I decided on Thursday night that I was going to bake holiday treats for the neighbors this year.  I would say that I love baking, and I do, but I HATE the clean up.  So that automatically takes me from love to like.  My baking experience this weekend was delightful.  I'm not just saying that because I feel like a real-life Betty Crocker right now, I'm saying it because I had no major issues, malfunctions, fires, or misread of directions.  I started Friday afternoon, took a break for Zumba class, made dinner, and finished up with round one around 11 pm.  Got up Saturday morning, hoping to clean, but again - was ready to bake. So I did.  I think most of my success is based on my decision not to bake completely from scratch.  I had the help of Betty Crocker.  I used their cookie mixes, and they saved me tons of time.  I used the mix and added on!  Oh and the cake balls were something new and fun and I can't wait to make more.

We went to Denver last weekend for Julie's surprise 30th birthday, and we had a blast. Everyone was able to make it to D-town!  Andy and I and the kids flew out, along with my parents, and my brother and his family drove out from Nebraska.  Bret's plan went off without a hitch.  The party was at Marco's, a great pizza place downtown, the food was awesome and so was the service.