Christmas is coming...

Holy moley, where did September go? It's almost October, and we're starting to gear up for the holiday season in my house. Thanksgiving, as we'll be having guests and both Christine and I like to be prepared well in advance for such events, and of course, Christmas. And before everyone jumps on my back about planning for Christmas this early, I should explain that the reason we’re talking about it now is because neither of us want a repeat of last year. Last year was crazy, which was all my fault.

Every year at Christmas I do what amounts to an epic amount of baking. I make hard candy, peanut brittle, fudge, cookies, church windows, party mix, spiced nuts, and a couple of other things I can’t quite recall right now. There’s a master list somewhere, I’ll have to dig it up. Or rather, I would have to dig it up if I was going to do that again this year. I have decided, much to the relief of both my roommate and my boyfriend, that I will not.

See, I don’t do all this baking just for me. There’s a list of about thirty people who are the recipients of my efforts, and the list keeps growing every year. I started doing this when I was too poor to buy gifts for everyone, and it was such a hit that I kept it going. But with that big a list of goodies, and over thirty people to hand them out to…well, things can get pretty crazy, pretty fast.

Last year I baked nearly non-stop from mid-November up to Christmas. I had boxes filled with goodies that had to be taken to the post office for weeks. And I don’t remember much of that six weeks – it’s a blur of sugar and extracts and piles of pots and pans in the sink. It was miserable for me, miserable for Christine, and while my boyfriend much enjoyed the fruits of my labors, he didn’t much like how crazy it was making me.

So this year, in an effort to enjoy the holiday season more, I am limiting myself to three recipes. I will make peanut brittle, because it was my grandfather’s recipe and a family tradition to make at Christmas; I will do the chewy chocolate ginger cookies, because they freakin’ ROCK; and I’m not sure of the third. Maybe the party mix, maybe the church windows. Either way, once the third is decided, that’s it – no more.

This way I get to satisfy my need for Christmas baking, but I’ll still get to enjoy the season. Maybe we can even get a tree this year. I'll sleep in on the weekends, and enjoy the holiday specials on TV. Hell, I’ll just be happy to remember the month of December!