12 Days of Christmas: Decorating Our Kitchen + Baking Cookies! (Day 5)

Welcome, dear friends, to Day 5 of our 12 Days of Christmas! Today we are in the kitchen baking and decorating (plus always a little bit of cleaning!). Don’t you just love this time of year for making the whole house look festive? Here is our Christmas kitchen…

I started with cleaning the area to the right of our sink where we keep three candy containers (originally from my inlaws’ coffee shop) which we keep stocked with chocolates, bar protein snacks, and other assorted non-chocolate candies. Our paper towels also stay up here on the back counter, too.

This is also where assorted junk collects, like drying paint brushes, used batteries to drop off at recycle, etc. You get the picture. 😉

But for Christmas, I thought to add little Christmas scenes to make our usually utilitarian kitchen a bit more festive…

Toy soldiers are kind of the theme in the living room this season, and here in the kitchen, little deer help set our wintery Christmas theme which is nature inspired.

I rearranged the appliances and the other items that live on the back counters near our cooktop and ovens. This freed up the corner for a merry display! 🙂

Our hot cocoa cart is still set up here which was part of our stocking challenge last month. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of our grandson as I am sure he will enjoy a mug of chocolatey goodness when he comes!

Here is that opposite corner with a couple of cheery winter outdoor scenes. Nature definitely features here in the kitchen with these frolicking little rabbits and a natural pinecone and grapevine tree adding their jolly touches.

I love this bowl with its sledding scene and I found it on an antiquing trip to go with the pinkish-red transferware I found that first Christmas season we were here in Texas. The coloring is perfect for the season although the scenes on each plate are really of a fall harvest. No matter, they are well-enjoyed for their holiday colors!

Hard to believe that we came her nine years ago now! I am so thankful for the work Charles’ found then (with Samsung North America; hence the nice refrigerator, dishwasher, and w/d combo obtained with employee discounts) and where he works now.

By our cooktop, plants enjoy the light coming into the kitchen from the north-facing window all year long. A striped Christmas kitchen towel covers the cooking vent as during the winter, a lot of cold air sneaks in from outside unwanted!

Here are the persimmons I picked while on a 2-mile walk about a month ago. I have been waiting for them to soften up so we could cook with them.

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Let’s bake a favorite wintertime treat ~ Persimmon Cookies!

I have published this recipe before in this post here, if you’d like to see the whole recipe typed out.

Otherwise, you should be able to follow this recipe just from my photographs. :)’

This is a well-loved recipe around here, and I freeze most of these cookies and bring them out when I have someone over for teas or to give to neighbors. They are perfect to bring to holiday parties as cookies are always a welcome dessert!

If these photographs are too difficult to read, definitely follow the link above to the original post for this delicious and easy to bake recipe!

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Substitutions made:

I am cooking with gluten free flours, at least for now, so I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour and King Arthur Gluten Free Measure-for-Measure Flour brands. (not sponsored)

Each flour is similar in texture, though the King Arthur GF flour is a little finer. I mixed the two to create a nice fluffy dough. This time baking, I added chopped pecans plus the remaining raisins I had leftover from last season’s big baking. Thankfully, raisins last a long, long time!

These cookies turned out great! I have eaten three of them with a cup of Christmas tea… XD!!!

I tried to take a selfie while I was mixing the dough since I never get myself in any photos. Thought you might like to see the person behind the blog. Not too bad, all things considered. And the cabinets are level above my head, always important, lol! 🙂

So what have you been baking during the holidays? Let me know in the comments, won’t you? I hope you are enjoying this new series and I hope to make it a new annual French Ethereal tradition.

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Happy Christmas time,