The holidays come around and I start planning dessert (not that I eat processed sugar, but that’s another post). I can’t help it. I married a chocoholic and evidently that’s catching.

As the countdown to Christmas continues, we’ve been busy baking in the kitchen. Here are links to two delicious gluten-free treats that we’ve made to share with friends this holiday season.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Quick, easy (just four ingredients!) and super yummy, we gobbled down these peanut butter cookies and even made a second batch cause they tasted so good. Incredibly delicious (and high calorie), they are dangerous to have around the house. Thank you to David for bringing the rest into work to share with his coworkers. I don’t need the temptation. So. Very. Tasty.

Peppermint Bark

I’ve always been a sucker for the chocolate and mint flavor combination. My favorite childhood treat? York peppermint patties. (Okay, and Entenmann’s crumb donuts! I haven’t eaten one in fifteen years, but my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I love those coffee-cake crumbles.)

In my mind, pairing candy canes with chocolate, whether it be hot chocolate (a great way to infuse mint into your cup as your candy cane melts!) or white and dark chocolate for peppermint bark, makes for the ultimate holiday indulgence.

Thanks to fantastic recipes on the internet, peppermint bark doesn’t have to be pricey or contain synthetic dyes (thanks to more natural candy canes!). In fact, making bark can be simple and downright inexpensive depending on your ingredients. I couldn’t locate peppermint extract in our small town grocery store to make the Bon Appétit version that Amanda loves, so I used a more simplistic recipe instead and it turned out just fine.

Super easy, with just three ingredients, this simple peppermint bark recipe makes for a kid-friendly baking experience that’s fun (hammers are involved!) and each step along the way tastes delicious. (Not that we were sampling. Ahem.)

Plus it looks so fine wrapped up ready to gift!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Remember the photos from our mama-only wreath making night? Making wreaths ourselves was a new experience for me and I found it to be incredibly simple, creative, gratifying, and such fun, especially when surrounded by friends! We used materials gathered from our properties: eucalyptus, pine, and redwood branches, rosemary, seed pods, redwood cones, and berries.

What an inexpensive, home-made and heartfelt holiday activity!

We’ve hung all our wreaths outside our entryway, greeting and bringing us holiday cheer each time we walk inside. I find myself smiling each and every time I come home.

(Corn angels, above and below, created by our friend, New Mexican artist Harry Benjamin.)

(My aunt made and gave us this beautiful wreath, below, featuring rose hips, pine cones, and bay leaves from her home in Oregon.)

Love all of them!

The experience has inspired me to start a tradition of seasonal wreath making — one for each season! I think the spring one needs grape vines, bird feathers, and eggs. It sounds so good, but we’ll see if it actually happens. Who’s with me?!

When I think of David’s grandma, I immediately remember her love of dessert. Strawberry desserts, chocolate desserts, pretty much any type of dessert.

When eating out, she would purposefully order a small meal in order to leave plenty of room for dessert. We love this about her.

When he was a child, my husband remembers occasionally stopping at his grandma’s house after school during the holiday season and indulging in hot chocolate and gingersnap cookies. To him, chocolate and ginger smell of Christmas.

In her memory, we brought the tradition of hot chocolate and gingersnaps alive this weekend.

Our daughter, who inherited the dessert-loving gene, savored every moment of our special snack.

Cheers to Grandma! We love and miss you.

David’s grandmother passed away on Friday in New Mexico. In the midst of our sadness, we’re focusing on cherishing our memories of her and celebrating her long life.

She was a classy, creative, kind, smart, funny, amazing woman.

With her children:


With David, her first grandchild in 1980:

At our wedding in 2005:


In 2008, meeting her great-granddaughter for the first time:


A year later, in 2009:

Giving Great-Grandma kisses:


Celebrating her 80th birthday:



We shall treasure these photos. Miss you, Grandma.

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new activity from the week season.

We’re not quite finished decorating the tree, but will we every be? I am starting to think the answer is no. We could always sew more, dehydrate more, craft more.

I look forward to many more years of ornament making. We’ve had such a wonderful time decorating our first full-sized holiday tree. This experience has bought us such joy and peace.

More pictures, instructions and inspiration for our ornaments:
+ Bird ornaments (from Skip to my Lou)
+ Beaded wreath ornaments
+ Felted stars, wooden stars, and felt hearts
+ Dehydrated orange slices (try dehydrating ruby red grapefruit for a beautiful pink color!)

Remember that beautiful holiday wreath made out of an embroidery hoop and clothespins? I finally made it.

Simple, easy, fun! I used pictures of our Amy Butler designed, non-toxic laminated cotton tablecloth to glue on the clothespins (so we could use the wreath year round to hold pictures and cards).

The toddler helped with the gluing of the paper to the clothespins. I hot glued them on to the hoop. We hung it with a push pin.

The whole thing cost about $3.50 since most of the supplies came from our local craft resale shop (in brand new condition). I’d like to think that you’d never guess that by looking at it. It certainly doesn’t look expensive, but I hope it doesn’t look that cheap either. Besides, it was made with love!

The project couldn’t have been easier and I love the look of it. Thanks to Kathleen for the inspiration and tutorial. Now it’s your turn to try it!

I love hanging with my friends. Now that our kids are getting older, we can finally prioritize spending time away from our families. After the kids are asleep we meet up to craft together, enjoy good food, strong drinks and first-rate conversation. We laugh, we share, we cry (tears of laughter and sorrow), we unwind and relax. It’s precious and I dearly treasure every minute spent with these gals.

Here’s a glimpse from last weeks adventures together.

Making wreaths:

Dressing up a la Sex and the City to watch the movie sequel:

Gotta love girl friends.