Holiday Baking

When I went to my 30 week appointment last week, my doctor told me I weighed 7 lbs less than I did at the same point of my last pregnancy. That was a pleasant surprise, since I have really enjoyed my holiday baking this year. People always ask me if I have strange cravings when I'm pregnant, and I don't think I do. I just like to eat sweets even more than usual.

I did a lot of the baking when the boys were in school, such as the truffles (4 batches this year - 2 almond, 1 mint and 1 raspberry). But they like to help cut out sugar cookies and make fudge, so I did those when they were home.

The marshmallow cream is everyone's favorite part of making fudge. What a mess! I was just happy I didn't have to do that part.

Brennan and Dallin, meticulously weighing out the chocolate chips.

Unfortunately I was having so much fun taking pictures of them breaking up the chocolate bars and such that I didn't notice the sugar and evaporated milk boiling over on the stove. It still turned out tasting delicious, but it was a little softer than usual. I also burned 2 pans of sugar cookies and unknowingly baked with slightly rancid oil, so that my 3C bread and molasses cookies weren't as good as usual. I guess I'm not quite on my game when I'm 7 months pregnant. But we had a lot of fun caroling and handing out plates of cookies to 14 families in 3 nights. Actually we didn't sing to our neighbors the 3rd night because I was pooped, so we just sent the boys out to drop them off.

Gingerbread Houses

We've always bought the gingerbread house kits, which are super easy. But this year I really wanted to make them from scratch. I found a recipe online, found a template online, then cut them out 60% of the normal house size so they could each make their own.

All Dallin wants for Christmas are his three front teeth. He lost a bottom tooth one night and the 2 top ones the next day. The toothfairy was running out of ones.

Dallin and Brennan were done super fast, but Spencer and Tyler spent hours on theirs. They've learned that the more candy they put on them the more candy they can eat off of them.

I had heard that meringue powder makes super stiff icing, and it worked GREAT. I just mixed a couple tablespoons with powdered sugar and water, and it was like cement. So putting them together was no problem, unlike last year when our house collapsed after 5 minutes.

From left to right: Tyler's, Brennan's, Spencer's and Dallin's. Yes, it was more work than the kit. But it was so much fun. Plus it reminded me of making gingerbread houses growing up. Without the stress of the icing not being stiff enough.

Waiting for the boys

Brennan loves to dress up, as I've mentioned. Yesterday he found some of Dallin's chef clothes, which gave me the idea that we should make cookies before the boys got home from school. I haven't baked cookies in a few weeks, and I've missed it! Plus we needed something to do while waiting for the boys.

I love making cookies with just 1 little person. That way we aren't too crowded "helping" or fighting over who gets to put what in the bowl or who gets to lick the beater.

As soon as the cookies were in the oven, Brennan rushed outside to wait for the boys. He does this every afternoon. He sure misses his brothers, and he couldn't wait to tell them we made snickerdoodles.

Christmas Cookies

I baked Christmas cookies all day yesterday, which is just so fun for me.

We started out with my family's favorite fudge recipe. Seriously, it's the best. And the kids love to help because it involves such yummy ingredients - chocolate bars, chocolate chips, and marshmallow cream.It's a messy job, but someone's gotta do it.

Check out that Dallin with one hand in each jar of marshmallow cream! Now that's a bowl to lick.
Then of course there's Ethel's sugar cookies. I don't know Ethel, but she sure knows how to make cookies. Which brings me to my poll (I haven't been able to think of any good ones in a long time, but this is one I really want to know!) Dave and I have opposing dessert preferences. He likes nuts in his chocolate; I like mine plain. He likes ice cream; I like cake. He likes his cookies hard and crunchy; I like them soft and chewy. So when it comes to sugar cookies, he wants his slightly over baked with sprinkles, which makes them quite crunchy. But of course I like to ice them with sprinkles on top of the icing, which softens them nicely. So we compromise and do half of each. But I am curious how the rest of you feel about your cookies, so make sure you answer the poll to the right.The kids like them both ways. They're not picky.I finished up by late afternoon and made up a bunch of plates. Then we headed out to drop them off to all our home and visiting teaching families. Amazingly everyone was home.

The kids had a blast delivering the cookies. We even did a little caroling and visiting. It got dark while we were out, and we enjoyed all the Christmas lights. One of the families lives downtown, and last night was the big Vine Street event, in which all the old Victorian houses are lit up, the streets are closed, and there's various things going on. We went a few years ago and didn't get what the big deal was, but it's quite popular around here. Anyway, we had to detour all the way around to get to the other side, but it was fun to see the lights from the warmth of our van.