Into the Christmas closet....

That's what I've been busy with.... taking Christmas decorations out of the big closet. The fancier ones are around the house, and the country-simple ones are in boxes and bags so we can take them to the cottage the next time we go. Which will leave some breathing room in my holiday closet, because I'll leave those things up at Mayberry. Like my collection of wooden Santas... all found at yard sales, and all going to the lake now where they will fit in better with the cottage style. Out of my life here, into my life up there. And I don't plan to replace them with fancy-Santas.... my holiday closet here is quite full enough, even after those country-Santas were taken out.

I also spent some time today wrapping Christmas gifts. Usually I have all of that done by now, but that month of being sick with the flu really threw my schedule off. I'm determined to have all these gifts wrapped up and packed up before Thanksgiving.

I don't think we'll be hosting a big Open House for Christmas this year...... neither one of us has been planning a big party for the holiday-- we're doing more talking about it than actually planning it. No plans for music, no ideas for catered food, no boxes of favors.... we're just going to keep the holidays on a smaller scale this year, so we can enjoy some time up at the lake. Can't go up there if we're planning on having 60-plus people down here.

It's always a surprise to start taking out the shopping bags of gifts from that Christmas closet. I have bags in there for my sister, for young C and her friend L, and for the few children and young teens that we know. As I find gifts for them during the year, I put them into those shopping bags (they're all tagged with their names) and then when I take them out to wrap them, I am ooohing and aaahing over the presents because I don't always remember everything that I've put in there.

As I wrapped the gifts for my sister this afternoon, I had to share all the paper and tags and boxes with AngelBoy. That cat loves the rustle of tissue-paper and wrapping paper, and he likes to play with the cards that I make the tags from. (I save last year's holiday cards to make this year's tags for the gifts.) So there I was, trying to keep everything in separate piles on the dining room table, and there was AngelBoy, moving one thing here, another thing there.... making his own little piles to play with. He will also curl up into any box he can squeeze himself into, so I kept having to un-box that cat as I went along. I just kept boxing and wrapping till my arms and legs got tired (I can't sit down and do all of that, so I'm standing up the whole time)...... I'll finish on another day. Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett.

Those brownies I baked on Sunday were delicious.... substituting the yogurt for the oil in the recipe was a great idea........ the brownies came out nice and moist and perfect-- and using the cupcake liners was an even better idea-- no pan to clean, and the edges of the brownies didn't get crusty. So from now on, all of my brownie-baking is going to be in cupcake pans. Round brownies instead of square ones.... cooking rules are made to be broken.

On one of the Food Channel's cooking shows (I think it was Rachel Ray)--- she used a cupcake pan to bake the stuffing for her turkey. She just put huge scoops of her stuffing into the cupcake tin and baked it in the oven-- perfectly-shaped servings of stuffing. She didn't use paper-liners, though, which could make for a messy pan at the end. I don't know if my husband would like to try that idea this Thanksgiving. He's in charge of the stuffing, and if I suggest that we bake the stuffing in cupcake tins, he might think that idea is just too cute for him to try.

I've already got the turkey for Thanksgiving.... 14 pounds-worth, sitting in my freezer now. C's dad offered to cook the turkey on his barbeque--- he's got one of those huge barbeques with a rotisserie and he says the turkey cooks in less time and comes out nice and tender. Fine with me... I was so happy with his suggestion that I nearly got up from their dining room table and did a "I-don't-have-to-cook-the-turkey dance." So I'll keep the turkey in my freezer till it needs to be thawed, then I'll bring it to their house and they can get it ready for their barbeque. They don't have room in their freezer for the turkey....... C's mom cooks a lot more than I do, so her freezer is usually packed with stuff.