When the Going Gets Tough....




   I'm getting a little tired of people asking me if I'm ready for Christmas. I'm not ready. I'm not ready because I refuse to start preparing until after Thanksgiving. Since I work full time plus, this leaves little time for preparation.
   I've given up on the idea of having things wrapped and ready. I've given up putting a lot of decorations up. I've even for the most part given up shopping. Most of the people in my life only want money anyway.
  The few presents I have bought are not wrapped yet (although I do have gift bags for them.) I haven't had time to send a single Christmas card. C and I have practiced our piece for tomorrow's Christmas program roughly one hour (spread over one week.)
  I'm clearly not ready. I'm not even close to ready. The way things are looking, there's no way that I'll be ready in time for Christmas.
  What am I going do? Well, they always say when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Now, I'm sure whoever coined the phrase doesn't count Christmas as being tough. I don't care. I have out of town company coming Monday and who knows how many family members coming over for dinner on Tuesday. For me this is tough.
  What should I get going on? Should I start working on cards? Should I start cleaning the house? Should I attempt to decorate? I'm so far behind I don't even know where to begin.
  Actually, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to finish writing this column and then I am going to don my Official Christmas Baking Outfit. Then I'm going to turn on the tree lights, turn on some Christmas music (Yes,I said I was turning on Christmas music) go into the kitchen and start baking.
  I like to bake. I always have. The problem is that I like to bake things that we shouldn't eat. Christmas is the only time I can indulge myself. I don't make fancy pastries or anything really complicated. I like to bake cookies. During Christmas I like to make cut out sugar cookies. I have a recipe from my Grandmother that I use every year. I like to bake them and then frost them. This year since I'm on my own, I'll sprinkle them with coloured sugar.
  C wants me to make peanut butter blossoms. When he eats them though he takes the chocolate kiss off. This year I'll make a batch of peanut butter cookies and have the kisses on the side. I know it won't be the same, but I can't stand watching him waste all that chocolate.
  I like to make peanut butter sandwiches with Ritz crackers and then coat them with chocolate. They tend to be fairly popular which is good as it keeps me from eating too many.
  This year I'm going to make some refrigerator cookies. I found the recipe in my replica of the 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook. This is the cookbook I learned to cook from and it has always been my favourite. The recipe has a lot of cinnamon in it. I'm going to use part cinnamon and part allspice to see how it would taste. I really like allspice.
   This is a huge cutback from the baking I used to do. I used to make six different kinds of Christmas treats every year. Back then I started earlier though as we gave plates of treats as gifts to friends and neighbors.
   I know that spending an entire day baking means that I won't get anything else done. I don't care. I'm going to enjoy one day out of this month. Maybe if I make some really good treats, my guests will overlook the undecorated house and the gift bags....
 Off to the Kitchen!

Merry Christmas to all of you
from C, Sophie, Scamp and Colby (since they refuse to be left out of this)
  
 

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