Friday Favorites: Christmas Cookies!

We held our annual baking slumber party with my mom and sisters last week, so I thought it would be fun to share our favorite recipes with all of you as this week's Friday Favorites! There's nothing like a day of jammies, Christmas music, girl talk, and the smell of warm cookies in the oven. :) We always have a great time every year. 

This year, Baylee wasn't feeling to well in the afternoon, but she was happy long enough in the morning to help out a bit in her cute little apron. Love my tiny baker!

First batch was our peanut butter blossoms:

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

Hershey kisses and hugs

sugar sprinkles

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a cookie pan with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking soda.

3. Using a stand mixer, combine sugar, brown sugar, butter, and peanut butter. Beat until fluffy scraping down sides.

4. Add egg and vanilla and continue beating until combined.

5. Add flour mixture 1/4 cup at a time and continue to beat until combined.

6. Scoop a full tablespoon of dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Then roll in sugar sprinkles and place on baking sheet.

7. Bake for 8-10 mins.

8. Remove cookies and immediately press Hershey kisses and hugs into centers.

9. Let cool on a cooling rack.

Next, came my fav, white chocolate chip cranberry! Yum! We also added macadamia nuts to one of the batches that we made and they were incredible!

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup macadamia nuts (optional)

Instructions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy. 

2.Beat in the vanilla and egg until combined.

3. Combine flour, corstarch, baking soda, and pinch of salt in a separate bowl. 

4. Add flour mixture to wet mixture until a soft dough has formed.

5. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.

6. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (We chill all our doughs overnight to be safe!)

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.

8. Roll dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on sheet about 2 inches apart.

9. Bake for 8-10 minutes

10. Cool cookies on a rack.

Last but not least, our family tradition since I can remember, stained glass sugar cookies.

Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

2 1/2 cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

sprinkles of any kind

Instructions:

1. With a stand mixer, beat butter, confectioner's sugar, egg, vanilla, and almond extract until well combined.

2. Add in baking soda, and cream of tartar.

3. Start adding flour 1/4 cup at a time until ball of dough forms. The dough should be moist and not flaky.

4. Chill dough for at least 3 hours.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.

6. Roll a ball of dough to about 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured board. (We use a silicone baking pad, but you can tape wax paper or parchment to a table and get the same effect.)

7. Use cookie cutters to cute out any shapes you want, and transfer to baking sheet.

8. Cookies will spread, so place about an inch apart at least.

9. Shake sprinkles on top of cookie shapes.

10. Bake for about 7 to 8 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. (Baking time will vary depending on the size of the cookie cutter, just watch closely.)

11. Cool cookies on a cooling rack.

Also, if you want to make a quick, easy treat with no baking involved, these white chocolate covered pretzel candy bars turned out amazing!

White Chocolate Covered Pretzel Candy Bars

Ingredients:

Square pretzels

Mini candy bars (any flavor...we used snickers!)

White chocolate chips

Sprinkles

Instructions:

1. Melt chocolate chips in either a small crock pot, microwave, or double boiler.

2. Unwrap all candy bars ahead of time.

3. Once chocolate is melted, put a dab on two pretzels and place candy bar in the middle like a sandwich.

4. Dip 1/2 of the "sandwich" into melted chocolate. 

5. Place on wax paper to cool.

6. Sprinkle with any kind of sprinkles while still melty.

So easy, and they look great with a platter of cookies as a gift for the neighbors! :)

I hope these recipes give you some ideas for your holiday baking! I promise, each one of them will give you this face when you try them...

;)

Until next time! XoXoXo

Christmas Pictures and Cards!

We have been feeling very under the weather here at the Tibbetts' house for almost a week now, and let me tell ya, it's been a damper on our holiday fun. :( Baylee came down with the stomach flu on Friday, which meant that Brian and I got it Saturday and Sunday. Then, yesterday morning Baylee woke up covered in a rash all over her body. I was so worried, but after having her doctor look at it, it turns out that along with the stomach flu, she also somehow contracted the roseola virus. (It's basically a 3 day fever followed by a rash...nothing scary.) So, other that being a total grump with no appetite, she's going to be just fine, thank goodness!

 

I figured I needed some Christmas cheer in my life, so while Baylee is napping, I have been working on my Christmas cards. I am so happy with the way my cards turned out this year! We got a Living Social deal for 40 cards from Photo Affections. The price was great, I loved how the cards turned out, and their packaging is seriously on point. I will definitely use them again for Christmas cards next year. I also had labels printed from Shutterfly, and used green and red glitter washi tape for sealing.

 

We did our Christmas pictures at Picture People the weekend before Thanksgiving because I wasn't about to fight all the crowds after the holiday. I guess everyone had the same idea as me, because the place was bat shit crazy. Waiting took forever, and Baylee was getting ants in her pants by the time it was our turn. I was so very thankful that we had a photographer who was patient enough to work with us and focus on getting Baylee to smile, so we actually ended up with some really cute shots. (Never again will I do a shoot on a weekend though! ;) ) Here are some of my favorite shots!

 

 

 

 

 

How cute is that last one with Baylee and Kissy?!

 

Oh, which reminds me, totally off topic, but Kissy is M.I.A. and, even though I am more sad than Baylee, I am looking for a new one. He was found in the Dollar Spot at Target a few months ago, so I dont know if he can be found again, but if you happen to see one at your local Target, pick it up and let me know! :)

 

Back to my Christmas cards...hope your day is the merriest!

 

 

 

Until next time! XoXoXo

 

 

 



Meet Our Elf!

On Monday, Baylee woke up to find a surprise visitor on our dining room table- her very own Elf on the Shelf Scout Elf! Ever since I learned about the Elf on the Shelf tradition, I have been dying to do it. Now that Baylee is old enough to notice, I figured this would be the perfect year to introduce her!

Meet Snowbelle. :)

 Snowbelle was nice enough to bring Baylee a book about her, some reindeer antlers to wear, a new cup with Santa on it, and some yummy North Pole donuts for breakfast! 

Baylee ran to the table and was soooooo excited! She pointed and said "Elf!" "Cup!" and my heart totally melted. :) I let her sit on the table to see all her goodies. She immediately wanted her antlers on, of course, and then dove in to her donuts and candy canes. It wasn't long before she had half a donut shoved in her mouth, and I'm pretty sure that in that moment she realized that powdered donettes are life! Smart girl.

I can't wait to see how the tradition develops over the years as she gets older and we can have even more fun with it. For now, I'm enjoying myself just moving her to a different spot every night and waiting for Baylee to find her the next morning and yell "Elf!" It's the best hide and seek game ever!

We might have to turn this donut thing into a weekly trend. ;)

Until next time! XoXoXo

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

So, Friday morning, I woke up and immediately checked my e-mail to see which of my favorite stores were doing the best Black Friday sales. After placing a few orders on my phone, I looked at Brian wide eyed because it hit me...it was also decorating for Christmas day!!! I jumped up and started bouncing on the bed, "You get to get our decorations down from the rafters so we can decorate today! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!" 

True story. :)

My whole life I have loved decorating for Christmas. There is just something so warm and cozy about coming home to a Christmassy house. Now that we have Baylee, having decor up is even more fun, because she notices the changes and gets so excited! Bless my tired girls heart, she was so worn out from Thanksgiving and a little morning Black Friday shopping that she took a 3.5 hour nap on Friday afternoon! So, Brian and I had ample time to get all the decorating done before she woke up.

This year, I decided to go with the "less is more" route and actually kept a lot of my old decorations in their boxes. Our house is on the small side, so it's easy to make it look cluttered by putting out too much. We started with our tree and mantle. The tree has a lot of basic bulbs (plastic ones near the bottom for little curious hands of course!) and all of our sentimental ornaments that we've acquired over the course of our relationship. We have a tradition of picking out a new ornament from Disneyland every year, so we will add one more ornament to the tree in a few weeks. I love our lights that we used because we found some that are only red, green, and white...I feel like it's so unique looking!

Under the tree sit my beloved stuffed Rudolph and Clarice. They were gifts from the company one Christmas when I worked at Build-A-Bear and I have cherished them every Christmas since. 

I'm so happy with how my mantle turned out this year! I put up some simple garland with white lights and then found some amazing wooden snowflakes that give it just the right touch. We also invested in some new stocking holders (15% off on Target.com today!) and new stockings from Hobby Lobby for Baylee and me. I love how the plaid and wood all look together...so cabin-esq. (Totally a word.) Brian, of course, has his Marine Corps stocking proudly displayed.

As usual, I made a new chalk board picture to display on our half wall between the family room and kitchen. Totally didn't even realize I did the same quote as last year, but I'm sticking to it because I like the way it turned out. :) Keeping with the "wood" theme, I found some wood gift tags and tied them to some twine to make a banner to hang underneath my chalkboard. On either side I have Chesapeake Bay candles in pine that I snagged from Target for only $3 a piece on Black Friday! They smell amazing too.

For the dining room table, I went simple this year and filled one of my nice bowls with pine cones and bulb ornaments. I added my candlesticks to either side and boom! Instant centerpiece. I set up my Nativity scene on the corner of the booth this year, and it fit perfectly. This set was a garage sale find from last year. Brian happened on a lady who collects nativity scenes and was selling a bunch of them for cheap. She claims this one was purchased in Italy, which, if it's true, if pretty dang cool to this Italian girl! I love the way a simple Nativity scene helps keep Christ in Christmas. 

Another great Target find this year was this twine and clothespin kit to hang Christmas cards with. I never know what to do with all my cards with what little space we have, so this is a perfect way to display them as they come. We even received a few this year already!

I'm so very in love with our little Christmas house this year. When there is a fire in the fireplace, this is my view, and it makes me oh, so happy. :)

When Baylee woke up from her nap and saw all the decorations she about flipped her lid. She was screaming and pointing and giggling, and it made our hours of hard work so completely worth it! I think she already has this Christmas thing figured out...she gets it from her Mama. ;)

Oh, and an honorable mention, Brian put Christmas lights up on the house over the weekend as well, and they turned out fabulous! He even managed to string the lights out to say "HO HO HO" on our fence. My Christmas joy must be rubbing off on him. You think I can get him to make it say Merry Christmas in cursive next year? ;)

Until next time! XoXoXo

Thanksgiving Recap!

After a long day of shopping and decorating, hubbs and I are now sitting by the Christmas tree with a fire roaring in the fireplace. So cozy. :) I love this time of year so so much!

  I've been going through the pictures from Thanksgiving yesterday and it reminded me all over again just how very blessed I am to have such loving people in my life. This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving over at my grandparents' house. It's been quite a few years since I have been able to spend Thanksgiving with them, so it was really nice. 

We started cooking in the morning with aprons on and mimosas in hand, because there's truly no better combo. ;) Even Miss Baylee got her very own apron!

Isn't my Nanny the prettiest ever? :)

While we cooked, Brian and my Papa hung lights on their house. They have the cutest house for lights, and it turned out so pretty. They may have even had a little helper to help tangle untangle all the lights! Hehe.

While the turkey was setting, I got Baylee dressed and we went outside for a little photo shoot with my sisters. She looked so adorable in her little chambray dress, tights and moccs! I totally wish I had bought her dress in the next size up so she could wear it again this spring.

Baylee was a bit of a grump at dinner, because she was exhausted from not getting a very long nap, but she stayed happy long enough to try a little bit of all the delicious food. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce,  and, of course, pumpkin pie and spice cake cupcakes for dessert. She seemed to like what we could get her to try, and we all ate until we were more stuffed than a turkey! Thank goodness for stretchy jeans! 

After dinner, we sat around the living room and talked and played with Baylee. I taught her how to put olives on her fingers and it was like instant good mood after that! I wish I had thought of it earlier! It was so nice to just relax with family and actually get to spend some quality time with my husband. We really don't get that enough these days. My Christmas resolution this year is less hustle bustle and more time for snuggles. :)

I hope you all had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as we did! 

Now, may the Christmas season officially commence!

Fa La La La La La La La La!

Until next time! XoXoXo