our annual card

the highlight of our year was the trip to alaska, so i only thought is most appropriate to feature that on our holiday card.  we are still in disbelief at our good luck of seeing mt. denali in all her glory!!

and instead of an unoriginal christmas letter, i included a cute song parody to highlight 2021.

merry christmas

christmas morning was filled once again with family, food, & photos -

and, of course, lots of presents.

it's been a minute since we all took a family photo.  actually, i don't know if we ever have.  so this photo is really special.

here is the matching christmas jammies quadruplets.  i think they knew resistant was futile, so they happily posed for me.

and i never miss the opportunity to recreate a photo...

here are the cousins ages 9, 8, & 6 vs. ages 18, 17, & 15.

we sure were blessed to have amazing food to enjoy!

i may love some our yummy food traditions the most!

christmas eve

 when it was time to open one gift on christmas eve, i had just the thing.matching pajamas!  "seriously?!" grumbled my nephew.....now, go put them on.  we will wait.

then we handed my mom a gift.

when she realized it was her own set of matching pajamas, she too went to put them on.... :-)

perfect!!

basketball cookies

i received an order friday morning (2 days ago) for 20 basketballs and 1 stitch character cookie for a 17th birthday party, due by monday (tomorrow).  it was from little sister's 8th grade coach that saw a different cookie post of mine recently.  having dough already in the freezer, i got right to rolling, cutting, baking, and decorating. 

i also decided to try and keep track of the time i spent on these cookie orders i have been getting. in total, without having to mix the dough, these cookies took ~7.5 hours.  this does not include cooling or icing-drying time, just active time i spent on them.  i can say that i am getting faster!

1.5 hours - rolling, chilling, cutting out shapes
1 hour - baking/designing stitch character
1 hour - making icing, mixing colors
2 hours - first layer of flooding icing
0.5 - more icing decorating
1.25 - more icing decorating
0.25 - final icing decorating

our jv player

tryouts were held right after thanksgiving, and little sister earned herself a spot on the jv soccer team.  we are so proud!

she is playing with a few friends from her rec team.

we are excited to see what this season holds for them. ;-)

scrimmage & winter concert

up first tonight was little sister's soccer scrimmage at their home field.  her team was up 1-0 when we left, but ended up losing the match.

she played for the first half only because she needed to make her way over to the high school for the winter concert.  it was nice to be able to attend and have all three bands play, since last year they had to do this concert as a live-stream.  big & little sister are in the middle band (symphonic) and they played three songs.

the nightmare before christmas

(little sister played snare)

christmas prelude

(little sister played bells)

king cotton march

(little sister played triangle)

more graduation cookies

 

the previous set of graduation cookies prompted a new order for two new universities.  these 12 cookies were done with a quick turnaround - just around 48 hours!  i do not recommend this short of a window because it takes time for the icing to dry, preferably overnight, before doing techniques like stenciling or placing 2 colors side-by-side.  however, i think they turned out pretty well and the client was very happy.

yard sign

 i ordered a custom yard sign to celebrate our senior and was able to pick it up today.

looks great!!

7th annual cookie party

it is hard to believe we have been doing this for 7 years!  today i hosted my annual cookie bake n take and we ended up with lots of treats - mostly with nuts but that is okay because most were taken home by those that attended.
activities for the kids this year included decorating sugar cookies, making festive headbands, and a few foam crafts.

flavors made included coconut-chocolate-almond macaroons, peanut butter-filled chocolate, chewy molasses, & m&m kiss pretzels. 

i sent everyone home with a box of my decorated sugar cookies....

...and of course, a sampling of the cookies i have been making & storing in the freezer since mid-november.

andes mint chocolate

snickerdoodles

chocolate mint snow-top

peppermint kisses

pecan sandies

oatmeal scotchies

chewy molasses

graduation cookies

last friday i was asked to make 2 dozen graduation cookies by a friend for her daughter's upcoming graduation.   she sent me this inspiration image:

i felt pretty good having a week's notice to get them done.  my first task was to find cookie cutters.  then while waiting for them to be delivered i made the dough and sketched out the design.  i decided on 6 cutters, 4 cookies each.

* graduation hat with tassel
* graduation gown
* plaque with corner hat (learned how to "frankenstein" 2 cutters together to make this shape)
* plaques for name and "class of 2021"
* diploma

of course, i made 1 extra of each shape just in case, which is a good thing since i ended up breaking a gown in half taking if off the cookie sheet and i also broke off a tassel and botched the icing on one of the plaques.  but those are just he cookies i get to snack on....

nothing left now but to start icing!

i think they turned out pretty close to the original plan.  i realized it is so much easier to have a pattern to follow than just winging it....

i am most proud of myself for nailing the green color and for finally getting some good-looking stencil work done on the "UNT" - the key is thick icing!!!  i used an icing with corn syrup and was finally able to get a shiny dried result.