Cookie Party & The Pioneer Woman

I made a trip home to Oklahoma this weekend and my friend Bridget just happened to be teaching a cookie decorating class at The Pioneer Woman‘s Ranch! Lucky girl!

Cookies, blog friends and family… talk about an awesome weekend!!

Bridget invited me to tag along with her and of course I couldn’t pass up a chance to see Ree, her family and these amazing animals…

A few of my favorite things about my home town are the hills and beautiful prairies. One minute you’ll be on a wooded hill, the next you can be in the middle of nowhere looking forever into the horizon. Even though I’ve seen them before, the mustangs at the Drummond Ranch are so beautiful! I could seriously sit and watch them for hours.

The lodge was full of women who had won a contest to attend a weekend at the Lodge and meet Ree. I think over 40,000 people entered for a chance to win. Talk about lucky winners! Everyone was so sweet.

Ann, Jenn (one of the winners), Ree and me.

Get two silly bloggers together and they do this. Did I mention I have camera envy???

Oh and hair envy! Look at Bridget’s amazing curls…

While Bridget was preparing for her demo, I enjoyed meeting new friends and talking with some old ones too. I’m so happy to have gotten to hang out with this lovely lady!! Julie is another ranch girl/blogger who lives back home. Love her!

I don’t know what it is, but Oklahoma girls just flock together! I could spot them right away. This is Lillie-Beth a childhood friend of Ree’s. She and her mother, Helen, were a joy to meet.

Yeah for Oklahoma:-) These ladies were fantastic as well…

Hyacinth, Connell and Ree’s daughters were so adorable!

I got out the lips and mustaches from the I Heart Faces Workshop and little did I know they would snatch them up in the middle of Bridget’s talk.

Whoops! I haven’t been around a group of girls in a while. I will learn to hide my mustache stash until presentations are finished! (Sorry Bridget and Ree.) You can download these for free over on the I Heart Faces FB Page.
Bridget was amazing, even with Ree snapping photos of her teaching. (No pressure! ha.)

Some of the attendees had great cookie decorating skills!

My claim to fame is the Ree cookie. She didn’t last long at home. My kids gobbled her up. I did get a bite of her leg though. It was tasty!! There were some ladies making OU cookies, so I had to make the OSU one. Just had to!

After enjoying time at the lodge making cookies, I met my family for dinner and the town’s Christmas parade.

My husband is from Boston and I think this was the first small town parade he’s ever watched. He didn’t know what he was in for!

Let me just explain what happens at a small town parade.

You get candy.

Not just people throwing you candy, but people walk up and HAND you handfuls of candy!

My kids were in heaven.

The kids get so much candy that they then throw the left overs back at the people on the floats!

Here you can see a float full of shepherds going nutso trying to get the candy. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time! Mary and Joseph were trying to calm them down, but you can’t hold a shepherd back from getting free candy.

Some of you Pioneer Woman fans might recognize these angels. Ree will be glad to know how well behaved they were. No jumping for candy on this float. Maybe it was because their dad was standing by us? I bet there was some candy grabbing later:-)

Back at Grandma’s we had hot cocoa and checked out the candy stash. My daughter even came home with several necklaces and a stuffed animal! I think they are ready to move to Oklahoma.

So that’s the re-cap of my trip home. There is always something eventful when I go to Oklahoma!

If you love making Christmas cookies, be sure to visit Bridget’s cookie site for more goodies. Ree has a great step-by-step re-cap of her cookie demonstration as well.