Time to get my baking and stuff done..........

I am sitting here with my notepad and pen making a list of the cookies I want to bake. I don't usually bake too many different varieties. Last year I made several kinds and mailed them off to my two grandsons and they were thrilled. Their mother had taken off to California just before Christmas and I don't even know if she baked cookies at Christmas. It made my heart feel good to be able to do that for them. I want to do it again this year but I'll be taking the cookies to them this time and will also see my great grandson again. So...I need to decide what to make. I also like to make special things in my kitchen to share with friends. I am making a seasoning salt this year. I got it from my sister-in-law a couple of years ago and I use it all the time. Along with a couple of varieties of biscotti and my chai tea recipe my friends will be happy. My friend Eileen who just moved here from SoCal has been baking since Monday. Now, I've heard her talk about her baking for years but I had no idea the extent she goes to every year. She bakes anywhere from 30 to 40 different cookies and gives them to everyone from the paper delivery person to neighbors and friends alike. I went to their house yesterday and she already has probably 15 different cookies made. She has this really old cookbook probably from the 50s or 60s and in it she has recipes taped on the pages that she has acquired over the years. I was really impressed and amazed. I also tried one of the ones she made and it was good. Well, I need to get back to my own list and decide what I need to buy to pull this all off.

It's still very cold here. But there is rain on the way and that will warm things up here. Yesterday hubby was out making sure our motorhome was not suffering any damage from the freezing weather. We have a little heater going in it and I think he even turned on the forced air heat last night. Luckily our tanks were empty so we didn't have a frozen tank which can damage pipes and such. Okay, back to the list now.

The tree is up....

Well, I finally have my Christmas
decorations up. It's been 5 years since we've gotten them all out and I have so many since our last house was much larger that I am also decorating the bedrooms and baths. Last night we put our tree up. It's artificial and has the built in lights. It's always so fun to figure out which plug goes where on it. Hubby gets so frustrated and after much swearing and trial and error........Ta da!! It is all lit and looks stunning. Now I just have to decorate it. I went to a new decorator store in our town the day after Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law and we found what looks like grapevines wrapped on the tree they had on display. They had none other than the ones on the tree so they took them off for us and we each bought three of them. They looked so pretty on their tree. I can 't wait to get them on ours. I'll take some pictures once I finally finish. It better be soon because I need to start my baking too. I don't know how I did it all when I worked full time. I feel like I am being pulled in 5 directions at once. Part of the problem is going to the gym so late in the morning. I can't seem to get out of the house until around 10am and then I get home around noon. Just in time to fix lunch for Bob (hubby). Then I get sidetracked doing something or other and before I know it, it's time to fix dinner. I need to start getting to the gym at around 8. Well, the temperatures here have been colder than I've ever felt them since we moved here to Oregon. It is usually in the low 40s during the winter. Once in a while it dips into the 30s but it's been so cold this past week. Yesterday it was 12 degrees in the morning and only got up to about 30 here. Brrrrr!! Right now it's 14 degrees. We are getting a blast of air from Alaska and there are no clouds to hold the heat in. It's very dry as well. We usually have fog and clouds even if it doesn't rain but it's been sunny and very cold for the last few days. It's supposed to only last until the weekend. We got a huge cauliflower from someone at our church on Sunday. He brought in a truck full of them and cabbage too. I actually got two of them but I gave one to my neighbor. I made cauliflower soup yesterday. It was so delicious. My husband won't even try it. He is anti veggie. I told him it tasted just like the potato cheese soup I make but he wouldn't even try it. Oh well, more for me. I will freeze it in small containers today. Now I need to do something with the cabbage. Maybe stuffed cabbage. That sounds good, only he won't eat that either. Boy, the things I have to put up with!! LOL
I made an appointment for another fill. It isn't until the 22nd. I just need a tiny bit I think but I am doing pretty well otherwise. Need to finish my shopping and get the packages sent off today.