Must. Bake. Something.

I spent 90% of the day in the kitchen.  We don't have our Christmas tree up but I felt I should do something to reflect the season.  Tomorrow is the holiday open house for our building at work and I needed to make something to bring.  My springerles from a week or two ago are "meh" because I mis-measured the butter when I halved the recipe so had to add more flour so I could roll them out.  Today I made my tried and true almond biscotti recipe but also made a new a gingerbread biscotti recipe with white chocolate.  They are awesome and just mellow enough to enjoy with a nice cup of tea.

I'm all about tea right now.  I always have been, but I am currently obsessed.  I even bought a box of mint chamomile to see if it would help me sleep.  It may work, but it's hard to tell when I have to get up to pee three times.

I made crack pretzels to save for the holiday and a batch of ranch pretzels so I could make some Chex mix.  I may have an addiction, but at least my addiction aids regularity.

We  have probably 95% of our shopping done (notice how everything is in the 90% range today?) which is pretty phenomenal.  We're not having kids here until the 31st so we even have an extra week to get ready.  Maybe I'll wrap sooner than usual.  Since we have an extra week we decided to wait to put the tree up next weekend.  R did put lights outside and around our windows in the living room.  It looks pretty.

We had dinner with friends last night.  Four couples with kids from the same elementary school class who worked together through scouts, basketball, t-ball, etc.  Almost a year ago, one of the friends' son was lost to suicide, and a month or so later another friend lost her twin sister to heart failure.  The third couple lost an aging parent a few months later so we've had multiple reasons to get together and draw strength from each other's friendships.  R and I try to keep our own problems in perspective, and seeing what they are going through makes us reflect.  Still, the closing of R's business has been a blow and it will take a while to shake it off.  He has moved on and seems happy with his new job but he has his days.

I've got to stir some snack mix and add nuts so I'm cutting this short.  Also, my iPad is 93% out of juice.  Ha!