Weekend creativity in the kitchen

I had a busy weekend getting ready for parties, my grandson, Ashton, turned 5 and had an "all things Spiderman" birthday, so I made him a cake for the occasion...

He had a pretty good day!

Then on Sunday we had our annual "Grandma's Christmas Party". This was an event started by Grandma Betty Tobler years ago where all the "adults" gathered for dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. As the circumstances have changed and people have moved away and grown up it has become an extended family gathering AND white elephant gift exchange. ANYWAY, I experimented with a twist on layered jello.

Using some Knox gelatine and regular jello in pans I came up with this:

I made two pans of jello, after it set I cut it up into small cubes and then mixed it in with some dissolved knox gelatin and a can of sweetened condesed milk.
I lightly greased my bundt pan, stirred it all up and put it in the fridge to set.
The revealed jello mold showed that the jello cubes had floated, I think I needed to wait a litle longer until the condensed milk/knox mix had set up a little more.

I solicited opinions and everyone said it was delicious. It was pretty, tasty, and was gobbled up!

We missed all of our family that used to live in Utah but can no longer attend! Merry Christmas Tobler's!!

Festival of Trees

One of the highlights of the Holiday season in Utah is the annual Festival of Trees charity benefit for Primary Children's Hospital. Each year people decorate and then donate Christmas trees, wreaths and gingerbread houses which are then sold to the highest bidder. This year my company bought this tree and had it delivered to my office. I sit directly across from it and look at it all day:

This tree is magical! The details are charming. The tree purchase included the "fake" fireplace, rocking chair and all the accessories.

This little elf got himself tangled in ribbon!

This little guy teeters on a stack of packages (and a basketball) to decorate the top of the tree!

Most of the trees donated are done in honor of someone, often children who have been patients at Primary Childrens. There were others donated for family members who have died and even one for a missionary who died while serving his mission this year. This tree is for Mikayla, she is 15 and is currently battling cancer. She survived Retinal Blastoma as a baby and is now fighting a cancer they attribute to the treatments she received while being treated as a child.
Walking the isles of the festival is beautiful, alive with the sparkle of Christmas, but it is also heart wrenching as you read the stories associated with each tree.

The obvious question is what are we going to do with it when the season is over?? The maintenance crew is wondering that too!! They will find a closet somewhere in the building but in the meantime coming to work is like a trip to the North Pole!