I broke a vow today. I have no idea if the words ever left my mouth, but I know I have thought about it. I promised myself I would never roll Christmas cookies when I was an adult.

It stemmed from a lifetime of Christmases where my sisters and I would help roll various doughs for many varieties of cookies. At some point my sisters and I rebelled, declaring the task to be boring and unnecessary. Who needed all those cookies at Christmas time?

Since making gingerbread for our gingerbread house, today I used some of the extra dough to roll and make cookies with Fuller. And I realized something- rolling dough and making cookies was fun again! Sharing it with my four year old son made it such an awesome experience.

Maybe my sisters (especially Sarah-Ginny) are laughing at me right now, but I have to tell her to wait until Genevieve is older. It might seem like a fun activity with a new helper.

We didn’t go overboard and make more than a dozen, but we might make some more just to pass the time. And I think I’ll be happy to eat those words.

I finally finished our Advent Tubes, and set them up this evening. Now I’ve moved on to gingerbread. Damon and I are working on a gingerbread house for a neighborhood contest. Damon’s doing the designing, I’m doing the baking. Damon will probably do most of the assembly, but I’m open to helping.

The recipe I’m using is the recipe my mother used to have us making gingerbread people every Christmas. We decorated them with cinnamon dots, giving them buttons down their fronts. As far as I understand it, she never used it to make a gingerbread house.

Damon and I figure all the years we have seen Gingerbread House Challenges and competitions on Food Network makes us pretty much experts. And if not, we can still have some fun.

Here is the recipe I am using. They are called Lucia Gingersnaps and my mom found the recipe in a magazine or newspaper a long, long, long time ago.

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cups molasses
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons baking soda
7- 9 cups flour

Whip cream; add sugar, molasses, corn syrup, ginger, lemon rind and baking soda and
mix for 10 minutes. Add flour and work until smooth. Cover and leave in a cool place overnight. Turn onto a floured work surface and roll out thin. With floured cutters cut out shape.
Bake on a greased cookie sheet in a slow oven 250F (120C) for 15 minutes.

Leave on sheet to cool.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m trying to get organized for the decorating and celebrating of the season. One of my goals is to have a countdown/ Jesse tree thing for our family to use in getting ready for December 25th.

I saw this countdown calendar and thought to myself, “Hey! I have plenty of toilet paper rolls! I could totally do that.”

We have a horde of empty tp rolls in the attic. Damon insisted we start saving them for crafts of the future, and I am pretty sure this fits the bill.

So far I have cut and folded the bottoms of the tubes, written the numbers, and let Fuller decorate with stickers. Stickers are his weakness and I knew it would be easier to let him at the tubes with stickers instead of asking him to color or paint.

Tomorrow I will fill the tubes, thread the yarn through the tubes (making a garland) and glue the wrapping paper circles to the tops. My hope is do a mash-up of the countdown and this other countdown calendar where the kids get to puncture the paper top.

I realize we will be opening three tubes tomorrow, but at least it is something. And maybe, if we are on our game, we might finally get the tree out of the attic.

I’m doing the photo project on my family blog too!

As promised, I am doing the December Photo Project this month. And this is just a sampling of my prep for the month of December. I’m behind in decorating and celebrating and trying not to get stressed about it. I’m really trying to just keep this baby in my belly, which has meant lots of resting to keep contractions at bay. So, as long as Fuller doesn’t mind opening two Advent containers tomorrow or maybe three on Wednesday (because I just haven’t finished making it), then I’m just going to not stress at all.

Oh, and as an added challenge for myself, I’m also doing the December Photo Project on our family blog.

To add to the fun, we finished our Thanksgiving trip when we got home around 6 p.m. We left soon after lunch and made it home with plenty of time to allow Fuller to decompress and then off to bed on time.

Tomorrow I have a checkup on Baby Two (it better be routine!) and find out my doctor’s opinion on traveling at the New Year for a cousin’s wedding. If he says no, then this trip was the finish line for me as far as traveling before the baby.

I feel like the end of the year is flying toward me in a rush of disorganization, so this week, I hope to get a start on getting it all organized. Starting with unpacking our luggage.

Thanks for sticking with me this month, glad to get back into a posting groove. Looking forward to December and participating in The December Photo Project 2008.

We are still visiting Lake Martin, readying ourselves to head back to Chattanooga tomorrow.

It started raining yesterday afternoon and was still pouring this morning. We were grateful for the pre-planned activity of heading to the Bass Pro Shop to check out how they deck the halls for Christmas.

Damon had read online about the holiday activities there- Santa pictures, target practice, trains, and general holiday merriment. It was an excellent way to spend the morning, and since we braved the line to have the kiddos sit on Santa’s lap, we were rewarded with coupons for three kids meals (with corresponding adult meal purchase), so we had lunch at their in-store restaurant.

It was great to get the kids out the house and toward a loosely-structured activity. And as a bonus, I got to take some pictures.

It was such a fun time, with plenty of laughing, food, and kid cuteness. And with all this fun, laughing, and food, I am now exhausted. As a result, I’m out. Tomorrow, I might be able to string together more words to equate a blog post.

What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
the full-bodied music of strings.

Psalm 92: 1-3 (The Message)

The book centers around the tenants of a historic New York City apartment building, all of whom are involved in the arts in some way. When some non-artsy people move into the building, things heat up to bring the conflict that pushes the plot along.

While the plot is tricky and involved, the characters are more so, making most of them intriguing enough to keep reading over several days. I was pleased with the outcome of the story, with one disappointment I can’t tell because it will give away something (it involves death).

Some of the story is intertwined with the the blog culture, which I found interesting but also thought it was as if Candace Bushnell was trying to give a nod to an existing subculture, but not really go into it in depth. Being a part of the social media experience and knowing how powerful social media can be in the arts, it seems as if Candace and her editors need a lesson in how it all really works. At least they are giving it a go by handing out their book to bloggers to read and review. It’s a start, right?

I would recommend this book as a fun vacation/ beach book. It isn’t one I could read in one sitting, so it would keep you company for several days.

It is kind of freeing to decide not to stress over something right before traveling. While it would be nice to have it finished before the stress fun of the holiday season, I’m willing to take it slower and get it done right. I know, I’m not actually saying what I’m making, but that’s cause they are presents and I don’t want to spill the beans. Really, I’m not the only one in the blogosphere who is making presents for people and wants to write about it without writing about it.

I did finish another present today, a late birthday present, and I’m so proud of it, I plan on making an instructable for it. So, get excited, cause I am!