A Year in Review

Another year in the recipe books!

2013 has been quite a year. It has been a year filled with extreme joy, intense grief, and everything in between.  Sweet Eddie and I got married and it was wonderful. We happily became an Aunt and Uncle to both a beautiful niece and a handsome nephew. We devastatingly lost Eddie's loving, brave, funny, charming father.  2013 will be a year that we will never forget. I am so grateful to have had my Sweet Eddie by my side for every moment of it. I would be lost without him.

Throughout the year cookie art has been my therapy. It brings me great joy and some stress while it helps me to memorialize moments, celebrate holidays,  learn about myself, and hopefully bring a smile to some one's face.  On this final day of the year, I wanted to share images from my favorite posts this years. I loved these cookies for different reasons and maybe some of you did too.  So here is to a year of cookie creations:

Animal Baby Shower

Candy Crush Saga

Lucky Leprechauns

Cookies for the Troops 

And a special tribute to my Father-in-law 

Our Sweet Wedding

Betty Boop

Seinfeld Cookies for my Dad

Under the Sea

Pet Rescue Saga

Owl Baby Shower for Daisy

Go Bo!

Furry Bones

Movie Monsters 

Woodland Creatures

Hello Kitty Thanksgiving

Ugly Sweaters

As we roll into 2014, I wish for everyone a year of love, respect, appreciation, peace and joy.

 If a cookie makes you happy, may your life be filled with all the cookies in the world.  

Thank you for reading and supporting me.

Happy New Year!

Pet Rescue Saga Cookies

Although my love and addiction to Candy Crush Saga will never end,  I have found another game by the same maker (King) to play endlessly in my every waking moments. It's cute, colorful, and cuddly! It has pets that need to be saved! Won't you join me and save the sweet little critters?

Pet Rescue Saga takes you on a journey through a puzzle adventure game with the cutest big eyed animals. Like its famous big bro, Candy Crush, Pet Rescue requires you to match similar blocks to remove them from the puzzle and reach your goal.  There are five different basic blocks, but other surprises come up along the way.

Sometimes you have to rescue the pets from their crates. Popping balloons comes in handy to remove all the blocks that match the same color.

There are so many cute animals in this game, and you meet more as you journey deeper. Here are a few of my favorites:

Puppy

Piggy

Bunny

Pigeon

Panda

They are just all so cute and sweet. How could I resist them?

I love paying homage to my addictions with my love of all things sugar. 

My Sweet Eddie plays this game too. He says, " We love it and they are adorable. Saving animals...that's what life is all about!"

The Saga of My Candy Crush

I have an addiction to a game, and of course it is a game about candy. It all started out so innocently, like most sweet things do, but now I can't seem to stop. I play it on my phone all day at work (shhh don't tell) and I play it at home on the ipad while trying to do ten other things. It even enters my dreams, like the falling blocks of tetris used to back in the day.  For those of you who are not suffering from an addiction to Candy Crush Saga (by makers King.com) -- although you are missing out on the glory of smashing virtual candy -- I commend you for your strength.  It is a puzzle adventure game that brings you on a journey through tasty candy filled lands with colorful companions. I must admit some levels are beyond frustrating, but I never give up. I spent 3 weeks on one level alone!

Candy Crush Saga requires you to match at least 3 of the same candies in order to remove them from the puzzle. But each puzzle is unique and different challenges arise along the way.  I love Candy Crush Saga, so I had to honor this wonderful game in cookie form.

We are joined on our journey by the cheerful little pig-tailed Tiffi and her monocled ginger father, Mr. Toffee.

There are a variety of colorful candy pieces. When four are matched, they morph into a striped and more powerful version of sweetness.

When five candies are matched, a mighty Color Bomb appears and crushes all candies of the same color; this is real game changer. My favorite combo is a Color Bomb with a striped candy - magnificent! Can you tell I am addicted? Oy vey!

When you begin the journey you have a heart full of five lives. But when you run out of life, your heart cries for you and shows you how long you have to wait for a recharge. Let me tell you, that 30 minute wait can be excruciating unless you have a kind friend who spares you a life.

And who can forget the lovable Yeti who will sell you fine charms in his shop to boost your gaming experience.

Thank you Candy Crush for bringing joy -- and sometimes frustration -- to my day with the simple push of an app on my phone.

So I guess this baking blog turned into a game blog today, but I am okay with that. I love candy and I love games.  And no joke, the morning after I made these cookies I beat the level (evil 65) that I had been stuck on for 3 weeks on my very first try. Perhaps a good way to overcome an obstacle is to simply cookie it out!

 Game on :)