cherry tart

I didn't have time, (or didn't make time) to get any baking done before Christmas so during Christmas break I am doing some Valentines baking...

...the easy way.

First, you buy store bought crust, and store bought pie filling.

Yes, sigh, you've got me, this isn't all exactly homemade, but the pie filling said that it's a new formula--it doesn't use High Fructose Corn Syrup and it is now and always has been gluten free so it's gotta be wholesome.

Right?

So today we baked a wholesome and homemade treat.

Cherry Tarts.  That's what I'm calling them.

These little treats can be for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentines  (balemtimes as my four year old calls it) or when ever you just want a delicious treat.


Let me show you...

down time

Here are a  few scenes from our Christmas morning...

hey sugar

Besides this being my fave Christmas movie, it has taught me a lot about elven culture which has been very helpful since we've had one living in our house since Thanksgiving.

The movie clip explains why Chris was found this way this morning...

winter allergies

I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of my family being sick and tired.  We have two, especially, that just get sick or cough starting in the fall and don't stop it seems all winter long.

It occured to me that those two children are the ones with "winter allergies".

Duh.

So, I did my research.

Here is some of the information that I found that I would love to pass on to you and hopefully it helps if you are one of the many of those that suffer from winter allergies.

Could I Be Allergic to my Christmas Tree?

tree

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we are still decorating for Christmas.

We had the tree up in it's stand for a full week before we had the time as a family to decorate it.

The youngest is four and a half and  isn't a full danger to the tree, but I did have to take all the candy canes off the tree because it was a constant battle just in the day and a half we had them on it.

 Pick your battles right?