So. Many. Presents.

Sometimes I expect way too much from myself.  Since I was going to be on layoff for a few weeks and I was going to have all this extra time, I decided to make lots of gifts that I normally wouldn't do.  Plus all the stuff I would normally do for the holidays.  Then Ethan's birthday is the week before Christmas.  And, I wanted to get a head start on the quilt show stuff.

I bought this snowman fabric a couple of years ago on sale at Sweet Annies'.  I knew it was perfect to make those cute towels everyone makes and I've been meaning to get to them forever.  So, I made 3 sets.  2 for gifts in Christmas exchanges and 1 for myself.  They took longer than I expected but I like the way they look.  I'm probably going to make some for other holidays.  Maybe adding some applique instead of just the strips. 

Baking has taken up tons and tons of time.  I made these Hot Cocoa Cupcakes for the quilt guild's Christmas party.  Nobody could figure out that they were supposed to be cups of cocoa until I mentioned it.  It was so obvious on Pinterst:(  I used the Hershey's chocolate cake recipe with marshmallow frosting.  They at least tasted good.

The really funny thing was when I brought the leftovers home, I put them under my cake dome.  The moisture from the frosting melted the candy canes all over everything.  The carnage was amazing.  That's the picture I should have taken.

Not to mention the massive amounts of cookies I baked.  I didn't take pictures.  My thought was to blog about each recipe because this blog was started to keep track of my baking escapades, hence the name.  Then I started thinking about how much work that was going to be, so I  told myself no.  I made 6 large trays, 2 boxes for mailing, 1 large batch of chocolate covered pretzel rods and 4 batches of Oreo truffles.  The Oreo truffles were amazing...  One package of crushed Oreos, 1 pkg of cream cheese.  Mix together.  Make 1" ball.  Dip in chocolate.  Sweet Holy Mother of God...

A few months ago, I saw this snowman pattern on pinterest.  Then my friend Judy, in California, asked me to make one for her.  So, I began a search to find the pattern.  It was on somebody's blog but no mention was made of who's pattern it was.  Then, by a stroke of luck I happen to follow the blog of the designer that it belongs to.  The designer is Sweetwater, in case you're wondering.  I was so excited when she posted that they were re-publishing the pattern!

First, I turned the snowmen into pumpkins for the guild's auction.  Can you believe I forgot to take a picture?  Dang it.

Then, I made 6 snowman runners.  When Bethany saw them, she said, "Oh, I thought they were going to be penguins."  Ugh, opportunity missed!  I'm going to have to turn them into penguins.  But, during the making of these, my machine was really messed up.  So, by the time they were done, I wanted nothing more to do with them...  I made them 3 ways, some were quilted, some were done with buttons and one was done with brights.  My niece Shelly got that one because she had a pink and purple Christmas tree.

Then, I made a Thomas the Tank bag.

And, a purple tutu.  I love making these tutus.  Bethany has one in pink.

And 10 pillowcases.  My siblings are all quite a bit older than me.  So, my nieces and nephews are just a little younger than me.  Therefore, I have lots of great-nieces and great-nephews at the age that Christmas is really amazing right now.  I wish I could be more a part of each of their lives but we live all over the country.

Deveda has a girl and a boy.

Shelly has 6 kids of varying ages.  So, I tried to get a little bit of everything in there.

My nephew Gib is Jewish and he married a Catholic.  So, for their kids, I did 1 Hanukkah and 1 Santa.  Something for both sides.

I love making gifts for people.  Really love it.  But, next year, I'm going to try to spread it out over the year.  But, we all say that, don't we?  Does it sound more believable when you know what you want to make?