Friday, December 21, 2012

No Elf on My Shelf

Our elf left a little note this morning.  He was obviously experiencing some guilt for his complete incompetence.




I now contribute to the parenting blog on NJ.com (http://www.nj.com/parenting/)! Please visit weekly as I post twice a week.  The above link takes you to the post that explains the elf situation in our house.  

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Happy New Year on December 18



I am way too excited about my new desk calendar.  I dragged Monkey Man to the Holy Land in the cold rain tonight because I just couldn't wait another day to give this $5 gift to myself.  When I arrived home, I tore off the plastic, armed with a freshly sharpened pencil and promptly wrote in some January "things to do."

God, that was soooo good.  I hope it wants to cuddle now.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Pillsbury Cookie Perfection

I spent 5 hours on Saturday baking Christmas cookies with my mom, sister and husband while Monkey Man played Minecraft and called out the occasional, "I'm hungry!" or "I'm thirsty!" or "I just farted!" We baked chocolate chip cookies, butter cookies, snickerdoodles, m&m cookies and ricotta cheese cookies (they sound weird and gross but they are dee-lish-us!).

Hubby and I were in charge of the M&M cookies and they came out flat and hard.  Totally edible with a big glass of milk, but not worthy or giving to a neighbor or teacher. Their presentation screamed more cardboard with red and green circles rather than chewy, delicious confections with m&m surprises.   My sister's specialty is the ricotta cheese cookie and after rolling about 120 balls and baking three cookies sheets of said balls, she realized she forgot to put the ricotta cheese in the ricotta cheese cookies.  Oops.

Next year, I'm sticking with the much-loved Pillsbury sugar cookie.  No mess, all ingredients included even if there is a preservative here or there, 8-10 minutes and Merry Christmas!