Lights, Awards and Baking Oh My!

You will remember from my previous post that my sweet husband pulled a Clark Griswold moment with the outside lights (if you've never seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, I highly recommend it...it's my absolute FAVORITE!). Well, a couple of extension cords later it worked :) Here is a picture I took of the front. The lights wrap all around the left side of the house back to where the garage is.

I have received my first blog award! My dear (new) friend Amy over at http://amahoney-amy.blogspot.com/ gave it to me. Sorry Amy....I can't for the life of me figure out how to label a link :( THANK YOU for thinking of me to give this to. You all should really go check out her blog, she is such a sweet and funny gal! Isn't this award just lovely :)
Here's what it stands for:
“This blog invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I have selected a few of my good bloggy buddies to pass this along to....again, sorry guys for not being able to figure out how to label a link yet :( maybe one of you could help me out ;)
Gina http://www.beandipblog.blogspot.com/
Jennifer http://freeindeed-redkitchen.blogspot.com/
Michelle http://homeschoolblogger.com/foxvalleyfamily/
Kysha http://www.lovesschool.com/
Amber http://ellischristianacademy.blogspot.com/
Mia http://www.mamamia3.blogspot.com/



So, I spent my day in the kitchen today. There's nothing like the smell of Christmas goodies baking. I love cooking in general, especially during the holidays, and especially listening to Harry Connick Jr's Christmas music *sigh*

...now where was I...Oh yes, baking! I feel very blessed to have had a mom that was/still is a baking queen. She has definitely passed this passion down to me. I will always remember the smell of her kitchen during the holidays. Such a warm feeling. Now that I am a mom doing all the baking for my little family; nothing's sweeter than seeing my kiddos expressions when they see/smell goodies being baked. In an effort to be more frugal this Christmas, I am baking gifts for people rather than buying them. I will introduce you to some of the things I made today. Now before you see the photo, here's a WARNING....if there's any dieters out there reading this post, there is nothing, I repeat nothing low-fat in any of these goodies. Infact, probably everything contains the highest fat content possible (real butter, real sugar, white flour, etc.). Up we have.... holiday chocolate chip cookies, Christmas coconut macaroons, seven layer magic cookie bars, and white chocolate holiday chex mix. Not pictured that I still have to make is candy cane cookies, banana bread "mini" laoves, and sugar cookies with dried cherries dipped in white chocolate with sprinkles.