This week I baked 16 dozen whipped shortbread cookies, 6 dozen sugar cookies which I let my kids decorate, 12 dozen double chocolate mint chip cookies, and biscotti all in one day. My kitchen was like a baking factory and I loved it. Of course my husband and kids had to "taste test" every batch that came out of the oven so that they could give me their "stamp of approval" and check, check, check I passed! I also baked some mystery appetizers, they were super good, in fact so good that I had to do a second set cause we ended up eating the first round. 
Shortbread!
I enjoyed watching my two little ones decorate the sugar cookies. Kayleigh, my 6 year old slowly iced each cookie and stratgically placed the decoration on the cookies so that they would look elegant. She is my artsy farts girl. Sydney on the other hand is my three year old that would try and put every single sparkle she had in the bowl all on one cookie till I finally took the cookie away and gave her a new one. They are so fun to bake with.
Now that the baking had been started I moved onto decorating my house. I didn't decorate to the extreme this year like I do every other year because of my school work load, had I not had that on my mind our house would have been done from top to bottom. My husband says I am like a Christmas Elf, everything has to be perfectly decorated with lights everywhere. I was lucky to come home one day this week with our yard completely decorated. It is beautiful. One of these years I am going to switch all my lights over to being all one colour on the tree however my husband insists that it be multi coloured. I think it was what he was raised with. He is very much a traditional kind of man. Here is a picture of my tree, its not the best picture, but it gives you an idea.
In our family its a tradition to hand make our stockings, so as our family grew I would make a stocking for our house and one for my mom's. Last year I only had the chance to do up one Sydney so I left it at moms knowing that I was going to make up another for our house. Needless to say the year has flown by and I had yet to do it so, last night I started. Here is a sneak preview. I will show you the completed stocking once completed.
Now that I have pulled out my Christmas quilts we can snuggle up to the fire with a warm cup of coco and watch some of those Christmas classics we so enjoy. I have to say that the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is still one of my favourites. My kids love the movie Elf, and my husband all time classic is the old black and white version of scrooge we watch it every Christmas without fail after the kids are asleep.
Here is one last picture I will leave you with. This was my little one sleeping last night, it was so adorable that I couldn't help but snap a photo.
So as I finish this long winded blog I wish you all happy shopping, baking and wrapping! Have a great week!
~Coleen~
