Something for Saturday

Well, this was the second week that we've been at loose ends while the remodeling continues. By that I mean, we've had a lot of free time, but limited in what we have been able to do. This has been my philosophy:

I just hope I can maintain this calm as we get closer to Christmas! There's just so much to do. I've gotten the kitchen, family room, powder room and living room decorated. Still have the dining room and entry including the staircase and banisters. As you can see here, I do have ALL of my gifts bought and wrapped---except for the few I'm still waiting on to arrive. (Which reminds me. We do not have Amazon Prime because I don't want to pay to spend money! I'm telling you, this holds true just about EVERY time: choose the "free shipping" which says will take 5 days. We ALWAYS get our stuff within two days. We placed an order the day before yesterday and got it in one day! Just saving you some money!) 

I've also made three types of cookies and have them in the freezer. I've done most of the grocery shopping. I've gone over ALL the menus through the holidays from a family dinner, to the party we're having, Christmas Eve breakfast, dinner and Christmas dinner. I only have one more grocery run for the perishables. I'm organized with it all, but am anxious to get the house back in order and decorated. Oh, and the cleaning! It's a mess. You know, all the dust! I just hope we can do it all--well, not all, but the rooms that can be done. 

And then, there's the cooking. I have a pretty good plan and have set my timeline, so I should be okay with that too. Now that Butch cooks with me, he's going to be a big help. I could do more if I thought I could make some of the "things" and freeze them. Since I don't know, I'm not taking any chances. 

Don't let these ugly cookies fool you.

They are delicious! I made them up by taking my chocolate chip cookie recipe and substituting Giaradelli white chocolate chips and adding cranberries. The original recipe calls for baking on an ungreased baking sheet. The cranberries made the stick. Ugh! What a mess---and scrubbing those pans was terrible too. But now I know---I'll definitely be spraying the sheet next time. They are so good and worth the mess. I won't be serving them at our party because they are so ugly, but they will be on our family cookie tray. 

Let me know what's happening in your holiday world!