12 Days of Holiday Recipes - How the Wheels Fell Off

I don't know what I was thinking. Lately every plan I've made has fallen apart. I think it's just the season of life I'm in. Our days got super busy, the baby became super needy, and lots of things succumbed to neglect. I had purposed to make some goodie baskets for our neighbors and then some for my kiddos to give to my siblings for Christmas. I figured the best way to attack this was to just do it all on one day. One LONG, stressful, messy day, and then it would be done. I should have known better.

My first clue should have been when I turned on the oven to preheat. After a few minutes I smelled a horribly familiar smell and opened the door to find this:

 

When my brother was little he used to stick all kinds of things in the oven too, like my Dad's tape measure. So while this was a frustrating start, the memory of childhood made me smile.... and we trudged forward.

 

See... everyone was so happy... er...uh...well, almost everyone. See Black-Eyed Bart there? It was nap time. Shortly after I took this he went down and things went much smoother. 

We used some of this....

And some of this....

to make our goodies. 

The girls helped make some dark chocolate and peppermint cake balls and some peanut butter thumb print cookies for the baskets.

 

We also made a batch of butterscotch goodness to take to Grandy's house for our celebration with them.

 

I love Izzie's face here. Totally captures her little goof-ball personality.

I had mixed up the hot chocolate mix a few days before so we bagged everything up in cute holiday sacks. And while we were baking away we enjoyed a wonderful holiday fragrance filling the air from this... A simmer pot recipe I got on Pinterest. My mom made it a few days before and it made her house smell so welcoming for our church's Mother/Daughter Christmas Party. So simple, it was just an orange, quartered, a few sticks of cinnamon, a few whole cloves, and a good handful of cranberries. Cover it with water and simmer on low making sure not to burst the berries. You can leave this on your stove for a week or two. Seriously. Just add a little water to it occasionally. You'll know when it's time to throw it out because everything starts to look extra mushy and turns the same brownish/gray color. It smells AMAZING! In fact, I have a few cranberries left in the fridge so I picked up an orange at the store to make one last batch of this. 

 

 

So I didn't complete the full 12 days. I'm not going to sweat it. Heck, I just took my Christmas decorations down today.... almost 2 weeks later. I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Memories were made and lessons were learned (i.e. check the oven before turning it on). Maybe we'll try again next year. :)