Are you ready for Christmas?

I think I finished up the shopping tonight. And I even managed to avoid Wal-Mart. You won't catch me near that place this week. You know what? I think we really overdo Christmas - the shopping, the presents, the decorations. I went to three office Christmas celebrations just for my own two jobs. This isn't a complaint - they were a pretty good opportunity to get to know people, and I took my husband along to one and my daughter to another one, so they got a chance to know a little about who I'm working with too. It was nice. And I appreciate all the little presents that were exchanged (hope people understand if mine are late - like January - since I kept intending do do something and didn't get a round tuit). I didn't even know that I had that many co-workers, to be honest. No, they didn't all give out presents, but I was surprised how many people were at those gatherings.

What got me thinking about going overboard for Christmas is this article I just read about Christmas Lighting Addiction. I think the lights are fun too, and beautiful, but they are another thing that gets overdone. I've never had outdoor Christmas lights, and I've kind-of always wanted to. But my family has not done it. Maybe next year.

I guess it's about time for me to get into the holidays. We had the tree up shortly after Thanksgiving, but I just haven't had that much time. I want to do some baking. That seems to me to be an essential part of the Christmas season, not that we haven't had plenty of sweets. I have tomorrow off, and work thursday swing shift, and then Christmas Eve off, and then work Christmas and the next day, so that doesn't give me a lot of time. I'll have more time the week after Christmas.

Cats really think that Christmas trees are a lot of fun.

Click here to see a bigger picture of Tiger playing under the tree. He thinks it's cozy in there.

Here's another picture that shows the whole tree. The round present in front that is ripped open is to the dogs - it's treats, and the cats like that one.

I did knit our Christmas stockings. The one on the far left wasn't intended to be a stocking - it is the sampler from The Sweater Workshop (Jacqueline Fee), but Mark liked it and claimed it as his stocking. Those samplers are interesting pieces of work that seem to find uses somewhere.

Here's another look at the stockings, but Mark's doesn't show up so you will have to click on the link above if you want to see that one.

I fully intend tomorrow to post some recipes, but you know how I am about promising to post things tomorrow. So, here is my favorite cookie recipe:

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Monster Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. honey
1 1/2 c. peanut butter
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
4 1/2 c. oats
1 Tbsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. Malt-O-Meal (optional - without this, the cookies are wheat free)
2 cups chocolate chips, raisins, m&ms, nuts, or anything else you like.

Mix the shortening, sugars, honey, and peanut butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in the oats, baking soda, and Malt-O-Meal, and then the chocolate chips, etc. Drop onto cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes at 375*. It makes a lot of cookies.

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Sorry it's not printer-friendly, but you can just copy the recipe and paste it into a word processor document, and there you go. I got this recipe from my cousin, Becky. She said she reduced it several times to come up with this. The entire recipe will not fit in my cookie jar, but we don't really mind. Oh, and the Malt-O-Meal is my addition, to make the cookies healthier. It tastes about the same with or without that, and you could add it to just about any cookie recipe if you want to try to fool yourself into believing that cookies are healthy. I do it all the time. Well, some are better than others, aren't they?