Some Christmas Eve/Day highlights

Yesterday we wore our matching aprons that Aunt Bennie made for us, and whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Sean mixed the dry ingredients, and then slowly added them to the wet mixture. He likes to operate the mixer.

We posed for a couple of pictures in front of one of our trees. This one is the Santa tree in the dining room. I thought of having a family photo with the dog, but figured the cats would freak out.

OK. Now this one has a story to it. I wanted to bake an apple pie. Then I decided that it would be fun to give little miniature pies as gifts. Oh, but how would I do it? I don't have tiny pie pans. I have a loaf pan that makes tiny loaves. I use it for banana bread. I would have made that too, but I didn't have bananas, nor the time to do all of this in one day.

Back to the apple pies.

So I remembered that I had these little foil muffin tins that are heart shaped. I got them at the dollar tree who knows when. I've been waiting for the perfect time (like Valentine's Day) to use them. But I figured they were the right size and they could work. Hearts convey love, and I love my family -- weird as we all are.

While the first batch of cookies were in the oven, I started on the dough. As I made the dough I thought of the muffin tins and how the heart shape just wasn't what I was going for. I pulled out some cookie cutters that are Christmas shapes (stockings, trees, etc.) They were too big.

It hit me. I knew that somewhere in my crafting supplies I had a stencil of Santa.

Believe me when I say I don't aspire to be a baker. I really just wanted to have something fun, a conversation piece and yummy individual treat for all of my family members.

The tins are very flimsy, so they're not really a good idea for pie dough. It was difficult to get the dough into them and then getting the top on and pinched together was even harder.

By the time I had four of these finished I was completely wiped out. I decided to use this as a test run, and maybe I'll do it for real next year.

The cookies on the other hand turned out very delicious. They're still good today, but were best last night.
Sean said they were mouth watering good.
We had a couple of them after we got back from the Christmas Eve service at church, and then tracked Santa for a while before getting to bed.

This morning at 2, Sean came into my room to inform me that Santa had left the gift he asked for, and then proceeded to excitedly tell me the features of his Star Wars Republic Gunship. I had been asleep for maybe an hour or so. I mulled it over in my mind, "Up at 2 a.m. to open gifts/play, then back to bed (doubtful), or up until time to go to his Dad's house and both of us in a horrible mood by noon, with more family events planned for the day? No."
So I made him go back to bed. I got up at 8:30 a.m. and found him in bed, but all of his ship was assembled and sitting in his bedroom floor.
Jewel found this thing and mailed it to a family member, who then handed it off to me. Places I looked it was out of stock, and online they were going for $300 + last time I checked.

This camera is making me crazy, but here it is. The Star Wars The Clone Wars Republic Gunship. And the smiling face of a boy who believes.