Christmas Cozy

Merry Christmas!!! Hope you all had a merry day and that Santa left you just what you wanted.  We haven't eaten our Christmas dinner yet so while it is cooking I thought I'd share my Christmas centerpiece. It's a spin on one from a couple years ago that I tweaked with different ornaments and a wicked fun wooden tool box I got for a steal at an antique flea market.  The change in ornaments was a good excuse to buy some "vintage" ornaments at a pop up antique fair I went to in NH at the start of the month. :)

The mason jars are half-pint, pint, quart, and half-gallon ones that I've collected over the years.  They come in handy as vases or for "cake-in-a-jar/ pie-in-a-jar" treats.

Speaking of jar treats, this was last years Thanksgiving dessert basket.  The half-pint jars had single serve pecan pie and the pint jars had scratch cakes with homemade frosting.  The pie and frosting turned out great, the cake needed work.  Bless their hearts the family ate all of the jar sweets regardless any need to revisit the recipes. :)  I'd love to say that I came up with the idea for this on my own, but I saw it on Pinterest and added it to my mason jar board. Sadly, when I went to find it again I had repinned from someone who didn't link directly to the post.  Now I'll have to search through the whole blog to find it again. :(

Here's another view. It's kinda tricky to take pics of this centerpiece cause the toolbox hides some of the effect on camera.  Oh well.  Picture it in your mind. :)  See the tree in the back?  That's the snow tree.  My friend's middle daughter Lily got to decorate that tree this year.  We saw them last night and apparently letting that little gal have free reign to decorate the whole tree was like letting me loose in a craft store. Glad she was so happy, 'cause I love how the tree looks!

Those friends we saw last night?  Well their youngest daughter's birthday is Christmas Eve.  We got together to have dinner and wish the half-pint a happy birthday.  We had a fabulous time together and enjoyed losts of tasty goodies.  We brought birthday cake cookies- also spotted on Pinterest (direct link to the recipe here).  I'm going to have to start a board where I pin the stuff I've actually made from Pinterest. :) These were uber easy and uber delicious! Sally gives great tips so the cookies are nicely shaped & soft/chewy. 

Have a merry rest of your night- good luck if you are shopping tomorrow!