Christmas goodies

I wasn't going to do any baking this year for Christmas, but ended up doing some anyway because Rylan decided to hang on a while before being born, so I had some time on my hands and it was either baking or cleaning and baking won out. Here are some of the things I ended up making: I was getting really into making sugar cookies and decorating them with royal icing this year so I practiced a few different things. I think there's still a long way to go with the decorating (and the patience) but it's a lot more fun than decorating sugar cookies used to be for me. Turtles are always on the menu at Christmas. I think the homemade ones are a million times better than store bought. I always use Callebaut chocolate and that makes all the difference! I found this recipe for baked Jello popcorn. I LOVE my grandma's marshmallow popcorn balls, but thought I'd try some baked "caramel" popcorn. It was really addictive and I'm glad I made these to give away! PS - I've made since then a cinnamon caramel with white chocolate and pecans baked popcorn and it is heavenly...I'm planning when I can next make it for an event since I won't be able to keep it at home or I'll eat it all! I also ended up making two-layer peppermint bark and cranberry pistachio bark with white chocolate. The picture wasn't too good, so I'm not going to post it. So much for my resolution of not doing any Christmas baking this year!! (Side note - I also said I wasn't going to do Christmas cards this year, so for anyone who did or didn't receive cards or they weren't personalized enough for you, Dave did them all)