four days

like any other sensible human being this time of year, i am subsisting almost entirely on cookies and cookie-like substances, with occasional actual-food (uhh...mostly tacos, pizza, and fried chicken) thrown in.

i did make raspberry and blackberry thumbprint cookies on saturday, and they turned out incredibly well, considering i was hangry and opened a Guinness after dropping the butter on the (freshly cleaned) counter:

 on sunday, E made chocolate peanut butter no-bake cookies, and i got busy wrapping All The Things:

i'm crazy about that Santa wrapping paper. so crazy that i bought three rolls of it last year. the red! the blue! the vintage-y-ness!

also on sunday, i participated in Family Cookie Fun:

it was great! we had Christmas music on, and there were several bursts of three-part harmony. Little V had a marvelous time, and i snapped what is now one of my top favorite pictures of Mom:

she mixed a bunch of sprinkles on a plate, frosted the cookie, then dunked it face-down. she called it her "instant-decoration" tree. and she thought i was just taking a picture of the cookie, so she didn't try to pose. i'm sneaky like that!

today, i don't have clients til 5, and i've been a busy little dragon. did some dishes, paid the cable bill, ran a load of laundry (must remember to make more laundry detergent tomorrow), put up my gingerbread village:

(this one's my favorite)

worked on a mitten (trust me, it's a mitten.):

and made the dough for the molasses cookies i'm taking to the office party tomorrow afternoon.

double the recipe, i said. it will be fun, i said:

that was with two more cups of flour left to work in UNTIL NO STREAKS OF FLOUR REMAINED. i took a deep breath, reminded myself that i am a professional (no really, i used to do this for a living), abandoned the wooden spoon, washed my hands, and dove in. fold and smoosh, fold and smoosh, fold and smoosh. gently, so as not to overwork the flour. making sure to scoop from the bottom so everything got incorporated. it's delicious, and is doing its thing in the fridge.

still to come: a trip to Greenfield Village with E's family on wednesday, present-wrapping and cleaning and french toast casserole assembling and midnight church service with Mom on thursday, and then NO MORE SLEEPS YAAAAAY CHRISTMAS!!!!!