Out with the Old and In with the New!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday!  I spent a goodly amount of time with our family and friends and baked up a storm.  I did a buche de noel for our Christmas with my husband's extended family and sugar cookies for Christmas with my mother in law and Christmas with my folks.  All in all, we had FOUR Christmases this year, which is one less than last year thankfully.  Even with all of the house hopping, it was as laid back as can be.  I don't know why, but I'll take it!

This Christmas was particularly nice because it meant that I became the proud owner of my very own (and very first!) KitchenAid stand mixer.  I have a KA hand held mixer which I've used for years and for the last nine months I was borrowing my mother's stand mixer since my output on cakes and cookies had increased. 

I said good bye to Old Trusty:

And hello to this handsome fella:

I still have yet to name him, but it's definitely a him and is he ever handsome and built! I am in LOVE.  This puppy is the 575 watt professional series with spiral dough hook and 6 quart bowl.  He has a brushed chrome exterior and sounds like a jet engine when he's running.  Sorry, pardon my geekiness.  I've been wanting one of these bad boys for a looooooong time and I finally own one!

I have my mother in law and her boyfriend to thank for this wonderful gift.  It was technically for both me and my husband since she is very supportive of my dream to make my cake decorating a full time business some day.  I was speechless when I unwrapped the box and my eyes must have been popping out of my head like a cartoon character's.  I almost thought it was a joke at first until we opened the box and sure enough, there he was.  [happy sigh]

I do have to give my step-mother-in-law some mad props as well; Christmas morning I opened a second mixer from her and my father-in-law!  I ended up taking it back and got me an iTouch instead, which was something else I really wanted for Christmas.  If anything, I am so blessed to have such supportive family members!

Happy Christmas to you all and may you all recover quickly from the baking extravaganza!

Cheers,
Kelly