Christmas decorating and baking ...

Most of the house is decorated now other than our tree. We'll put it up sometime next week. I did things a bit differently and really was pleased with how everything came out. Here's the window above my kitchen sink ... DH said he liked the "childlike" feeling of the window sill ... said it looked like I had fun putting this together ...

This area is in my kitchen nook ...

and here's the kitchen table ... there are now candy kisses in the glass tree and candy canes in the square basket ...

we have a room divider that is home for a lot of my reindeer at Christmas ... here's a picture of a couple of the shelves ... this year I put all my antique reindeer all together on one shelf ...

this is a small wall in our kitchen, which backs up to our family room ... these plates are from Crate and Barrel, pretty cute plates for $5 each! I've been collecting them for the last few years. Usually they hang in the dining room for Christmas, but then I don't get to see them alot, so this year DH helped me hang them in the kitchen and I love how they look!

and here's the fireplace mantel in our family room ... one of my very favorite place to decorate (for every holiday!) cause we spend all our time here and get to enjoy the display ...

Now on to the baking part of this post ... yesterday Lisa and I got together for our annual Christmas cookie baking. We had a great day ... after baking we had pizza and watched Miracle on 34th Street and then enjoyed the hot tub ... wonderful day/evening!

Here's Lisa ... wonder if I made her forget how many cups of flour she was doing?? lol

cooling the cookies ... don't you love the smell of Christmas cookies ... all the butter and sugar and vanilla smells ...

Here's what I had this morning after our day of baking ... some curious reindeer want to know what's in the tins ...

here's all the goodies ... we have cranberry cookies and Spritz cookies, two tins of pretzel bark (thanks Paulette) and a pan of Crispix mix (caramel coating with peanuts) ... hmmmm think maybe I need a little plate of goodies to go with my latte that DH just brought home for me :)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I'm off to stitch and watch the Seahawks ...

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for Christmas goodies ...