Way More Homemade Holidays - Christmas Baking Edition

Like it or not, it's true. Christmas brings out the inner-baker in many of us.

I found this to be so well illustrated this week.

It was a crazy week for us and it seemed to just get crazier as the days passed. Mike was out of town on business, Sarah and I had dress rehearsals for our church production of "A Christmas Carol The Musical," Nathan had his preschool Christmas program, and I was juggling an odd work schedule so that I could go on a field trip with Sarah's class on Thursday, and we were trying to close on a refinance of our mortgage. That's how the week was planned.

Well, of course nothing seemed to go to plan. Sarah had a headache and threw up in the parking lot of a local business on our way home before rehearsal on Tuesday evening. So, no dress rehearsal on Tuesday. And no school on Wednesday.

I also got a call on Tuesday to remind me of a urologist appointment for Nathan on Friday morning. As if I didn't have enough I was juggling.

Then Nathan started acting like he didn't feel well on Wednesday after BSF, so I finally decided to have Mike (who was back in town at this point), take them both to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon. Strep. For both of them. So, no dress rehearsal on Wednesday evening for Sarah. And no school on Thursday for Nathan... which meant that either Mike or I would have to stay home from the field trip we've been planning to go on with Sarah's class since the beginning of school to see the King Tut exhibit at the DMA.

And then my throat began hurting so I took myself to the quack shack (Care Now clinic) just to see if they had shared the love. My test was negative, but I started a course of antibiotics just in case. Because, you know, the odds were kind of stacked against me.

All that to say, it's been a bit of a strange week.

But that doesn't actually say anything about baking does it? Well, here's that part of the story.

I was a work on Wednesday afternoon this week, which is different for me. I am normally off on Wednesdays, but worked Wednesday afternoon this week so that I could be off on Thursday morning to go on the field trip... that I didn't end up going on. On any other Wednesday, I would have totally missed this.

The dentist office across the street decided to have a Christmas dessert contest and asked our office to judge. Thinking that it would just be a couple of items, one of the guys said, "Sure." Well, we had samples of 19 different desserts (mostly cookies) to taste and judge.

Oh I don't have to tell you that we enjoyed ourselves. The cookie that won first prize was an almost brownie type chocolate cookie, topped with a creamy peanut butter, then topped with a chocolate fudge frosting. Heaven comes to mind now as I think of the greatness that was that cookie.

I can only imagine that some of the people from that office that submitted their creations would not consider themselves "bakers" by any stretch of the imagination. But something about Christmas brought it out in them.

I think it has that kind of effect on many of us. And that's what today (and this weekend) is about. Open up to your inner baker and share with us what you like to bake at Christmas-time.

Post your recipe on your blog. Put your name and recipe name in the first blank, then the link to your specific post in the second blank. Feel free to post more than one if you like.

I really want some new ideas. So, link away my friends. And if you don't have a blog, please still play along and leave a recipe in the comments. This will be up all weekend and possibly into next week. We'll see.