We baked our first batch of holiday cookies yesterday.  The gingerbread recipe that I discovered last year from Six Vegan Sisters is our absolute favorite!  You wouldn’t believe how incredibly soft and moist these cookies are.  They’re not the crispy variety of gingerbread, at least the way we bake them, and I prefer them that way.  CC remembered these cookies from last year and has been asking to bake them this week so that’s just what we did!

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My Mom was visiting us and snapped this pic of the kids. Just look at those eyelashes!  Ardell has nothing on CC & Donny!  All kidding aside, what I love about this photo is how it captures their joyful focus on the baking process.  They worked together standing on their kitchen tower, taking turns to stir and cut out shapes side by side.  This made my mommy heart sing!

I’ve used the four pocket page protector layout four days in a row.  Usually, I like to switch up my layouts day to day, but I’ve just happened to have the right amount of photos for this style page protector so far this week.  I wanted to switch it up a bit after so many days of the same, so I used my fuse tool to attach a 4×6 flip-up pocket.  I printed out four 3″x4″ photos for the base page protectors and used the flip-up pocket to hold the recipe and a card with my story of the day.  I don’t love how my writing turned out, but I decided to not get too picky with it and just left it at is. Here is what I wrote:

Baking our first cookies of the season.  I so cherish doing this with the kids.  And nothing captures their attention more than making sweet treats!  CC placing each candy with precision and Donny stuffing each candy into his mouth as fast as possible.  These are the special times, indeed ❤️

I took a screenshot of the recipe from the Six Vegan Sisters website and cut it up in Photoshop to format it into a 4″x6″ card.  It’s been a couple of years since I included a recipe in my December Daily album. I think it’s fun to add bits like recipes, tickets, and programs in addition to photos and embellishments.  Ephemera can hold memories, too.

I had a lot of trouble getting my fuse tool to cooperate and ended up going through two sets of page protectors before I got it to stick.  By that point the tool had gotten so hot that it burned right through my craft mat (see the big black gash in the photo).  Oops!  That’s why I have a mat dedicated just to using with this tool.  This definitely has happened to me before.  I like the effect of having the “seamless” flip up (as opposed to using tape or some other visual binding) so I am willing to risk putting some burn marks in that mat.

I had grand plans of completing Days 4 and 5 in my December Daily album today, but between the fuse tool snafu and general tiredness, I decided to pack it in after completing Day 4.  Being a day or two behind does not concern me, but I do not like to get any further away from current than that or I know it will be March before I even think of picking the project back up again.

Do you bake any seasonal treats in your family? I’d love to know what your tried and true favorites are if you care to share. Food is love, after all!
Take good care ❤️

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