Christmas Crafts and Baking

Since I learned how to make my grandma's Christmas cookies, my family has demanded that I make them every year. They're not hard to make but the recipe sure makes a lot of them. Fortunately, I have a lot of people to feed! I'm heading to my fiancee's family's place for Christmas this year, so I thought I'd bring cookies. So I also made shortbread, Mexican wedding cake (cookies), and regular sugar cookies. Today I also made ginger snaps. I think I'll probably gain 10 pounds over Christmas, which is not good but cookies are delicious and I gain weight every time I make them. However, I hope to give away most of them (already sent a bunch off to the rest of my family). Also, some pictures of our tree, just for fun. We put it up mid-November, and there were even presents under it by then!Lastly, I've gotten into soap making recently. I like to be as self-sufficient as possible, so this was a good thing to learn. It also makes great gifts for Christmas. Most of what I made is now gone, either because I used it or gave it away. The first batch I made was just oil and lye, and it made a nice plain soap. The second, I got a little more creative and added teatree oil and cloves. Both of these things are somewhat antibacterial/fungal, and are supposedly good for all sorts of things. I think they're good for a little extra cleansing, such as for acne, and the cloves provide a nice scrubby texture. For my next batch I'm trying cucumber melon.