Maple & Brown Sugar

Holiday season means baking galore! And this year I decided to slave over a hot stove for hours to make tasty treats for my friends. So, spread over a few nights, and with Nolan's help cutting out endless amounts of christmas shapes from springerle dough, I came up with many delicious recipes that I'll definitely be using next year, including a double-layer peppermint bark one, that tastes just like the Ghirardelli's stuff - not too minty. I also enlisted the help of trusty Ash U, who mixed up some spritz dough like a pro and didn't even whine about it:

Of course we broke out the aprons, because if cookies aren't an apt occasion, I don't know what is.

This year, we forgot how we decorated with our strands of lights and actually made it reach around the whole floor while staying plugged in, so we decided to use less space, and get a little creative. So we took a box of t-pins, and started outlining, and here's what we came up with. I'm most proud of the tree:

And my attempt at a snowflake, which could also be a very loppy star of david outline...


Of course I have to follow those extremely pathetic pictures with pics of one of the departments here, that got super fancy and decorated every side of their floor with a different theme. The one I voted for? Winter Wonderland. You can't tell how awesome it is from this picture, but trust me. Even the wall behind the cubicles has icicles hanging on it. The whole thing was COVERED and it looked all icy and fabulous (click on it to enlarge):

Though I have to be very impressed with the actual tree and rocking chair and trainset, ETC. that this side brought in:

Let me tell you, it was depressing to come back downstairs to our grinchy little strings of lights.

All this makes me realize that I should beg for my own Christmas budget next year, or our floor will be stuck with t-pin christmas trees and loppy stars.

Sniff, sniff.

All day today I've been testing scenarios, testing materials, and testing cookies from our holiday cookie exchange. All tasty, all horribly calorific. It's like I've spent the morning stuffing chunks of lard down my throat washed down with sugar. Blech. But at the same time delicious.

Still feeling sick (maybe a little worse, so I think I'm in the throes of it now...which hopefully means it will be gone by the weekend?), and really all I can think of is how much sleep I need when sick, how much it affects short-term memory, and how wonderful Nolan is about taking care of me and babying me.

Also, all this mucus begs the question: How did people cope when there existed neither disposable handkerchiefs (kleenex) nor washing machines? I'd like to think that high-class 18th century society refrained from snot-rockets. Maybe this was why people used to die of colds. Maybe they actually drowned in their own fluids. Fascinating.

Blergh!

Due to the fact that I sleep with my eyes half-open (creepy, I know!), I wake up with dry eyes and sometimes feel extra-tired because of it. So, I invested in a plush eye-mask from Brookstone to keep my peepers shut. And I had nightmares about getting out of bed to put Milo out, and forgetting I had a mask on and falling and breaking myself and possibly Milo. But no, last night I was so paranoid about it, that I woke up, slid off the mask, and went to the door 3 different times during the night to let Milo out...who was still laying on the bed, watching me and undoubtedly wondering what I was doing. Turns out the booger slept until my alarm went off. Just to annoy me in my paranoia.

Also, I've been feeling THE SICKNESS coming on for a little while now, but this morning I definitely noticed a sick feeling. And now, here I sit, with full-blown runny nose, exhaustion, and sore throat. This morning I felt dizzy at the gym and thought maybe it was just tiredness but no. THE SICKNESS. Which is aptly capitalized because it happens so rarely and also because when it strikes, it strikes hard. And I hate it.

potty mouth

I hate raffles. Secretly I love them because I envision myself winning all sorts of fun stuff or them accidentally pulling my number twice so that I get the Starbucks gift cards AND the Trader Joe's bag o' goodies. But. In reality, I never win anything, so: I hate raffles, those teases. Last night at the Project READ Holiday Party, my learner and I were sitting there clutching our golden tickets waiting for our numbers, to no avail. So we sat and ruined our diets with giant pieces of peppermint bark and cookies. Meanwhile some kids next to us were claiming their winnings from the kids raffle and nearly coming to fisticuffs over the latest version of "Ripley's Believe It Or Not". After the whole thing, we made a restroom break before Nolan picked us up (cause he's pretty much amazing), and I made her take a picture of the reality of the Public Library's restrooms, in which I'm fairly certain at least 5 homeless people dwell, and of which the engineer should be fired. Not only are the doors too short, so that a person of my stature can easily peer out, but also it means people next to you can make eye contact with you while you're in your stall and events are taking place. Because across from the stalls are giant mirror-lined walls. Horror. I get stage-fright in public bathrooms anyway. Just look how awkward these stalls are, and imagine the giant mirrors where my learner is standing taking the picture:

Or is it more awkward that I had her take the picture, and we managed to also capture the head of the woman next to me?

The night before, Nolan helped me make gingerbread cookies with our cookie press for the party. On the box, it says gingerbread cookies work with the press, so I took that to mean that you can put gingerbread cookie dough in it, and use it. Apparently not. It's WAY too soft, even after hours of chilling, and comes out looking like your baby cousin's freshest diaper. We couldn't resist photo proof of this abomination, though I hesitate to post it just because it is, in fact, SO disgusting looking:

Sadly, when baked, these cookies weren't even photo-worthy because they turned from poop blobs on the sheet into perfectly round coin-shaped cookies. Round, delicious, and boring.

I also have to plug Ash U for her sweetest of all blogs this morning, because it made me feel emotional at work and NOTHING does that. Except my morning starbucks. Heh. We love you, Ash U!

We are nationals

Sometime on Saturday, the Oregon Ducks went on to win their last game in their undefeated streak, effectively propelling them towards the national championship game. You can imagine that Nolan was ecstatic. Milo slightly less so, as it involved loud clapping and wild cheering. Either way, congrats to the Ducks, who had better win it in January, or I'll feel slightly cheated.

That same day, a Safeway driver delivered my groceries, which ASTOUNDED Nolan's uncle (who was watching the game with us). After all, how could we be so lazy! Lest you think less of me, let me assure you that not only is it foolish to abandon one's parking spot in this neighbourhood on a weekend, but also I spent enough at Safeway to get free delivery anyway, so why not? Among the items were those below, which clearly spell out BAKING if you look closely.

I mean, don't look too closely, it's really just symbolism.

Speaking of, his uncle brought us these festive poinsettias for the holiday season, and as much as I love them, I was desperately convinced they'd be reduced to stems within a day. Milo dearly loves to eat plants. HOWEVER, it's now Tuesday, and there isn't a single bite out of them! So far, I've only observed him sniffing the petals lovingly.

Hot to Trot

The Silver Fox just now sent me these pics, so I thought late was better than never to get these up. In case ANYONE was at all interested in our "turkey trot" in Oregon (which, incidentally, was a leisurely stroll along the highway to a coffee shop and back), here's the proof:

Here's a nice shot of Nolan being a total bad-ass with the dogs. And his bird perched on his arm like a falconer. In case you didn't notice, we all have birds strapped on somewhere. 'Twas one of the made-up rules that Anna imposed on us.


And of course a shot of everyone except for John, who was behind the lens. Nolan's arm looks less like a falconer here and more like he's trying to karate-chop Anna in the face.


This one has been labeled simply "the look" because apparently I do this a lot? All I remember was that John crowed after taking this picture because he caught me in a smirk after my dad said something to my mom that I THINK bordered on cheeky. This was while we were at the halfway point, which conveniently happened to be Dutch Bros Coffee.


Now, onto my weekend.

O shiny christmas tree

Normally, I wouldn't post things like this, but the last one especially made me laugh so hard. A word of advice: turn off the sound to watch it because it's annoying and distracting:

Also, if any of you are going to nag on me for this CAN IT because yes, this year I went ahead and got a fake tree, BLASPHEMY! I know. But look, we're never here for the actual day and I don't want to schlep a tree all the way back from Delancey's when I could have a perfectly nice one that already has lights on it for the same price. Maybe when we have a house and actually will be there on the day, we'll go back to real.