This afternoon and evening I have baked 3 kinds of cookies - Cranberry Pecan Celebration Cookies, Banana Oatmeal Drops and Chocolate Chunk Bars - plus made up the dough for Curt’s favorite Ginger Snaps.  I’ve had a shower and now I’m trying to muster the energy to get back in the kitchen and make Red Velvet cupcakes before bed. 

  Thought I’d take a few minutes to post while I’m taking a break.  Tomorrow afternoon we have my side of the family coming over for gifts before church.  After church we’re having about 12-14 people here for a lasagna dinner.  I think you can imagine how crazed I will be in the morning trying to get the house cleaned up!  I’m so thankful that Curt is so wonderfully helpful in that area!

I wanted share another gift - cookie mixes I made up for neighbors and a couple of friends.  It’s the Cranberry Pecan celebration cookies pictured above - the ones dipped in white chocolate.  The recipe came from Pampered Chef and the layered mix is in a Pampered Chef Small Batter Bowl.  As soon as I saw the idea I knew I had to make up some for gifts!

Isn’t it cute?  And the Batter Bowl is so useful after the cookie mix is gone!  I made a pocket card to go on top to hold the directions for making up the cookies, the Pampered Chef product booklet and a greeting from us.

There is a jumbo eyelet at the top of the pocket and the card is held on with wide grosgrain ribbon and a pop up glue dot on thr back of the card near the bottom.  Here’s a photo with the greeting piece pulled out.

If you want to try these cookies here’s what’s layered into the mix:

1/2 c. granulated sugar

3/4 c. sweetened dried cranberries (Craisins)

1/2 c. white chocolate chips

3/4 c. packed brown sugar

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. quick or old fashioned oats

1/2 c. peacns coarsley chopped

Along with this mix you will need:

3/4  cup butter or margarine, softened
2     eggs
teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.  In a large bowl
combine butter, eggs, vanilla; mix until well blended.  Add cookie mix and mix
until well blended.  Drop scoops of dough (approx 2 tablespoons) 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet.  Flatten dough slightly using the back of a spoon or bottom of a glass.  Bake 13-15 minutes until edges are golden brown.  Cool 5 minutes; remove to cooling rack.                          Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

The PC directions were for baking on a stone which I don’t have.  I did discover that the cookie sheet would be best if greased.

I was just reading a post from a week or two ago on my friend Val’s blog about crossing something off your holiday to-do list to cut down on stress.  She crossed off baking.  I almost did too, but for me that would have been really sad!  I love to bake and it just doesn’t seem like Christmas if I cut it out all together…so I just cut back a little bit.  I would have prefered to have had a whole day to do it, but I’m happy I got some done.  Not to sure about those cupcakes though…I’m fading fast.

So what do you do for Christmas Eve?  My family has always had our Christmas celebration including gifts on Christmas Eve - even when I was a little girl (Santa came to our house first *wink*).  Whatever you have planned I hope you are all ready and not too stressed!  Thanks for stopping by.

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