I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!  I'm enjoying some much needed time off and family time. 

Last week I baked Christmas cookies using this recipe.  I handed them out to my co-workers and volunteers who work at Potentials.  It was my first time making this particular cookie, but they turned out pretty good. 




I love cookies stuffed with candle bars.  Another amazing cookie recipe is for Snicker cookies.  I made a batch of these as well and gave them to our friends.  I would recommend trying either of these recipes before starting your New Year's diet!  You'll thank me later. 

This year I'm doing much of my Christmas shopping at local stores and buying from local artists.  The first weekend of December I went to Kennett and bought some gifts at the Adelphian Christmas Bazaar, where coincidentally my mom was photographed for the local newspaper.  Last weekend I went to the Kirkwood Farmer's Market (see my earlier visit here), which was transformed into a Christmas Wonderland. 





It was hard not to spend my entire Christmas budget here, but I was able to get several gifts.  I love that everything was from local people and I'm sure those receiving these gifts will enjoy them as well.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Decker household. 

{Our St. Louis Cardinals snow village.} {Part of our regular snow village.} {Our tree has colored lights on it for the first time.} {Souvenir shop in the Cardinals village.} {Stockings hung by the chimney.} {My favorite new additions.  The Peanuts wireless band.  They all play together.  Thanks mom!} {Mint M&M's in a candy dish I got at a yard sale.} {More musical decorations.} {Not quite Clark Griswold, but it's a start.} {Jason worked very hard on lighting up the house.}

One of my hobbies is to find a fabulous outfit in a magazine and replicate it in my own wardrobe using either what I already own or getting missing pieces at resale stores.  I can usually reproduce the outfit almost to an exact match, spending a fraction of the price of the original pieces in the magazine. 

A while back I noticed Katie Holmes on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."  I was inspired by the outfit she wore to that show and a month later saw that it was pictured in my InStyle magazine.  I guess I wasn't the only one who noticed. 

{Katie Holmes on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" wearing Isabel Marant.  Photo:  InStyle October 2011}

I really liked the simplicity of this outfit, but yet it also had an edge.  Here is my version of this outfit.

{Old Navy sweater, Vince tank, Paris Blues pants, Mossimo shoes}

This entire outfit was found at Goodwill (of all places).  When recreating an outfit, shopping resale is the best way to go.