Christmas Preparations

I've noticed that part of the reason I never post is because I like to have pictures to go with all my posts. But obviously wanting to post pictures doesn't actually make me post pictures, it just makes me not post at all. So here's a post without pictures, and if I get around to taking some pics, I'll post them later :D

I was a little stressed about Christmas the past couple weeks, (mainly due to a fairly sizable project I'd committed to that was taking longer than I expected) but that's in the past and things are well in hand now, so I thought it was time for an update.

The big thing this year was that, after two Christmases away from home when we did absolutely no decorating, we were finally going to have a tree again, and we do. The implied corollary was that by Christmas the house would be ready to receive a tree. Whether that goal has been reached is debatable-- we hired someone to sheetrock the downstairs part of the addition, so the tree is at least surrounded by walls instead of studs and exposed insulation, (see the Great Remodeling Escapade for more about that) but there is still exposed framing above, it's still sitting on a plywood floor, there are still construction materials surrounding it... it actually looks a little silly right now, but in a good way. After Jeff brought it in and set it up yesterday, I somehow managed to get all the lights and ornaments on it. We'll move the couch in from the other room tonight or tomorrow, and the end tables, so we can set up some candles, and I think it will be cheery for our Christmas eve first fire in the fireplace.

After decorating the tree, I started another fun project-- making gingerbread men! I've never actually made gingerbread men before-- I've made gingerbread houses, and I think a gingerbread stocking one year, but never good ol' fashioned gingerbread men. I got the idea when I came across this website with gingerbread recipes dating back to the fifteenth century. I thought I'd make gingerbread men for my coworkers and include funny old gingerbread recipes as part of the package. I did NOT get around to the old recipe part, but the men (and women!) came out very cute, and the gingerbread is very tasty. I decorated them only with white royal icing piped through a thin round tip, to try to give them a "classic" look, and I made 5 of them to *sort of* look like the people I work with and handed them out this morning. I think they were well received. I tried to take a picture this morning but the camera battery died and I just wasn't in the mood to deal with it. There were 7 more that I didn't give away, so I'll try to photograph them later.

I've been wrapping gifts as I get them, so everything is now wrapped and just waiting to be put under the tree-- I think I'll do that tonight, unless Jeff beats me to it. Then, I just have to wrap what I have for Jeff, which I'm also planning to do tonight, and the only thing left to do to prepare will be shopping for Christmas Eve noshing goodies, Christmas morning breakfast, and my contributions to mom's Christmas dinner and Rachael's Christmas Evening get together.

Fun, fun! :D