I'm melting, I'm melting...........Oh, I mean the snow is melting....not me

The rains came today and warmer temps and with that the melting began...........

 but it's good because we don't have snow removal or sanding equipment to speak of so it has kept people off the roads and stores were low if not devoid of the basics.  I need to mail packages but I have to drive to the next town and my Walmart supplies are getting low too. 

 These storms came at a busy time of year for all of us............Mother Nature may be trying to get our attention.

 But it does make one "Use it up, make it do, throw it out or buy it new(on the internet)".
I promised myself this would be a frugal handmade Christmas this year and I've decided that instead of the 12 days of Christmas I might have to change it to the 12 months of Christmas since nothing will be done on time! LOL!
I did manage to make my cinnamon ornaments last night and they are really easy if you don't have to mix the dough by hand.  Buy the cheapest ingredients you can find as they are not going to be eaten.
I went to the Dollar General here in town and got the applesauce, cinnamon and cloves.

The recipe is as follows:
1 cup of applesauce
1 1/2 cups of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of ground cloves
string for hanging
heart cookie cutters (or whatever you want to try)

Directions:
Mix 1 cup of the applesauce with 1 cup of the cinnamon and mix it well!  This is where a mixer comes in handy.  Add the additional 1/2 cup of cinnamon and the 2 tablespoons of ground cloves and mix again.

The dough should hold together when you squeeze it but not be too sticky.  If it's too dry add some more applesauce and if it's too wet then add more cinnamon.  Make sure it's well mixed before you add any more of anything as mine turned out perfect and I did not have to add anything extra.
Sprinkle some cinnamon on the surface where you'll be rolling out your dough.  Then just treat it like you would any rolled cookie dough....except don't taste it or lick the beaters!  I put parchment paper on my cookie sheets and went to town. 

I tried a few other shapes but they were difficult to work with or were too large plus it was getting late so I just stuck with the hearts this time.

I ended up with this full sheet and a part of another.  I think I ended up with 40-45 altogether.  DO NOT FORGET to poke holes in them.  I actually used one of my DPN knitting needles to get a big enough hole to be able to get a string through. Preheat your oven to 200 and cook for an hour.  Check and make sure they are hard and then turn off your oven and leave them overnight.  They need to be hard as a rock.  If they're not hard, bake them an additional 1/2 hour.  Either way, after you turn off your oven leave them in there overnight.  Mine were great this morning when I checked.  The whole house smelled great and I thought..."I bet this is what Santa's house smells like all the time!".

Enjoy!  Ho! Ho! Ho!