Baking and the Nutcracker

I originally planned on keeping my holiday baking small and simple.  As that concept is new to me...I of course let small and simple get totally out of control in no time at all.  I did the baking in stages as it would be completely impossible to accomplish all in one day. 

 Stage 1 - Chocolate covered pretzels.  Ali enjoyed helping and did a really great job.  I was impressed that she could do it all on her own.

 Sophi did a great job sitting happily and looking cute.

 Stage 2 - Making 2 pans of caramels

Stage 3 - Baking 11 loaves of poppy seed bread and 9 loaves of banana bread

Stage 4 - Baking 2 pans of lemon bars, 2 pans of magic bars and hundreds of cookies (peanut butter kiss, white chocolate, craisin, macadamia nut, and chocolate chip)

Stage 5 - Delivering over 40 plates

 Ali was able to wear her Cinderella dress, watch movies and lick cookie dough - she had a great day.

 Here I am 1/2 way through the final day - stage 4.

 No...I did not magically take a picture of myself taking this out of the oven.  Ali had fun with the camera.

 And here I am around midnight after a good 16 hours of baking.  I say this now - but who knows if it will stick - I AM NOT doing it again next year :)  I love baking and I love lots of people so I can hardly resist baking for all of the great people we love.  I am sure it will occur in some form again next year.

 Ali has really gotten into ballet lately and she has a Barbie and the Nutcracker movie that she loves so I thought it would be fun to take her the real ballet.  My good friend Sara was able to get free tickets to the Jeoffrey Ballet's production.  We had a wonderful time!

 Yes, I know Ali's eyes are closed.  I took 3 pictures in a row and they were closed in all of them!  Oh how I love the ballet.  It was truly beautiful and it got Alexandra excited for her upcoming ballet lessons.

 The auditorium is beautiful!