Christmas cookies – Coffee & Crows

Welcome to the least ambitious December Bucket List of 2022. In my defense, I live in Savannah so that removes anything snow or cold weather related, and I don’t have kids so kid-related activities are also out. That leaves a tiny little pool of December/Christmas activities to choose from.

Finish decorating for Christmas! We didn’t really decorate last Christmas…or the Christmas before that and it’s time for a Christmas tree in this apartment. Hopefully the cats won’t try to climb the thing. They are 100% going to try to climb it.
1. Honestly, this one will definitely be done before December 1st, but I’m counting it anyway.
Watch some amount of Christmas Movies. I said something like 20 (started at 45, which is insane) in my Hallmark Christmas Movies post, so that number works. But honestly, 5 will be fine too. Not fussed.
Go see Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s The Ghosts of Christmas Eve. They’re playing in a bunch of cities within a few hours around us, so that’s definitely on the list.
Make Shane’s coworkers lil not-actually-Christmas-related treat bags. I love baking and December is the best baking month, but I definitely don’t want to eat all, or most, of the cookies, so treat bags it is!
Wrap and send presents with enough time for said presents to get to their destinations before Christmas day. This will be a minor miracle if it happens.
Cook Christmas Brunch/Dinner. It’ll almost certainly be an early dinner in order to work around Shane’s work schedule, but maybe I’ll do a little Egg Benedict for breakfast as well. That was the traditional Christmas breakfast when I was a kid.
Do some Christmas Light viewing – I need to find out if there are any neighborhoods known for their lights or a organization that does a light show in December. I love looking at Christmas lights.
Decorate a gingerbread house, as is traditional. I’m going to try not to cry this year.
Listen to a Christmas audiobook or 2. I think I should probably take a break from podcasts for a month and listen to a few books.
Deep clean the apartment for the new year. Besides not crying over the gingerbread house, this is going to be the toughest one by far.

That’s it, that’s my list of things to get done in December. Nothing too ambitious, except the deep cleaning, and mostly just things that will make me happy. Christmas has been hard for a few years, but 2022 is going to turn it all around. Hopefully. No pressure.

See you Tuesday.

Sarah

Welcome to my first recipe post! Luckily for y’all, if I keep doing these posts, I have 0 children so I won’t ever talk about sneaking veggies past their super sensitive palates. Also, Shane eats everything except sweets so I won’t have to talk about how picky of an eater he is.

On to the best, simplest Christmas cookies ever. No pictures, though, since my mom is making them this year & I refuse to go digging for pictures from last year.

Haystack Cookies

Stuff to gather:

3/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup of butterscotch chips
1-2 T creamy peanut butter
- Or any other nut butter, or leave it out.
1 1/2 cups (more or less – you do you) of chow mein noodles.
- You can use peanuts, but that’s an inferior situation 😉

Putting it together:

Put everything except the noodles in a microwave safe bowl or in an improvised double boiler.
Melt it all together (either microwave with lots of breaks or using the boil/bowl method).
Mix it a bit.
Throw those noodles in.
Mix some more.
Line a tray/baking sheet/countertop with wax paper
Use your biggest spoon and scoop spoonfuls of the deliciousness until you’re out of mix.
Throw your tray/baking sheet/slice of wax paper into the fridge for *at least* an hour.
Eat too many & get a sugar headache.
Store the few left in an airtight container on your counter.
- Or get a loved one to hide them from you and dole them out as needed.

Note: Be careful, those noodles are super hard to bite through.

Enjoy!

~Sarah~