Archive for December, 2011

I mentioned the other day that I’ve been baking with my Mom, sister and two sister-in-laws this month…

Here is my sister putting gingersnaps onto cooling racks.  Hi Brooke!  I love baking and being with my sister more than words.

Gingersnaps dipped in white chocolate…  that’s about 50 dozen cookies right there.

As soon as the cookies are totally cool, they go into their packages.  I could swear packaging takes longer than baking.  But that’s maybe because you feel like you should be done already.

At one point over this weekend, in about a 4 hour period, we baked 160 dozen cookies.  That’s almost 2000 cookies in my Mom’s kitchen.

Once packaged in their cellophane bags, the cookies, brownies and breads all go into a lovely box.

That’s happiness in a package right there.

Today is our last day of cookies and I’m so happy that I have a week of nothing to do but enjoy time with my kids who are out of school for their Holiday vacation.  Just in case you are wondering, no, I don’t get burned out of baking when I am done.  I will still happily bake cookies with the kids for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

I’m on a countdown…. 2 (or maybe 3) more days and about 300-400 dozen cookies/chocolate mint brownies/breads left to make….  I’m starting to feel like that guy on the Dunkin Donuts commercial many years ago, “…time to make the donuts… time to make the donuts.”

But now, before the day is through, I am thrilled to announce the winner for the $50 Visa Gift Card Giveaway sponsored by Betty Crocker.

Congratulations Dayna! Send me an email to callimakesdo at gmail dot com with your address, so I can drop your gift card in the mail just as soon as possible.

Here’s a fun few things:

Photo via Deseret News

For any of you who live in Utah close to Salt Lake, our family attended the Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo for the first time this year.  While I was excited to walk through all the fun Christmas lights, I wasn’t expecting much interest as far as zoo animals and was pleasantly surprised.

The meerkats were very sassy and fun, as were the active fruit bats.  The bats were amazing to watch as they were eating.  We loved seeing the nocturnal animals fun and frisky.  A few non-nocturnal animals were “frisky” too… like the tigers.  Zoo Lights was a delightful surprise for my whole family.

Also, I wanted to pass along a great tip…  I got an email from Tiny Prints today for any of you who wanted to, but still haven’t gotten around to ordering your Holiday cards…

If you order cards today you can get FREE rush shipping for delivery by Tuesday.  The coupon code is FREESR.  It’s the perfect solution for the procrastinator!

I’m hoping to take a few photos of our cooking activity this weekend…  if I can dust the flour off my hands!