Cookies & more!

I have felt pretty jipped this Christmas! When you move 1 week before Christmas, that means the entire month of December is spent packing, moving, unpacking, and trying to dig yourself out from the mess you've created!  We don't have the tree up, we have'nt done a ton of baking (like usual), and I wanted to wrap the presents all fancy, and when I realized there was no time for that I ended up throwing them in a christmas bag with some newspaper in place of tissue paper.  Jipped.  However, yesterday Ingrid and i found some time to make Mexican Wedding Cakes (or whatever you call them in your house).  She wore the apron that I made for her when I was pregnant with her....and it was so strange to now see this little person waking around holding her kitchen utensils pretending to bake with me.  Where has the time gone?  She did a great job "helping" mommy-what a joy to be able to stay home with her.  

How cute is she in her apron?  And those piggy tails-I can't handle the cuteness!!

She has sweetheart written all over her face!

Someone is eying the cookies...

 "Helping" Mommy (she is pretending to put stuff in her bowl and mix)

"Yes, I think I'll have some" (note: egg free cookie dough!:)

 Love her!

Caught in the act!

Turning into such a little girl...

The end product!

But wait!  We forgot we still hand Ingrid's presents to wrap!  So last night Michael and I put the little one to bed, and stayed up to wrap her presents.  I will be the first one saying that I loathe the materialism that surrounds Christmas.  It's not all about the "perfect" gift, and what the marketers want us to spend money on.  In fact, we always thought we would get our kids maybe 1 gift, but more so want to encourage family volunteering.  That is still the way we feel, but with some Christmas money we got in from grandparents, we decided to go a little beyond our "1 gift" rule.  It was too fun picking out little presents for Ingrid...especially because we know that this year-she will actually get involved and enjoy playing with them!  I got my chance to do a little "creative" wrapping.....

This was my first official "craft" with Ingrid.  Yup, still too young!  We made a Christmas card for the grandparents, and traced her hand (which she hated).  She did enjoy trying to put the stickers on...and coloring is always a fave!