Yuletide Prioritizing

Yikes! Christmas is two weeks away! I've spent this past week ironing Christmas Pageant costumes for the firsties and wrapping their Christmas gifts - a copy of Snowmen at Christmas, so cute!

OF COURSE I give books as a gift. Even more important, I also give the gift of the ability to read, that is my job after all and I'll take all the credit for their mastery of short vowels this fall. Thank you very much.

On Tuesday night we perform the Nativity at the school Christmas Pageant. One problem, Mother Mary has a broken arm. I've tried my best to finagle (LOVE that word!) her costume to hide the injury as best I can, but instead of hiding it, I'm debating on maybe just bedazzling the sling instead. Now that is one way to make this pageant our own. The Nativity has been performed over 1 million times (a guess, but I'd be willing to put money on it), it's hard to make it original, but I can't imagine it has ever had a bedazzled, broken-armed Mary. Now that is innovative.

We did fit in a trip to Boston for Brunch on Charles Street and a walk through the Common. So beautiful even with the greenery faded until next Spring!

Despite a busy beginning of the week, Hubs and I have four Christmas parties to attend next weekend. I have numerous Yankee Swap presents to wrap by Friday, not to mention 5 dozen cookies to bake for the annual Cookie Exchange on Sunday! I'll be baking up a storm on Wednesday and Thursday, but I've done a little prepping so that the baking will go a little more smoothly!

I've crushed candy canes in preparation for my Molasses Peppermint cookies - a funny combination, I know, but absolutely delicious!

I found a copycat recipe for Girl Scout Samoas (now called Caramel DeLites in order to avoid any animosity from Samoans, though I have got to say, all of you Samoan people should be damn proud of any association with this delectable cookie). I tediously unwrapped 50 caramels and toasted a bag of flaked coconut tonight in preparation for this baking experiment.

Thanks to Mama Sully, I have a gorgeous container of Paperwhite bulbs sprouting in my kitchen. Next to cooking, gardening is my favorite hobby and it is so nice to be able to watch flowers bloom in the dead of winter. I'll be sure to post updates on their progress!