Happy Mid-Winter's Day!

It's the season to fight back the darkness, the sun sets early, rises late and most days lately have been overcast or drizzly.   I have strung 400 multi-colored lights in the kitchen, 400 more on the tree and about 300 flashing on the porch.  I put them up the day my daughter and I agreed that it was just too dark and gloomy.

Counter-intuitively, I have Nirvana blasting on my husband's prized 1980's state-of-the-art stereo. The dog has run for cover.  The parrot is whistling along.  The bass line of Come As You Are can fight back any darkness for me, I'll be humming it all day.   I just googled  the lyrics to find out what I've been mumbling for all these years, but I've found in this case ignorance just might have been bliss. Nat King Cole it isn't, but if it gets me in the spirit of the season, so what.

The ripening fruit cakes are in the pantry where I tucked them a month and a half ago. Gifts are purchased, wrapped, hidden and then re-hidden in a new spot, because I'm a sneaky mom that way. The annual letter/powerpoint has been sent out, missing the last two slides, because I was waaaaaaay over the file size for an e-mail document.  This year I added music, because I knew I could, but had never tried.  It will take more practice to get it just right.

Cookie ingredients are sitting on the shelves ready for the right moment, which will come very soon. I feel a sweet tooth coming on. Lemon sugar, molasses crinkles, peanut butter and something with chocolate may be the varieties, may be not, we'll see.

Off to Whole Foods to find goat/sheep/buffalo milk  cheese suitable for the traditional family pork chop/macaroni and cheese dinner for Christmas Eve.  The chevre in the supermarket just doesn't cut it, but my cow's milk allergy won't get in the way of 56 year tradition.