Betty Crocker....Move Over!

So this is my big baking weekend for the Holidays.

On the very sugary, sticky sweet culinary line-up for this Christmas season:

Gingerbread cookies
Gingerbread house
Cream Cheese Cookies
Pizzelles
Marshmallows (the marshmallows recipe is in a post from earlier in December).

Now I may be overly zealous, but for some reason, I bake my buns off - hot crossed of course - every Christmas. We are in cookies, candies and confections from mid December through April. I have even found an occasional baked good, usually a pie around the 4th of July.

Baking, for me is an important part of the holidays. It's a time that I get to spend doing something family oriented with my kids. We make memories while we are making cookies. We create homemade gifts that are always a hit with the receiver.

So this weekend, I will be wiping off the counters, tying on the apron, eating lots of cookies, lacing up the sneakers and running my buns off.....hot crossed of course!

Paper, Paper, and More Paper.

It seems like I have an unending supply of Holiday gift wrapping.

Each year I pick up a few more rolls at the after Christmas 90% off sales. They seem to multiply in my closets. The red wrap that you see in this picture.......circa 2002.

But, that's OK.

It is that time of year that I pull out all of the "gifty" things I also purchased at the last year's 90% off sales - that have also been sitting in my closets and multiplying - and begin wrapping.

I get an early start because I tend to wrap everything. Although there is a gift bag in this picture, I use very few of those. I like to wrap each gift because I love the element of surprise in unwrapping a gift. Seeing the anticipation on the receiver's face is in itself, a gift to me.

So, I may drive myself crazy with all of the holiday paper, but I know that my payoff will be in the joy I get from giving.

'Tis the Season.....

'Tis the season, and I'm not feeling all that jolly yet.

The gift requests are starting to roll in at faster pace each week as the kids peruse the weekend paper ads. Retailers are pulling every trick in the book to get me into their stores to spend my money. Strip malls have had their "Holiday" decor up since November 1st. My local radio station has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for two weeks already.

It's all coming too soon this year. It's not even Thanksgiving and the Christmas holiday stress has already begun.

What happened to the days of anticipation of the day after Turkey Day? I used to wait for that day each year, looking forward to the opening of the Season. It was so much simpler, so much less stressful, so much more relaxed.

So today, in the 87 degree heat of the desert southwest, I say. Bah-humbug!

But, give me a week or two and I'll be declaring that it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Pre-mature Decoration

I admit it....I caved under the pressure. I could hold out no longer. So...with great sorrow, I confess that I did the unthinkable.

But, it my own defense, it wasn't my fault. The influence was too strong and I could not resist. The constant barrage of the music....the endless visual cues.....the sheer madness of frenzied consumers....

I crumbled. I stumbled. I fell under the spell of it's pressuring call. I am the latest victim of pre-mature decoration.