Christmas means Cookies?

I am a grumpy baker!  Or rather, I just don’t have the patience with baking.  And when Christmas time comes around and I see all the cool holiday cookie treats, I get motivated to try it again.  C’mon, how hard can it be?  I am talking about the cutout cookies, all perfectly decorated.  I envision a plate of this:

I pull out the cookie cutters, get all giddy in the store with the various decorations, try to find the right icing recipe that not only looks good, but tastes really good too.  

Perfectly decorated, mouthwatering, professional cookies.  You know, the stuff you would send in as a teacher gift, or a friend gift, or a neighbor gift.  This is where perfectionist tendencies get the best of me.  If they don’t compare to these (mine aren’t even close!) then I tend to whine and throw in the towel and let my daughter fuss with them to her delight.  I mean, these cookies sell for between $3 and $7 in the stores!!  For ONE cookie! I get so darn frustrated by the price of these gourmet cookies, I figure I just have to give it a whirl.  

Now, having tried to make them, I really can appreciate the effort that goes into make each and every one of these things.  There is a lot of time and labor involved, for sure!  My kitchen is a flour filled disaster zone when I get going on trying to make these.  Icing colors are everywhere, along with glitter and little decorative yummies.  And my cookies are a mess too.  I even have trouble trying to put together the pre-baked gingerbread house kits you can buy. The icing drips all over, the gumdrops fall off, the walls aren’t straight.  UGH!  Not a Martha Stewart picture of perfection!

However, the smiles on my kids flour covered faces and their pride in their cookies they made for Santa, make it all worthwhile.  I take a step back, relax, and figure so what if they’re not magazine quality, no one but us has to eat them anyway and we had a lot of laughs in the kitchen.  That is the BEST part, by far. Priceless!

 

Do dogs have taste buds??

My dog Coco is a picky eater.  I put down a plate of dog food for her, she sniffs at, then walks away and sits down, completely not interested.  Considering she eats the dust bunnies off the floor and sometimes her poop, I can’t figure out why she doesn’t chow down like a normal dog at mealtime.  Ok, we occasionally feed her chicken, salmon, scrambled egg from our plates, but is that turning her off her dog chow?  Probably.  The dog thinks she can hold out for something better, I know.  Bad human, bad! 

We have made it so she can’t/won’t eat her food without a little something mixed in.  Think about it, if we had to eat the same dry kibble meal after meal, day after day, I supposed when we got something juicy like chicken, we might never want to go back.  But then I go back to here is a dog that would eat her  feces.

How much taste buds can she really have, after all?  Technically, she should eat anything placed in front of her, given that she is hungry. Most normal dogs don’t slow down long enough to even know what it was they ate.  I think they swallow each morsel whole.  But no, diva dog pushes aside her meal and acts as though it isn’t good enough.  We have ruined her.  Throwing her a goldfish cracker or pretzel.  She loves popcorn.  Poor thing is enjoying people food way too much and now can’t handle dog food.   

What a monster we have created.  When she goes to the kennel, I swear she loses a few pounds because she refuses to eat.  Waaaaaaahhhh!  Duncan, being a puppy and not knowing any different, happily feasts on his puppy chow like it’s the greatest thing in the world.  He hasn’t gotten a taste for people food.  That’s because we haven’t indulged him.  I am trying really hard not to so that he continues to eat and doesn’t become picky.  Hopefully Coco won’t tell him what he’s missing.

 

A few of my favorite decorations

I am really liking the handmade ornaments and decorations at Christmas. They are so cute. I snapped some pics of some of my favorite ornaments and decorations. I am finding I gravitate toward angel ornaments so maybe I should have an angel themed tree.

What favorite ornaments or decorations do you have?

I wish I could go to the Christmas markets in Germany and Austria and see some of the wonderful wooden and glass decorations they have. I forget what those carousels that go around by candles lit up are called but I love those! And the glass blown ones are gorgeous too. Share some of your pics and stop back again later, I should have another post coming soon!