Christmas Cookies & Tree Festival

One Christmas tradition I remember growing up was to make and decorate Christmas cookies with my mom and then deliver them to friends and neighbors. Since Eli was born, I've carried on the tradition. This year we made gluten free sugar cookies that were the best recipe I've found yet! I also made the icing instead of buying the pre-made icing because it's cheaper and only has 5 ingredients opposed to 50+ in the store bought. Why they need so many ingredients for icing, I don't know! Anyway, after we made our cookies, the boys and I went to the fire station to deliver them. Eli was excited to go, but when we got there, he said maybe one word and his expression never changed...serious face the whole time. They showed him the inside of the station and both fire trucks, too. After we got home we delivered cookies to our neighbors.










Since we've lived in Austin, we've enjoyed going to the Trail of Lights every year at Christmas time. It's just a big display of lights where you can walk on the trail and see them, plus food and entertainment. This year the city scaled back on the festival to save money. It was much smaller, but the same idea. We actually liked it better because it was just the right amount of time for the boys. Any longer, and there might have been some meltdowns. It was called the Zilker Tree Holiday Festival because it centered around the big Zilker Christmas tree that has been an Austin tradition for 40 years or so. It's fun to stand under the tree and spin. We got a video of it so you can sort of get the dizzy feeling. In the picture of John and I, we're holding the camera down so it's looking up in the tree. Eli also got to take some pictures of John and I posing behind the statues.