Necessary Chocolate

The cookies before Christmas

So, I finished Allison's skirt. And then, a skirt for Laura. And then, the marathon really started.

Sunday (13th): Church Christmas concert; helped with brownies & drizzle & crushed candy canes.

Monday (14th): Office cookie exchange. Sugar cookies! Comets AGAIN.

 

Tuesday (15th): Decorating cookies in class.

Tues-Wed: Get stuff ready for the office christmas party (Thursday the 17th). Go utterly, completely insane. My Christmas's will always include a few ridiculous, unnecessary projects. While not quite as crazy as the year I hand-died the twill tape, or the year I sewed yo yo flowers to Laura's sheets, this is way up there.

 

Two dozen dutch canal house gingerbread facades.* They looked great packaged up with kinderegg toys.

 

Friday morning: Class breakfast at my house: get all decorating done the night before. No cookies served.

Saturday: mail gifts; pack to fly to DC on Sunday. No cookies eaten. The marathon is over.

During that week, it all felt like a bit of a nightmare (except for teaching the mroning class - that's always worth it). Now that I look at the pictures, there's not a single thing I would have done differently. Oh, dear.

*(Cookie cutters and stencils from fancyflours.com; gingerbread recipe from epicurious.)

Christmas

By Christmas Day, life really was this peaceful (I didn't look as surprised as Joseph does in my nativity scene). I crashed, read my books, and ignored the world. Including you. And I'm sorry for that. I should have wished all of you a very merry Christmas, and thanked you for your friendship. Thank you for sharing so much of your lives with me!

A little snow, a little velveteen

I kind of want this skirt in my size. It's velveteen with a cotton/silk ruffle and binding. It swings and flares and it's satisfyingly heavy for this time of year.

Plus, it has a sparkly button.

(I'll add details on the pattern, etc., later. Right now I'm on my way to NYC! At Christmas! In the snow!!!)

Edited to add the details: Ottobre 4/2003, #27; grey velveteen from Farmhouse Fabrics; Robert Kaufman Radiance fabric for the ruffle from fabrics.com.

Everyone together: the dolls

There seemed to be a doll theme last week. I'm not sure why. Some well-loved friends came back to visit:

 

And my Barbie dolls came out of a trunk (once Dad broke the lock off) for the first time in many years. Judging by their condition, I loved my dolls quite a bit, too, and loved sharing them with little girls for the first time since I was little.

When I was their age, my Mom made pretty amazing Barbie clothes.

 

Sometimes we'd go to Kiddie World in San Jose and I'd get to pick out new outfits. I love the detailed work on these clothes.

 

Even better than sharing these dolls? Having girls (and boys) around while we decorate my parent's Christmas tree, hung with dolls, and sharing the fun.

You should see it once all of the balls are hung. Wow.

Now I'm home, and there's not a single Christmas decoration up at my house yet. So this weekend, I hope to accomplish Every Christmas Thing I've Ever Wanted To Do. Or sleep. I think I've mentioned that choice before?

Everyone together

Twice this year I've had groups of people that I love under my parents roof. In August, the aunts and uncles converged in Virginia for my parents' anniversary. And for Thanksgiving? The Arizona crew. Yep, they all came out and did DC and tried to do everything I've ever wanted to do with them if only we had the time and the house and the city. Of course, there's that cooking for twelve thing (2 parents + me + nine)  that gets in the way of some of that. But we still managed to hit the Smithsonian:

 

visit a few other landmarks (there are three kids in front of the fountain, if you look closely):

 

and make pies and EAT.

 

Those are oak leaves on that crust. You can't tell? The pie-making was interesting, to say the least; and I claim that it's because Mom taught a pie-making class a few days before we arrived. If that's not going to jinx the dream of perfect pies, what will? But the cherry, pumpkin, apple, and buttermilk pies all tasted great. I chose not to take a picture of the crust we threw out.

Tomorrow - the doll stuff.