Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortenin'...

I've been doing a little baking this weekend.

I've been trying to come up with a good Alaska shaped cookie cutter for a while. After looking around, on the internet and in stores, I decided I was going to have to make my own. There are probably better ways to go about it... But I took an existing cookie cutter (out of my recent thrift store purchase of 40 Christmas Cookie Cutters) and molded it to fit around an image of Alaska we'd printed off the internet. It turned out the single cookie cutter wasn't quite big enough to get around the Aleutian Islands, so I spliced in a portion from a second cookie cutter and voila! Geographically correct Alaska cookie cutter!

I couldn't find my favorite shortbread recipe, so I downloaded another one off the internet and it was scrumptious. I made two full batches... We each gained 14 pounds... :o|

In the meantime, the kids had their Winter Concert on Friday night. The first show was catastrophic, but the second show was a great success. So all's well that end's well!

Donald is in the top row, 7th from the right. Tess is in the 2nd from top row, 3rd from the left.

While I baked and wrapped gifts this weekend, Alicia May spent much of her time being "precocious". But she did take a few moments out of her busy schedule to admire the giant snow globe which has taken up residence in our dining room.

We bought this last year after Christmas when it was on deep discount. The thought was to put it out on the deck which would make it visible from the road. Unfortunately, the instructions say it shouldn't be placed outdoors during freezing conditions... Who designs an outdoor Christmas decoration that can't be used during freezing conditions? And then has the nerve to market it in Alaska? I guess you can sell fans to eskimos...