Excited; Thankful

I just wanted to share some exciting news, and I can't believe I haven't blogged about this already! My "Squash Cut-Out Cookies" submission to the "National Cookie Network Baking Challenge" won for October! Special thanks go out to new visitors that have stopped by my site, and also for the warm tidings of Congratulations. And gosh, and if that were not just the nicest thing to happen...




YET ANOTHER truly awesome thing has happened. A month or so ago I entered the Wilton Holiday Memories Cookie Contest. The rules were simple. Submit a favorite Christmas baking memory and you could win a Cookie Exchange prize package that contains everything you'll need for the slickest Cookie Swap ever! Well, I'm happy to say that my memory was a winner (!), and I'd like to share it with you. (condensed)

"Heather, Tennessee

I remember baking cookies as a child for Santa’s big arrival on Christmas Eve. We always used our Wilton Christmas cookie cutters. One year after waking to find that Santa had eaten my cookies I also found “snow” tracks in the shape of a boot on the hardwood floor. My mother had taken talcum powder and made special “non-melting snow” tracks. I will always remember the magic of that morning. Definitely my best Christmas memory ever!"

If you'd like to re-create this for your own child, you'll just need talcum powder and a work boot or snowshoe that has lots of tread on the bottom. I found that coating the bottom of the shoe with talc and then giving it one good hard thump on the floor worked great! Sprinkling the talc on the floor and then trying to imprint seemed to be a little messier and didn't make a nice footprint.

Currently, my mother will help me with rather large projects (that I get myself into) and all the while exclaim "I'm just not creative like you are!" Really now, Mom. What a truly creative and wonderful gift to give a child. Especially in a world where people seem to have lost their sense of magic.

I'm off to bake more cookies, and to plan for the impending Cookie Exchange!