The Baking of the First Annual Christmas Goodies

We now have an annual christmas tradition in the Gustafson residence. The baking of the Christmas goodies was a big hit. We did learn one thing, well, maybe several things! First, the sugar cookies must come first, not last. Apparently, I forgot that the dough must sit for a few hours before you bake it. We waited 'til last to do the cookies which meant that Olen was baking sugar cookies in the middle of the night so that I could get some rest. Isn't he a good husband?!? I certainly appreciated it! Let's see....we made lots of goodies. We started with my chocolate fudge, which is still my favorite goodie. Then, I tried a new fudge. It was White Chocolate Cranberry fudge. Olen and Aiden loved that one. We followed up with my chocolate haystacks, as they've come to be known in my family. We also made a date nut candy roll which my mom used to make years ago. We've taken a vote that she isn't to make it anymore since it's so hard to stir. We decided that Olen will do the stirring from now on. Hmmm...we also made chocolate chip cookies to go with the sugar cookies. I also made a Pumpkin Butter Gooey cake to take for the church fellowship. I just love this cake! It tastes so wonderful. Of course, it has a couple of sticks of butter in it to start off with. It wasn't as big of a hit at the dinner though. We actually had leftovers which is rare for us. Did I mention that we also made a loaf of homemade bread to take with us to the dinner? It was definitely a feat to make and take all of these things. My mom stayed and played with Aiden so he'd stay out of the kitchen. As you can see by the pictures, we still had to put up blockades so he'd stay out from underfoot. We learned that we definitely need someone to help with him when we're doing this. We also learned that we need to schedule a FULL day to do it in. We didn't get started 'til about 7pm that night and we were still going in the middle of the night. Well, Olen was still going!! The rest of us were trying to get our beauty sleep in. After the whole experience, I figured that Olen would say that we should never do that again. To my surprise, the next day he declared it an annual tradition. He had a blast!! This could be a lot of fun in years to come!