The holiday season is the perfect time to shine a light on the incredible small businesses that make our community feel like home. Over the past twelve days, I’ve featured one local business each day—each with its own story, passion, and impact.

It’s the holidays and I love to bake cookies for my friends, neighbors and family. It’s hard to pare down the list each year to a reasonable number. There are so many we love to eat and share. Let’s explore the options together!

I used to believe that a festive home during the holidays meant hauling out bins of glitter, garlands, and greenery. But these days, I’ve traded the storage overload for a simpler kind of joy — one that blends creativity with practicality.

Besides my love of baking, I love painting and crafting. That includes watercolor painting and making all manner of decorations for the holidays. After living in the city for years, and not having room for my supplies, I put that part of myself away for a bit. This post is to share what we’ve been doing more recently. I hope to update it regularly with new artwork and crafts to see what you think. 

As you can tell from my other blog posts, I love baking. So holiday baking is one of my favorite activities. I get to really experiment and bust out new recipes too. Finding great recipes is tricky. There are so many blogs out there, it can be overwhelming. So this post is really designed to help you take the work out of it, because I’ve tried all these recipes with success.