Show Us Your Life - Christmas Cookies/Goodies

It's Friday, and that means that it is Show Us Your Life day at Kelly's Kornor Blog. Today's topic is Christmas Cookies/Goodies. I have not made any holiday yummies yet but I plan on making some soon. These are just a few of my all time favorites.

Sugar Cookies. Just plain sugar cookies. I like to make a simple glaze using water and confectioners sugar, brush it on with a small paint brush and use sprinkles. Super easy and very good. It also makes purchased cookie dough have more of a homemade taste and feel.

photo from dandthemom.com

I also love Magic Cookie Bars. They are also very simple to make. My mom got the recipe when I was a child. I believe it was from a box top recipe book or the can of condensed milk. I love them! I prefer them without the nuts. Eagle Brand now has a boxed kit on the market to make these making it even easier. Otherwise the recipe can be found at http://www.eaglebrand.com/.

photo from swissbeets.com
A new favorite of mine is pecan pralines. Not just any pralines, but the ones from the Savannah Candy Kitchen in Savannah, GA. The are the best on the market (in my opinion). They also come in chocolate which makes everything better. I have never tried to make them. I just buy them. You can order them at http://www.savannahcandy.com/. Totally worth it.

photo from savannahcandy.com

Fantasy fudge is also a treat that my mom makes almost every year. The recipe comes right of the jar of Kraft Marshmellow Cream. It is so easy, but it is a must that you use a non-stick boiler. We usually make it with and without nuts and I like to make a batch using the peanut butter chips insteas of chocolate. My husband loves peanut butter fudge. The recipe can also be found at http://kraftfoods.com/. And the following photo is from their website.

December Daily - Day 10

Today I worked on some ornaments to give to my neighbors girls. The three girls are adorable and Taft and I are having them over for lunch on the 21st. I have made them "formal" invitations. Keep in mind they are all under 8 years all. It should be fun. Lunch and cookies to decorate. Just a little winter fun.

Here are the ornaments:

Cate is in green and so is the shimmer ribbon but it doesn't photo well.

I also started to work on the list of addresses for Christmas cards. I figure if I have all the address together it will be that much easier to get them all out in the mail. We are taking pictures this Sunday and I will order them that night. Hopefully they will be in the mail by Tuesday at least. I am not posting a photo of the list on here even though it will be used in my album. The photo makes it where you can see the peoples addresses and it wouldn't be right to post those. ;0

December Daily - Day 9

First of all - I know that I skipped 8. We really didn't do anything yesterday. Nothing photo worthy or Christmas like. Quincy came and brought Taft a book with wiggly eyes and he loved it. Since this is all that really happened, I am going to reserve those pages in the album for sample/swatches of our wrapping paper for the year.Taft got a package today while he was asleep. I opened it and removed the items for Shane and I and put Taft's back in so that he could open it when he woke from his nap. He wasn't sure what to do with it at first but then he took out all the tissue paper and found his new ornaments from Gran. She sent him a sock monkey and Grinch for his tree. After he found them, he put them back in the box with the tissue and repeated this over and over. We will put the ornaments on his tree in the morning when I can get the ladder in to reach it.

December Daily - Day 7

When we started to look for Quincy, he was in the bathroom holding a bottle of Mr. Bubble. Taft had never had a real bubble bath and when I put him in, he was not sure what to do. He even started to cry a little. I think that he was upset that he could not see his legs and feet. After I showed them to him he was fine and seemed to enjoy the bubbles.
When I was little, we would go one night in December to look at Christmas lights. We would drive to Anniston/Oxford and drive around different neighborhoods. We have one neighbor, a couple of streets away, that go above and beyond in decor. We call them the neighborhood Griswalds. He starts working on the lights in October and has been seen adding things by the day. We walked Taft up there last night. It was pretty dark on the way since our town doesn't do street lights unless you pay for one in your yard. When we turned the corner it was like daytime. Taft wasn't sure what to think. He just stared. I think that he liked the decorations that moved and played music. Never fear, we will never have a yard that looks this way.

Toddler on a scale

Need I say more....

Shane's Christmas Tree

Today I finally got to work on Shane's manroom tree. We put it up last year but I never got a topper or skirt for it and when I put it all together this year - well, it looked pretty sad.
Taft and I took a little trip out to do some shopping and found a blue tree skirt and some white ribbon with blue snowflakes. Shane's tree just doesn't have as many ornaments on it as the other trees in the house. I picked up some blue balls and decided to make him some Florida ornaments to use as fillers. (I guess with the SEC loss today I could have picked a better day). Anyway - I added blue polka dot ribbon, orange ribbon, and some cute little white ribbon with footballs on it. I really like how it turned out and it looks so cute in his manroom with all the lights on.

Quincy Update and Taft with the Tree

Yesterday evening, Quincy struck again with more Christmas jammies. If I didn't know better I would think that Quincy got a 2 for 1 on those. =)This morning, Quincy brought a scratch and sniff snowman book. Taft wanted to look at it as soon as he could get it out. Then I had to read it to him twice before breakfast. It has pictures on one page of cookies and on the next of snow cones. He acted like he was picking up a cookie to eat and when I laughed he feed me one too. He did it again with the snow cone and repeated it all again when daddy read him the book later.

Taft and the tree - When we first brought in the tree, he didn't seem to notice. The next morning when it was decorated, he didn't care either. But since then he has really liked it. He wants to play with the ornaments and just stands there and looks at it. He unplugged it once and got in trouble. He knows that he is not suppose to bother it and when I sneak up on him he runs and pretends that he was not just there.

Here is is thinking that nobody knows he is thinking about taking an ornament for himself.

And here he is caught in the act. I can just hear him saying, "It's not what it looks like".