indulging creative impulses: extravaganza of sweets.

today, ellie and i set out to create an impressive list of holiday treats. 

here is what we made:

the tipped (tumped, if you're my daddy) over jar is fiddle faddle, my gramma's recipe; the chocolate-topped one is mock toffee, a family must-have this time of year; the round iced one is a chai tea egg nog cookie, a new family must-have; the red sprinkled one is a vanilla sugar cookie; the jar of creamy goodness is cinnamon honey butter and the stocking-shaped one is a cinnamon peanut butter dog treat with cream cheese yogurt icing.

this stuff... oh.my.word. it is so yummy. and these jars! aren't they quaint? i have six jars of this heaven, and i have to deem who is worthy of its glory. you can spread it on anything bread-like. that is, if you're going to try to resist just eating it with a spoon.

like i said, ellie helped. here she is stirring the ingredients for the candy-carmely-goodness part of the fiddle faddle.

here she is covering a vanilla sugar cookie with green sugar crystals.

oh, here's gray's contribution. such a helpful one.

and here she is mushing the dough for doc's treats before cutting them with cookie cutters.

i was showing off my mountain of sweets to landon, and he complimented me on it. i said, "remember, i made these with my daughter." he gave me a funny look and said, "that is so crazy -- that she's old enough to do this kind of stuff with you."

it is crazy. crazy awesome. 

she's such a good helper. she does a really great job. aside from trying to eat all the popcorn before we made the fiddle faddle and refusing to let me place her cookie cutter when making the dog treats. 

she is also still working on the patience of letting the food cook. she kept saying, "let's make cookies!" the whole time we were making them. they didn't look like edible cookies yet, and she couldn't help but wonder, "what's the holdup??" 

i am quite exhausted now, and i have laundry that must be done before i hit the sack. but this is a good kind of tired. full. satisfied. and i don't mean in my tummy. that part's just a bonus.