Oh CHRISTmas tree...

...oh Christmas tree...

~Can you tell they're proud of this tree?~

As you can see, we got ourselves a perty little Christmas tree. We set out to find the perfect tree this past weekend, and found this one. It stood about 5 feet tall until we brought it into the house and placed it on an end table in our living room. Now it's about 8 1/2 feet tall. LOL. We do this every year due to a lack of space. It works for us though, since we save a little money by buying a shorter tree. Win, win!!

Looking for "the" one!!!

Anyway, when we got home Daddy took the tree into the garage to prep it for life indoors (tree stand), and I set off inside with Dakota to get the decorations out. Within a few hours, our ordinary Christmas tree was now decorated and looking quite beautiful. I thought for sure Dakota would dig having a tree inside, but she was completely indifferent about it. The cat on the other hand did everything in his power to become "one" with the tree. Go figure. Even though, Dakota wasn't as enthusiastic over the tree as I thought she would be, she certainly enjoyed helping me decorate it with all the pretty ornaments...

Two of my favorite ornaments. Our kindergarten pictures...

After we decorated the tree, as well as the rest of the house, I still had a little bit of energy left in me to make some sugar cookies. My favorite!! I don't know why, but I just love making these cookies and decorating them with frosting and sprinkles. I'm sure I'll be making a few more batches before the holidays are over because these only last about 2-3 days. I also promised Dakota to make some for her beloved UPS man. It's the least we could do considering all the sweet things he does for Dakota. I know I mentioned this on Facebook, but for those of you who don't follow me on that site, our UPS man did the sweetest thing a few weeks ago. Dakota and I were outside waiting for him to drive by like we always do. He passed our house, but didn't notice us and kept driving. That's totally not like him, but I figured he must not have seen us because it was dark out. So, we headed inside. The next thing we know, our doorbell rings and it's our UPS man telling us that he was sorry that he didn't see us, but wanted to say hi to Dakota. Seriously? What an amazing guy!! The next day, I stopped him so I could thank him, as well as get his name so I could put in a good word to his company and hopefully get him some kind of commendation. Just before he drove off, he told me that he would be on vacation the following week. So, when that week rolled around, we didn't bother going out to see the UPS man (Ya, I was feeling a tad lazy...lol). But to our surprise, every day we got a honk from whoever was filling in for him. Can you believe it? Now that's customer service! Anyway, here are the yummy cookies...

And, what does Dakota do while I bake cookies do you ask? Well, if she's not taking a nap, I give her an all access pass to the one kitchen cabinet that is not off limits to her. This girl could play in this cupboard for hours. Daddy hates it because she usually opts to bang on the only three things in that cabinet that make the most racket, the mixing bowls. LOL