Christmas Chaos 2025

I love our Christmas traditions. As I get older, and after losing Bill, I tend to be more sentimental and grateful for the important people in my life. Let's face it, I'm sappy as shit anymore, and that's not the old GunDiva.

Christmas Eve used to be hosted at my Grandma Mary and Grandpa Moe's house - it was always just full-on entropy: loud, chaotic, and lovely. Grandma, Grandpa, aunts, uncles, parents, cousins, and the handful of adopted family crammed into their little house full of unconditional love. After both Grandma and Grandpa passed, my Uncle Russ started hosting. It's a bit more civilized, but that's only because the littles aren't so little anymore, with the exception of the Gremlin. The menu is pretty set, and we all contribute: potato enchiladas (Jay and me); tamales (Nebalee); beans, green chili, rice, tortillas (Uncle Russ and Aunt Marg); and assorted sides and desserts. It's my favorite meal of the year, hands down.

Many years ago, we started making our gifts to exchange, and it has become my favorite gift exchange as well, because everything is handmade with love. In the past, Jay and I have gifted food items, but most recently have been gifting crafts. This year's craft was one I learned from the Skill-A-Week program I subscribed to: homemade candles.

Jay and I made the candles, then he painted a small character on them.

Nebalee always gifts glasses of some sort, either shot glasses or margarita glasses. One year, she did brass glasses for Moscow Mules. They're always fun, and this year was no different.

Fancy glasses for the Chocolate martini she made, along with
homemade mint extract for everyone.

Dinner and drinks surrounded by people I love, and who I only get to see a couple of times a year, made my Christmas Eve special, as it does every year.

My beautiful aunt and uncle

Obligatory picture in front of the tree

Cheers!

Digger and the Gremlin wearing last year's shirts,
Digger's: The Legend, Gremlin's: The Legacy

After a few hours in the chaos, it felt good to go home and sit by the tree for just a few minutes. As much as I love and look forward to Christmas Eve every year, it drains this introvert's battery. Having a few quiet moments before jumping back into family-filled holiday fun is essential.

Christmas morning was breathtaking. No snow, in fact, it ended up being in the 60s, but it was still breathtaking.

We really do live in a postcard.

Jay and I always do our personal gift exchange first thing in the morning, sitting in bed, before the day starts. I have deep, deep love for the "good" ice, and that lovely hubby of mine got me my own "good" ice machine. I'd been dragging my feet on buying one, because our other ice machine was working just fine and I couldn't see spending the money for another one when ours was working. The beauty about gifts is that I don't have to feel guilty about replacing something :) 

Our old ice machine found a home with Ashinator and her hubby, so all is well. 

I didn't take a single picture the entire day, after taking pictures of my ice machine. I guess that means I was too busy having fun. We visited Jay's family, then Ashinator, and then headed up to the Lodge to spend time with Mom and sibs. By 8:00 o'clock, I was done for and headed up to bed, while everyone else hung out.

Normally, the Christmas festivities end Christmas night, but Nebalee bought all of us sibs and spouses entrance into Beat the Bomb in Denver, so on Friday night we ended up having a sibs' night, which was a blast! We split into two teams and competed against each other in different problem solving arcade-type games, in which we were a part of the arcade game. It's very difficult to explain, but so much freaking fun. 

Each team is competing for time to defuse the "bomb". Nebalee's team, The Shenanigators, beat our team, F-cawf. The better the team does at each game, the more time they have to diffuse the bomb. Of course, the bomb is rigged, so everyone gets doused in slime. It was very Nickelodeon, which made our Gen X hearts happy.

Cats in Hats

I mentioned, in my post on Wilsons' Wild Ones, that I'd gone a little crochet crazy, and made Christmas hats the cats, but I hadn't gotten around to getting pictures of them. I had grand visions of posing the cats in front of the tree, but settled for them just sitting nicely on a lap for their Christmas pictures.

Boomerang, 4 years old

Pongo, 7 years old

It's weird to only be a two-cat household, after being a three- (and, briefly a four-)cat household. The boys are spoiled rotten and loving having a lap for each of them, instead of having to take turns. We do miss the old lady, Gizmo, but she had a good, long life.

Christmas Gift Mis-Adventure

I tend to get hare-brained ideas for "fun" gifts come Christmas time.  Usually they work out.  Okay, they've always worked out, but some years go smoother than others.  I can't really remember the last time one went as awry as this one.

Somehow I got it stuck in my mind that it would be fun to make ice cream for everyone. The ice cream that Jay made for my book release party was a huge hit, so I thought, "why not?".  We have two ice cream makers, so of course I thought it would be a breeze.  Our Cuisinart is amazing, and while I had never used the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment, I assumed it would be amazing as well. 

Once I settled on gourmet ice cream for everyone for Christmas, I started looking for containers to put them in.  Sweet Bliss Containers had what I was looking for and more! I happened to run across a sorbet recipe that I *had* to make.  So instead of one gourmet flavor, we were now up to two that we were going to make for everyone.  I made the list of people who were going to receive the ice cream and came up with ten families/couples.  Not bad.  Essentially twenty quarts of ice cream that Jay and I were going to have to crank out.

No problem.

However, we're procrastinators who were really enjoying being off of work and we didn't get around to starting the ice cream until Monday evening about six o'clock.  No problem.  We had twenty-three, well, make that twenty-two hours before we actually needed the ice cream.  We were ahead of the game.  Right?  It only takes twenty minutes in the Cuisinart to make a batch of ice cream, so I assumed the KitchenAid would be about the same.

We started with our bases.  We thought we could made a base, set it to cool, start a second base, then put the first batch in the ice cream makers while the second batch cooled, and start our third batch.  It worked out perfectly.  In my mind.  In reality, it didn't work at all.

Cream cheese vanilla ice cream and Chocolate Aztec sorbet base

First batch in my beloved KitchenAid.  I was very, very disappointed to say the least.  The KitchenAid ice cream maker sucks.  I'd be really pissed about it if I'd spent any money on it, but it came as part of our rebate when we bought our mixer (which I love and can't believe I lived without it for so long).  If all we had was the KitchenAid one and I had never used the Cuisinart, I might like it.  But we have the Cuisinart and it's worth every penny.

Save your money.  Buy a Cuisinart instead.

Jay's batch went into the Cuisinart, which worked like a champ.  For the first batch.  After that, we were just asking too much from it.

I love this ice cream maker.

Once we realized that the bases weren't cooling fast enough to go into the makers, we tried to cool them faster.  It was 19*F outside and we still had some snow left, so out the bowls went.  We were hoping to cool both the bowls and the bases.  After an hour, we brought in the bowls and started them up again. It was a nice thought, but didn't work.

Our outdoor cooling area.

After spending hours trying to get our first batch cooled and packed, we gave up and spooned all of the base into the ice cream containers.  After all, the machine is not necessary for making ice cream; it just helps to cool everything to the right consistency.  With the decision made to not use the ice cream makers, we cranked out the rest of our bases and put them in the containers, then packed them into the freezer and crossed our fingers.

The worst part of my "let's make cool stuff for Christmas" ideas, by far, are the dishes.  Gah!  I hate doing dishes.

Man, I hate doing dishes.

We finally fell into bed about one a.m. and hoped that our freezer would be up to the job of hard-freezing twenty quarts of ice cream.  When we rolled out of bed the next morning, we had chilled soup.  We stirred the soup, recapped the containers, and crossed our fingers again.  We consulted the gift list and realized we only absolutely had to have four sets of ice cream for Christmas Eve.  Everyone else we would see on Christmas Day, so that bought us almost twenty-four additional hours of freezer time.

Finally!

We got lucky and managed to eek out our first four sets just in time for Christmas Eve.

Whew!

Making Christmas Gifts

And they're wonderful and fabulous and it's killing me not to post about them right now.  But if I posted what I was making, and how I was making it, then everyone would know and it wouldn't be a surprise.

I come from a large family. Two brothers and a sister doesn't seem that large, but you add in parents, aunts/uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews and it gets big fast.  So many, many years ago, I started making gifts.  I've made Irish Cream (yum) a couple of years running and bococcini (I think that's how it's spelled - I'm feeling too lazy to look it up right now) plus stuff I don't even remember.  This year, I came up with something different, thinking it would be fun.  However, Jay and I are procrastinators and we didn't even start the gifts until about six o'clock this evening.  We've got ten sets to make and things aren't moving as quickly as we'd like.  Yikes!  That's what we get for procrastinating.  (Also explains why I'm blogging about pretty much nothing right now.)

I do have faith we'll get it all done by tomorrow night and, by God, people better LOVE their gifts!

Once everyone's received their gifts that we're slaving over, I'll get a post up complete with pictures.  Until then, keep your fingers crossed.

More Apologies to Rachel

I owe Rachel an apology for stealing her Christmas idea for Bill.

And then I came up with my crazy idea of making gun-shaped soaps, so, of course, I had to tell someone about it and I shot off a text to Rachel.

Who wanted to cuss me out (she's too nice to actually cuss me out) for stealing yet another idea.

Seems the same day I started on my quest to make gun soap, she had just ordered some for me for Christmas.

http://www.KcSoapsNmore.etsy.com

Obviously, the folks at KcSoapsNmore used the same mold I did, but they are so much better at making soaps than I am.

Mine

I can't figure out how on earth they were able to manage two-tone.  I'm stumped.

Rachel did manage to pull one over on me, though.  She had Jay do a design, ostensibly a design to be used for Mr. Daddy.

She told me a box would be arriving at the Lodge for us, but all I expected was the gun soap that I was supposed to forget she ordered.  Imagine my surprise when there was a dish towl with Jay's design on it.

You got me, Rachel.  Thanks for making us smile :)

Christmas Eve in Quarantine

As I type this, I hear Mom and Bill clumping up the stairs to our front door.  But they won't come in.

They're dropping off our Christmas presents and picking up theirs.

It sucks.  We're T-1:45 hours from our annual Christmas Eve at Grandma Mary's and we're stuck in the house.

I shouldn't complain, but I didn't realize how much missing out on all the family festivities would suck big old hairy donkey balls.

Once we were sure they were well clear of our plague-infested door, Jay opened it to get our presents.

It immediately fixed my feeling-sorry-for-myself attitude.

Guess Christmas will be okay afterall.

So Much For Christmas Break

I was pretty excited to take my first Christmas break since high school.

No, really.  I know that in real, grown-up life, there is no such thing as Christmas break.  You might get a couple of days off at Christmas, but then it was back to work.  I knew this, and I accepted it.

But last February, my job duties changed and I was to teach only.  No problem, teaching's what I do.  It took a long time, though, for me to figure out that if I was teaching only, that meant I could take the same two weeks off of work that our students had!  Even better, Jay has the same two weeks off of work.

I had big plans, even scheduled an Open House for after Christmas.

Thursday was the last day of work for both of us.

Friday, about 0300, Jay woke up with a dry cough.  He didn't feel bad, just had a cough, no biggie.

We get up Friday, start to do some run-around, hit the laundromat.  At 1500, the fever started.  By the time we were done with laundry, he had "flu eye".  Nebalee teases me about "flu eye", but after surviving the great influenza outbreak of 2000 (or was it 2001?), in which we diagnosed 30 cases a day in the office for weeks, I can spot influenza at thirty paces.

We stopped at the grocery store so I could buy the makin's for chicken noodle soup, some Advil cold and sinus, and gatorade.

I made dinner and he was in bed by 1900.

This morning, I asked if he wanted to go to the doctor and initially his answer was no.  He took a shower to see if he would feel any better and came out of the shower agreeing to go to the doctor.  Our doctor's office is closed on Saturday, so off to Urgent Care we went.  Along with approximately 5,398 other people with "flu-like symptoms".

We checked in at 1030, finally got seen about 1230 and were told what I already knew: Jay has Influenza A (okay, I didn't know if it was A or B, but it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things).

Poor guy sounds like a dying monster, "groan-inhale-groan-pant-pant-groan-coughcoughcough-ohgodthathurts-groan".  Sometimes he mixes it up; "moan-pant-pant-groan-coughcoughcough-sonuvabitch-coughcough-killmeplease-moan".

Almost $75 later, we have Tamiflu and guaifenisen/codeine cough syrup.

When I asked for a 'scrip for me, I was denied, which pisses me off.  Total breach of best practices, there Urgent Care.  Oh, how I wish my doctor's office was open.  She believes in treating the caregiver, especially considering how contagious influenza is.  So now it's a waiting game: is GunDiva going to develop influenza, or is her immune system still rock solid from years of working in doctor's offices?

Maybe next year, I'll just plan on working through Christmas break.

Grandma's Last Gift

I wasn't sure what to expect from Christmas Eve this year, as it would be the first without Grandma Mary.  We had all pretty much predicted that the family would fall apart when she died.  And it did.  To an extent.  Grandma's last gift to us was to bridge the distance between my dad and my uncle.  They are closer now than they have ever been.  I have to hand it to my dad.  I had little to no respect for the man.  He'd done nothing to earn any of my respect.  He was a narcissistic asshole who made promises he never kept and used people more than he ever helped them.

And then Grandma had her stroke.  We knew that my cousins who had been living off with her for years would not be able to take care of her.  After all, they're the ones who allowed her to stroke for three days before my other cousin and his wife visited and insisted they take Grandma to the hospital.  So the option of her going home to them after her stroke, well, wasn't an option.

Dad stepped up to the plate.  He moved in and cared for her 24/7.  He did an amazing job.  She was more active in the months after her stroke than in the years before.  They went gambling, they went to bingo, they went to dinner.  Dad seriously flourished in his role as a care-giver.  For the first time in 25 years he had purpose in life.

Uncle DeVito, my dad's older brother, went to work fixing up Grandma's house to make it wheelchair accessible and safe for her.

Together, the two of them worked side-by-side day in and day out toward one common goal.  To take care of the woman we all loved.  My heart is so happy to see the new bridge built between Dad and Uncle DeVito.  Thank you, Grandma Mary.

Sadly, my aunt didn't participate.  She retreated and pouted and pointed fingers, but she didn't help.  That's where the family fell apart.  We attempted to reach out to her, but she chose to be the victim in the situation and took her sons and their families with her.  My heart is a little sad over that, but it wasn't at all unexpected.

It was with some trepidation that I approached Christmas Eve.  We'd done Christmas Eve at Grandma's house for my entire life.  There was no question that we'd continue celebrating as a family at her house, but I wasn't sure what to expect.

It was AMAZING!  With my aunt and "her" family choosing to do their own thing and not join us, the stress level was non-existent.  I hadn't realized how much tippy-toeing around we did when my aunt's family was around.  We all contributed to a potluck dinner and spent the evening enjoying each other's company (and a margarita or four).  I can't say that I missed Grandma because she was there.  The love she gave each and every one of us shone that night.

Dad and Uncle DeVito

Digger, RCC, Ashinator, Monster and me

My brother, Junior, and RCC.  And I have no idea what they were doing.  They were the stone-cold sober ones.

Me and Nebalee (1st margarita)

Asset, Nebalee, Kyzzer, Mr. Nebalee, Auto Bot

With Digger.  Yes, I know the picture's tilted.  So was I (marg #3-ish)

With Monster and Ashinator.  Yes, I know the picture's blurry.  So was I (marg #4-ish)

I'm not sure how I managed to miss getting pics of most of my family.  Junior, Nonners, Chris, Uncle DeVito - I'm sorry.  I'm blaming the margaritas for the omission.
 
I hope everyone had as great a time as I did.  Love you all.

2009 The Year of the Blanket

So...The Christmas theme this year for my family must have been "blanket" 'cause that's what we got.  Lots and lots of them.  My friend at work started the trend with a leopard print Snuggie.  Yes, the leopard print one...

'Cept on me it doesn't quite look like that.  Apparently it's made for someone 5'9" or so, since it pools around my feet and hangs off my arms.  I feel like a little girl playing dress-up in my Snuggie.  But a warm little girl playing dress-up, which is the important part.  Cheesy as it is, I love my Snuggie.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve.  The Gun Diva gets her presents at Grandma Mary's house - yay!  Present number one: a blue snappy-uppy blanket.  Present number two: a fleece horse throw.  Present number three: a fleece throw that my dad customized using one of his old touring t-shirts.  Laugh if you will, but I'll be warm!

Christmas Day brings Snuggies for all of the children in the family!  Ash gets her own leopard print Snuggie, so now we can be twinsies!

Poor Jay was left out - he didn't get a Snuggie.  But that's okay, 'cause I'll share my snappy-uppy blanket with him.

So, either everyone in my family thinks that my house is too cold or we've become unbelievably difficult to shop for.  I'm going with the family thinks that my house is too cold thing.

But, I tell you, the next time I hear one of the kids whine about being cold...

Christmas Chaos 2009

Four Christmases in twenty-four hours.  Only ours went a whole lot smoother than the movie Four Christmases, Thank God.


Christmas #1: Christmas Eve
Our Christmas Chaos started Christmas Eve at Grandma Mary's house, which was, as usual, standing room only.  The key is to arrive early enough for butt space.  Christmas Eve is where having kids really pays off, because the kids can step and fetch while you protect your butt space.  If you arrive too late, you're screwed, you've got to find some place to stand and that just sucks.





Of course, the Chaos was controlled by my friend Amanda, who provided us with a good sized bottle of Apple Pie Hooch.  No shot glasses were to be found, but, hell, we're all family, we'll just share the bottle...





Sure beats the time, a few years ago, when we had a bottle of wine, but no corkscrew.  Being the inventive family we are, we drilled (yes, power tools were involved) a screw down into the synthetic cork and used the claw end of a hammer to pry the cork out.  We don't need no stinkin' corkscrew!


Christmas #2: At Home

We woke up bright an early on Christmas Morning.  Well, actually RCC and I were woken up early by Digger, who is well known for his sleeping in ability.  Color me surprised that he woke us up at ten 'til seven, ten whole minutes before our alarm was set to go off.  He was like, well, a kid on Christmas Morning.  In no time at all, he'd roused the entire house and we tore into presents.  We didn't get a tree up this year, which I didn't think would bother me because we went so many years without a tree, but after our amazing tree last year, I'm kinda sad we didn't do one this year.

Christmas #3: Off to the In-Laws

After our early morning, present fest, we loaded up both cars with the kids and the dog and off we went to RCC's parents for Christmas Morning with them.  Unlike last year, when his little brother was still asleep when we got there (what kid can sleep in on Christmas Morning?), Dallan was up and frothing at the bit to get started.  Christmas at RCC's family's house is much more sedate than the free-for-all that occurs at my grandma's on Christmas Eve.  But, Lord, my family is so enormous that if we did the one person open one present thing there we'd be opening presents until New Year's.

Christmas #4: To the Mountains We Go
After RCC's family's house, we packed up and headed to my parents' place in Allenspark.  My brother, Deejo and his family, had arrived from Arizona too late to enjoy the fun at Grandma Mary's, but were waiting for us at Mom's.  Well, sort of waiting for us.  They'd done the present thing before breakfast brunch, which we missed while we were at RCC's parents' place.  I was kind of sad and pissy that we missed the major opening party, but felt better when I found out that not everybody had opened their gifts.  I was anxious to see their faces when they opened their gifts from us.  RCC and I had bound our NaNo projects on Blurb for Christmas presents and I wanted to see their faces when they opened them.  RCC's parents loved them and I was hoping to get to see my Mom's face when she opened her present.  I got lucky, she'd been too busy preparing brunch to open her presents, so I still got to be there when she opened them.

It made me happy to see her so excited about the books, even if they're nowhere near being complete.  Monster and Deejo's kids tried snowboarding out back, but that didn't go so well.  The snow was too deep and they had to shovel out a path for the snowboard.

After the non-success of the snowboard, Monster, who cannot sit still, managed to talk his uncle into pulling him behind the car on a snow saucer.  Yes, I know, it's kind of illegal.  But it's also a whole ton of fun.  And we survived when we were kids.  He had a couple of colossal wipe-outs, but managed to survive with all of his fingers and toes and no broken bones.  I gotta tell you, this kid can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.





We survived all of our Christmases and slept 'til 11:00 this morning.  Wow.  All that running around must have really taken it out of us, but I'm glad to have this running around to do.  I remember some pretty sucky Christmases, so I'll take the exhaustion of running all over God's green earth over some of our other Christmases.

I Just Couldn't Wait!

I normally try my best to not post twice in one day; afterall, if I do that, someone may miss an important post *gasp*.  However, Jay and I made the Best Christmas Presents EVER last night and I can't wait to show everybody.  I'm not giving anything away because they are for my grandmas, neither of whom have a computer or really give a damn about my blogging, so they'll never know that I shared their presents with you first.

Any gift giving is torturous for me - once I find the perfect gift I have to give it.  Right. Now.  Case in point: I bought my family members the Best. Present. Ever.  Normally, I'd go running to them to tell them what about the perfect present I found, but since it's for them, I can't do that.  Torture.  Failing that, I post it on my blog.  However, my family loves me and follows my blog.  Guess what that means?  Means I can't freakin' post about the Best. Present. Ever.

Thank God for my work family who at least pretends to be interested when I jump up and down and clap my hands when the Best. Present. Ever. is delivered to the office and I have to show it to everybody.  Every single person in my office knows what my family is getting for Christmas.  Sorry, I'm a blabber mouth, I can't keep a secret, so don't ask.  But...I'm also their boss, so they have to pretend to be interested and don't dare open their mouths, so - family, I'm talking to you here - don't try to bribe them unless you want to pay their unemployment.

Oh, I got off track...drum roll please...the Best Christmas Presents EVER...

I was at a loss for my grandmas.  One of my grandmas has a great outdoor flower garden that she has all sorts of ornamental stuff in, so I was thinking that she needed something along those lines for Christmas.  Then I talked to my mom, who reminded me that Grandma is always talking about the stuff she's got to haul out every summer and pack away every fall, so then I thought that it would be great if she had something ornamental for her house plants.  An inspiration from Sally at Environmental Art and Faerie Houses, who makes everything out of natural stuff, lead me to the indoor fairy houses.

I made this little gazebo from non-natural stuff we found at Michael's.  There's even a little cushy, soft bed for the faeries to sleep on and gossamer window treatments to filter the light.  And little flowerboxes outside of each window, just in case the faeries get tired of looking at Grandma's amazing houseplants.

This cute little A-frame is what Jay made for my other Grandma.  He carefully hand-placed each of the stones in the stone wall, which took hours.  We made this with the intent of nestling it down into one of her large indoor tree pots.  Don't ask - I don't know what kind of large indoor tree it is.  It's big and green with big, ginormous leaves.  The faeries should be happy to be sheltered by such a wonderful tree.  The trick now?  Keeping my niece from destroying it (even if she is old enough to know better).  Grandma doesn't have the word "no" in her vocabulary.

P.S. - Tink, I'll get to your generous award tomorrow.  Three posts in one day may be too much, even for me :)

Baking Weekend, Day Two

My laptop is back, though my jump drive is not, and for once I'm glad I'm behind on uploading my pictures from my camera, so I have pictures dating back from October.  *whew*

My girls and I had a great time during Day One of Baking Weekend, and it was hard to see them go.  The great thing about it is that I know that I'll see them again...and maybe next year, if everything goes just right, we'll have another little on in our troupe.  *sending good vibes to Robin's uterus - AI in just two days*

Day Two ended up just being family, which was wonderful!  We haven't had a "family-only" Baking Day in forever.  We were a cookie making machine.  It took us about six hours to add another six batches of Magic Window cookies and a couple of batches of gingerbread cookies.  Jay finished up his flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.  I think that chefs give foods fancy names just so us home cooks will never attempt things like ganache.  Do you know what's in a ganache?  Heavy freakin' cream, butter, and chocolate.  That's what!  That's all.  WTF?  A fancy name like ganache should include some culinary magic, not a simple double boiler.  Cripes, even I can work a double boiler!

While we were baking away in the kitchen, having a great - and loud - time, the snow was gently falling outside.  Big, fluffy white flakes descending ever so softly from the sky.  It was beautiful.  We worried not about the snow fall, afterall, we're a Colorado family, born and raised.  What's a little snow?

Well, a little snow plus a little snow adds up to four fluffy inches pretty quickly.  What did we do?  We turned up the music, put on some chili for dinner and my sister made homemade tortillas.  And we kept baking.  And baking.  And baking.

By the end of the day, we were pretty well done with cookies.  Didn't really care to see another one.  And if that damn timer went off one more time, well, we couldn't be held accountable for our actions.  But this is what we had to show for it...

...quite a bounty.  It may not look like much, but at our mid-point my nephew counted up the number of cookies that we had and it went something like:

• 
  
  22 dozen Magic Window cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  3 dozen chocolate chip toffee cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  10 flourless chocolate cakes
  
  
  
• 
  
  8 dozen candy cane cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  a couple-a dozen Neiman Marcus cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  a dozen (or so) peanut butter thumbprint cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  and some chocolate-y chinese haystack thingies that my mom makes every year.
  
  
  

Even though the baking was done, were we done?  Oh, no.  That would be too easy.  After everything was out of the oven, we had to pack up our platters (or in my case, shirt boxes) full of cookies for distribution.

My sister and her heathi strung their Magic Window cookies with ribbon so they can hang them on their tree.  Me?  Nope, I just eat them.  I don't bother hanging them on the tree anymore - I just cut out the middleman - and go straight to the mouth.