Christmas Cookie Baking

As you might have been able to guess, they don't celebrate Christmas here. There aren't any decorations up in stores or anything around the city. The weather is the same as it was in August when I arrived here, just a little wetter. So it really doesn't feel like Christmas time. That's been a little weird for me. You always feel overwhelmed by Christmas in the States and the commercialism of it all, especially when they start to put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. But now being in a place where there is none of that you have to work much harder to make it feel like Christmas is coming.

So that is what we did. One Saturday night a couple weeks ago we spent the evening baking Christmas cookies. We put on Christmas music, made 8 different cookie recipes, and decorated my friends' Jennie, Lindsey, and Molly's house. We had fun despite the chaos of having so many projects going on at once. And best of all it made it feel like Christmas is coming.

Me, Beccy, and Lindsey unwrapping marshmallows for a haystack recipe.

Jennie ladling out cider and Lindsey making popcorn.

Beccy and I took over popcorn duty after Lindsey burnt a batch.

Lindsey and Emma opening packages of Indonesian brand M&Ms.

This was some sort of munchie mix that I had never heard of before. Unfortunately we had to do a few substitutions because we couldn't find everything we needed. I don't think the fruit loops, corn flakes, or crushed up ice cream cones were part of the original recipe.

Jennie was being a little impatient and didn't want to wait until the peanuts had cooled before putting them into the mix. Despite my protests she did it anyway.

Chaos in the kitchen- too many projects going on at one time. I believe this picture stems from the fact that Jennie couldn't find the can opener and thought perhaps her pembantu had done something with it and hadn't told her. Meanwhile I'm melting white chocolate and Beccy is roasting peanuts.