It's 'cat under the tree' season

Well, it's officially here. 'Cat under the tree' season. It starts every December when I put up the Christmas tree and continues until I take the tree down in early January. It looks something like this:

Now I ask you....why?  What is it about the Christmas tree that inspires the cat to lay down for a nap? Of course this time it looks way too comfortable....that was my fault. I set down a floor drop to take some ornament pictures with a nice white background. It only took about 3 minutes before kitty came over and made herself comfortable. 

Even without the fluffy white blanket though, she is constantly napping beneath the tree. What really is annoying is that my regular tree skirt is red. Fur covered red velvet = not pretty!

She's not normally a 'nap under' type of cat. She prefers to nap 'on'. Like on my bed, or on the couch. lol The other cat doesn't want a thing to do with being under the tree. Which is one of the reasons why I can never get a good Christmas picture of her. She also sticks her tongue out a lot, but that's another story! 

Have a lovely week!

~L

Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallows

The holidays are coming which means it's time to start baking and making anything that can be prepped ahead of time. I always start with candy, since it can be stored the longest. The kids and Imake these chocolate peppermint treats to dress up our holiday hot chocolate every Christmas. They're fun to make and super simple, plus super cute and yummy!

It's really more of an assembly than a recipe, which make it perfect for little hands to help with! We made an entire tray of them to make sure we have enough for the whole holiday season.

After all...when the weather outside is frightful and you need some hot chocolate to warm up, these are a sweet treat on the side. They're also pretty good with coffee!

Red Velvet cupcake recipe

Red velvet has been one of my favorite types of cake! I think it's the contrast of rich cocoa flavor combined with creamy cream cheese icing I always make these cupcakes around Christmas. Truthfully, I don't know why lol. It's probably just because it's cold enough out to bake and dark for too long in the evenings and I get bored. Either way, it's an awesome cake....you have to try it!