2008 Cookie Fest

Mom and I had a great time this year making cookies. She made all of the cookie doughs during the week, so that technically all we would have to do is bake and decorate (the fun part!). I don't think either one of us anticipated that our one day Cookie Fest would actually turn into almost two full days! We made 13 different kind of cookies & candies and mom even made boxes for us to package them in all pretty. I think we overdid it just a bit because I'm sure we'll still have cookies in July.

I love this video!

Ok, so I don't know why but this little creature just makes me laugh every time. I've always been sooo stressed out at the holidays and this shows all of the most stressful times -- from burning cookies, to untangling the Christmas lights, and even Christmas shopping! I've watched this many times and it never gets old!

Happy Birthday to me!

I was so lucky that everyone in our family was able to get together for my birthday this year. We went to Red Robin for dinner and afterwards, Mark and I drove my mom & dad around to look at Christmas lights. It was a very pretty night because there was some fresh snow on the ground. We listed to Christmas music in the car -- who would've guessed that the Christmas song my dad liked best was Bruce Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"? Earlier in the day, I had gone to work for a few hours, then Mark and I went to the Anti-Cruelty Society to make some donations (this is my new birthday tradition!) and then we had Jake & Bella's pictures taken with Santa Claus @ Petsmart.

I finally made something!

Here it is! :)

This was the first crafty thing that I've done in a long time. Mark and I kept seeing really cute advent calendars at Target and we wanted to get one -- just didn't want to spend the $30 on it though. My sister, Sandi, had made one of these using a Karen Foster Countdown Calendar and it turned out so cute, so I definitely wanted to give one a try. Of course, the thing probably ended up costing a lot more than $30 by the time I bought the supplies to make it, but I really do love how it turned out!