On the 9th day of Christmas...

I received my package of goodies from Sephora last night.  A week or so ago I received a $15 dollar gift card through my email and decided to take the opportunity to order the Naked 2 palette.  I realized that I'm a year or two (or three) behind the craze but I've been using my MAC palettes to get some use out of them.

The packaging for the UD palette is MUCH more durable than MAC, I think it will be a great thing to travel with.  I had a difficult time choosing between this one and the Smoked version - I think eventually I'll try to get that one too.  I also purchased a Laura Mercier lip gloss in Baby Doll so I could make the $50 minimum for free shipping.

There is a good chance I'm wearing this one on my wedding day...its beautiful!

Today R and I went to Target so I could pick up a couple of prescriptions.  We purchased the ingredients to make the pan sugar cookies that I saw featured on The Jacksons blog several weeks ago.  Black bean lasagna and sugar cookie bars were on the menu tonight and it was amazing!  Here is her recipe or you can check out the link above for her post.

Cookie bars:

1.5 cups of sugar

1 cup of butter, softened

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2.5 cups flour

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

3.5 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

splash of milk

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar.  Add egg and flavorings and blend.  Mix dry ingredients in a seperate bowl and add to the butter mixture.  Grease a pan with cooking spray.  Spread the dough into the pan.  Bake at 350* for 20 minutes.  Cook until golden and let cool.  Spread frosting on cookies and decorate with sprinkles.  I purchased a jar of fancy sparkling sugar from TJ Maxx during my last shopping trip and I'm trying to think of all the baked goods that will be even more amazing when topped with pink and red sparkles.

Tonight we finished wrapping our holiday gifts and now we have a very pretty stash underneath our tree!