I'm a stay-at-home mom of 5 kids under 8 years old. Needless to say, life in my household is a little wild! I love to bake cakes and cookies. I don't do that too much anymore though, because I tend to get a little out of control around baked goods! lol...Stop the insanity!!! I am now on a quest to find the best, most authentic mexican recipes. My husband is half mexican, so I've learned to be particular about mexican food. Christmas baking. So many fun memories! My mom, who is not a good cook by any stretch of the imagination, DID have some good recipes she brought out at Christmas time. We always made loaves of poppyseed bread. The smell of almond, vanilla and orange is such a great holiday smell! We also made butter crunch, which is basically non-cook's version of toffee. It doesn't need a candy thermometer if you know how it's supposed to look! Those are the two things we always passed out to neighbors and friends. I've continued that tradition because for me, Christmas just isn't the same if I don't make them. I plan on passing those recipes down to my kids- not because they're the best recipes I've ever used, but because they bring ME such happy memories. I want them to share in that memory and pass it down to their children. I baked and decorated the cake for my sister-in-law's wedding. It was a lot of hard work and VERY messy. Transporting it was a whole other can of worms too! In the end I got lots of compliments on it. Will I ever do that again? No way! I feel like I'll have a panic attack just thinking about it! Too numerous to count, though I think labeling them tragedies is a bit of an overstatement. It's just food. No biggy! And it's the mistakes that help make you a better cook.