Have yourself a merry little Christmas (cookies, gifts, dinner + brunch)

A Christmas tradition in my house growing up was traditional (and basic) sugar cookies with traditional (and basic) icing. It has also been a tradition to spend more time decorating them than baking them.

Thanks to Ikea, I had plenty of woodland creature cookie cutters on hand. Thanks to my job, I had plenty of free hours on hand due to Christmas Break at the University of Kansas. I spent this time baking and decorating (all the creatures needed scarves--it's freezing here!) and making gifts for friends.

(red squirrel, blue whale):

(bumble bee and bunnies):

(Judd's favorite moose):

The menagerie of bunnies, bumble bees, birds, bears, a moose, and a stegosaurus. I also used my beehive cutter to be an electric christmas tree:

These cookies were taken to a cookie-exchange party, though some were left at home for us. The sugar cookies are pretty basic--flour, sugar, vanilla + almond extract, etc-- and the icing is powdered sugar, vanilla, and cream + water till it's right.

And now onto the gifts:

Our dear friends each got a box of spiced caramels, coffee toffee, peppermint stirring sticks (for coffee and hot chocolate), orange sticks, and peppermint bark.

For a first-time confectioner, I was a little worried things wouldn't turn out so good. But, for the most part, everything went well, and they were fun to give... and eat the leftovers of...

Onto Christmas Eve Dinner!

Labor intensive, tag-teaming effort, and we were left with delicious Eggplant Parmesan. Half-way through making it we realized neither of us had even eaten it before, so we weren't sure what it should taste like. Or look like. But we loved it, and would make it again... about once a year...

Christmas Morning = traditional Christmas Casserole. We lined the dish with wheat bread, topped with cheese and browned sausage, beat eggs and poured over the bread. When we baked it we put on a little diluted cream of mushroom soup, cheese (on one-half), and paper-thin tomatoes.

I have never much cared for this casserole, and I think the result for each year will be an experimentation. In the years to come: onions, mushrooms, more tomatoes, chard... and muffins on the side.

But Christmas break persists, and I know where I'll spend much of my time: