Day 324
I am sitting here thinking how nice it is to hear movement in the house below me. No, we are not having an earthquake … Ted is home and the house, once again, feels alive.
Living by myself has a different feeling. It’s much more quiet. When there is someone else here the energy is different … it just feels better.
It also smells better. I don’t bake for myself. But I baked for the kids. Mountains of cookies!
Sam gets in tomorrow … so we are postponing Christmas until the 26th. Maybe we aren’t postponing it as much as we are lengthening it. Fine by me. One more day of holiday cookies to stuff into my already round face!
Last night I finally decorated the sugar and gingerbread cookies. I quit decorating the gingerbread men when they started looking more like scary clowns than edible ginger-men. Hence, now I have naked gingerbread men. X-rated Xmas!
There are pretty white snowflakes (of varying sizes) with coarse white sugar crystals. There are candy cane and Christmas trees shapes and a few sizes of stars and hearts, as well. And then there’s the traditional holiday animal shape … usually it’s a teeny tiny alligator but since the move I can’t seem to find him. He is hiding out somewhere and I’ll find him, when I’m looking for something else, months from now. Maybe it’ll be in time for him to be the traditional holiday animal for Valentine’s Day!
In any case … this year’s animal shape is a hippo. And quite appropriate because this year I have a light-up hippo in my yard. And he’s purple. I always wanted a hippo as a kid (a real one to keep in the bathtub) … and well, now I (sort of) have one! And we have cookies to match!
Anyway … cookies. We have pfeffernusse, sugar and gingerbread with sugar crystals or icing or non-pariels or all decors atop them. We have thumbprint and shortbread. They are little bombs of sugary goodness that’ll rot out our teeth if given the chance. I see the dentist in January … I’m covered!
And yet, I don’t even like cookies that much and yet I am stuffing my face like it’s the Mayan prophecy all over again! (Aka … no tomorrow!)
It’s that one time of year though … that I don’t care what I eat. I have a week until the new year starts and I’ll be damned if I’m going to deny myself the sugar rush of the last week of December. The New Year looms ahead with so many empty days just ripe for long walks and workouts to help shed the extra holiday pounds. (I know that won’t happen but it’s a nice end of year fantasy!)
Try as I might to deny my cookie eating frenzy there are tell-tale signs of my weakness … all of my clothes have powdered sugar on them and today I noticed a pink non-pariel on my eyebrow. It’s that time of year! And, frankly, I don’t even care!
My folks were over for dinner tonight … it was a different “eve” than in the past. Different because we were here with them and missing Sam … and not in our old home, just the three of us, having our traditional dinner by the tree and fireplace as we have done for so many years.
And as long as it’s been since the kids were kids … I still miss all the hubbub of keeping track of Santa’s whereabouts and hanging the stockings and reading the stories and the general excitement and anticipation of this time of year. I’m a sucker for nostalgia.
In any case … an extra day of Christmas … four days with the kids … seven more days of cookies and candies and edibles I don’t normally eat or drink. Let the merriment continue … the end of the year is nigh and there are a lot of cookies left to eat! I’ve got my eye on a hippo next!