Post Christmas Greetings!

I hope you don't mind, but I took some time off from blogging. I'm back and ready to share stories, recipes and lots of pictures with you.


Wow! We've had a very blessed Christmas week. We spent a lot of time, shopping, and preparing for our traditional Christmas parties with our familes. We seem to have a tradition to have our photo taken in front of the Christmas tree every year, since Katie was born. This year was very special because we got to include our new little addition to the family photo. Colton seems to be a natural in front of the camera.

Katie and I have been the Betty Crocker cookie makers this year. (lol!) Katie has discovered, she likes to help mom in the kitchen. I let her do a little more to help me out this year compared to last. I'd measure out all the ingredients and let her help me pour them into the bowl. On a couple of occasions, I'd bake the cookies and she would decorate them. Laura - you and Alise hit the nail right on the head by getting Katie an apron. She loves it! I let her open Alise's presents the day before Christmas Eve. Of course, she had me put the apron in the wash right away. She wants it to be clean and ready for the next time, we make cookies. HA HA!
The snowflake sugar cookies, we made, seem to be the hit at the parties. God bless him, Chase, told Leslie they were too pretty to eat. I knew I liked him for some reason. (HA HA!)
I'd never used Meringue powder until this year instead of my regular recipe for Royal Icing, which calls for egg whites. Wow! It really opened up my eyes because I only had to use 3 ingredients in order to create the icing. I flooded the cookies with a Winter blue icing. The pearly looking balls are made of sugar.
We cut out all sorts of different designs of snowflakes and piped even more creative patterns. I had lots of fun making them. I think we ended up with close to 3 dozen or more.
These are the "Holiday Cake Bon-Bons," I'd talked about before. They were delicious! The batch, we made, ended up being a little over 2 dozen. I was afraid Kevin and Pat would make fun of the small size bon-bons that's why you see them a little bigger than normal. I created them and Katie put the sprinkles on them. She had lots of fun doing the sprinkles. Below is the recipe:

Holiday Cake Bon-Bons
1 box cake mix (any flavor)(water, vegetable oil & eggs called for on cake mix box)
1 container frosting
3 oz. vanilla or chocolate-flavored candy coating

Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9" pan with baking spray with flour. Prepare cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil & eggs. pour into pan. Bake 30-33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, crumble the warm cake; stir in the frosting until well blended. Refridgerate for 1 to 2 hours.

Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Shape into balls. (If mixture is too sticky, refrigerate until firm enough to shape.) Freeze 30 minutes.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, microwave candy coating on HIGH for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring until smooth. Dip the balls, one at a time, in candy coating using a wooden skewer or fork to hold them. Place on aluminum foil-covered cookie sheet. Decorate as desired. Refridgerate cake balls about 10 minutes or until coating is set. Serve at room temperature. Store in airtight container.