I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was very nice – boys home, family for dinner, all healthy, and a new MacBook Pro which I’m finding difficult to transition to from two decades of using a PC.  I’m selling more images through Getty Images and wanted some better resolution than what I was working on. I don’t even know the name of the screen I had on my old laptop but the screen looks different at every angle. Color balance and exposure was always a challenge for me. It’s going to take me awhile to adjust but eventually I’ll get the hang of it.

I did lots of baking for friends over the holidays – from big, glistening snowflake cookies –

… to formally attired gingerbread men…

… and, uh, not so formally attired gingerbread men…

Funny, both attired gents were invited to the same party by my wonderful friend Trevor Kensey at SisBoomBlog! who wanted “naughty” and “nice” cookies and let me tell you, designing 6 different “outfits” was not easy! After all, how many ways can you make a harness?!? In case you’re wondering, the leather was all made with black fondant. I guess you could call these 50 Shades of Gingerbread or Folsom Street Fair cookies. The Folsom Fair apparently kicks off Leather Week in SF. If you look it up, be warned these cookies are the G-rated edition!

So difficult to put all the holiday baking cookie cutters away, take all the pretty decorations down, say good-bye at the airport and gather the linens. I’m going to take a little new year blogging break as my lovely MIL fell down on Sunday night, broke her hip and is already recovering from surgery. She did great. Nothing slows down this 93 year-young lady.

The cast iron (or lead) “toys” below are from when my MIL was little. It’s part of an elaborate set that includes farm animals, buildings, trees, bridges and a train. It’s close to 100 years old. I think it’s so cool!

Enjoy the first week of 2016!  Wishing you a very happy new year!