Christmas Recap - Holiday Baking, the ER trip, and Christmas Eve

For quite a few years now, I've been making cookies during the holidays to send to Dale to enjoy with his evening coffee. The girls helped make quite a few batches this year. Carissa started off the baking at the end of November with a new recipe for Buttermilk cookies, and of course we had to have some extra 'helpers' too.

journaling: Carissa helped me begin the holiday cookie baking this year. Our first batch of cookies
was a new recipe, Buttermilk Cookies. They look and taste a lot like snickerdoocles, but don’t have quite as strong of a ‘tang.’
credits: Saxon's Holiday Kitchen, Kitchen Accidents, by Saxon Holt at Scrapbook-elements; Little Brush Alpha by Cinnamon Designs (blog freebie); Recipe card from Funky Junky Home for the Holidays by Michelle Godin, Rachel Young and Kate Hadfield; Date Stamps 2 by Trish Jones; fonts: Typewriter

Here is the final list of cookies that we made this year:

journaling: We continued our annual cookie baking tradition so that we could send a box of cookies to Dale to enjoy with his coffee before bed at night. Here are the cookies that we made this year- some old and some new: 1. Eggnog Cookies, 2. Peppermint Bark, 3. Jammy Fantasias, 4. Spritz, 5. Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, 6. Buttermilk Cookies, 7. Peanut butter Blossoms, 8. Merry Christmas Cookies, 9. Dounle Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake, 10. Chocolate Chip Cookies
credits: Holiday Spirit by Dani Mogstad at SweetShoppeDesigns; stitch by Dianne Rigdon from Life Is a Bistro; Pencil Lines 115 template by Michelle Filo; fonts: TXT Santa Font, Times New Roman

We went to my mom's house after lunch on the 23rd to bake and decorate cookies and put together the gingerbread house. Brenna was the first one out of the van and ran immediately for the door. Her foot caught the electrical cord that wasn't quite tucked under the edge of the deck and she went face first into the deck boards. She was crying, but I didn't see any blood so I picked her up and put her in the house while we finished unloading everybody and everything. She wouldn't stop crying and there was some blood on her hand, so I took her into my mom's bathroom to figure out what was going on and get her cleaned up. I get out a tissue and start dabbing at the blood on the bottom of her chin and notice right away that the gash is deep and big and that there is no way that is healing without stitches. So, off to the ER we go after a temporary patch up with a regular bandaid. Thankfully they were not busy at all and we were taken back right away. We spent more time sitting and waiting for the topical anesthetic to work than anything. Brenna now sports 8 stitches on the bottom of her chin. Here's hoping that we can stay out of doctor's offices (Carissa was very sick with a sinus infection and bronchitis) and the ER (except for the trip back to the hospital in 5 days to have the stitches taken out) for the rest of the holiday vacation. We were only gone for about an hour and a half, so they were still baking cookies and Brenna was able to join in the fun right away. The stitches haven't seemed to bother her all that much the last few days and it seems to be healing well.

journaling: What an event this afternoon turned out to be. Brenna was so excited to be going to Grandmama’s house to bake and decorate cookies and put together the gingerbread house that she ran for the door and tripped over an electrical cord that wasn’t quite tucked under the deck. She split her chin open and Mama had to take her to the emergency room to have it stitched together. Luckily, the ER wasn’t busy that day and after an hour and a half we were back and ready to join in the fun of creating edible masterpieces.
credits: Sweet Cupcake and Candy Coated Christmas by Dani Mogstad at SweetShoppeDesigns; Cookie Template by Jenny Jorgensen, SweetShoppeDesigns; Collaged Date Tags by Robin Carlton at SweetShoppeDesigns; fonts: CK Becky

and on Christmas Eve we attended the service at my mom's church in the evening, Mark brought home a pretty holiday centerpiece for the table, we started a 500 piece nativity scene puzzle that my mom brought over, opened the new pajamas, left out milk and cookies for Santa, and Mama enjoyed the Christmas glow in the peace and quiet after everyone was asleep and she had put out all of the Santa gifts.

credits: {Christ}mas by Rachel Young and Jaque Larsen at scrapartist; 7 Things template by Kristin Tilley from DST Insider
fonts: TXT Delicate Script, Vintage Typewriter