Today in Hungary is Szent Mikulás Day. When I lived in Hungary I was astounded (and ridiculously giddy) to discover that Hungary has not one but two Christmases. December 6th is the first one where Hungarian children (and big kids like me) polish and shine their shoes and set them out on either the window sill or their front step. By the next morning the boots and shoes have been filled with goodies -- traditionally with candies, tangerines, dates and chocolate Mikulás figurines. It’s a bit like the Santa and the Christmas stocking tradition here in the United States.

There is a catch to the holiday though; while the good children will have their shoes filled with chocolates sweets and small presents by Mikulás, the naughty children receive gifts from Krampusz -- Mikulás’ goblin helper -- such as wooden spoons or switches (called virgács). Talk about getting coal in your stocking! It’s very common for children to get both candy and a switch since everyone has a bit of a mean streak in them. I still have the switch, painted silver to mean that I am only a little bit naughty, that I found in my shoe.

Here are a few of my favorites, or at least the photos that didn't come out blurry. Working with a point and shoot camera is tricky business.

Kael was extremely excited at the prospect of mixing the dye into the icing. We ended up making red, blue, yellow and green icing colors. Although in hindsight we should have halved the recipe to accommodate for the number of cookies, we made enough to coat about three times the amount that had been baked.

Either way, the sugar cookies were a success! A rather yummy success I might add. Although there were several moments of panic on my part as I questioned whether or not baking sugar cookies without my Grandmother's guidance was a good idea. I also thought more than once, "Oh God, oh God, I ruined them! I don't know what I did but I --- oh wait, never mind. It's okay."

We/I used the Joy of Baking cookie recipe. Joy is my go-to gal for all things doused in flour and delicious. If you ever need inspiration check her out. Or Bakerella. She's fab too. And her cake pops are friggin' adorable.

Anyways. Cookies! This was the trial run for my brand new mixer, and I must say it did the job nicely. And it was far easier (and less messy) than mixing by hand. Hooray! Although trying to figure out how to properly cream butter without a hand whisk was a definite learning experience.

Two sticks of butter, one cup of sugar. "Mix until fluffy." So far so good.

(Never mind that these photos were taken on a Wednesday afternoon, I waited until today to post them on my blog)

Our first stop of the day was to Target. It was mostly to watch the massive assemblage of people clamoring for the last can of Who Hash cranberry sauce. Although the fact that the Target nearest to our house has a built in Starbucks was definitely an added bonus. While meandering through the aisles we took a detour to look at Christmas decorations. Can you believe they are selling taffy by the yard?! Holy cow.

We also perused the lawn ornaments of varying lights, colors, and sizes. There are plans to become the house on the block that everyone wants to see, according to Alex. This makes me ridiculously excited. Christmas makes my heart 'splode with happiness.

Alex is excite at the prospect of owning exceedingly shiny ornaments.

Hee. It took much self restraint not to purchase this for myself. We tried to find an Elephant ornament, but sadly there were none. They had bears, fish, a camel, and frogs. But no pachyderms. WHAT KIND OF STORE IS THIS?

I also had to explain what was happening in the film every fifteen minutes to Alex. READ THE BOOKS YOU SILLY MAN!