All the Cookies

This past Christmas we started a new tradition of baking cookies to give to teachers and support staff at Jackson and Olivia's school. The kids picked which cookies to make (all recipes were from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar) and we ended up with a great assortment.

Linzertorte Thumbprint Cookies, filled with luscious raspberry jam.

Cherry Almond Cookies, packed full of fruit and nuts.

Can't go wrong with cinnamon-dusted Snickerdoodles!

I love the appearance of these Chocolaty Crinkle Cookies when they come out of the oven.

The Macacamia Ginger Crunch Drops were my personal favorite. The nuts, ginger, and coconut extract give them a unique, tropical flavor.

Finally, our Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows turned out a little weird. I misread the directions and used all black cocoa powder, instead of a mix of black and regular cocoas. The cookies came out a little oily. We kept them and didn't include them in the gift boxes! 

In addition to the cookies, we made a bunch of vanilla mini-cupcakes for the school's winter fundraiser.

After all that baking, it was nice to clean up and put on some fancy clothes for Tony's work holiday party.

This is really the last of my holiday posts, haha! The elves send their best until next year.

Will I Ever Catch Up

Time for another holiday post, will I ever get through my old pictures? It is possible. Some day. Goals are important to have.

"Show me how much you love Christmas."

Over the winter break, we visited an art gallery in Round Rock that gets taken over by model train enthusiasts each holiday season.

Their vignettes are so detailed, it is pretty neat to see how much time and effort they put into constructing them. And of course, Jackson and Olivia loved taking turns playing conductor.

Winter village.

Carnival.

The roller coaster had a little car that ran along the tracks, although you can't see it here.

One of the first meals I ever learned to make was pasta with tofu, broccoli, and peanut sauce. Here it is many years later, still in regular rotation. It is a good way to use up those last few ounces in different boxes of pasta that you may have lying around.

Round Rock Rock'n Lights

I think the reason I have so many holiday posts is because we really went all-out this year, in terms of  trying out as many new Christmas activities as we could find time for, while also continuing with our favorite activities that have become traditions. One new-to-us event was the Round Rock Rock'n Lights, a drive-through lights display.

The scenes were pretty cool and varied. Christmas under the sea? Why not.

Elf throwing snowballs at annoyed yeti? Of course.

O phallic tree, o phallic tree...I don't even know why.

Jackson and Olivia were impressed with the lights, and they are always excited when they get to go out and ride around after their bedtime. So it will probably be a tradition that we continue.

The next morning we met my parents for lunch at Star Coffee in Round Rock. Now, I never, ever eat eggs. I ate them all the time when I was pregnant with Olivia, but ever since she was born, I've had an aversion to them. However, this particular morning, I thought breakfast tacos with eggs, potato and cheese sounded good. And they were pretty good, but I think I have completely fulfilled my egg quota for the next 5 years or more. 

Zen Olivia, starting the day off right.

Gingerbread Houses

Tony took the kids to Target one day and they returned with gingerbread house kits. While I am not crazy about the indefinite shelf life of gingerbread in a box, I have to admit, it did taste really good. And the kits provided an opportunity for the kids to develop their exterior decorating talents.

We also tried cutting out some Star Wars snowflakes, but even with an x-acto blade, it was pretty slow going. As in, I still have a pile of uncut snowflake templates on the bookshelf.

We had lunch at Bombay Bistro, which I never used to be that fond of, but it had been a long time. I can confirm, I am still not fond of it. C'est la vie.

Merry Merry!

Hi guys! It has been awhile. We have just been caught up in the holiday whirlwind. 

Jackson and Olivia have probably grown since last time you saw them. They are always growing.

We had a nice Christmas feast yesterday with my parents. My favorite dish was the Broccoli Rice Casserole from Cookin' Crunk. I threw some French fried onions on top.

I also made roasted Brussels sprouts, candied sweet potatoes, and garlic mashed potatoes.

I made a couple of pies from Vegan Pie in the Sky. The chocolate pudding pie was cool, creamy, perfect.

The maple pecan pie was for Tony. Pecan is his favorite. He said the maple flavor made it extra special.

Jackson and Olivia both helped prepare our feast. They are excellent potato peelers and mashers.

What else has been going on this season? Well just in the past week, we had the dual language party at the kids' school.

The teachers played games with the kids, a nice time to relax and socialize outside of the classroom.

Mitten hi-five!

At the library we did a Polar Express pajama party, and I put my little elves to work. 

They also got to hang with Santa and discuss the intricate subtleties of naughty vs. nice.

Book tree! So pretty.

Oh yeah, and we saw STAR WARS.  Someone was beyond excited.

Jackson and Olivia somehow knew who all the new characters were and ahem...some spoilers...before they saw the actual movie. That elementary school grapevine, man! They still loved every second. Tony and I did too!

Ernie the Elf has even been busy. Before returning to the North Pole with Santa, he baked some gingerbread cookies to leave out on Christmas Eve for the big guy.

It all led up to this morning. Monster was the first one awake, and ready for his annual sacrificial chew toy.

Shouts and squeals of excitement soon filled the house.

Santa did good this year. By early evening, these little ones were completely tuckered out.

Hope you have had a very merry Christmas.