Monday, while walking around the lake (it was in the high 40s! and sunny!) my sister Katie and I decided it would be fun to have a cookie baking party. Time is very limited and I'd just found out Friday morning was free, so I volunteered. I don't have very many gatherings at my house and baking cookies seemed like a great excuse. So we found out if Mom and Dad were free and then texted everyone. Most of the bakers in the family had to work (boo; jobs have ruined my social life) but a few were available. It's just as well: my house isn't really big enough to accommodate 12 women baking cookies.
We began early. Mom and Dad arrived at 10:30 am. I had whipped up a big batch of crinkle cookies the night before as they have to refrigerate for several hours. I also had a big batch of peanut butter kiss cookies ready to go. My niece Meg picked up a giant bag of kisses at Costco for me; the little kids at the party (Meg's a nanny, she had 3 kids in tow) unwrapped the kisses and added a dimension of Christmas festivity to the proceedings. My sister Katie brought along cranberry shortbread, ready to be sliced and baked. She mixed up a batch of ginger cookies. She used my recipe but substituted butter for crisco and the cookies are delicious but very different from the ones I make. Mine are crispy and chewy and hers are soft and caky. Both are A+ cookies. My daughter Katie arrived before we finished but she got a round of boos for failing to bring along BoopityBoop. My sister in law, Kathy was able to drop in, between errands and commitments she had. by 1 pm, we'd baked several hundred cookies, ordered and eaten pizzas for lunch, listened to several hours of Christmas tunes and had a wonderful time.
Before Grandma Punkin and John G. left, Zack arrived for some Christmas greetings and chitchat.
I had planned on going to an open house at the studio of a local artist, of whom I am an enormous fan, but Josie, who couldn't make it to the cookie baking party due to having a real job, made me a better offer. She came over for dinner, cookies and A Christmas Story in the evening. As a bonus, her sister returned to join us, and this time she brought BoopityBoop!
Jay, who had already saved Christmas once today, made us all dinner. Steak stir fry. It was fabulous!
How did he save Christmas, you ask?
I spent five hours on Thursday stringing lights on my tree. I'm very particular about the lights; I like a lot of them and I like my lights to have depth. Lights from the trunk all the way out each branch to the tips. It's back breaking and takes hours but the results are worth it. Years ago, I taught Josie to light our tree and she did a magnificent job for a long time but she doesn't live here anymore and she works. So, I took on the job myself and things were going along great. The don't make lights like they used to. I always expect a few strings to die over the months in storage but this year, over half my strings were out. Jay and I had stocked up on five new strings.
I was extremely upset when I turned the tree on Friday morning and they didn't work. We quickly discovered that it was one string, with a blown fuse, at the bottom of the tree that caused the temporary black out. My solution was to rip the offending string off the tree, stomp around the house swearing at it and throw it in the trash, while loudly condemning the manufacturers of such crap and replacing it with a different string or simply throwing the whole tree out into the front yard and just skipping decorating this year. I thought that was reasonable.
Jay Youtubed how to change the fuse, did it and handed me back a fully functioning string of lights.
CHRISTMAS WAS SAVED!!
Aside: the directions that come with the light strings simply says "remove old fuse. replace with new fuse". They don't explain that to remove the old fuse, you need a tiny screw driver and needle nose pliers, nor do they warn that when inserting new fuse, the tiny thing may disappear into the plug, never to be seen again. Jay dealt with all those problems.
BoopityBoop were a blast, as usual. Every time we see them, they're powers of speech are better. Now, they're telling jokes and stories in full paragraphs. Another trick is that when they go potty, they eschew the use of the potty seat we have. I put it on the toilet, only to have them throw it across the bathroom and climb up onto the seat, explaining to me that they're big girls now. They are, indeed.
They watched A Christmas Story with me, Josie and their Mom. They also played together on the floor in front of us. They had brought out two little doll houses and several cars and little people. Half way through the movie, I realized they were pretending that the dolls were "Nana and Coachie" (me and Jay). It was the cutest thing ever.
Josie asked if she could have one of the table topper trees I had. I have a white one and a green one and was more than happy to let her take whichever she preferred. When she went down to get it, she also found a bag with five unopened boxes of Christmas lights!! I may be able to finish lighting my tree without another trip to Menards!
CHRISTMAS WAS SAVED AGAIN!!
After the movie, the girls all packed up and went home. I watched the first episode of the new season of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Best day ever.