Holiday Baking

This year the kids wanted to bake goodies as presents for their teachers. So each day after school we came home and made something new...complete with Cameron's chef hat and apron. The baking festivites started on Saturday while my brother was in town (he flew to cater a special dinner our church hosted for it's volunteers). He made Christmas wreaths with the children...basically corn flakes, marshmallows, green food coloring and little red hots. One of our neighbors growing up, Jean Beavers, used to make these every year. Kevin and I certainly ate our fair share!
Each taking a turn adding the green food coloring...lots of green coloring...and then everything else.

And of course, a little tasting for quality control!
The most important thing about cooking is cleaning up and I have two great dish dryers!

Making gingerbread dough for our cookie project the next night.
The next night was gingerbread men...or, um, gingerbread snowmen and penguins.
The following evening we made white chocolate hay stacks...white chocolate, pretzels and raisins (my holiday favorite!)

We wrapped up our baking extravaganza with no bake cookies...the easiest of them all. I rolled the balls and the kids rolled them in powdered sugar. Notice how neat and clean everything was in the beginning...
And this was toward the end...powdered sugar everywhere...but at least we all had fun!
I had visions of getting such cute pictures of them giving the goodie baskets to their teachers but apparently I wasn't the only one waiting till the last day of school to give gifts. It was a zoo with all the kids arriving, gifts being passed around and the ever looming thrill of the playground just waiting to be climbed on. Let's just say their teachers got the gifts but I didn't get any pics...what's that saying, "sometimes it's not the destination but the journey that matters!" I love baking with my two little chefs!