Capturing December | Day Nineteen

**This post is part of the Capturing December Project**


Umm, did December sixteenth, seventeenth & eighteenth actually take place? Hmm...must have missed those days. {Yes, I'm a slacker & I'm skipping three days of the Capturing December Project. So sue me.} 

A Christmas Tradition: Christmas Treats

Oh boy, we've got lots of Christmas traditions here in our household. We choose ornaments, on Christmas Eve we open a new set of Christmas jammies, we declare an annual Jammie Day, we drive around looking at Christmas lights, we watch "Christmas Vacation", we bake sugar cookies...you name it, we make it happen. I'm big on traditions. I'm big on leaving a legacy that will live on in the hearts of my children long after my life on this earth has passed. 

One tradition I've been busy chipping away at this past weekend has been my annual Christmas Treat Making Extravaganza {oh....now I recall where the last three days have gone}. Every year, I set my oven to 350, I get my pink KitchenAid a-spinnin', I tie the strings of a cute apron & I transform into quite a little Bakerella. I love to cook, I love to bake, but most importantly I love to give. And my own little special Christmas treats always seem to hit the spot with our neighbors & friends! 

I do have one small confession to make about this years treat making--I overdid it. Darn Pinterest. I seriously have a love/hate relationship with that site. I saw a gazillion ideas that I wanted to try for the holidays, & instead of choosing, oh say three of them {like a normal person would do}, I chose about thirteen of them. My kitchen looked like a candy store, I became cranky, crabby, grumpy, & short fused, & my poor husband & son steered clear of me. Lesson learned--moderation, chica. It's only fun to make holiday treats for neighbors when your arms don't feel like they're going to fall off from stirring melted chocolate & when reindeer cookie antlers don't send you into tears & to the grocery store at nine o' clock at night. Eh, what's the holiday season without a little stress, right?

In all actuality, if given the choice, I'd probably do it again just the same--all thirteen Pinterest ideas & all. It's worth having my kitchen turned upside down. It's worth losing a few hours of sleep. It's even worth the little bit of crabby I become {the hubs might tell you differently, but we didn't ask him, now did we?}. Because there's just something about hand delivering a gift that is packing all the good stuff--sugar, chocolate, frosting, & more love than can possibly be measured. 

I say every year that I'm going to do away with this treat making tradition of mine--that I'm going to buy store bought gifts the next year. But when next year actually rolls around, I find myself up to my eyeballs in white chocolate & a countertop plastered in cookie dough & frosting. You see? I just can't seem to part with it. 

It's tradition.