A Very Full Weekend

First thing.....Brenda in Indiana.....If you are reading this, close it down and read it next week..... hee hee hee

I had the long weekend this weekend, they only come around every 6 weeks so I have to take total advantage of the time off.

Friday was spent cleaning house and getting things in order.

The back yard has been pretty much ignored for the past month so it was time to clean up and get caught up out there.  I was surprised at how much DIDN'T need to be done, I was able to get everything done in just a few hours on Friday.

I spent ALL day Saturday baking!!!!  My Holiday bake-a-thon...... This year I only baked 1 day though, a much smaller scale.....maybe that is because this year I have a much smaller kitchen..... ha ha

I had to be very organized this year since I don't have alot of room for extra stuff to be out.  It worked fine, just had to keep washing the bowls, scrapers, etc.   Of ALL my baking tools, I have to say my absolute fovorite is my set of scoopers.

The small one for cookies like Snickerdoodles and Peanut Butter Cookies, they seem to grow quite a bit so you don't need much dough.   The medium one is for Choc. chip or others like that and the large one makes filling muffin cups SOO much less messy.   I got these from Pampered Chef years ago and LOVE them!!!!

So.... on with the day...... First I tried something I don't usually make..... a packaged cookie mix.   There was a Pumpkin Spice and a Gingerbread mix that I saw at the store.... I bought one of each, figuring it would be a good little mixture.... well, I won't waste my money again.   Actually, if you added some Pumpkin Pie Spice the Pumpkin ones might be ok and if you added more Ginger the Gingerbread ones might be ok.   They were just kinda bland and didn't really taste that different.

I just prefer to make mine from scratch.....

Thought this was funny....this was the Gingerbread cookie, if you didn't make the Gingerbread men, you needed to roll a ball and then press down with a glass dipped in sugar.....well, my glasses are from Longaberger and it left the logo on the bottom of the cookie.......Hmmmm.   Maybe a marketing idea????  Hee hee hee  ( I have already plugged 2 companies, so why not!!)   :-)

Snickerdoodles

I have to say these are the best Snickerdoodles I have ever made....I adjusted the Cream of Tarter a bit..... YUM!!!!

P-nut Butter......LOTS of P-nut butter

Chocolate Chip.....with Pecan for Cathy and with no nuts for Scott.....   :-)

Christmas Trees - I think about 9 dozen!!!!

Palm Trees for Brenda....who wishes she was in So. Cal.....

Then on Sunday, Cathy came over to help decorate ALL these sugar cookies!!!  OH MY!!!!

We had FUN and she is sooooo creative!!!!

These are the first Palm trees for Brenda

More Frosted Sugar Cookies

We finally took a break and went to Souplantation for some regular food.....we were getting a bit of a sugar high......  :-)

You know you have to eat the broken ones!!!!!

Then came the challenging part of packing these up to mail.....We'll see how we do.  Cathy decorated the box....... ALL 6 sides!!!!!   :-)

We trayed out some of the cookies, I didn't do nearly as much this year as years past. 

I found these little boxes at Michaels a few years ago and never used them.....too cute for a little gift box!!  Martha Stewart....of course!!!!  hee hee

(wow, now I have plugged 4 companies!!!)

The day was getting on and Cathy had to leave..... I still had about 4 dozen sugar cookies to decorate, so this is what happens when you are on the 2nd full day of baking.......

These are just shameful!!!!!

So, now we are back to Monday, this is my 6 day work week!!!  UGH!!!

We are 2 weeks away from Christmas, so I will barely breathe.....

Have a great week!!!!