Not Quite Ready for Santa's Lap!

December 19, 2011

Alright, I have to confess straight off that this, in fact, a photo of last year's Christmas tree, but I think it is just such an amazingly adorable shot of Sophie and Zoey that I couldn't resist!! Sophie (on the left) seems to take her photo shoot so seriously!

We have put up Stella (don't you name your Christmas trees too?!), and have hung the lights, but we're waiting until later today to hang the ornaments. I've been told that the house smells wonderfully of evergreen as well as of the cookies that Karen has been cooking up all weekend, but my sinus infection is keeping me from enjoying the smells -- but not the sights -- of Christmas preparations in the house. I finally buckled and went to the doctor and am now armed with all sorts of good (and legal) drugs with which to combat this monster of a Christmas cold that has invaded my poor little sinus passages and lungs, just in time for the holidays. It has, unfortunately, weakened my holiday craftiness and shopping drive quite a bit, although I'm trying to soldier on!

Meanwhile, Karen has been a Christmas baking champ! She has made her family's amazingly fabulous and famous carrot cookies, chocolate espresso wafer cookies (some of which I will whisk away to become a chocolate whipped cream Christmas log, recipe to follow!), and sugar cookies with lemon and orange zest. Meringues and biscotti coming up! We hit Costco and bought one of those monster bags of flour and are steadily working our way through it (that would, of course, be "we" in the royal sense, since I, in my germy state, am keeping miles away from the scene of all baking--except from the mandatory taste-testing!). Sophie is being a fabulous sous chef. Have y'all seen Ratatouille? I think Sophie secretly dreams of being a chef, not quite realizing the obstacles facing a Blue Tick Hound-Black Lab mix wanting to be the next Iron Chef!