baking blitz

What a whirlwind of a weekend, seriously!  Back-to-back-to-back Christmas parties kept this girl up to her elbows in sprinkles and terribly lacking on the sleep scale.  It was such a fun weekend though, full of plenty of laughs and lots of yummy food.

Thursday night began my baking craze and it honestly didn't end until tonight, when I rushed home from  work to decorate some cookies, bake some of my new fave muffins, and put together little treat packets for some special people and some lovely neighbors.  Confession:  I've lived in my house for nearly 3 years and I have yet to meet several of my neighbors.  Embarrassing, I know.  But I figured Christmas would be as good a time as any to show up with a smile and some sugary treats, and exchange introductions and Christmas greetings, right?  At least I hope so...we'll see.  :)

Given all the partying that I've done (partying--ha!) recently and the amounts of goodies that I wanted to share, I baked extensively more than I have in years past.  And I'm thoroughly tired.

The goods:
-Cherry Mash
-Magic Bars
-Pretzels
-Sugar Cookies
-Oreo Truffles
-Pretzels
-Cranberry Almond muffins
-Pretzels
-And more pretzels
-Russian Tea Cakes (I helped my momma with these...definitely a fam tradition!)

The ever important baking supplies...yes I often buy off brand :)

Best muffins of my life.

Sugar cookies waiting for some icing love

Most of the goods turned out wonderfully, but I kind of got off to a rough start with the Cherry Mash and Magic Bars for some reason.  I couldn't get the chocolate to melt right to save my life.  Seriously, it took me 3 batches of chocolate, peanut butter, and evaporated milk to get it to work and I still didn't get it right.  Hmph.  Needless to say, the Cherry Mash is going nowhere.  And then the Magic Bars were supposed to have a graham cracker crust, but apparently, the graham crackers enjoyed too much being stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Is it too late for me to ask Santa for new baking pans?  Hmm..

Anyway, all in all it was a fab weekend.  I have all of my Christmas baking and shopping done.  All that's left to do is deliver the goodies and wrap the remaining gifts.  Oh and then celebrate, of course!  I really do just love Christmas!  Are you all ready for Christmas?  Only 6 more days... :)