Parties, etc.

Last friday we had our annual Christmas party, and I had a really great time.  It's always so fun to spend a week baking and decorating and then having a houseful of people over. Every time I have a party like this I'm always amused at the assortment of people who coexist within the church--nerds like me get to mingle with conservatives, hippies (yeah, you know who you are! :), and rock stars all because we have Christ in common. It's pretty cool.

For two years now I've been drooling over a Springerle rolling pin from King Arthur Flour, but could never justify buying it because it is super expensive. (And it seems to be out of stock or I'd have a link). Well my awesome husband bought it for me and let me open it early so I could make springerle for the pary. Yay! Although...ahem...these aren't exactly springerle. I read the recipe and it sounded like they would be pretty but sort of inedible, and I'm not a fan of useless food. So I made gingerbread instead. They didn't keep the impression well as a result, but they were still pretty AND they didn't break anyone's teeth off.

So I have a really hard time buying things for myself. It's a curse. But every once in awhile I work up the courage to just GO AHEAD and buy something. Last year I bought these snowflake cookie cutters with some of the aforementioned gumption (I know what you're thinking--why on earth would I have such a hard time buying cookie cutters? It's weird, I know) and I don't know why but I find making pretty snowflakes so satisfying. I mean, they're sugar cookies, right? Nothing special. And yet they're so appealing.

On a side note, if you add a few drops of lemon essential oil to sugar cookie dough it totally MAKES these things. On another side note, do you like the missing sugar pearls? Thank you very much to my knee-high vultures picking at all my baked goods. 

Since I'm not much of a photographer (shocker, I know) and I was in sweaty hostess mode, I got no pictures of the soiree itself. But it was crowded and loud and there were babies everywhere and teens and tweens and tagalong little Grigoryevs running around outside and it seemed like everyone had a great time. 

After all that I sort of feel like all other Christmas related activities are just sort of icing. Ha. 

The next day we were all wiped out so we spent a day chilling, watching re-runs, and eating our own weight in fried green tomatoes.

Back in August I started some fall seedlings, and I have to say the tomatoes did amazing. I had three plants take over an entire bed and I quite literally did nothing to them. I didn't water, pinch, train, nothing. And I had bushels of tomatoes. Unfortunately, none of them had a chance to ripen before our first killing freeze (what is up with this bizarre weather?) so I picked as many as I could for frying.

I ate so many I was green myself and couldn't even look at food the rest of the day. Ha ha. Then my whole family developed a post-party cold that has sort of knocked us out all week. GOOD TIMES. But on the bright side, a broken sewing machine (!!!) and a head full of snot has given me license to lay around watching movies and playing board games with my kids, something I have a hard time allowing myself to do normally.

Speaking of which, I've got a date with some cute guys and a Parcheesi board.

xoxo