The Coco Cafe: Getting in the Spirit

We've really kicked into the Christmas spirit this week, despite the fact that I have been sick pretty much since Thanksgiving. The holidays wait for no man, after all. Not even for a sick mama.

So we started by baking up a cookie storm. Sugar cookies, and mexican wedding cookies (aka snowballs), and my "famous" mint chocolate cookies. And when those dwindle down we may start thinking about fudge.

This is my first year in quite a while not participating in a cookie exchange, and I have to say...it's kind of nice. I think in the end we baked a little over 6 dozen cookies for home and office use and that was a BIG difference from the 15 dozen I made last year, plus fudge, plus caramels, plus truffles. I'm not saying I wont ever do it again...just that the break was enjoyed.

After that we set up our Christmas tree.

Or shall I say Christmas bush? Zeke picked out the fattest tree I think I have ever seen. But it looks just perfect all dolled up with ornaments.

We even went Christmas shopping to fill out the bottom of the tree, and Zeke picked out and wrapped a gift for a little boy his own age who's family our church is sponsoring. We had been worried about how well this would work out for him, picking out a toy that he will probably want to keep, but he did great with it.

We've even "unwrapped" our first Christmas gift...

Claudia!!

Even though she is technically MY Christmas gift Zeke has been telling everyone how "daddy brought him a doggy for his own". And maybe it is partly true. We had pretty much decided on the name Kaylee after all when Zeke ran down the hall yelling "Come on Cla-la-la, I will show you my dinosaurs!!" And of course, off she ran and as Claudia she was forever known.

Other holiday activities have included, watching classic Christmas films (most notably Frosty the Snowman), singing carols (Jingle Bells was an instant hit), drinking hot chocolate (Zeke prefers tea, the wierdo), eating snow...