Christmas!

I love Christmas. I already told you all the baking I did, which was a lot of fun. I also baked chocolate cake, peanut butter cocoa fudge, and more Linzer cookies. Now, though, I don't want a cookie for about two weeks... Boy, can Christmas make you feel unhealthy.

For CHristmas, Roy and I went up to SC and stayed with his parents and siblings. We took the rabbits, although they did not appreciate the drive. 5 1/2 hours in a cage would terrible, I agree. It was really nice to see them and Roy's friends from high school. We also got to see his extended family and my great-grandmother. I think that's the best part of Christmas, really: Seeing all the family and spending time with them.

Plus, I got some fun presents. :) I got some books I wanted, useful kitchen items, shopping money, and a variety of other great gifts.

The most mysterious one was waiting for us when we got back: A Kitchen-Aid mixer. There was no name attached with it. We searched the box and amazon.com for clues, but thus far we have a very generous anonymous gift! We gave it a few days to see if a card or something showed up, but nothing has come. I have to call around and ask, I suppose! haha

Well, now I need to go buy a knife! Happy New Year's!

BakeBakeBake

I love to bake. Cookies, bars, cakes... Most anything. I love playing with new recipes and trying different flavors...

Usually.

At Christmas, I want the new but I also want tradition. For the past several years, I have made dozens of cookies. This year I made six different kinds:
Sugar
Linzer
Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate
Double Chocolate Mint
Peppermint Drops
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies


...So far. I also want to make cupcakes, because I have really cute sugar decorations that I could decorate with. Roy also picked out a few new ones to try.

The only problem is I have eaten WAAYYYY to many of them. My stomach is staging a revolution. I had salad for lunch, and I really need to detox. But it's so difficult because they are so delicious! If I wasn't such a good baker, this would be a lot easier.

Luckily I'll be shipping most of them out tomorrow or bringing them into work. One of the best things about baking is giving most of it away. :)

Sorryyy

It was pointed out to me... about three weeks ago... that I haven't updated recently. (SHOUT OUT! to Rose, who called me out. Sorry, Rose!) I'm one of those people who do well with short term projects but not necessarily with long term ones... My bad. I'll try to do this more consistently, though.

It's not that I have nothing to write about. In general, I do. I can easily pull something out of almost every day and write about it. It's just that I don't.

Here's what's new!

Recently, my project has been Christmas cards. I made about 70 of the buggers. I actually started sometime in the summer, August perhaps. I made a handful then, more through the fall, then recently A) finished up the hot-glue-needing ones, B) finished what I thought was the remainder, and C) finished up the 15 that I still needed. Talk about a miss-count.

This project wouldn't be so bad if I didn't make them all to be unique. None are the same; most are dissimilar. A few may have a very similar style, but won't alike beyond that. I'm not complaining or anything. I really enjoy making cards... but after 30 my creativity drops a little and I have to think more about what I want to do. I make 7 to be penguins for my sorority sisters. I make about 10 that are very religious for certain members of my family. Some I make aviation-themed for certain friends. Then we have the more secular ones for other friends... It adds up. I want new material to work with. Mostly, I work with Christmas cards and wrapping paper that I cut up; the aviation-themed cards usually have old flight maps.

(Shameless begging: If you have a stash of old Christmas cards from years past... Hook me up!)

Let's seeeee... I'm still subbing, which I'll rant about soon. I'm still at Ruby Tuesday. I'm still baking at least weekly. I guess that's it for now. :) More to come!