We took this photo yesterday around 4:30 in the afternoon, about to head to the post office and mail most of our Christmas packages. Do I look tired? Because I was. I’ve been spending hours and hours in the kitchen in the past few days, baking and cooking and packaging and labeling. I’ve actually been enjoying myself immensely, which is probably no surprise. As we all know, I love to bake and cook. I even figured out a way to watch shows on iTunes while I baked without endangering my laptop.

Plastic wrap on the keyboard! Works like a charm.

I’ve been doing as much of this stuff during the day as I can, but for some reason Annalie has been totally uninterested in helping me with any of it. Normally she loves helping me in the kitchen so I don’t really know why she’s hasn’t wanted to help lately. I’ve coaxed her to hang out with me in the kitchen a couple of times by suggesting she draw some Christmas pictures for friends and family.

This is a drawing of Annalie hugging a giant candy cane. Cracked me right up.

And when I’ve let her watch shows or play games on the laptop, or offered her hot cocoa, Annalie will hang out for a while. But she never wants to stay in the kitchen for long. The Christmas tree has been the source of much inspiration in Annalie’s play, and the centerpiece of several elaborate games, so she likes playing upstairs in the living room most of the time right now. I don’t want to spend all day downstairs while my kid is upstairs, so I’ve been putting off a lot of the baking till after Annalie’s in bed.

I don’t mind late nights, and baking late at night is kind of a hobby of mine. But because most of the gifts we’re giving this year are homemade goodies, I’ve been doing a LOT of baking. Since Annalie and I going to be out of town for Christmas, I had a deadline for getting everything baked and shipped. That has led to some very late nights recently. Coffee consumption has been higher than usual. I’ve been a bit loopier than normal.

For example, one night I had the bright idea to use address labels instead of tape to seal the wax paper wrapping around the homemade granola bars. You know, those free address labels you always get in the mail around Christmas? I’ll never use them all, since we’re moving soon, and I figured they were more festive than tape. In the morning I looked at the pile of address-labeled granola bars and had to laugh. It looked like I was very concerned about my granola bars always being able to find their way back home.

This idea was definitely a good one though. I’ve been saving all my plastic peanut butter and mayonnaise jars for a while, ever since I read somewhere that they were good for storing art supplies. It’s a good thing I never got around to organizing my art supplies because they made great containers for the pretzel pralines and candied nuts I made to give as gifts. I was originally planning to use some of the glass pickle and jam jars that I’ve also been saving for ages, but glass is heavier and breakable. The plastic jars might not be quite as pretty as glass, but they’re lightweight and sturdy, perfect for shipping.

I might have had a little too much fun drawing the labels for these. The candy-cane one is my favorite.

One thing I made a ton of that I haven’t written much about is the World’s Best Apricot Cookies. I’ve mentioned them a few times, and some of you have emailed me asking for that recipe. I will get to that eventually, I promise.

I painted this ornament a few weeks ago when I just wanted something small to paint while supervising Annalie’s painting one day. I meant to put it in my Etsy shop before now, but I totally forgot about it till I was looking for something in my cupboard during one of those late-night baking sessions. It’s listed there now if anyone wants it.

Bex saw this one on Flickr and claimed it right away. It’s also in my shop, just waiting for Bex to buy it.

And now I have to go finish my laundry and dig out Annalie’s snow pants and pack our suitcases because tomorrow we’re headed to Omaha where we’ll probably have a very white Christmas at my parents’ house with its new siding.

Photos taken by my mom