Beginning to Look a Bit Like Christmas

[akirlu]

Oh, there were ever so many things I meant to do over the weekend, and so many of them are still left to do. Sigh.

But I can tick a few things off the list, anyhow. As you can see, I got my advent star working again -- it was just a bad bulb, and the socket matches the reading lamps we have in the bedroom, so even had replacement bulbs at home. It's the Swedish advent menorah that seems to have gone tits up over the last year -- tonight I'll try swapping fuses and see if that helps.

We also found a smallish tree at Carpinito Brothers -- on the slender side, so it just fits between the white couch and the fireplace -- and I got to try out the fancy tilt-a-whirl tree base on it. The fancy base seems to work fine, so score another wiktory for Goodwill Enterprises. I made a start on decorating the tree, but I think I must be missing a Christmas box somehow because all of my ornament hangers have disappeared. For now, what's on the tree is the stuff that doesn't need a separate hanger or still had last year's hanger still on it.

I baked a first/test batch of short bread. The recipe is very tasty, but I don't think it's quite the right recipe for the sweet, heart-shaped cookie molds. Unless I bake the short bread until it's quite brown, it doesn't want to let go of the mold. I may try a batch using powdered sugar as mold-release, because I don't think the flavor of non-stick spray will do a thing for the taste of shortbread. Or else I'll make shortbread in a plain pan, and see if I can find a better recipe for cookie molds.

And over the weekend the bone chilling freeze we've been having finally broke as the clouds rolled in. Warmer, moister air meant that yesterday at Grandview dog park, Kaylee got to experience her (probable) first snow. Not that she seems to have noticed, particularly, because there were all kinds of dogs to chase after and wrestle with, and a dog must have her priorities. When the snowflakes started getting thick and heavy, one of the bundled-up owners spontaneously belted out a chorus of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," While we appreciated the sentiment, we decided it was time to head for home, just in case the snow was going to make the drive home difficult (it didn't).

I also did a bunch of quotidian stuff like wash dishes and clean the kitchen and launder sheets and insulate the bedroom window, and finish the scarf I was working on, but what I REALLY wanted to get to do was make Christmas cards. And make gingerbread-men garland out of brown wrapping paper, for the office. And make woven paper heart basket ornaments for the tree. And string popcorn-and-cranberry garland. And cut enough paper snowflakes to make curtains. And bake up some salt dough ornaments. And so forth. But you know it wouldn't be Christmas time if I didn't have plans and yearnings for more projects than any three people could finish in the time. I need to start my Christmas projects earlier next year. I'm thinking January.

Comments

[kaffy-r.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking January.

Heh.

We have only just decided to have decorations and dinner, but now that we've made the plunge, I hope to have a tree up on Friday, with decorations and such, and a menu planned for Casakaffyr and the one close family we always have over. Our condo is really quite small, so it's going to have to be a Christmas buffet. As for cooking, it'll be goose, a couple of types of dressing, at least a pumpkin pie and maybe — maybe — chocolate pie as well. I don't know if I'm brave enough to try shortbreads, although I love them far too much, whether they're quite sweet, or only a bit sweet.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

But you know it wouldn't be Christmas time if I didn't have plans and yearnings for more projects than any three people could finish in the time. I need to start my Christmas projects earlier next year. I'm thinking January.

One of my favorite pieces of trivia learned from doing research on Julia Child after seeing JULIE & JULIA was that the Childs sent out Valentines Day cards rather than Christmas cards because they finally resigned themselves to the fact that they were never going to have their acts together to get Christmas cards out on time :->

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My mother had a friend who sent New Year's cards one year and Valentines the next, St. Patrick's cards the year after that. I moved out when they were sending Easter cards, but I wouldn't be surprised if they'd precessed all the way around to send Christmas cards again by now.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

The stars look like space city/ships. I could see living on one of those things.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

God, I miss snow.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Is a dusting of powdered sugar standard as a mold-release for cookies baked in the mold? Intuitively, I'd suggest that it would melt and act as an adhesive. (I seem to remember cornstarch or ordinary flour being used that way for Springerlies (?sp.) -- the hard, anise-flavored, cookies that are part of my Swiss-German heritage & fond memories -- but they came out of the mold (or were stamped) before being baked.)