Sweetness...and lots of it!

to say i'm behind in blogging would be putting it mildly. i still want to post about my birthday...that was in August!

this post is all about sweet sweet baked goods and a super fab baked goods and craft sale i went to before the holidays. Yvonne hosted the affair. i always love being in her company and her home. we used to carpool to drum class together...chatting, stopping for a beer en route...good times. friends and family came out with their yummies and homemade wares. i baked my chocolate chip banana bread, and came home with a plate full of delish goodies and a bag full of charming gift tags (made by Jeanne, Yvonne's mama), luscious soaps (by Yvonne) and knit wear (Anjalika's mama...Anjun's grandma...Nani). happy holidays to me! :)

i had the most fun chatting, eating and shopping with some wonderful peeps...hope it's a yearly event ;)

my heart breaks that baby Arjun is crying, but this is one of my fave shots i've taken in a while...just holding on to his Nani's pearls....sweetness.

Mia puffy hearts her Ita

I guess with all the holiday craziness, I forgot to post some photos of our fun filled visit from Ita (my mama). I found these photos while looking for bokeh shots in my flickr photostream...I wanted to add some of mine to the Shutter Sisters post on the subject. Out of it I also get a lovely Love Thursday post.

This marks their second year of their holiday tradition of building a gingerbread house. Mia showed how she vibrates, gets frustrated and then finishes off with angry when given too much sugar. Between the icing and all the candies, Mia didn't stand a chance. Ita decided that next year, she'll be much more vigilant on her sugar watch :) They did have a lot of fun and came away with a super fab gingerbread house!








I love when I can relax and just watch my mom make some wonderful memories with her granddaughter. Mia brought book after book to Ita, scrambled on her lap and nestled in for storytime.

chookooloonks and friends have much more love to share :)

Holiday Cookies 2008 (aka Sprinkle Time!)

Mia and I baked up some holiday cookies...regular sugar cookies in the shapes of candy canes and trees then some gingerbread men. Mixing, rolling, cutting out and baking the dough was fun...so I thought. Then came the SPRINKLES!!!!

I'm not sure when the last time was that we had that much fun! Mia's sprinkle theory: icing, sprinkles for me, sprinkles for cookie, sprinkles for me...eat cookie!

In the time it took Mia to decorate one cookie, I did about 25! She's serious about her sprinkles. We may have to have a sprinkle intervention...scroll down to see why! What's even more hilarious was when she 'found' sprinkles on the rug and told Niles (our dog), 'NO! those are MY sprinkles!!!' and then ate a bunch more! tis the season :)

Tree Trimming & Cookie Baking

This year, Mia is a BIG help. She wants to be right in the middle of everything. She's enjoyed laying under the tree while I was putting all the lights up. Daryl topped it very nicely with our star...it's only fallen on me once. Mia was soooo cute trying to hang ornaments on the tree. Her first one, a red apple, she hung on the tippy tip of a light bulb. Then she moved on to attaching ornaments to the wires of the lights instead of the tree branches. Oh, and ALL the snowmen and to be together...like a centimeter apart! Mia's totally into my snow globe collection. She'll sit on the floor with one for a loooong time just turning it over and watching the snow slowing fall...the ones with a music box in the base are her favorites. She's only broken one...now they are up on the counter and will be moved down per her request...one at at time while supervised :)

Then we baked many many many sugar cookies in the shapes of snowflakes, candy canes and christmas trees. I'm waiting for a peaceful block of time this week to sit down with her and decorate away. She had her own little rolling pin, but I LOVED when she used mine that my mom gave to me....it's what she used while I was growing up...very sentimental.

p.s. anytime we do anything christmassy, Mia wants to wear her elf helper hat. I sometimes don my santa hat, but it's a little itchy

Santa Hat

Another little holiday tradition is the shot of Mia in a santa hat. I usually print small ones and stick them on cute photo ornaments for gifts to the grandparents. It's been silly and fun, but not this year. I think I've been in her face with the camera too much. What happened to my sweet lil one with the fabulous smile?

2006

2007

so far, the choices for 2008