It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

This holiday weekend has, so far, been fantastic. Friday night the girls and I were invited over to our neighbor's (Natalie, Mistah and Grace) house for a bit of holiday merriment. Natalie had hot buttered rum on her mind, but called me in a panic that there was no hot buttered rum mix to be found in the entire town! (I know! The horror!)

I assured her that all would be fine if we just had a pre-Christmas pirate themed holiday get-together with only the bottles of rum.

Christmas. Pirates. Rum. Yo-ho-ho, it doesn't get any better than that.

Roxy the dog donned her best pirate-y Christmas gear to greet us at the door.


Later into the evening, after imbibing in the Christmas grog, she was a bit more aggressive. Man, I hate mean drunks. Especially the kind that won't give up the squeaky newspaper.

Actually, Mistah ventured out into the night and came back with two of the last three hot buttered rum mixes that were left in all the seven seas - or at least the closest three major grocery stores. The girls erected the Christmas village scene in the window while Mistah, Natalie and I paid respects to good ol' Davey Jones.

Aye. Twas a damn fine party, it was.

Today, I was once again at Natalie's to make Christmas cookies. I tried out an old recipe from my Grandma's cookbook. "Caroline's Marshmallow Cookies." I remember these from when I was a kid. I thought they were the most magical and beautiful cookies ever. But, it is slightly funny that they start out looking like a kitty litter covered cat turd. Merry Christmas!

But, you see, when you slice them, they turn into fanciful stained glass window bits of sugary magic! The cookies on the right are those awesome peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's Kiss on top. They rock. Plus also, Santa loooooves them.

Then, it was on to making the annual treat for the reindeer. I know that many people leave them carrots, but they get very tired of chewing carrots all night long. They get chilled flying through all this weather so we like to whip them up a big batch of Blue Mush. Blue Mush is reindeer's favorite food.

You need quite a bit of blue food coloring to get it just right.

Then, you set it outside on the step. Or if you are in the country you put it in the hayloft of your barn. The reindeer will be happy tonight!

This time of year I think back to when I was little. I distinctly remember my Mom asking me, "Shari, are you excited?"

And in response I would break into tears and run screaming down the hall.

No, dammit! I'm not excited! That's just ridiculous! How the hell would you think I'm excited? Don't be so crazy!

*runs down hall crying hysterically*