Visions of Sugar Plums

Don't I wish.

I wish I were snuggled down for a long winter's nap with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head, but there are miles to go before I sleep (how's that for mixing up quotes!)

The day started very, very early. About 4 a.m., to be exact. It wasn't the dogs that woke me, I woke myself, thinking it was much later. But it wasn't. It was 4 a.m. and by the time I realized that, I was wide awake. I tried going back to sleep, but no luck, so by 4:45 I was up. I had things to do.

On the schedule for today was making cookies for Ashley, who has complained in the past about the lack of sweets in this house. Given my entry yesterday about the memory of baking cookies, and the fact that I am doing NO baking (except pumpkin pie) for the Christmas dinner, I decided to go on a baking orgy.

While I was waiting for the oven to preheat, I had a chat with Ned's sister-in-law, Lindsay, who was having a celebration tonight because she finally got her teaching credential. We were planning to attend. When she was that I was making cookies, she said that nobody has given her Christmas cookies, so I said I would bring her some. And then I decided to bring a bunch down to Santa Barbara just because.

I started with brownies because I had a box of No-Pudge brownie mix and decided to use it. This was a chocolate mint flavor. These are great for dieters because they are low cal and I don't know what all. I made them all the time when I was following Weight Watchers. You mix the mix with yogurt and pop it in the oven. They turned out better than I expected (though not nearly as good as the home made kind) and that set the stage for what was to come.

Next it was chocolate chip cookies. I had bought chips a couple of weeks ago, anticipating this baking orgy. They turned out exceptionally well and almost duplicated that elusive taste of my mother's cookies that I talked about yesterday.

After chocolate chip cookies, I made Snickerdoodles, one of my favorites. I made an old fashioned kind. I couldn't figure out why they didn't seem right untl after they were baked. I realized that the ones I'd made before are made into balls and then rolled in a sugar mix. These are drop cookies sprinkled witwh the sugar/nutmeg mix. Oh, they tasted just fine, just not the way that I usually have my Snickerdoodles. But I packed them up for Ashley and another batch for Lindsay and the rest for the Santa Barbara bag.

I was going to make gingerbread, but was out of molasses, so instead I made peanutbutter cookies. I was literally taking them out of the oven as Walt was getting into the car. (I did have a few cool ones to pack for Lindsay, but she got short shrift on that batch.).

I left a disaster in the kitchen and off we went to the dinner at Buca di Beppo, which was very nice--a joyous celebration of Lindsay's accomplishments, and an opportunity to spend a little time with Ned, since we won't see him for Christmas. Marta was working, so she didn't come.

Ned with his brother-in-law, Brad

On the way home, we stopped first at the condo Walt's sister owns in Sacramento so he could pick up mail and put up a "for rent" sign, then 20 miles back to Davis so I could do some last minute shopping at Borders Books. As we got out of the car in the parking lot, Walt suddenly realized he hadn't shut the garage door to the condo, so we finished our shopping, he dropped me off at home (to clean up the poop, which was everywhere), and drove all the way back to Sacramento to close the garage door.

Now it's 1 a.m., I've been up since 4 a.m. and I'm hoping I can get a couple hours of sleep, though Nicki is sleeping in the living room, and that probably means that she will wake up in the middle of the night and get disoriented and I'll have to put her into her cage. (I'd do it now, but it's so nice and peaceful and quiet and I hate to disturb things!)