Crafts and cookies

There are some real December highs and lows in this post... 

I had grand plans for this holiday season- since last year I didn't bake or decorate and all. Then 12/3 we were in our accident and things drastically changed. But I did what I could. 

First up were the orange& clove pomanders- used by medieval french to ward off illness, bring strength and good fortune. Who knew? These always remind me of my childhood BFF Tracey's mom at Christmas time.

 

I thought they would be a good post accident craft for me- but even pushing in the cloves and sitting unsupported on the couch hurt. But- I got them done and they looked great-

They weren't very fragrant and turned moldy surprisingly quick actually. Like I said- highs and lows all month. 

I never make sugar cookies at Christmas, but this year I decided to make a batch and Macy and her friend Bella decorated them all together one day after school-

Macy helped me make cinnamon ornaments- 

Which all turned out really great- 

Applesauce is hard to find here, and to make the ornaments you need 2 ingredients- cinnamon and applesauce. Ibu Ani makes amazing applesauce for the kids- and I was a bit sad to have to use some for these ornaments! 

A few years back Macy started making a pistachio cranberry cookie at Christmas that we all love. And in November I realized I hadn't yet stocked up on the pistachio pudding that her recipe calls for! Thank goodness for Chris Leadbetter going to the store to find it (reluctantly) and to Sara for mailing it over to us so this little cookie elf could bake her cookies this year- 

A December high- Brian making our egg nog!

And this year we added a new Christmasy booze to the egg nog & kahlua line up- homemade Bailey's- 

 And boy is it delicious! Especially mixed with the kahlua for what I call a coffee martini... 

These ornaments came out lovely- 

Here come some lows... even my usual Christmas cookie wins kinda sucked this year. I just didn't have the patience, and oh yeah it might have been the pain too.

The coconut snowflakes tasted great, but they were not pretty. 

And the ugliest of all? My oreo balls- 

The darn white chocolate wouldn't melt well, so I couldn't dip them properly. Oh well. They were a good laugh. 

The ugliest of all were my buckeyes this year. This is what started it all. By the end, I just gave up and called them "bask ( weird indonesian meatballs) dipped in poop" and I didn't even bother to close the toothpick holes- something I used to be obsessive about-

After I made these, I actually threw away the recipe. I do like them a lot, but they've never brought me the joy that my other cookies do at Christmas time. So, I'm going to just enjoy them when the other make them for me... 

I did have to serve them though, paired with two other cookies they looked okay though-

Right? The chocolate mint crinkle cookies were just mediocre- the recipe called for fresh mint leaves- and that was just weird in a cookie. But the others on the tray were a HUGE WIN! We all loved and devoured them- a white chocolate cranberry cookie bar. Brian's favorite combo and I FINALLY found it. 

This was for sure the year that I was humbled in the kitchen. And because standing hurt less than sitting (damn broken tail bone) I was constantly baking for hours and hours...