Since it's May, let's talk about Christmas!

Can you tell that being pregnant and giving birth to my third child has taken up a lot of my spare time? I'm always thinking "Oh, I should blog about this," but it's all I can do to keep up the kids' blog (and even that is a stretch).

So, just to put up something after five months of inactivity, here are some of the things I did over Christmas! How's that for making up for lost time?

Handmade Barrettes

 For all the girls we know, I tried my hand at making barrettes. It took some searching to find the right size clips. I did have fun making these though I can't take credit for the Cinderella bow. It came assembled, I just glued it on the clip and wrapped ribbon around it. Since then I have made more barrettes and that necessitated making a barrette holder. I'll show those another time.

Window Pane Pretzel Treats

These treats seems to be growing in popularity due to being so easy to make and so easy to personalize. I ended up using regular Kisses, Hugs, Peppermint Hugs and Rolos. The peppermint seemed to be a bit much, I doubt I'll do those again. I couldn't find circle pretzels so made do with the waffle pretzels. They didn't work great because some of the chocolates didn't melt enough to stay stuck on. A word to the wise, white chocolate does melt faster than the milk chocolate, so make them in different batches. They were delicious and I like the M&Ms on top for a festive touch.
 

Blondies in a Jar

 For Xander's teachers (he insists he has five, two regular teachers, two aides and the librarian) and for relatives, we put together these Blondies in a Jar (sorry, I lost the link for the recipe we used). Chris was a big help putting these together. The kids tried to help too but mostly Chris just gave them chocolate chips to keep them quiet.

Grandma's recipe!

For a cookie exchange with the neighbors, I broke out the new cookie press.  It was the first time I tried making these and they turned out okay. I couldn't get the little icing bow on the wreaths like Grandma always did, so I gave up and just let them be.

Oatmeal Cream Pie Cupcakes

My Dad's birthday is close enough to the holidays to include this. Growing up, my Dad always h ad Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies around, so I just had to try this recipe. It was okay, but the cupcakes were way too dense. Next time (if there is a next time) I might make them filled cupcakes.

There you go, things I did five months ago!