Baking spirits bright!

(Pin-turned-ornament from my Mama last year)

Last night, as I was using plastic tweezers to "string" candy bulbs on my Christmas tree sugar cookies, I briefly wondered if I was crazy. <pause>  Then I decided, that if I was an elf, I'd definitely be a baking elf - despite the fire risks associated with cooking inside a tree.  :)

I have been enjoying baking sweets this season.  Fancy Walnut Brownies, Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups, Raspberry Thumbprints, and decorated sugar cookies all made it into my Christmas Sweets Baskets this year. 

Despite questioning my sanity while decorating my sugar cookies, I was happy with how they turned out.

And the process did start to go a bit quicker after the first 15 or so.

I'd like to add, that flipping the candy canes so they were two different directions was a lot faster than determining which side was both "up" and "front side" for each individual bulb, not to mention making sure the colors were alternating correctly.

I made Christmas Sweets bags for my favorite librarians on Torii.  They were so happy!  And they even had a new cookie decorating book for me to check out to get some new ideas from!

I found the super cute bags at the 100-Yen store.  They were perfect sized to tuck a few sweets inside.  Although Christmas is not a traditional Japanese holiday, it's definitely taken over Okinawa.  Many stores are decorated for Christmas and you can order your Christmas cakes in the Japanese grocery stores. 

I delivered cookies to the Torii Post Office staff, and Christmas Sweets Baskets to the two Housing Agencies again.  So much fun!

Brandon and I are going to bake kuchen together on Christmas Eve.  Not quite the same as baking with Gramma Lou, but Brandon's being a good sport.  :) 

I love how yummy the holidays are, don't you?!

---Arielle