Getting ready for Santa

Making lots of cookies to please old St. Nick. Some of the favorites are these homemade tagalongs. Sandwhich peanutbutter between two ritz crackers and dip in chocolate. YUM! I hope there are some left for Santa!

The cutest little reindeer cookies

And they are SO easy to make!

All it takes is:

Store-bought refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough
Red m&ms for the nose
Chocolate chips for the eyes
Pretzels for the antlers
Bake according to dough package

Easy peasy and oh so yummy!

Holiday House...the gingerbread house not made of gingerbread and will hopefully last a few more years

Last year, I made this holiday house in an attempt to create a gingerbread house with half the mess and twice the enjoyment. I got the idea after constructing our haunted house for Halloween. It was pretty simple and Tay enjoyed watching me making it and pointing out where things should go.

This year, we have been so sick that getting it out of the attic-ish storage space was the last thing anyone wanted to do. We decided against putting up our house lights for the same reason (which has me a little sad, but it's just not worth the effort now for two weeks). I finally got the holiday house down today just in time to enjoy it before it has to go right back up. I can't wait until the kids wake up from their naps so they can enjoy it too!

My favorite little dessert..these days

It's gooey cake. If you haven't heard of gooey cake, well you are in for a treat! A decadent, delicious, and very fattening (but so worth it) treat. I have experiment with this recipe several ways. My favorite has been to exchange a yellow cake mix with devil's food cake mix and adding Ghirardelli chocolate to the top mixture. OMG good! I promise there won't be any left no matter who you serve this to! My husband took it to work for their Thanksgiving potluck. It didn't even make it to the potluck. They did all but lick the pyrex dish!


EASY GOOEY BUTTER CAKE

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 c. butter
1 egg
1/3 c. cream cheese softened

GOOEY BUTTER:

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 lb. box confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together cake mix (just the mix, not the other ingredients called for on the box) with butter and 1 egg. Pat into an ungreased 9 x 13 inch cake pan. Cream together cream cheese, 2 eggs, powdered sugar and vanilla. Pour over cake mixture. Spreading to the edges. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Thanksgiving

I'm a little late posting this, but oh well! We had an amazing Thanksgiving and hope you and your families did too. We did little crafts with the kids + pinecones + Elmers + construction paper. You will have to try it next year. They are super adorable and awesome centerpieces and keepsakes.