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!)

Making A List, Checking It Twice

I made a few lists the other day, in an effort to be more organized. One list was the Christmas cookies I'm going make. Now, in true procrastinator-fashion, I'm trying to whittle it down to making less cookies. So here they are, in order of what has to be made first:

1) Nutmeg Logs (labor intensive)

2) Peppermint Party Cookies (easy-peasy)

3) Sugar Cookies (the cut-out and frosted kind)

4) Liebkuchen (a pain in the ass, but I gotta have them)

5) Cornflake Balls (really easy, and killer)

And these, which I'm waffling on:

6) Molasses Crinkles or

7) Ginger Creams

Both are ginger/molasses based, but while the crinkles are work before you make them, the creams have to be frosted afterwards (they might need shaping too - its been a hunded years since I made them). So I'm debating which is less work, versus which one I just have to make. I'm also toying with a few others like:

8) Mock Baby Ruth Bars (easy, but I'm bored with them)

9) Gumdrop Bars (I've never made them)

10) Springerle (No one but Bea and I will eat these little german rocks)

In a perfect world, I would make all of them, and still have time to greet my husband at the door with a casserole in my hands, backdropped by an immaculate house and smiling, well-groomed children. (Ok, maybe not even in a perfect world, but in a Disney-esque fantasy world, it could happen!) But I digress...

We now return you to our previous program....!

Honestly, I think I'll just stick to the first 5 and call it a day - I have "Red Suit" duties to perform, as well as a dinner party to throw on the 22nd, and its not like any mice or a fairy godmother are going to pop up, sing a song, and Bibbity Bobbity Boo all my chores away.

Sigh...you just can't find good rodent help anymore. I wonder how hard it would be to train the cats to clean house? It can't be any harder than getting two boys to clean house, right?

I did plan the menu for the Solstice Party, so I'll know what to buy, and what to delegate; and we did get the tree up today, so there's a couple of things I can cross off already.

Alla ka zoola, mitcha ka boola, bibbity bobbity boo -

What the hell does that song mean?