Twelve Days of Christmas: Birds, Birds, Birds! And a Pear!

 

Welcome, welcome, welcome to my 12th annual Christmas Open House! Surely y'all guessed the theme! For my 12th year, it had to be The Twelve Days of Christmas! 

I wanted to do something a little different this year (sometimes I need a break from stitching). Back in 2022, during what was a very rough year, I did a Christmas tree decorated with little paper birds and animals I made. I really enjoyed making them and loved the result.

When I was a little girl, I had a best friend named Christina and our favorite thing to do was "play paper stuff." We spent countless hours with our paper, and crayons, and scissors making everything you can imagine out of paper: purses and all their contents (including powder compacts that opened and had powder puffs inside), every kind of food and groceries, kitchen items, baby dolls and all their clothes and necessities, pets and everything they needed, and on and on. When I say we made everything, we made everything. We made elaborate carrying cases to tote all our paper stuff back and forth to each other's houses where we would spend all day pretending with the things we had made. It was paper dolls, but on an industrial scale. It was so much fun.

So my love for "playing paper stuff" is lifelong and Christmas is the perfect time to revisit it. Paper Christmas ornaments have been around as long as there have been Christmas trees. And it's a nice change from stitching ornaments, usually goes faster, and requires less finishing. Generally speaking. Unless you get carried away. *cough*

For years I have had this beautiful felt ornament set from mmm crafts saved on my computer, and fully intended to make it in felt some day. And then late last year, while thinking about my 12th open house, I had the idea to translate this set into paper ornaments. I didn't have a clear idea of how I would do that, I just figured a felt pattern should work in paper (it does, for the most part) and off I went.

And so I present The Twelve Days of Christmas Felt Ornament Set But in Paper Which Nearly Killed Me and It Will Be A Long Time Before I Want To See A Pair of Tweezers Christmas Open House. (You'll understand the tweezers part by the end of this week.)

The sewing room and kitchen are open! Let's Christmas!

On the First Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree!

On the Second Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtle doves!

On the Third Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French hens!

These are super sparkly in person but the camera just isn't seeing it. I went a little nuts with the glitter paper! At the end of the week I'll provide info on the supplies I used and some tips on making these ornaments in paper. (Hint: tweezers)

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The recipes I'll be sharing this week are ones I've been relying on this year. If you've been with me all year, you know it's been a challenging one, but we're not interested in that right now. We're interested in getting through one of the busiest times of the year with some good, comforting food. Easy to make, only a few ingredients (inexpensive!), and everything goes in the slow cooker, so you can put them on and go do other stuff. Christmastime can be a season of elaborate recipes and fancy food, but it can also be hectic, stressful, and expensive. The more of these simple, homemade recipes you have in your stash, the better. Always nicer to have something in the slow cooker than swinging by the drive-thru. With that said, let's start off with the easiest, tastiest pot roast recipe ever.

The Easiest, Tastiest Pot Roast Ever

3 lb. chuck roast (or whatever size you want)

potatoes, carrots, and an onion if you like

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 packet onion soup mix

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

If you're using potatoes and carrots, put those in the bottom of the slow cooker and add about 1/2 c. water. Add the roast. Mix the soup, soup mix, and Worcestershire sauce and pour it over the roast. Slice an onion and put it on top of the roast. Cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours, depending on your slow cooker. 

This roast will absolutely fall apart when done. Don't use an expensive cut; a chuck roast is perfect for this recipe, which is as old as the hills, but I've posted it elsewhere in the past and have been surprised by the number of people who've never heard of it. Always pass along good stuff. Just because you've known something for decades doesn't mean everybody else does. Even on your busiest day, you can have a lovely pot roast ready for supper. Maybe we'll be fancy next year.

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First day of my 12th annual Christmas Open House in the books! Thanks for being here, and come on back tomorrow!