Twas The Week Before Christmas

And the wind was whistling through blogland! I know, I haven't been here either - I'm one of the whistlers. But hey, I got several types of cookies made and frosted (the frosting is the real pain in the behunkus, don'tcha know?) this weekend. Bea and I headed out early Sunday morning (that's right - we weren't in church, ya'll! Pfft! Heeyah...!!!) to finish up shopping for the big day, as well as for our annual Solstice Party, which is on Saturday, and kicks off the festivities for my family, of which, Bea is considered a member (poor girl - don'tcha feel for her?)

My god, we were so productive!

Of course, afterwards, we felt it was our due to reward ourselves with a little Sunday Denial, so we picked up some sushi and hunkered down with a bottle of the bubbly (had to check out the quality of the case we bought, see?) later that evening. OY! It was so good! And a much needed respite from the crazy pace of these past few days.

This week is going to be pretty much the same, and that's OK - its only once a year, right?

At least I don't have to go out shopping for anything else at this point - and I didn't go all postal (I really hate crowds) while we were out shopping, so there's two more pluses!

I can't promise I will be writing everyday, during this next two weeks - really who can? But I will be back in full force in January - the dreaded, loong, depressing anticlimax of January, where I eat all of the Christmas candy the kids left and hibernate in darkness. Now, is that a bad thing? I will come out, sometime around February 2nd, to see if my shadow is there, and nibble a few roots, so not to worry!

I am actually hoping to find some time to go get a bloody tube of burnt umber - my pictures are stalled, waiting for the BU. I tried mixing a brown, but its opacity and dullness was just annoying and not what Ihad in mind. None of the hobby shops in town have what I need, and Michael's is in an area of Cary that is Verboten this time of year - dare I say the name? Crossroads Shopping Center is a traffic nightmare on a slow day (very bad flow - I hope they fired the yutz who designed that parking lot sprawl - sheesh!), and after Turkey Day, we "go not gently into that" hellhole that passes for a shopping center. Its really for the best.

Ah crapola! As lovely as it is to sit and write, I know that I'm supposed to be making Liebkuchen right now. Sigh...it always freaks me out to make it alone - its the boiling of honey and molasses that gives me the heebie jeebies - I have a bad habit of walking out of the room, just as it begins to boil over the edge and gurgles merrily down into the bowels of my stovetop. Have you ever tried to remove boiled sugar-type things from inside your stovetop? Its bad- its real bad. It will make you not go in the kitchen for a long, long time.

Usually Bea helps me make the bad boiling sugar stuff - two sets of eyes and two brains generally yielding better results - but this year she is making biscotti at her house, so I'm on my own. It is really good biscotti - probably won't be any left for anyone else, because I keep eating it all (is that wrong? If loving biscotti is wrong, I don't wanna be right!).

sigh..............

Alright, I'm going....sigh...

(Boiled honey and molasses....wahhhhhhhhh!)