Even though Christmas shopping can find you in a crowd of merciless bargain hunters, it actually just might be less stressful than the planning and making of homemade gifts. But what did I know getting into it?We spent the evening before Christmas measuring and mixing ingredients to make, banana bread, zucchini~walnut bread, zucchini~apple bread, and pumpkin bread. 4 hours later...
12 loaves were born. After spending so much time making them, I found myself not wanting to part with these warm bundles of yumminess. I wonder how baker's do it? To slave all day in kitchen, over mixers and ovens, measuring cups, and flour. It is almost like giving birth, except I wouldn't know what that is like. I guess the only thing that could top making them, is seeing the faces of those that enjoyed them.Speaking of enjoying, the best part of Christmas day was checking out the decorated homes. There is a street called "Candy Cane Lane" that gets all the rave and attention because every house on this street totally "decks the halls". Instead of heading there this year, we drove around the neighborhood and found quite a few delightful homes.
It's hard to tell but Frosty was drinking a 40' disguised in a paperbag. It's no small wonder too because among the few places that were open on Christmas, quite a few of them were booze shops. Aah...What would Christmas be without it?
Despite just having had winds whip through Seattle at 65 to 100 mph, the masses were out in droves just to get on the once-a-year, downtown, merry-go-round ride. For a $2 cheap thrill, we braved driving through risky traffic conditions. There's a lot of people here that should be taking ponies to work instead of cars. Even an island girl knows that when the traffic lights are down, an interesection becomes a 4 way stop.
All that's important is a warm lap, food, and someone that loves you enough to let you get your way.
Meet "Cool Beans" , "Balls Mcgee", and "Boop". Making them was not as easy as I thought. To make a snowman, you start with a baseball sized snowball, and roll, and roll, and roll, and...you get the picture. Until it becomes the size of a beach ball. The only one that got rolled into anything was Balls Mcgee and he only got as big as a baby's head. The rest of them were carved out of a packed mound of snow.
