Painfully behind

I've not been keeping up lately, I've been incredibly, happily busy.

Sunday I went to a baby shower, my first where it was actually a surprise to the guest of honor. She thought it was a Pampered Chef get together and so brought deviled eggs for the feast. Probably one of the few mothers to be who brought food to her own shower! But Jenn was delightfully surprised and I really enjoyed being there with her and all of her friends. Hearing about how long they've known each other and being let in on some of the inside story of their lives. I got to visit with Tina too. A nice surprise, I haven't had a chance to catch up with her in quite a while.

Monday was the beginning of the cooking week. I went over to my grandmother's house in the morning, and she my dad and I, spent a lovely day destroying food. We always make a homemade candy that includes dates, nuts, and rice crispies. My grandmother's happily stirring the concoction while my dad chops nuts. All's well, until the annoucement comes from the stove "Candy's done." My dad looks up from chopping. "How can it be done? I'm still chopping the nuts to go in it? And we haven't added the Karo syrup, or the rice crispies, or the extract??" I'd like to point out that this candy is a bit fussy and you have to get it to the right consistency on the stove before pouring it out and shaping it into little balls, otherwise it could wind up anywhere from ooey gooey taffy, or dry as a bone crunch balls. My dad frantically added ingredients into the already correct consistency mixture, and I think added just a little too many rice crispies. What we got was pecan date breakfast cereal. The candy didn't candy. It didn't hold together at all. Not that it didn't taste as wonderful as it always does. In fact it tasted great in a bowl with some milk. After that I made an apple cake. Worked out well until I turned it out of the pan. Half came out, the other didn't. Tasted good. Didn't look pretty. We sort of gave up baking after that, and went on to cooking. We had a recipe for cornbread stuffing that we'd never tried before. And we fudged a few things, we had no sage in the house for one, and it actually turned out incredibly well. I was a little worried after the morning we'd had. We also got the tree up and decorated while we were in the holiday spirit.

Tuesday we went shopping. We drove up to Hagerstown and hit the outlets. Such fun! I love shopping anyway, and outlet shopping is one of my favorites. Of course it was cold. In fact it snowed before we left. But that was fun too. Put us in the holiday mood. After that we had movie night at my place. O Brother Where Art Thou. One of my all time favorites.

Wednesday, back to cooking. A much larger success this time.

Thursday, Turkey Day. Still full.

Friday. Black Friday. I woke Andy up at 3:30 AM so he could get over to Best Buy for the best buys. He succeeded. A whole passle of stuff for only $200 after rebate. Not a bad deal. After he got back we had a little breakfast and headed back out again, this time to the mall to meet up with my folks and grandmother. The mall really wasn't that bad. Busier than usual, but not insane yet. After a few Christmas present purchases, we headed over to the theatre in hopes of catching the 12:15 showing of Harry Potter. No way. Sold out. So I stood in line to buy tickets for the 3:40, and then we toodled off to lunch. Came back, stood in line, and got some damn fine seats. Good movie. Not as good as the first I thought, and no where as good as the book. But movies never are so not surprising.

Saturday I headed out to the malls again to get a few last minute Christmas purchases done (we did Christmas with my folks on Sunday) then came back home and went to Andy's folks house to help decorate their tree. After that I was completely in the holidy mood, so I did up our porch with a wreath and pine roping. Lights to come later.

Sunday, Christmas! We all went to see Les Miserables at the National Theatre after church. Great show, great cast, great that my sister finally got to see it after waiting 14 years. Then back to my grandmother's for Christmas presents. Hurrah!!! Goodies!