This is my timeline:

1. Ingredient/shopping list (I hate guessing and coming up short)
2. Order packaging supplies & buy baskets, etc.
3. Bake cake for petit fours, fill and freeze (without cutting)
4. Make and package home made marshmallows
5. Mix & bake cut out cookies. Freeze after cooling.
6. Dip all chocolate items (oreos, pretzels, marshmallows, cake balls, truffles, etc.) and use leftover for bark.
7. Mix & bake all other cookies.
8. Decorate cut out cookies with RI
9. Make caramel corn and peanut brittle
10. Bake mini loaves.

I figure all of that will be 9 days of work - I don't want to do TOO much in a single day lest I get burnt out. I've already shaped my cake balls, and created my shopping list. My kids will be here by the time everything is done and they can help package and deliver all the cookies/baskets.

The only thing I will be storing is my hollow chocolate ornaments. I put them in a celophane bag and just store them someplace dark so they won't melt! All my ingredients are already bought, except what I might need to for the Almond Cresent cookies (hint hint LaBellaFlor). I bake Dec 19 and 20 and give away that week. Here's a pic of my ornaments.

Just PM'ed ya!

Sweetflowers - those ornaments look amazing !! What do you color them with - luster dust ? Is there a special mold for the shape ?

Hope everyone is gathering their supplies and getting ready !! I made 2 different types of cake truffles today ( not dipped) and they are now frozen.
Tomorrow I am making cookie dough ( sugar cookies - to decorate later).
Got some more cute treat bags today at Walmart in the Christmas section.

LaBellaFlor - could I please ask for your almond crescent cookie recipe too ? pretty please....
I have decided to have a holiday cocktail party in 3 weeks ( in the midst of all the chaos !) and this sounds like a nice cookie.....Don't know why I do this to myself ! Did I mention that we are in the middle of remodeling part of our house - so I am painting, caulking and sanding too !!! I'm a nut !

I think they are perfect for a holiday party!
Almond Crescent Cookies
2/3 cup blanched sliced almonds (if you can't find blanced almonds, just use the regular sliced almonds)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Topping:
1/2 cup superfine sugar (you can take regular sugar and grind it up in a food processor)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Grind almonds in processor very finely. DO NOT over grind or you will get almond butter. In large mixing bowl, combine almonds, butter, sugar, and beat until light and fluffy. Stir together flour and salt and on low speed, incorporate into butter mixture.
Scrape dough into plastic wrap, shaping into thick disc, wrapping tightly. Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours until nive and firm.
Stir togther topping ingredients in medium bowl.
Prheat oven to 325 degrees.
Divide dough in 8 sections. Work with one section at a time, keeping the remainder in fridge. Knead dough between floured hands and make 3/4 inch round balss. Shape into cylinders with tapered ends, curve so you get a crescent shape. Space on cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake about 14-16 minutes until set, not brown. Cool cookies on sheets for about 10 minutes. While still warm lift with small spatula into topping mix and gently roll around. You want to work gently, but quickly, cause they cookies need to be warm for the topping to stick. Finish cooling cookies. Makes about 5 doz., 2 " cookies. They keep for about amonth. Just a note, you have to work quick when shaping cookies, cause the high butter content will cause them to melt if you take to long.

Thanks Kristy, I do use a luster dust on them. I think I used Claret, Midnight, Bronze and Super Green for these. But I also use a bunch of others cause I can't make up my mind. I do have a tutorial on how to do these on my web site if you want to check it out. The mold is just one of those plastic fillable balls you get at the craft store.

I know what you mean about overload, I work 5 jobs and I still have the desire to cook and have a few close friends over this time of year

I've been following this thread from the beginning and I love all of the ideas- they all sound yummy!

For my baskets this year I plan on making:
1. Chocolate chip cookies (family fave)
2. Sugar and Spice cookies (almost like a soft batch gingerbread, but better!)
3. decorated sugar cookies (some with vintage Christmas wafer paper designs & others with RI designs)
4. mini loaves of pumpkin raisin and possibly apple nut
5. chocolate fudge
6. white cranberry almond fudge
7. cake truffles- chocolate & either spice or eggnog flavors
8. peppermint bark hearts

Weekly goals:
Week 1: make & freeze cookie dough (in balls). bake and freeze sugar cookie cutouts.

Week 2: Make cake truffle balls and freeze (w/o dipping). make peppermint bark hearts.

Week 3: Make fudge. Dip truffles & decorate.

Week 4: Bake cookies. Bake breads. Decorate sugar cookies.

I was thinking about getting the treat bags and stacking 1/2 dozen cookies in each one then tie with a ribbon.

For the person getting the chinese takeout container- that would be a good way to package any type of truffle-just stack 'em in there Some of the other smaller candies would work too.

Good luck everyone getting motivated and making progress!

P.s. - Sweetflowers- I would love to see the tutorial on your chocolate ornaments. What is your website? Thanks!

Oops...sorry www.sugar art by tami.com remove the spaces

All I can say is WOW! Your work is incredible sweetflowers.

Thank you sweetflowers for the link!!

My baking gets underway tomorrow. I'm going to mostly do candy this year after all. emphasis on fudge and homemade marshmallows.

So, the final list is

-CANDY-
Fudge (at least seven varieties, because I'm psychotic like that)
Homemade marshmallows
Butter Brickle
Brigadeiros (Brazilian chocolate caramels)
Candy Cane Hearts
Chocolate dipped pretzels

-COOKIES-
Sally Anns
Gingersnaps
Christmas Jewels
Angelettis

and if I have time, homemade Hot Cocoa mix.

( did I mention I'm psychotic? )

I know I should not ask, BUT what exactly are Brigadeiros, Christmas Jewels, and Angelettis?

I haven;t been receiving the post notifications!!! I was wondering what was going on in here.

I've een a little sidetracked with some things that happened over the weekend, but I'm back now. My goal was to start baking yesterday but I'll start tomorrow instead. Today I'll get my ingredients for the week.
This week I'm making the biscotti (I'll bake it one, freeze the logs and then thaw it and slice and bake), chocolate covered oreos and chocolate covered marshmallows.
Also the orange cranberry bark and the toffee and rocky road candy!

Thank you sweetflowers for the link. Your work is beautiful!

You make the chocolate ornaments look so easy in your tutorial, I might have to give it a try. How do you package them?

darn it I stopped getting the notifications. Only 3 pages to catch up on...

Sweetflowers Oh wow thanks for the tutorial! Now I want to try it!

CeeTee, those Brigadeiros sound Yummy!!!! Can't wait for the recipe on that! I might check out that book too, I know I'm crazy for even thinking of doing more cookies, but I love doing it. Takes a whole weekend, I just turn on the xmas tunes and bake all day. I wish I could do as you all and freeze the dough, but with 5 jobs I just don't have the time.

I hope you try the ornaments Sambugjoebear, they are simple, the trick is chilling the correct amount of time. I put a little clear easter grass or shred into the bottom of a cellophane bag (one with a gusset) and then just tie the top with curling ribbon.

Sweetflowers, I didn't even think about making them for Christmas because we usually make these for birthdays. My sis-in-law's family is from Brazil and she showed me how to make them. They are so good and the easiest things in the world to make!

Ingredients
3 tablespoons Nesquick or unsweetened cocoa powder*
1 tablespoon butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk**
1 dish well greased with butter

* Nesquick gives more of a sweet milk chocolate flavor, while using unsweetened cocoa will give a richer dark chocolate flavor to the brigadeiros.

** If you can find it, Nestle's La Lechera brand condensed milk works best. It can often be found in Mexican/Ethnic food aisles at major grocery chains.

Directions
In a saucepan over low/medium heat (depends on the stove. At my sis's house I use medium heat but at my house I use low), combine cocoa, butter and condensed milk.

**You will need to stir constantly the entire time it's cooking or the chocolate will scorch!** I suggest pulling up a stool to sit on and have line of sight to a TV if possible

Cook until it reaches Firm Ball stage (242 degrees if you use a candy thermometer, or 10-12 minutes. When you pull a spoon through the mixture and you can see the bottom of the pan and it does not immediately recombine, then it's done). Pour into buttered pan and cool for 20 minutes, then cover with saran wrap and chill for at least two hours.

Once mixture is chilled, grease up your hands with butter and scoop/roll caramels into 1 inch balls. Roll in chocolate jimmies or sprinkes, and place in a paper candy cup. If you want to make them into truffle centers, then dip them in you favorite kind of chocolate instead.

CeeTee, those sound wonderful! I love caramels! I might have to give these a try (and most likely add them to my gift baskets).

After you roll them into balls, how well/long do they hold their shape? Are they stable enough to sit as is without rolling into something, or must you roll them in sprinkles, chocolate, etc?

uggh - I stopped getting notices too ! CC is on overload right now, I think !

Sweetflowers - I love your website...you have made some wonderful creations ! ( I wish California wasn't so far from Indiana - I would love to take a class with you !) Thanks so much for sharing your tutorial on the chocolate ornaments - my little nieces and nephews will love these !
5 jobs !! Girl you make me sound lazy !! Don't wear yourself out - we would miss you on this Bake -A - Thon !!
I wish Christmas lasted for 2 months - I have so many yummy things that I want to make !

LaBellaFlor - Thanks for the recipe ! it sounds wonderful !Can't wait to try it out....maybe this weekend !

CeeTee - I have one thing to say - YUM ! Those chocolately caramels sounds so good - must try those too !

Quick question: what kind of chocolate do you use to dip oreos and marshmallows etc? I can;t decide! I hate bark but the ghirardelli chocolate seems to expensive for the amounts i will need!!

You all are so amazing. I am inspired to do this too. I will post my list once I decide on everyting. Thank you for the ideas!

Okay, straight up, bark IS NOT chocolate. that's why you don't like it. Any bark or Wilton's melts are NOT chocolate. That's why the labels say "melts" and "bark". They do have some chocolate properties, but...NOT CHOCOLATE. Can you tell I don't like them either for dipping? I use Ghiradelli's as well. But you can also use regular Nestle's. Cheaper, but taste much better then barf...I mean bark.

Wow, those sound yummy. Might not get to it this year. They sound very much like a coconut ball recipe I have but tons better (my family doesn't like coconut). Thanks for the recipe!

Vagostino, I use any kind of disk chocolate I can find for my chocolate covered anything. We have Merkens, Apeels (at our local grocer), Guittard, Wilton, etc.... I like them because they melt easy and are cheaper than the 'good stuff' and taste better than bark. I do have friends that have used semi-sweet choc chips though. They just added paramont crystals (or shortening) to it to help it flow better.

and Kristy, thanks for the kind words. One of my jobs is as a computer programmer (another job is web support and another is teaching computer programming), so no chance of getting rid of me easily, I'm on the computer all day!

2 more weeks before I can bake...I envy all of your starting now!

I know I hate bark or candy melts! I will go to kroger or another chain because the one I usually go to only has ghirardelli (I got those for the orange bark recipes and the buttercrunch toffee), but I was hoping for a cheaper one for the oreos...I figured those suckers are going to take a lot of chocolate!

vagostino: Last year, I used the ghirardelli because of the taste and ease of use. I think I used 3 boxes for my oreos, pretzels and marshmallows but I only made a few dozens. I did everything the same day very early morning, thinking that they could not be made ahead of time.

This year, I got the ghirardelli but I also bought another brand of dipping chocolate from Sam's Club.

I finished buying all my ingredients and boxes, ribbons, baskets, etc., but are still confused as to how early I can start making the candies like fudge, bark, dipped oreos, marhsmallows and pretzels. Once you dip them, can they stay at room temp. cover or do they have to be in the fridge or freezer? How many days/weeks can they last after dipping? TIA

This is my list:

Snowflake shape ritz fill with peanut butter/nutella dipped in chocolate, first time making them
Oreos dipped in chocolate, using x-mas molds
Ring, x-mas shape pretzels + rods dipped in chocolate
Nutter butter to look like santas
Marshmallow snowmen dipped in chocolate
Fudge, havent decide on flavors (2 or 3)
Nut mix clusters and/or Chex mix with white chocolate
Meringues
Peppermint Bark, using the mini candy canes
Maybe the santa cocoa cones
Cake balls: oreo, pumpkin spice, pecan flavor dipped in chocolate; to make x-mas tree
Ornaments balls
Sugar cookies
Thumbprint cookies with kisses/jam
x-mas mice

I'm starting my chocolate covered stuff tomorrow, and my biscotti and cookies follow (I'll freeze the doughs).
I'm hoping the choc covered stuff it's going to be good for 10 days....

I second Gatu in that if you have a Sam's Club around, go there for chocolate. I bought large bags of Ghiradelli for my chocolate chip/dipping needs and it averaged $2.65 per pound of chocolate. That's cheaper than Bark and Wilton's melts.

The only thing is that Ghiradelli's White Chocolate is NOT real white chocolate. If you pay attention, they sell White Chocolate "Flavor" chips and dipping/melting chocolate. It has no cocoa butter so it's not the real deal. A great place to get real white chocolate chips is Kroger (or it's affiliate stores. Here in AZ they are Fry's) It's a really nice quality of white chocolate and it melts up like a dream. Kroger's brand of chocolate chips in general are actually very good. I like them a lot better than Nestle and Hershey, and they often average $2 a bag. They're my not-so-best kept secret for good chocolate

I said this year I was going to shorten my list, but........ I found some new recipes to try

Chocolate Fudge
Peanut Butter Fudge
Buckeyes
Potato Candy
Hot Chocolate On A Stick
Sugar Cinnamon Pecans
Candy Cane Heart Bark
Chocolate Cherry Haystacks
Smore Drops
Sugar Cookies
Snickerdoodles bite size
Oatmeal Scotchies
Brownie Bites w/Christmas M&Ms
Oreo Candy Cane Bark
Lemon Cake Truffles
White Chocolate Raspberry Cake Truffles
Cinnamon Apple Chex Mix
Ranch Chex Mix

Have most of the containers and ingredients, I'm starting on the fudge tonight.

I'm gonna start tonight as well. This week is:
Lemon Poppyseed cookies
Almond Cherry Biscotti
Pistachio Cranberry Biscotti
Shortbread

Possible the Rocky Roads.

This was a great idea to keep us on track. I have something planned for each week up till Christmas.