My Christmas (Jan 7) baking is done!!!

Above is the recipe for the 'coon bars' with my additions that I made yesterday.

From a Church Cookbook in MI (that I thought my sister gave me but now it 

looks like my cousin A. gave it to me in 2005; I had 2 stickers in it from

that Christmas with my name on both, :) )... 

Made the Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Cookies! (the non-vegan regular recipe) 

I burnt one tray of them, note to self, have that darkest tray on top only... 

this rarely happens...thankfully... 

The parchment paper really helped me have less to clean up between batches...

I also made a double batch of orange snowball cookies! Now that was hard to

not just eat all at once, LOL!

Christmas is coming though and I saved a small bag for our Christmas...

in a lovely Dutch tin that my Mom gave my Husband for Christmas,

with a cute ornament (Rocky and Bullwinkle! was so sweet of my Mom to do so

as our main gifts were already delivered here as both my and my Husband's gift

had glass involved and better to just ship directly to NJ! She finds the 

neatest stuff at the GR thrift stores :) )...

It was my Husband's first day back on the job after our Christmas MI holidays

and he worked late as he lost track of time... but that was fine... I made myself pasta...

and ate half a box of this vermicelli pasta... I had not had much for lunch so I was 

extra hungry! I had grocery delivered today but they did not come until 9:30 tonight

so the spinach salad will have to wait until tomorrow! 

(The delivery as between 8 and 10 PM so not a problem)...

I had to realize / tell myself that today I am DONE baking.

Tomorrow cleanup day, wrap the remaining presents, get the house in order

and prepare the tea gifts (not much this year as I did not have time)...

Friday is prepare all food gifts. 

Saturday we will already be doing vigil for the eve of Christmas EVE!

CHRISTMAS is coming!!!

(this coming Monday for us, Jan 7th)...

I could do a happy dance, I am so EXCITED... 

I am tired though, LOL... I woke up about 5 AM this morning... not intentional...

but I made it work... ambient morning light, beautiful icons in light... reading...

early breakfast...cleaning a bit... seeing Mr Husband off... and then...

well... I went back for a nap! Yep. Then I got up again later (9 AM-ish) and had

a second breakfast and got to baking...

Given how much we did over MI Christmas holidays,

it is no surprise that I am a bit tired... but trying to be careful to not have sugar

(ironic as I am baking with LOTS of sugar) and doing my best to not get sick...

So I *Will* rest soon! I think I will have next week Wednesday off (thank God)...

there was a possibility I would go to NYC but I think that's not a go, which is just fine....

***

For some rest I did, however, write some letters with my 'new' VNA stationary...

so fun... now I just have to get them ready for mailing...we will see when I can do that...

I am so happy to have more presents to wrap but also that the 'end is in sight' 

and soon all shall be ready, God willing of course. 

I redid my fridge this AM and took this picture of my Godson SG's drawing...

funny, esp as it was to 'thank me' for my gifts... 6 year old boys! Go figure :) 

***

So I ordered a book of Miss Read stories (short stories I think) today

and a vintage William-Sonoma cookbook and a book that I saw on 

Mat Emily's book list from last year,

The Family with Two Front Doors 

as the title intrigued me as well as the blurb via amazon.

(and I got it for free with a 5 $ credit that I had!)

I do love books... always have, since I was a child...

btw, the Letters of JRR Tolkien that I am reading to my Husband

out loud at night (just began year 1945 in it!) is this one.

We are just loving it and they are really fun to read out loud, also! 

Speaking of books, DE Stevenson's books ... there are 5 more that are being 

republished, pre-pub buying on amazon now

(see here, the Mrs Tim books are being republished!!! They can be 

quite pricey for the vintage copies so this is quite exciting!

Amazon says they are to be released on Christmas Jan 7th (that is!)

so if you order them before Jan 7th, you will get the pre-publication price

(which is often cheaper but not always any cheaper).

But they will come DV during the 12 days of Christmas and I am quite

looking forward to some rest time to just read...

I have not had a real 'rest' day in a few months... and know that this is needed...

so I will have a lot of books to look forward to ...

and various Christmas plans (including 2 dinners in January) are already on the books,

and I also want to have 2 local quilt friends over for lunch... 

I really like having all of these plans, helps me not worry about that which

does nothing to worry about... just trusting God everyday with our

unbloggable... and being thankful... 

***

Well, I am thankful now for the baking I was able to do 

and that I have hopes for another day tomorrow to prepare for Christmas...

praying that I make it to Christmas still in good health...

***

God bless, protect and save us all!