Christmasy things!

Okay, okay, okay! A new post is here! 

Last year Wrennie slept through 99% of Christmas. This year, she is tasting baking, helping put up the tree, un-wrapping gifts, staring at Christmas lights, and dancing to Christmas music. 

I decided to do some baking this year. Kenton's bosses have been really good to us, and we wanted to say thank you with some Christmas treats. I decided on gingerbread and shortbread cookies, candy cane fudge, and to try and replicate Judy's amazing nuts & bolts recipe. 

Wren tastes some gingerbread for me, my little guinea pig...There was none left, so I think that was a good sign.

I got this recipe off of the Martha Stewart website- www.marthastewart.com. It produced the perfect cracked tops!

This shortbread cookie recipe is my mom's, and one of my favourites. As I beat the butter and icing sugar together, I had a hard time not eating it by the spoonful. My favourite part of the cookie is the candied cherry on top.

This year I bought Wrennie her special tree ornament. Anthropologie had a ridiculous amount of cute Christmas ornaments this year.


Speaking of great ornaments, Nokomis had some too. We went for a couple for our tree. They are wooden and handmade, my favourite!

I think my mom got Kenton this ornament last year, sort of reminiscent of his favourite childhood comic hero.

And yes, we attempted popcorn garland for that homey, hand-made look. I can't lie, it's totally painstaking. Kenton and I had to wait until Wren was asleep for the night to even think about doing this- could you imagine her with popcorn everywhere??

I found this poinsetta at the farmer's market this year. I also bought a real wreath, but it is sitting in the snow in our backyard...The lady selling them informed me that since it is real, it will be fresher as an outside wreath. We have been a bit slow on nailing it to the front door, and then the huge snow dump hit and well, I don't know if we will find it now...oops..

I can't go to the mall without all the Salvation Army donation collectors offering me a candy cane for Wren every time we pass. It's nice of them, but people, she is too little!

Classic Christmas stories. Kenton's is Charlie Brown, mine is the Grinch, and this year Wrennie got Twas The Night Before Christmas at her birthday. I love watching the original cartoon movie of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I laugh so hard at his little dog, poor thing. We have already tried watching some with Wren, but she is a Sesame Street kid through and through and can hardly muster up the attention span for anything else.

I have always liked watching Christmas movies with my family on Christmas Eve. The year we watched Elf was memorable, and so were my parents laughs!

And here is Wren, relaxing again in her comfy chair, "reading" a Sesame Street book.

Now she eats, and puts it in her hair. It's like she needs to give herself a scalp massage at the end of her meal once her hands are good and full of food.

Bath time with baby Santa Claus...

Here is our tree, and yes, we noticed it's missing a strand of popcorn in the middle. Needless to say, we haven't found the time again to finish it...

For the second year in a row, I have tried to do dried orange slices on the tree. For the second year in a row, I have burned them. How is this possible??? Anyway, this year I managed to salvage enough to cover the part of the tree we look at.

Pretty!

I have posted a lot of pictures of Wren eating in this post. I haven't taken many pictures of her lately. I thought this one was kind of funny, she has an orange coloured lasagna beard.

My next post will probably be of pictures from Christmas, so if I don't make it on here before then, Merry Christmas everyone!