I’m working on finishing some stitched presents today, to be taken to my family of origin tonight or tomorrow. I won’t be online, for the most part, as that doesn’t really work so well with the stitching.
Yesterday, shadowkatt and I did all of the family Christmas shopping in about 4 hours, total. Most of that was for ingredients to go into basket goodies. All our gifts are homemade this year, other than the Sculpey stuff sambear mentioned yesterday. That has been planned for a while. We won’t get to see some of the basket recipients ’til next week, but I figure they’ll be less overwhelmed by then. I hope so!
The homemade thing is actually nice, in many ways. Next year, we’ll do more ahead of time. I’ve stitched for everyone in my family before, and they definitely appreciated the gifts. I had less time this year, so the gifts are smaller, but there’s still much love in them.
We’ll be finishing the baking and such today, too. We certainly need to! One bread recipe is very definitely a keeper. The sugar cookies came out very nicely, too. (I don’t like baking with mixes. I won’t do it if I can avoid it in any way.) I was going to make another sort of bread, but the first came out sweeter than I expected, so I may not do it at all.
Those who know me know that I haven’t cooked a lot in the last few years, much less done any real baking! And I’m actually enjoying it. Perhaps I’m finally getting over some of the food issues I’ve had. Living in a very supportive environment where the lesson of “good enough” is repeated to me frequently definitely helps. Thank you, curiousmay9, sambear and shadowkatt.
The girl will be with my parents and one set of siblings for Christmas Day. That’s almost become a tradition, as the actual Day isn’t as important to us as those for whom it is a religious occasion. She’ll get some spoiling and spend time with family and they’ll be thrilled by her company. She might even manage to get over to her father’s family, as they’re much closer to my parents (geographically) than we are.
sambear and I will be taking a basket to his family, as well. We haven’t gone to see them during the holidays in several years. His mother will be thrilled, I know. Who can tell about his father? I just hope he’ll be civil.
