The smells of the season

Gingerbread men and coconut snowflake cookies are a must in our house for Christmas, but this year I added a few new treats too!

Macy desperately wants to help me bake- but one of the reasons why I don't enlist her help is this picture-

she decided my cooling racks would be a good bed for her doll and blanket!

I was thrilled that my copy-cat recipe for William's Sonoma's chocolate peppermint bark came out fantastic! I also tried a copy-cat recipe for Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars, thx to Hailey, and although they came out great and Brian and my dad especially loved them, I don't think they will be on must have list each year to come...

However- I was most pleased with my success at Buck-Eyes! The delicious little peanut butter balls, dipped in chocolate. They look like the Buckeye nut and are famous in Ohio. My friend Natalie from Germany passed down her mother's recipe and although I didn't use the paraffin wax that they use (can you believe it?), they came out great!
So much of my happiness during the holidays comes from baking! I am very strict about only baking certain things for certain holidays. So I would never made pumpkin bread in January or Snowflake cookies in June! This year I had a little extra time to try a few new things because my mom made the Ricotta Rolls and Oreo Balls, so I didn't have to! Only 352 days left until I get to eat all these treats again!