we spent the weekend baking and frosting and assembling and decorating and sprinkling our gingerbread houses and christmas cookies. (this was NOT the most successful year for the houses - despite a year of studying autocad my construction drawings must have been a bit off or the builder was not paying close enough attention to the dimensions - one collapsed completely and another one got a big crack by the front door. we did manage to get that one to stand but it will be pretty drafty in there and it is not coded for a fireplace.)
(this photo is from last year … this year’s houses were a bit wonky! photo: HBK photography)
we did have more luck with the cookies. thankfully, you boulders are not hoarding baking supplies this year and i was able to get my hands on the regular, toxic food coloring that makes actual red and pink, rather than the weird, organic kind made from flower extracts i had to use last year that caused my angels look like they’d just had a peel.
(i LOVE when the cookies are all finished and lined up and the kitchen is clean!)
(last year’s angels with the intense, organic food coloring)
(this year’s angels have much healthier complexions)
i got my boost on monday and was expecting to be down for the count on tuesday because i was never so sick as after my second dose, but instead i felt just FINE (other than a sore arm.) i was beside myself because it was like getting a full EXTRA DAY OF LIFE! so i was able to deliver the majority of cookies instead of lying in misery on the sofa. there is something so satisfying about dropping off the cookies and seeing the pile of plates diminish. however, some of my friends DO live way up in the mountains - so high that my ears start popping on the drive and both the radio and my mobile stop working which makes me quite anxious. if i got lost or run off the road by some kind of nature i would have no way of calling for help. and i have to get out of the security of my car to put the cookies in the mailbox (they have crazy, animal proof post boxes up there that take me a while to figure out how to open which makes me feel super vulnerable because there are literally lions and tigers and bears OH MY! well… maybe not tigers, but definitely lions and bears.) i love those friends (which is why i steel myself each year for the trek up into the dangerous mountains) but i can’t for the life of me understand why they choose to live in such peril. HAPPY, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! x0x0x
(here i am delivering the cookies in the woodsy mountains, except i forgot to bring an ax and a posse)
