Today is baking day...

And I don't mean, the gentle, couple loaves of bread baking day. No, this is the beginning of the great Christmas baking/candy making extravaganza that is my life this time of year.

Just as a rundown, here's what I'm making today...

2 Cream Cheese Pound Cakes--one for a certain other blogger I happen to know in real life...(hi, "Mom"!), and one for the children's speech therapist (she has five children, too, so I'm sure it will be eaten shortly!)
at least one batch of Molasses cookies
more than a couple batches of sugar cookies...

The pound cake recipe, is one I found years and years ago in a Southern Living Annual cookbook. I cannot remember the year, however. But it was one of their highest rated recipes..so I tried it. And from everyone I have ever given one too, it has been very well received...I'll post the recipe a little later...I use my Christmassy bundt pans (there are some very nice ones out there, even the pans that do the "minis" if you don't want a huge cake, but want to make a series of small ones instead, say for a party, or lunchtime get together). I've made the investment in a wide variety of Nordicware pans, for different occasions. Not just the standard baking pan....I've got several with hearts, one of the Cathedral pans, the Christmas tree pan....of course I've got the standard baking pan...El Husbando kind of rolled his eyes years ago...he didn't say too much about it. But now, I've got adequate storage space in my kitchen (yay!), so I've been able to keep them handy and user-friendly (I still want to figure out a way to better organize them, but we'll get there eventually, right?).

The molasses cookies...sound delicious. Plus, I have a bunch of molasses I rarely use. So, what better thing to do with them, and make cookies? The recipe is from Suzanne's website, Chickens in the Road. Lots of good, old fashioned cooking on that website. I always end up hungry after I've visited there. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not, but I've made a couple of her recipes and enjoyed them immensely. Yum. I'm looking forward to getting a bite of one of these cookies.

The sugar cookies are from Ree's website (y'all *do* know who Ree is, right? The one and only, Oklahoma's home girl, Pioneer Woman?)...I don't have alot of decorating 'stuff' (for some strange reason, I buy things, and they end up wandering off with the girls, and being consumed or played with in such a way that I can no longer use them). Color me peturbed on that. Fortunately, Ree's recipe has a recipe for a egg yolk egg wash for the cookies, that gets baked on, so minimal post-baking decorating is needed. Thank goodness!! I don't have time for that mess...

Later, I'll be making fudge, and saltine toffee, and likely some sugared nuts. And yes, I'll be sharing some of this bounty with friends nearby (not that any of them read this, yet...).

I've already gotten a preliminary invite for our neighborhood party typed up. I'm waiting on an opinion from El Husbando (I love being able to email him attachments at work--it makes it soooo much easier to get his opinion on things without having to wait for him to get home of an evening). Hopefully, I will be able to start getting those out today. We'll have to see when El Husbando gets back to me, though.

The Christmas letter is typed up, and I dug out the paper to print it on, this morning. I've got stamps. I need to get it printed up later today, though. I want to get envelopes addressed and stamped and ready for filling. I'm planning on taking a picture of the children either tonight or tomorrow, once I can get them all clean at the same time (this, this is a rant for another day!). Tomorrow is speech therapy day, and so we'll be gone all day long. Seriously. But we'll have fun, regardless, and hopefully I will be able to get everything done that I need to...

In case you need a little 'something' to brighten your day, or just feel like you're in the mood for a little baking, here is a rundown of the recipes I am using today...

Molasses Cookies:
http://suzannemcminn.com/blog/2008/11/18/craving-molasses-cookies/
Sugar Cookies:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/my_favorite_christmas_cookies_from_childhood_and_beyond/
Pound Cake:
http://myweb.cableone.net/howle/page/poundcakes.htm

You could do like I am doing, and get the cakes going first, as they take so long, and then get the cookies mixed up and "chilling", that way, you're maximizing your time use. Something we can all do a bit more of this time of year, in particular. Because we *need* more time in our days!

Hopefully, this evening, I'll also post some pictures of the decorations around here. Keep your fingers crossed for a good sunny day, as the flash makes everything look "off", and I've not figured out how to disable it... :-)

God willing, all of you are having a great day, and with 8 days until Christmas, you are still remembering the reason for the season, the commemoration of the birth of our Savior. God bless....