Wanna know what happens when four Christmas-lovin' and cookie-bakin' women get together in one kitchen for a whole Saturday? We make dozens and dozens upon dozens of Christmas cookies, dipped preztels, fudge, brittle, puppy chow, caramel, and snacks for our families...And the best part is a large bunch of those cookies will be sent to a special soldier in Kosovo to share with his troop and the people in Kosovo he's teaching.
Two tables covered with ingredients for the Christmas bake-off lasted through much of the day.
Mack was usually underfoot, begging for handouts and snatching up anything accidently dropped. He's better than any vaccuum and ten times as efficient.
The cement on the front porch provided a wonderful cooler...
...as well as a great place to break apart the caramels which cooled too hard to cut. And who said a hammer isn't a kitchen tool? Any tool can be the right tool when used the right way: as a sledge-hammer to shatter caramel.
By the end of the day we were tired and the pile of goodies was deep. We're already planning ahead for next year!
At long last, we've put up the tree and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around our house. Yippee! Hallelujah! Let it snow! (on Christmas Eve. That's plenty early for snow, thank you very much.)
We've been collecting red ornaments and trimmings for this particular tree since we were married, but haven't been able to put them up until this year.
Why, you ask? Well, it was because we didn't have a base for the tree (it's artificial, thus the specific need for the base - and don't get me started on the real tree vs. artificial debate. That's been done and since the cat thinks tree water is delicious we've opted for artificial for now. We're not against real trees. We love them! Just not in our house for now.) and trees with no base don't stand well. In fact, they don't stand at all. They might hover near vertical for a brief moment, but then we found out they come crashing down and it's just best to wait to set them up until you have a solid base to support the center pole from all sides. Who knew, right?
So this year is exciting because it's the first time these red ornaments have been out of their boxes and on display. And we're loving them! The whole tree is gorgeous. And when it's lit up, the red glow fills the room and we love it all the more.
Merry Christmas to you and yours! Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to go bake cookies. Nuthin' better than munchin on fresh Christmas cookies by the Christmas tree when it's cold outside and warm and toasy inside.
