Cookies, Kids, and Brownies

The girls and I recently made cookies together. They were not fancy cut-out cookies because most of my baking supplies are still packed in our garage. But, they tasted good and were fun to make anyway.

Decorating and making a big mess

Who needs toys? Our kids loving playing in baskets.

Going downtown to look at a huge lights display

The munchkins

These chocolate chip cookie brownies were amazing! They were also a major downfall for me after trying to eat healthier for quite some time. I must admit that I ate way too many of them! Thankfully, I hit the gym three days in a row after a weekend of eating them and I felt less guilty after that ;-)

About the picture at the top - let me just point out that my kids really don't have a clue who Santa is, not because we think he's evil or anything but we basically just try to focus on the other aspects of Christmas. But, I thought a picture with him would be cute and it was one of the few photos I got that night where there was no red eye or someone not cooperating.

Last year, I had just told Aubrie that Santa is not a real person and just a fun thing that people like to pretend about when there was a knock at our door and "Santa" was standing there! He gave us a card, said hello to the kids (who were staring at him wide eyed) and then he was off into the night. We had a bunch of family over and we all laughed it off, wondering which one of our friends had pulled off this little stunt. Then, we opened the card to find $50 and no name signed. We questioned all our friends and to this day, we still don't know who the mysterious Santa was. And Aubrie's reaction? "You said Santa wasn't real, Mom." Ummm...