Holiday Cookies - here and gone!

Here are the cookies I took to a recent cookie exchange.

Martha's Dried Cherries Cookies

1 1/2 c. flour (plus a little more)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. butter

3/4 c. white sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. dried cherries

1 c. chocolate chips

1 c. Skor toffee bits

1 1/2 c. quick cook oatmeal

Cream butter & sugar, mix in egg, add remaining dry ingredients, then add cherries, chips and bits. Form into three logs. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill. Slice 1/2" to 3/4"thick for baking. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 2 dozen 3" cookies (or close to 6 dozen holiday bite size cookies). NOTE: I add a little extra flour and make smaller cookies. Instead of 3 logs, I made 6 or 7 logs about 1 inch in diameter. I figure at Christmas you would like to sample many kinds of cookies, so smaller is better! Enjoy!

I plan on making another batch of this dough tonight and baking the cookies tomorrow morning. Hopefully, some of these will get bagged for gifts and a few will be left to take for Christmas Eve. I find that these cookies are good right from the oven, but I like them better in a day or two. The cherries seem to soften a bit. These are a crispy cookie.

How are your Holiday plans going? Getting on top of the shopping and baking? I find that I'm not stressing too much - just getting done what I can, enjoying the time I am doing holiday activities and the time spent with friends. Next Tuesday is the final weigh in for a work weight watching challenge that started back in October. I sure hope the final number is down from my starting point. There haven't been any drastic weight changes, up a little one week and down a little the next. When I think that I have gotten through Halloween, Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas parties without a weight change, I think that is a WIN!!

Christmas is COMING! It's snowing!

Here is what I was facing as I started organizing ornaments to pull together a Christmas tree this year. I'm not doing much entertaining at my place this year, so decided to do a test run of an idea for a Festival of Trees tree for next year. These ornaments have been gathered with the idea of doing a colorful tree - not sure what it will be titled yet. Have any ideas?

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This run through for the ornaments has shown me what to look for on sale after Christmas! Now, I still need to find a Christmas tree skirt for this year. Seeing the colors on the tree, I'm thinking it may need to be a custom job!

Here is the tree with the camera flash off and the room lights dimmed. It's kind of fun to do something different. Some years I have had three trees up in the house, so I'm kind of missing seeing my "special" ornaments gathered through the years - they are going to stay boxed this year. It's been snowing all day, so need to check how much we have gotten since I got home from work - they are talking for us to get 10+ inches! Well. . . no evidence that I ever drove in the driveway tonight. The flakes have been small all day, but tonight they look like prisma glitter when the light hits the ground! It might be a long drive into work tomorrow!