Lessons I Learned While Baking Cookies

Today Mom and I had a cookie baking extravaganza and I learned a few valueable lessons.

1. I'm not much of a cookie baker.

2. I suppose I should bake cookies more than once a year.

3. Read, REALLY READ, not just skim, the directions before you start assembling the ingredients for your cookies.

4. Don't eat unsweetened chocolate by itself. It will taste like chalk in your mouth.

5. A bowl gets really hot when it has been in the microwave for 4 minutes.

6. When all of your table and counter space get filled with cookies and bowls, the floor will do nicely for your other supplies.

7. Kitchen-Aid mixers are awesome!

8. Sometimes the sloppiest, ugliest cookies are the best tasting cookies.

9. A hot cookie sheet can burn through an oven glove.

10. There is nothing better than the smell of cookies baking in the oven.

11. Except getting to eat those cookies.

Christmas Funnies

I saw this in the Hallmark store the other day and had to buy it.

I have a friend who has 3 cats and one year she had a difficult time keeping one particular cat away from the Christmas tree. Not long after they had put the tree up, she and her husband were awakened by an ear-splitting crash in the middle of the night. They went downstairs and found one of their cats had climbed into the tree and knocked the whole thing down, breaking most of her ornaments. She told me that cat never bothered the tree again.

1989 was the year that we got our first dog, Annie and the first time we bought a real tree for Christmas. Annie was about 7-8 months old when we got the tree. Annie must have thought it was exciting that we brought a little bit of the outdoors into the house because she chewed off a bottom branch of the tree and ran around the house with it. Our parakeet Tinker didn't want to be left out of the fun and decided to fly into the tree when I let him out of his cage. It was so funny.

Do you have a story that involves either a pet or child incident with the Christmas tree?

GruntDoc has a link to a hilarous website called the Scared of Santa Photo Gallery where participants mailed/emailed photos of themselves as children or their own kids screaming and crying when faced with Santa Claus. My favorite picture is the third one...check it out. I don't ever remember being afraid of the mall Santa. In fact, my mom told me one Christmas season I talked Santa's ear off when I sat on his lap! There was also the Christmas when I had Santa come to MY house on Christmas eve! (It was a neighbor from across the street) I remember being so excited to be able to see Santa that night. I may have talked his ear off then too.

How many of you remember being afraid of Santa (or your kids being afraid) and either crying or screaming to get off his lap? I'd love to know...tell me your stories!