Here I come 10 more lbs...

Last Saturday, my mom, sisters and I had what is becoming our annual Christmas Baking Day. It was a lonnnng day, but fun and full of Christmas music and incredibly productive. Our sister in law came and brought our niece and we made it an all out Van Aertselaer girls baking day. Even Grandma came and helped, and Dad sat in and had lunch with us.

What did we make? What didn't we make!

For this week's thursday thirteen...13 delicious recipes we made:

Christmas Wreaths

Puppy Chow

Christmas Clodhopper Mix

Butterscotch Confetti

Krispy Krunch Bars

Chocolate Marshmallow Fudge

ImperialCookies

Whipped Shortbread

Nuts & Bolts Snack Mix

Christmas Popcorn Mix

No Bake Chocolate Macaroons

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Lemon Shortbread

The "Final" board - all checked off:

Mmmm, my favourite, Christmas Popcorn Mix - cinnamon/caramel popcorn with teddy grahams and m & m's. Deliciously addictive!

Grandma, coming to see the spoils...

sort count pack sort count pack...

(That's me on the left, counting individual pieces of popcorn-must be fair! ha ha...)

Trin, keeping us entertained (distracted?!) with all that darned cuteness!

Thank you to Bec & Court for our best looking (and tasting!) wreaths ever!

Originally against making Imperial Cookies, how could I say no after Kim & Becky made these SUPER cute ones?! I was totally impressed.

OOooh! Figgght! oops. I mean OOooh! Fuddddge! *

Mmmm, all that chocolately/marshmallowy goodness...

The famous Nuts & Bolts that no one ever wants to make, but always disappears...

These last two shots are a tribute to the 15 lbs I lost while galavanting about Europe. Get ready thighs, it's allllllll coming back! **

yUm!

* That one's for you girls. And a free plate of fudge to anyone else who knows what movie that quote is from...

**Update, I already had one night where I basically just ate goodies for supper. I may have learned my lesson. Maybe.

Even I'm not that cheap!

Yesterday as we got home after being out all day, I hung up my coat, put my slippers on and wandered into the kitchen to find a snack. Thinking it was a bit chilly, I went to be nice* and turn up the heat a notch. Or two. Then I saw this:

Set temperature: 65˚F -- Actual temperature: 48˚F **

"Um....I'm not that cheap," I thought to myself, "I didn't set it to go that low when we're out...hmmmm." So, after some basement dwelling, some furnace peering and some landlord calling, our pilot light was back on and heat was once again blowing warmly through the vents.

Which is a good thing because it's a lovely, sunny -29˚C out today.

*Yes, I am the one constantly monitoring our house temperature and heating bill...we're not your average couple. At least not in this one way. ha ha...

**And, no, no I haven't changed the settings on our thermostat from fahrenheit to celsius yet because I am slowly trying to teach my brain to handle both equally.

New Tradition

I've always meant to have a run of Christmassy movies in December and this year I am making it happen!(Yeah, that's right, my goals are really high in life.) I'll watch them whenever with whoever as long as it also includes some eggnog drinking, some present wrapping or some cookie decorating. Here is the list I've come up with over the last couple of years...I'd love to hear your suggested additions!

A Christmas Carol

Die Hard ✔

Elf✔

Home Alone ✔

It's A Wonderful Life

Little Women

Love Actually

Scrooged

The Family Stone✔

The Holiday

While You Were Sleeping ✔

Happy Mouth

take one french vanilla tea bag

steep for 5 minutes in a nice big cup of boiling water

add 1/4 cup of egg nog

come on, let your mouth be happy!