Tag Archives: Christmas

christmas candy

For our Christmas goody bags this year, we went with a selection of candy. I have only made a couple kinds of candy before, so it was fun to experiment. Secret: candy making really isn’t all that hard.

We made gingerbread caramels (on which I burned my thumb very badly…). It was so satisfying to wrap the little squares in parchment.caramel

We made gingerbread cookie ornaments (not candy, but still in our goody bags). I actually had to put a label that said the cookie was for your tree, not your mouth. But, despite the presence of a piece of ribbon going through a hole in its head, people still ate it!gingerbread man

We made sweet and spicy peanut brittle, which turned out really delicious.peanut brittle

And we made candied citrus peels, because we are engaged now, and these seem more grown-up and fancy.candied citrus

the season of christmas cookies

I have the best memories of baking with my ma at all times of the year, but holiday baking is always special. There is just something about a big plate of beautiful cookies at Christmas that bring out the warm fuzzies.

thumbprints

If you are in the market for some cookie recipes, check out my list of 100 cookie recipes here. Now that I am looking through the list, I might make a batch of these animal cookies to give to the little ones I babysit.

animal cookies

A note to Santa

This is a really great video done by some folks within the agency I work at featuring the Galaxy Note 10.1. I know that it’s a pure product promo, but I think it’s really well done and it reminds me a little bit of the Google Chrome commercials that tug at your heart-strings a little bit. And I’m a firm believe that Santa uses Excel too which is another reason I like this video. Santa likes to nerd out too!

Christmas Present #8

Christmas lights during the night and day

Has anyone else ever noticed that Christmas lights during the day just look like a huge mess but when they are lit up they are beautiful and awesome? My case in point is below from a recent trip to Mozart’s Coffee here in town.

A photo from the night the Girl and I got engaged when we stopped by Mozart’s first when it was still a surprise and it looks awesome!

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The same lights but during a recent morning coffee run we took to Mozart’s. They look like someone just threw up a string of lights on the side of a building without untangling them.

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window shopping

When I first heard of Fab, I thought, oh great, another one of those sites that will send me 500 emails. But I was wrong. They are awesome. I get to see all kinds of products and designers I wouldn’t normally see. And they are cool. For instance, I probably wouldn’t have seen these beautiful prints if it weren’t for Fab:

Fab Rome

Cool vintage-style world prints.

Fab Austin

Fun and simple city prints, like this one of Austin.

Fab Culinary

Sweet collection of infographic style prints, like a map of culinary tools.

the great whoopie pie experiment

I received some lovely whoopie pie pans for my birthday. I had super grand plans for some holiday whoopie pies. I wanted to make these chocolate ones, but rolled in gold sprinkles, and these gingerbread ones, with the crushed peppermints. In my head, they were going to be beautiful.

Instead, the tiny whoopie pies baked to look like tiny muffins, I had to cut the tops off to make them look right, and I got frustrated and filled them with some leftover frosting instead. Not quite what I had in my head…

whoopie pie 1 whoopie pie 2 whoopie pie 3

But after all that, its kind of hard to mess up a cookie/frosting sandwich. Tasty mistakes.

Christmas Present #4

I don’t know know how the girl does it, but she always knows what I need! For Christmas present #4 I was on the road on a work trip and I needed something to write with and right before I went to some gift shop to buy some, I got some super awesome fine tip pens! What a pleasant surprise.

What could it be?
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Sweet pens!
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Christmas Present #2

I have always been a bit jealous inside of this very soft and warm looking pair of socks that the girl has and wears around the house when it’s cold outside….but I am jealous no more! For surprise #2 I got a pair of moose socks that I’ve already started wearing around the house. Happy days!

Moose socks…you know you want a pair.
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