On the Second Week of Christmas…

Merry Christmas! We’re already almost half way through December! As the Grinch would say, “It’s practically here!”

This week we made more neighbor gifts for our mailman and others. We made Scrabble tile ornaments, which Bean helped with by having a blast spelling different words with the letters. Think we’ll make a Scrabble lover of him some day for sure!

(Yes, the O is upside down in “JOY” much to my chagrin, but I include this photo to prove I’m not  a Pinterest Perfectionist! 😃)

While we had the Scrabble tiles out, I also decorated a wreath I’d made that was lacking a little something. I love this wreath because it was super simple, it’s an upcycle (just a paper plate for the base), and until I hot-glued the tiles on, all I’d done was tie on the yarn, tulle, and bow! 

I also made Christmas book puzzles, mostly for Bean who’s really into puzzles right now. I took the dust covers (I always pull these off since they’ll just get in the way or get ruined anyway) from some of our Christmas books (like Christmas music and movies, they only come out at this time of year!) and laminated them. Then I cut them into simple pieces. I figured I’d start with big pieces and once Bean masters those I can always cut them smaller to increase the challenge!

So simple, and they’d make great stocking stuffers!

I also made magnetic laminated versions of the nativity print I fell in love with over at Life Over C’s.

Then we dove into some baking! So far, in the pumpkin category, we’ve made pumpkin muffins from Lovely Little Kitchen, pumpkin syrup and creamer from The Grant Life, and pumpkin cookies from Dear Crissy. All so delicious!

My favorite discovery so far, though, has definitely been the 6-Minute Microwave Caramels from I Heart Naptime. I had thought I’d try my hand at caramels this year, but when I found this recipe to do them in the microwave I thought it was too good to be true! So good, easy, and simple I’ve already made another batch!

We also made gingerbread cookies this week! I’ve tried a different recipe every year and this year we have a winner from Gimme Some Oven. I prefer my gingerbread cookies chewy vs crunchy, so this recipe finally got them right with flavor and texture!

As you might be able to see, we did some dinosaur-shaped cookies this year since we’ve been reading How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? pretty much once a day! 

We also did some with the melted jolly rancher in the middle which turned out beautiful!

Whew, what a week! Hope yours was great, too! I’d love to hear your favorite Christmas baking recipes! Still have a few more things to make, including our infamous fudge… 😊