Merry

Thursday night was the Little House-themed Christmas party at my place. Very loosely themed, to be honest, but we did make fried apples 'n onions (Almanzo's favorite), and button strings, and I gave out stockings that contained shiny pennies and horehound candy and Christmas candy in pink mosquito bar bags, and a whole orange for everyone! Could one ask for more?

Tonight I finished up the Greek cookies with my mom, and then Allison came over (look for our very first double blog post soon!) and we started a new Christmas tradition. The final cookies we made, theples, are fried in boiling oil. When they were done, it occurred to us that, hey, we still had a pot of hot oil. Why not fry some more random items? We battered up some Candy Cane JoJos, a chocolate chip cookie, a piece of almond bark (that one was a mistake) and two Whoppers. The JoJos were by far the tastiest creations. Hooray for frying! I also later made sweet potato pie with a pecan and brown sugar topping. It overflowed a bit in the oven - fortunately just onto the baking sheet where it was sitting - and it's currently chilling overnight in the fridge. Final verdict on its success will come tomorrow - it could go either way, folks. This concludes the Christmas baking, though I will also be pitching in for Christmas dinner. And I'm planning a healthy New Years pumpkin cheesecake (no, really) made with stuff like Fiber One cereal and fat free cream cheese.

Tomorrow (today, technically) is Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Eve. My responsibilities are pretty much limited to the gym in the morning, 4:00 mass at church, and then hanging out with my family all evening. I wish everyone a safe, warm, and very merry Christmas. Here's hoping it's a funky, funky one too.