T'is the Season to Procrastinate

I guess you could only call it procrastination if you consider time when you should be getting some decent sleep to be fine time to get your christmas stuff done. There has been a LOT going on over the past three weeks.

By now during my normal December, I would have everything bought, baked, drawn, painted, wrapped and ready to go. I like things that are homemade, especially around the holidays. So, for the past few years, I've been going ALL-OUT on the homemade-ness.

I started out making cookies. My first year I did all cookie-cut sugar cookies. It took about 12 hours. I think I probably made about 16 dozen cookies, using about 30 different cookie cutters. This is my little work area in my old apartment in Ardmore, circa 2001.That year, I also made a dozen loaves of pumpkin bread and handmade cards to go along with each basket I put together.
By 2003, in addition to making baskets of four of five different types of cookies, loaves of pumpkin bread and 30 or so homemade cards, I decided I would make christmas tree ornaments. Am I on crack? I found some old spool threads at an antique flea market in Kutztown, PA and painted them with Egyptian patterns. It's was a long and tedious process. I think they came out pretty cool, so it's worth the effort.
Two years ago, I started making boilo, which is a traditional holiday drink of the coal region of Pennsylvania. Boilo is made by mixing moonshine or whiskey with oranges, lemons and various spices. It's served hot in a shot glass. My family is never happier to see me than when i show up with a batch of boilo. I tote the holiday beverage from house to house, spreading cheer (intoxication) with all of my family members.

I had my most productive christmas last year. I made cookies, pumpkin bread, cards, boilo AND my pop's famous bean soup. That bean soup is probably the best thing I've ever made. It was AWESOME. I got advice on where to buy the best pork shoulder butt. I was wondering what the hell a pork shoulder butt was too. It's one of the most flavorful pieces of pork.

Like i said, there has been A LOT going on lately, so i basically started my christmas stuff on Saturday. yikes! So far this year, I've made a good batch of boilo (for new friends in Hood River) and I finished and mailed my cards this morning. I figured it might be cool see all of them and then see which one comes to you in the mail. Sounds like good, old-fashioned fun to me. ;)

Let's see if i can't squeeze some cookies in over the course of the next 144 hours. ;) Any requests?

I'm walking along with my boots full of rocks...

It's been a LONG couple of weeks at work. REAL BUSY.
At least I had memories of a great weekend doing something new–snowshoeing for the first time! A friend of mine from work, Gerry, is really fun and likes to do stuff outside. So, Gerry suggested that we shoe the Tilly Jane trail on Mount Hood. Great day out, awesome cabin for rent at mile 3, real bad IT band flare-up–but worth the sleepless nights with bags of assorted frozen vegetables on my legs. Here's me taking a rest after kicking my own ass:


There's nothing like trudging through the woods on a clear day through snow-covered trees. If you stop every once in a while, you can hear clumps of snow dropping from high perches and the sound of snowy, misty wind that looks like fairy dust whipping around your body.

You can see where someone backcountry skiied down this trail. :) Hopefully my next photos will be of Washington–my mom's sister, my aunt rose, lives in Port Orchard, about three hours from Hood River. Port Orchard is just a fairy ride away from Seattle. :)