Christmas Celebrations

When we haven't been shopping, wrapping, and homemade gift making, we have found some fun ways to celebrate the Christmas season.

*Relief Society Christmas dinner/program. I made 2 different desserts - Candy Cane Kiss Cookies and Peppermint Rice Krispie Treats. Of course I was only planning on making one, but the first was a complete disaster. So I scrapped those and made the second which turned out perfectly and couldn't have been more delicious.

*Celebrated Mariah's birthday at the Cheesecake Factory - not Christmas related except that I got their Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.

*Spanish Fork Festival of Lights. We went with Bill and Mariah for FHE and it was so fun! We had Corby sit in my lap while we drove through. It was right before his bedtime and he was mesmerized by the lights, so he let me cuddle him.

*Ward Christmas party with pictures with Santa. No screaming for this kid. He just calmly sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas.

*Cookie exchange with my dinner group. I made the Brownie Cheesecake Peppermint Bar in the middle. (Notice a theme here? I've been a little obsessed with peppermint this holiday season.) If you make them, don't start out with 2 packages of cream cheese. I learned the hard way that it really only needed 1.

*Got our Christmas cards mailed out. My plan was to make them in Photoshop, but I ran out of time. So I went with the easy way out - Macey's Photo Lab.

*Made and delivered neighbor gifts. I originally made Creamy Chocolate Fudge, but as it was my first time making fudge, I wasn't too surprised that I messed it up. It was too soft to give out. So I made something I knew I couldn't mess up - dipped oreos covered in sprinkles. Corby was my little helper.

It took all afternoon, but soon we had 2 dozen bags to give out to our neighbors.

I make the tags myself in Photoshop. They're nothing fancy, but I was happy with how they turned out. Our printer was having issues, so I convinced Rog to let me use one of my gifts early - a wireless printer. Within minutes of opening it, Corby had broken the paper tray. (We were able to superglue it back together.)

*And what holiday season would be complete without a cold to share? Rog gave it to Corby who then gave it to me. Unfortunately we had to miss Roger's Christmas party for work because Corby had a fever. We had a neighbor lined up to watch him, but we didn't want to get her kids sick. We're just hoping we'll all be better by Christmas!

*We've also been watching all the good Christmas movies - It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, and tonight A Christmas Story (1st time for me) with Bill and Mariah for FHE.