I cannot believe it's December! 

Our Christmas baking got started this past weekend.  Ds1 is my "assistant" and has a blast.  On Sunday we made no-bake cookies and snickerdoodles.  We made an additional batch of snickerdoodles last night to take to a Christmas party tonight.

Snickerdoodles

1 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane juice crystals

1/2 cup organic butter, softened

1 tsp. organic vanilla extract

2 organic eggs

2 3/4 cups organic whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. sea salt

3 T. organic evaporated cane juice crystals

1 tsp. organic ground cinnamon

Cream the butter and cane juice crystals until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla and eggs; blend well.  Combine the next 4 ingredients and add to the wet mixture; blend well.  Combine the remaining cane juice crystals and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.  Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the cane juice and cinnamon mixture.  Place about 2-inches apart on a baking stone.  Bake at 400* for 8-10 minutes or until light golden.  Immediately remove from the baking stone and cool completely.

I have ds2's quilt underway.  I decided, due to time constraints, to do the blocks differently than I originally planned.  I had intended to do 6x12 blocks, but am doing 15-inch blocks instead.  I have 4 completed.  I would have been further along, but I took a break from the quilt and have instead been working on a cross stitch snowman ornament that will be ds2's (not a gift).  I found the complete kit (brand new, never opened) at a thrift store for 10 cents.  This is the first time I've ever done a cross stitch ornament and quite honestly I am not enjoying the process.  It's so tiny and I find working on it difficult (the blue fabric makes it difficult to see what I'm doing as well).  I would much rather work on a huge piece any day!

Our tree is still not up and we have no idea when it will be.  We don't really have anywhere we can put it that it would be safe from ds2.  We truly fear he would just pull the whole thing over on top of himself or pull off all the ornaments, throw, and break them.  If we can't get an alternative plan figured out soon, it may be Christmas Eve before the tree goes up and it will come right back down Christmas Day.