"I Want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred Shot Range Model Air Rifle!"
Last year, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, Petunia thumbed through some of the promotional circulars in the newspaper and set her sights on a Little Mermaid Talking Salon. It was a wee bit hideous, but Santa found it on sale at the local grocery store for $40! (All the other elves were paying $80 or $100 or $150 at Target, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.) Santa had an easy time, and he was happy.
This year, little Petunia tapped into that annoying part of her brain called her 'imagination.' Choosing a toy from a catalog would not do this year, apparently. She had the audacity to dream up the thing she wanted most and then, a la Ralphie in A Christmas Story, repeat it every time someone asked her what she wanted from Santa and when she met the big man himself twice at holiday parties: 'a water table with boats and a lighthouse and card games and board games and books.'
I was in touch with Santa this year, and he nodded confidently at the 'card games and board games and books.' The 'water table,' not hard for the elves to churn out either (though they tell me it was hard to find one for an older preschooler and not a toddler). 'Boats' were a little tougher but not impossible. 'A lighthouse?' Santa asked me where my kid got that idea.
I couldn't figure it out either, but in my attempts to help Santa, I found out there aren't a lot of toy lighthouses out there. Santa eventually decided on this one, but he left out the sea serpent, tiny gun and tiny crossbow, as well as the box all the pieces came in so that Petunia would never be the wiser about what was missing. Oh, darn. Too bad. Mom and Dad scored an old candle holder lighthouse and a handmade wooden boat, too, so now Petunia is awash in boats and lighthouses.
When Petunia came downstairs on Christmas morning, she was so excited. She would later tell everyone who asked that 'I got exactly what I wanted.'
Trips into the post office with the borrowed office dolly: 2
Wheeled postal bins filled with packages: 1.5
Dollars spent on shipping: 77
Having your wife take care of all the wrapping, packing and shipping gifts to out-of-state relatives while you're in Mississippi on a business trip: priceless
Despite Yum's insistence on making sure her Christmas card arrives in my mailbox the day after Thanksgiving, I don't really believe the holiday season starts until the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend is over. Santa rode by on the Kensington fire truck four days ago, which gave me the green light to start listening to my favorite Christmas song on endless loop.
Christmas shopping is my nightmare every year, because we give gifts to about 30 family members. A good number of them are kids, and we try to roll siblings into one gift when we can, which keeps things a little simpler and cheaper. Maybe they don't love sharing the snowman kit, but I'm happy to scratch off three names with a mere $14 and one box.
This year's shopping is 80 percent done, and I plan to knock out a few gifts today at lunchtime. In the past I've agonized about getting gifts that are what people really want, which is damn near impossible when it comes to Basil's aunts and uncles. (Yes, we buy presents for his five aunts and uncles because none of them have any children and Basil is pretty important to them.) This year, I'm a little more blase about the shopping. It's hard to buy for people who don't travel, don't cook, don't have hobbies, aren't athletic or outdoorsy, don't care much for fashion or home decorating and have never once seemed enthused or excited about any gift we've ever given them. I'm over trying to get a big, excited, happy reaction. If I see something that I vaguely think would work, I buy it. Cross their name off. Move on.
I've also softened my stance on gift cards. Basil doesn't understand why we don't just give everyone gift cards because people like the freedom that comes with choosing your own present. I feel like I'm wrapping up a note that says, 'Hey, you are really hard to shop for and I had no idea what to buy you!' This year, we're giving gift cards to my siblings, though each one of them is also getting something I bought for them (a game, some albums, etc) that says, 'I pay attention to you and know what you like.'
This year, I swear on my life that I'm going to get my presents and boxes together to take advantage of shipping Parcel Post. That means everything needs to be shipped off to northern Kentucky, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Orlando by next Friday. The shipping factor also means that I'm buying small, light gifts. The cost of shipping gift cards also made me warm up to them.
Speaking of warming up, I did a lot of baking and freezing on Thanksgiving weekend, for a total of about 300 cookies and bars so far this year. I still have five more types of cookies I want to make, so I'm guessing we'll end up with about 450 goodies made for the holidays. I'm trying hard not to eat too many, mostly giving them away in tins or putting them out for our visitors last weekend. Katya asked me what's on my list this year, so here it is:
* Cream cheese-walnut cookies - This is basically a cream cheese shortbread with toasted walnuts. I've made these for several years in a row now, and they're always a hit. I use 2 cups of finely chopped nuts to roll the dough logs in. That way, the cookies get plenty of coating around the edges (the recipe call for 1 cup of finely chopped nuts, but Martha is always wrong).
* Chocolate peppermint cookies - Basil hates these because he hates peppermint, but I love them and they always get compliments. They never turn out as puffy as Martha's picture, but - again - I think we all know that her recipes are imperfect.
* Black bottom coconut bars - Yum made these last year and said they were great, so I added them to my mix this year. SO good. Wish I had doubled it.
* Pumpkin-chocolate chip squares - These are a repeat from last year's inaugural run, and they are very decadent. The cake can be a little sticky, but it is worth the gooey mess. The ones that I set out for this weekend disappeared quickly (mostly by me, I think).
* Molasses-spice cookies - So easy and always a nice addition to the variety. Similar to a gingerbread but without the ginger. These always bake up perfectly round like the picture, which is a satisfying feeling.
* Almond fruit bars - This is a new recipe for me and brings a different flavor to my goody tray. Basil made the dough for these and said it was so stiff it was nearly impossible to spread it thinly in layers with the jam. Some of the jam squeaked through to the sides of the pan and the top of the bars, but it didn't matter. We used seedless raspberry jam, and they are very good.
* Chocolate espresso snowcaps - Another new recipe for me. I doubled the recipe but realized too late I only had enough instant espresso powder for one batch. So they are less espresso-y than chocolate-y, but the flavor is fine. Petunia loves these. They are really rich.
* Black forest cookies - I haven't made this year's batch yet because last year I didn't think they froze and thawed very well, but these are one of my favorites. It's a very adult chocolate cookie, thanks to the dried cherries.
* Pizzelles - Basil makes these Italian waffle cookies every year with the pizzelle iron his mom got us a couple of years ago. Basil's grandmother was very heavy-handed with the anise, but we keep it light and cut the anise with vanilla. We haven't made this year's batch, but they're always so pretty and people love them. Pizzelles seem to inspire some nostalgia for people of Italian heritage.
* Black walnut cookies - These are another old Italian recipe, handed down by Basil's grandmother. They are also Basil's favorite cookie of all time. I can't find a recipe online that approximates these. The dough is very sticky with lots of cocoa, black walnut extract and chopped black walnuts (do not confuse these with regular walnuts), and there is a powdered sugar glaze made with black walnut extract. The cookies bake up with a crumbly, almost cake-like quality, and their puffy round domes look like nothing else on the cookie tray. I watched Basil's mother make them this year (cut shortening into dry ingredients, use a little milk to stick it all together, roll the dough into balls) so I can carry on the family tradition.
* Sugar cookies - I use the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook recipe, and it never fails. I also use my mother-in-law's trick of shaking a dash of cinnamon into the dough just before it finishes, which gives it a nice flavor. I'm going to try royal icing this year instead of the 'decorator's frosting' recipe that I've used in the past.
* Bourbon pecan truffles - I haven't made these yet, but they sound pretty simple, if maybe a little time intensive. I wanted to try something other than Martha's bourbon pecan chews, which I like but are always a mess to bake and cool because the recipe is imperfect and the dough/batter spreads out really thin.
You'll notice that there are bars on there this year and that I don't call them 'bar cookies.' That is the peace I have come to make with bars. If they don't try to pretend they're cookies (which they're not, I've decided), then I can welcome them onto my goody tray with open arms. So it's cookies and bars as far as I'm concerned.
While I got out my little Christmas tchotchkes (ceramics made my grandmother, nutcrackers from Target, candles, stockings) on Thanksgiving weekend, Basil and I waited until last night to put lights up. We have this tree in front of our house, and we wrapped the trunk and two of the big limbs with either red, green or white lights. It looks pretty cool in the end, though it would look cooler if we wrapped all the big limbs in lights. As it is, with one white, one red and one green section, it looks a little like an homage to Basil's Italian heritage. Buon Natale!
The last big thing on our to-do list is to trek out to Odd Mix country and cut down our Christmas tree this weekend, probably from Milltown Creek Tree Farms again. Basil felled a Scotch pine (I think) last year in the midst of wind and a little rain. Since we went on a Friday, they weren't even doing hot chocolate or other fun stuff at the farm. It was just us running around a field arguing about whether or not an eight-foot tree could fit in our living room. (It did and looked beautiful.) Even with all the Griswold-ish antics, the tree was worth the trip. That tree cost a fraction of the overpriced ones on the lots around here, and it held onto its needles for about three weeks.
The author is a full time lobbyist, a mother of one, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an amateur musician, a lover of crossword puzzles, a reader, a church volunteer, a hostess, an aspiring cook and a person who generally has a hard time saying "no."
