I Better Start No-Baking

Ron's mom and dad stopped by last night to drop off many of their Christmas gifts (less to carry on Christmas when they'll probably have food, etc., as well). They gave us a box of Pine Mountain logs (the packaged logs for your fireplace, easy and clean and burn for about 3 hours) as a late housewarming gift. Huh, I just realized that is quite literally a housewarming gift. We were all impressed when Lucy held the sides of it and dragged the 30-pound box of logs a few inches across the floor. She's a future American Gladiator. Anyway, they also gave us a giant bag of Quaker Oatmeal. It came in a giant box which contained two giant bags, and they kept one and gave us the other. It's from Costco. I am not quite sure what I will do with 4.5 pounds of oatmeal. I was thinking no-bake cookies would probably burn through some of it.

Speaking of cookies, I am starting a tradition. Last year I made these amazing gingerbread cookies that look like snowflakes, and I decided that I will make those again this year. I'm not taking credit for the cookies being amazing, I just happened to find the best recipe online and tried it. Everyone seemed to love them last year (the photo from last year's party shows them, along with Steve's amazing cookies). I want to make December 21 the cookie-baking day, where we have a fire going, and listen to music, and have NO TV, and bake cookies. It will probably be much more enjoyable when we have little helpers, but for now I'm the one doing all the work (that's okay). And since we're not enlisting the help of any kids yet (the one we have would probably just make a huge mess), I cheated and got a head start last night, baking my first batch. I justified it by saying I need a trial run to figure out exactly how thin to roll the dough and how long to keep them in the oven - as gingerbread is very temperamental. I succeeded in this and know exactly what I'm doing now... and I'm 28 cookies ahead of schedule.