Early Christmas

Hi all! How has your Sunday been so far?

Mine has been spectacular!

A few weeks ago, I was having MAJOR camera/computer issues, and I thought that I was going to have to just buy a new camera.  Ryan and I had worked on figuring out the problem for a few hours, and were getting nowhere, so I said, “Well, I guess I should just go to Best Buy and get a new camera.”  I’ve had  mine for going on five years now, so it’s pretty beat-up.  I’ve been talking about buying a new one for a few months, so I figured I might as well just bite the bullet.

“You can do that,” Ryan said, “but…” he trailed off.  “What?” I asked him. 

“Well, you should know that your parents are planning on buying you a new camera for Christmas,” he told me.

Well!  You can imagine my excitement!  When my mom found out that I knew what I was getting, she was (of course) so disappointed!  “You won’t have any surprises!” she kept saying. 

I didn’t care! I was excited enough without it being a surprise!

She agreed to let me open my gift early, so that I could take it along with me to Seattle next week. 

BUT– first, we had lunch.

I had a Smart Wrap tortilla filled with carrot salad, Laughing Cow cheese, some “baba ganoush hummus” (explain that to me– aren’t these two totally different dishes?  Whatever), cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, and lettuce.  On the side– baby carrots and crackers.

Yum! Lunch was good, but we had cookies on the brain…it was time to do some baking!

But first…early Christmas!  Ryan captured the magic with my point-and-shoot:

What could it be?

Oh my gosh! A camera!!

It’s a Nikon 5000– I’m so excited!  I actually have a nice Nikon film camera that I used for a photography class that I took while studying abroad in France 7 years ago, so I’m used to the settings.  I think this camera will be a fun challenge– I was definitely having fun with it this afternoon.  Once “Christmas” was over, we got to work baking cookies.

Our sugar cookie recipe is one that has been in my mom’s family for ages.  It’s very simple, but absolutely perfect:

Jessie Mae sugar cookies

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. lemon juice

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Directions:

Cream together egg, sugar, butter, and lemon juice.  Add flour and baking powder.  Form into a dough, and divide into two balls.  Wrap with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.  Once chilled, remove from refridgerator and roll onto a floured pastry cloth, until dough is about 1/8 of an inch thick (if you prefer thicker cookies, you can leave the dough slightly thicker).  Using cookie cutters, cut out desired shapes from dough.  Decorate with sprinkles, and bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 for 10-15 minutes, until cookies have begun to turn golden at the edges.

I was playing around with the camera, so I have A LOT of pictures from our baking adventure.  Bear with me

The first batch was ready to go in:

Then…I started to really have some fun with the camera!  (*warning* Artsy-fartsy shots ahead!)

Baxter was a great subject– the camera loves him!

And then…Katherine and Kevin (and Sophie!) came over to help us out!

Hi Sophie!!

Less than three months now!

All in all, it was a great afternoon! I think I’m really going to enjoy getting to know this new camera– I’m so excited that I’ll be taking it with me to Seattle. 

I hope you’re having a great day.  We’re all relaxing right now, and later, we’ll be trimming the tree!

See ya tonight!