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

One of our favorite family traditions is to make Gingerbread Cookies for Christmas.  We've done it every single year since Chablis was 6 months old.  We pull out the cookie cutters that we've had for forever and the old wooden rolling pin that basically gets used once, maybe twice a year.  We put on Christmas music and lose ourselves in flour and dough.

When the kids were small I'd give them each a hunk of dough and let them mold it and play with it, while I did most of the work.  These days Chablis does most of the rolling and cookie cutting work....

Here they were screaming at each other because Chablis didn't like the way Tony was placing the dough on the cookie sheets.  I grabbed my camera and told them I'm taking a picture so 20 years from now I can pull it out and say "Hey, remember when we were making cookies and you 2 were fighting over where to place the dough?"  They both cracked up because they know I will remember this and they double know that I will produce the photo and remind them of it in 20 years! LOL!

This is what the cookies look like when they're done baking....

Then we start decorating them with frosting and candies.....

Each of them also makes one HUGE Santa gingerbread man for themselves.

Our gingerbread cookies will never win a prize for beauty or be sold in a bakery for $ 2.00 apiece.  We sprinkle candy or chocolate chips on them with a free hand.  I don't care if the multi-colored frosting is drizzled down the sides in a runny pool or if some cookies just receive a thin stripe of frosting.  Because for me the fun is in the making, and the music, the heat of the oven, the scent of baking cookies wafting through the kitchen, and the eating afterwards with a cup of hot chocolate.  After all, isn't that what family traditions are really all about?

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

5 to 5 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Salt

2 teaspoons Ginger

2 Teaspoons Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Cloves

2 sticks softened Margarine

1 Cup Sugar

1 ¼ Cup Unsulphured Molasses

2 Eggs

Mix the softened margarine, sugar, molasses and the eggs.  Add 5 cups of the flour, baking soda, salt and all the spices.  Mix well using a wooden spoon, not a mixer.

Put mixture onto a floured surface and add the remaining flour until the dough is firm and not sticky.  Start rolling out some of the dough on a floured surface, to ¼” thickness. Cut with cookies cutters.

Bake 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on them.

After they cool, decorate with frosting….

1 stick margarine

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

Milk

Use a mixer and add milk and additional powdered sugar until you have enough frosting.  Separate into bowls and add colored food drops.

FTF Geocacher Magazine

FTF Geocacher Magazine is a really good magazine dedicated to the hobby of Geocaching.  A lot of the content is written by different geocachers from across the country.  It features stories about FTF's (First to Finds), interesting geocaches, individual geocacher milestones, GPS information and highlights about events like Geowoodstock and Flash Mobs.  It's crammed full of information on how to geocache in general, travel bugs, geo-coins and typical swag.  Plus, there are dozens of beautiful photos of cachers and geocaches in every issue.  The magazine is very nicely done, with superb photo defination and thick, glossy pages.  You can feel the excellent quality of the magazine when you hold it in your hands.

FTF Magazine is published bi-monthly.  I just wish it was a monthly magazine because it's always interesting to read.  Editor/Owner is Keith Petrus and he's currently working with I Tunes in an effort to get all the issues published as an I Pad App, which is a big plus for I Pad users.  So far the current 2011 issues are available.  I'm thinking of switching over to that option myself.  I understand that plans are also in the works for Android Tablet Distribution as well.

My favorite activity once I receive the magazine is to pour over all the highlighted geocaches and find ones from around the country that I'd like to do.  They get added to one of my ever-present bookmark lists.

Every issue has a "Where's Sparticus" contest.  Find Sparticus  hidden someplace in the magazine,  e-mail the page number to the magazine website and your name is entered into a drawing for one of their cool Sparticus pathtags.  Fun huh?

This last month I was featured in the magazine.  Keith was looking for stories from geocachers about what they would do to get a cache.  I submitted this little post.....

I'm afraid it's an unflattering rear view shot of me and for that I apologize.  LOL!  But the cache was SO worth it to get!

Here Mary and I are calculating how far in we've got to go...

Once inside, you have to locate a specific rock and take a photo of yourself holding it as proof that you grabbed the cache.  Not easy to do while laying on your stomach in a hole that's only about 2.5 feet wide, while propping up a flashlight, holding a rock in one hand, and balancing your camera in the other so you can take a picture of yourself.  Then you have to also sign the log book and slowly back your way out again.

Mary and I both claimed a smiley on this one!

Most geocachers would enjoy this magazine. Keith encourages everyone to write stories, send in photos or their milestones for publication.  Let me tell you, it's quite a thrill to open the magazine and see one of your pictures or stories in the current issue!

If you're interested in FTF Geocacher Magazine you can order it through their website.

They also have a FB page.  Check it out.  If you're a geocacher, it's a must read!

Techny Basin

The other day we took my mom and dad and went to Techny Basin.  It was a pretty chilly morning, so we bundled up with hats and gloves and took off on the hiking trail around the basin.

Techny Basin has forest and wetland areas....

 a park....

 miles of trails......

and geocaches.....Louie and dad are looking for a cache - they are NOT peeing by the tree - LOL!!

We found 5 geocaches on our loop around the walking trail.  Then we headed over to a nearby bike trail and walked along it, finding 4 more caches along the way...

The bike trail is laid out along a line of power lines and as we were walking along, we could actually hear the steady hum of the lines....

We made 2 more stops before going home.  My favorite cache was this one, called "Remote Parking."  The log sheets were cleverly rolled up and inserted where the batteries go....

We ended up finding 11 caches total for the day.

Where's the Snow?

What do Snowplowers do when December arrives?  We stand and stare constantly at the sky, hoping, wishing and praying for snow so we can go to work.  So far, it's been a pretty quiet December and one of the latest on record for our first good snowfall.  What do we do while we impatiently bide our time???  Geocache of course.

Louie and I grabbed the caching bag and headed out to the woods to grab a couple of caches.  This first one was  placed as a 2000 milestone cache for a friend of ours....

There was a definite chill in the air when we set out, about 18 degrees with the wind chill.  I thought this tree fungus was interesting with the frost still on it....

While I was busy taking pictures, Louie was busy hiding behind the tree.  He thought it was hysterical that I couldn't find him.  We are so mature!

I really liked this cache - it was placed inside a real animal skull.....

We did quite a bit of bushwacking today.  Bushwacking is when you hike off trail and pretty much scramble over fallen trees, around logs, through vines that grab and hold you and try to trip you up and past burrs that somehow manage to get all over your clothes and stick in your hair.  It's really lots of fun.  Really....  LOL!

The last cache of the morning was the easiest one to get to and I dropped another TB that I picked up at Festivus....

We got 5 caches for the morning and we also had one DNF (did not find).  We're going to have to go back and try again because I hate to DNF.

In the meantime, could it start snowing???  Please????

Ice Skating

When I was a kid we used to go skating all winter long at the park that was 1/2 a block away from our house.  They would flood and freeze the baseball fields and we would skate for hours.  We played games like "Chickie" which was really tag on ice or or we'd play "Red Rover," but my favorite was "Crack the Whip" where we would send kids sailing into the snow banks.

My mom and dad both loved to skate, so they taught us all at a really early age.  First they would pull us around the ice on a sled, then we got 4 blade skates that strapped onto our boots.  Once we learned our balance we graduated to double bladed skates and then we hoped and prayed for the day we'd get "real" single blade skates.  It was a special Christmas when we opened that box of brand new, shiny white, figure skates.  I got my second pair of figure skates for Christmas when I was 16 and I still have them and use them.    I try to go skating about twice a year, and I always enjoy it when we go.

Last night Chablis and I went ice skating at an outdoor rink.  I was horrified when I dug my skates out of the garage and discovered that the blade on one of them had gotten some rust on it.  Chablis assured me that a friend of hers at the rink would be able to fix it for me next week, but for the moment I had to wear, gasp, rental skates.  I believe that was the first time in my life I've ever gone skating and not used my own skates.

We had polar bears for company.....

We got there early so we practically had the ice to ourselves....

Chablis thinks she's Dorothy Hamill.....

But little does she know that I looked like Dorothy Hamill when I had her haircut back in the late 70's.  This is Dorothy, not me.....

The rink had Christmas music playing and Christmas lights strung up and it was quite festive and fun.  I just wish it would have been snowing because that would have been really pretty.

They wouldn't allow us to take the camera on the ice so unfortunately I can't show you my Dorothy Hamill moves as I glided and spun around on the ice.  If I could show you, I would perhaps look like this...

The key word is perhaps...... In my dreams I look like Dorothy Hamill.  Instead, after about half an hour of flawless skating technique where I mostly circled the rink and managed to skate backwards twice, I did a huge face plant, resulting in BOTH skate guards racing over to ask me if I was ok.

Yes, I'm fine - the only thing that got hurt was my pride!  But I am SO going back one night when it's snowing!

(all images from google)

Festivus 2

Sunday morning Louie and I got up early and headed out to grab a few caches before football started at noon.   We wanted to get the 2 remaining caches that had been released for the Festivus party because I hadn't gotten them on Friday night.  While we were out we grabbed 6 additional caches that were in the area.  So we got 8 caches in about an hour and a half and made it back home in time to thrown a pot roast in the oven to eat during the first football game.  Not bad, huh?

My favorite cache of the morning was called "Festivus 2 I Got a Problem With You People.  GC38HNB  This cache was placed in a nice little wooded area that runs right through the middle of a neighborhood.  We took a short hike down a trail that was lightly dusted with snow.......

There were actually 2 caches placed along this trail, but the one I really liked was placed way at the back end of the woods.  We had to cross a partially frozen stream and scramble up an embankment.....

Once on the other side of the stream it didn't take us too long to find the cache.  The cache itself was a nice size lock and lock container.  I dropped off a TB (travel bug) that I had picked up at the Festivus party...

On our way back to the cachemobile, we stopped to check out 2 man made shelters that we saw off the trails.....

Fortunately, nobody was home - I'm sure glad I'm not living back there!

Product Review - Sauce Headwear

In October, The Outdoor Blogger Network gave me the opportunity to test and review a Sauce Headband.

Sauce gave me the choice between 2 different styles, the Swift or the Ventilator.  I chose the Ventilator because its a wider headband and I was looking for something with a little more head coverage.  My immediate choice was the Purple Pinwheel headband.  I loved the colors and style....

Sauce headbands are lined with a soft, moisture wicking layer.  The material they use for the headband is stretchy and flexible.  The specs on their website state that the headbands are ideal for moderate to high intensity exercise in temperatures as low as -10 C or for casual wear on a warm winter day.  One size fits most.

We spend a lot of time outdoors.  The colder weather doesn't deter us from being outside in a wide variety of conditions.  I decided to put my headband to the test, so I wore it geocaching.....

 hiking....

 deer hunting....

as well as while I was doing yard work, and when I went grocery shopping.  It was used on days with wind conditions of up to 30 mph, and in temperatures as low as 16 F.  I wore it during the day as well as at night.

So, how did it perform?

First, I was worried about the size.  I have a small head and very thin hair.  My biggest concern was that the headband was going to be too large and not stay in place.  If there is one thing I can't stand, it's to be constantly tugging at my hat to keep it in place. NO problem here!  The headband fit me perfectly.  The stretchy material has just the right amount of "give."  It also doesn't itch.  You know how some hats or headbands itch and are uncomfortable?   There was no such problem with the headband at all.

Second, did it keep me warm?  Yes!  My ears were never cold.  Air and wind didn't blow into my ears at all. The headband covers a large area of my head which I really like.  Here my dad and I are standing on the bridge and the wind was howling!!

Third, it's extremely lightweight.  It rolls up into a small finger of material.  I keep it stored in the inside pocket of my jacket for easy access and this way I have it with me all the time.

The Ventilator Headband had 2 huge pluses as far as I'm concerned  - It stayed in place and it was snug without giving me a headache.  Honestly, most of the time I wasn't even aware of it being on my head.   I love this headband!  Here's a shot of the back of my head.  Don't mind the messy hair!

Drawbacks?  Nothing, just 1 personal preference....   in extreme cold, below zero weather, I think I'd prefer a Sauce Hat just to keep the top tip of my head toasty warm as well.  This is mainly because I have such thin hair so I need a little more hat to keep me warm on top.  But the areas that the headband does cover are warm as can be.

Overall, I rate this product a 10 on a scale of 1 - 10.  There isn't anything about it that I didn't like!  Sauce has a nice selection of color choices and style options.  I think their prices are very reasonable and affordable.  You can order custom products with team, sports and event logos.  They are based in Montana.  They have hats and headbands that will appeal to both men and women.  I have only one suggestion....  They may want to consider a camouflage pattern.  I think lots of sportsmen and woman would love this headwear, but would need the camouflage pattern while out in the field.  Just saying.......

I would like to sincerely thank Sauce Headwear for giving me the opportunity to test this great product.  High 5's all around!  Go check them out.

I also want to thank The Outdoor Blogger Network for picking me for the review.  They have a great website and it's growing by leaps and bounds as they add new outdoor blogs on a weekly basis.

Disclaimer:  Sauce provided the headband to me free of charge for this review.  All opinions are my own.