Not What I Planned

Well, Christmas is almost here and I have accomplished none of the things I had in mind for this month. Mostly due to illness. I managed to feel good for a few days to scramble to get ready for our Christmas party, cancel one due to illness, have my parents arrive, and start feeling sick again. Yippee. At least my mommy was here. :) So now I am scrambling again to pull everything together. Spent the evening in the kitchen. I did get plates for the nieghbors put together as well as pecans for the family. Almost there. Last year, I was pregnant with two toddlers running around and doing stuff for the neighbors seemed very overwhelming to me. This year did not turn out much better. So, I developed a simplicity plan. The first year we did it with friends and we all brought stuff to contribute. I have to confess, I felt overwhelmed even then, but everyone pitched in, and it got done. That year was quite beautiful.

Now, I make chocolate chip cookies with holiday m&m's (oh so festive!), brownies (oh yes, from the box!) with sprinkles on top, and some filler: another festive cookie if I am feeling ambitious, sometimes we are given cookies from Gabe's office-especially the butter cookies in a tin, ginger snaps, or candy from the store. This year my mom had the idea to get pretzels (circle or waffle) put a striped Hershey's hug on top, melt it in the oven for a few minutes, pull it out and put an m&m on it. I think they turned out pretty well. The original plan was for my eager helpers to help out. Unfortunately, they started coughing up a storm and were banned from the kitchen, or at least from coughing on food on the counter. :)

Now if only I could finish my advent calendar before Christmas.