I am officially on vacation! WOOT! We've been baking and wrapping and decorating and shopping and eating and putting up trees. We have a HUGE tree in the living room (the big tree) and a little tree in the playroom (the kid tree) and both of them are now decorated, though there are a lot of ornaments that didn't fit, even with TWO trees. We went last Saturday and cut down the big tree and then bought the little tree but when we put them up, and got the lights out, we discovered there were two many sections of lights on the strings that weren't working so I had to go buy lights on Sunday before we could get decorating. And after they got put ON the tree, I was a bit dismayed to see how BLUE AND GREEN the lights were...first world problem, for sure. I prefer red and gold. But, it still looks beautiful. And it was really fun to see all my old favorite ornaments from all over the world (the latest is a cloissone ornament from Singapore that I bought in May). Our ornaments are very eclectic: wood, paper, glass, ceramic, clay, brass, shell, straw, metal, plastic, everything, and they're so pretty :)

On Sunday, after I got back with the lights, Mom and I started baking. We had made a list of eight cookies we wanted to make. I started with Rice Krispie Holly Bars and then the Cranberry Pistachio Bark in two variations: white and dark chocolate and then made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites, while mom was working on the dough for the Creme-Filled Wafers. Then Martin made the dough for the sugar cookies and while it was chilling, he and I made the Reindeer Poop. Then we baked the Wafer Cookies. Mom made Lacy Crisps yesterday while we were at work & school and they made me SO HAPPY when I came home. After dinner we baked and decorated the sugar cookies and then we collapsed, muddy and exhausted from our sugar buzz.

We still haven't made one of the cookies on the list, but I suspect we won't get around to it. We have a METRIC TON of cookies!! But it really, really feels like Christmas. Tomorrow, Mom and I are going into town...I still have some stocking stuffers to get and Mom has a few things left on her list. Then we're taking a friend of mine out to dinner and then stopping by another friend's later. Vacation-style, Whee!


Mom making pastry dough for the wafer cookies


Martin, Master Mixer


The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one...hee! Sprinkle/red-hot hoard for Christmas cookie baking!


Iced sugar cookies NOM NOM NOM


Favorite childhood cookie, besides Grandma's gingersnaps: Lacy Crisps!


Clockwise from 12 o'clock: Lacy Crisps, Rice Crispie Holly Bars, Creme-filled Wafer Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites, Iced Sugar Cookies, Cranberry Pistachio Bark, Reindeer Poop


My adorable new cookie tray that I found at Biltema, of all places!