Christmas Decorations and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is our lovely Christmas tree. Complete with an Angel on top. It looks pretty nice, for a fake tree. In past years we have usually gone out to cut down a pine tree to decorate. But, this year our tree base was nowhere to be found. So, we had to settle for the old fake tree. Still, it has a nice quality to it, I think.

I wish I had been there, though, to help decorate it. Because my winter break started so close to Christmas, my family had already decorated the house and the tree without me. Those presents under the tree are from my parents. I still haven't finished wrapping mine for my family. (I happen to be one of the world's worst gift wrappers). Even my little sister can always wrap a present with more precision than I ever could. I can't believe that Christmas Eve is tomorrow. This year has gone by so quickly.

On the right is a small Christmas wreath that my Mom propped up against our windowsill. I think I may have made that Angel in Girl Scouts when I was younger, but I can't really remember. I actually really loved being a Girl Scout. Around Christmastime we would make ornaments and crafts to sell at the Christmas Bazaar they held every year at our Church. I remember we once made little Gingerbreadmen that we stuck on pins. Other popular crafts were snowflake ornaments, bags of "Reindeer Poop" and "Snowmen Poop." I think Reindeer poop was made of chocolate covered raisins and Snowmen

poop was tiny marshmallows.

Here are the ingredients that I used today to make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from scratch. I hadn't baked cookies from scratch in years. Probably the last time I did was in Home Ec in the 8th grade. Anyway, they came out great. Below are some pictures of my cookie making process and the cookies themselves.

Here are the cookies right before I put them in the oven.

The picture (left) is me showing off my kitchen gloves and preparing to open up the oven. These cookies are ready for liftoff!

Finally, here I am, showing off my hard work. Those cookies took me forever to make. But it was definitely worth it. Over the break I will try to make gingerbread, sugar cookies, or Snickerdoodles.