Christmas Prep

I am here on a Thursday because I feel the need to share with you that I finally cleaned out the toy box--and the children's room it is in--in time for the influx of gifts.

A clear floor is a wonderful thing.

I do this every year. It makes me feel more prepared for the chaos that inevitably follows Christmas.

Today is our last day of school before our long Christmas break, and then I only have a couple of days before Christmas Eve. School--and work for me--running this close to Christmas this year has me feeling very unprepared. I managed to make all the bread I give to every staff member at school, but I haven't made any for our neighbors yet. I think that's going to be a belated Christmas/Happy New Year gift.

Many of our Christmas traditions are food-related, and of course, being me, I make all that food in pretty much the most labor-intensive way possible. But this year, I'm changing things up a bit.

I've already decided that I'm not going to make tamales for Christmas Day this year, which is what I have done for the past few years. I just don't have the half-day it takes to make them at the moment. So instead, we're going to have them on Epiphany. Technically still Christmas, and it falls during our Christmas break this year, so I'll have plenty of time to make tamales.

I am going to make Grandma Bishop's molasses cookies, though. My plan is to mix up the dough tomorrow morning before taking the post-surgical child to physical therapy, and then bake some when we get home in the afternoon.

I'm going to keep the rest of the dough in the refrigerator and bake some more the next day. We have Mass at 4 p.m. for our Sunday Vigil, but I have all the day before that to get some stuff done. Mostly kitchen things. We're almost out of bread. I've been giving so much away, we've been kind of low on it all month.

Our Christmas Mass is at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, so my plan is to make chili and cornbread for that day, with molasses cookies and eggnog for dessert. Christmas Day we don't have to go anywhere, so that's a better day for a bigger meal. This year, it will be ham, scalloped potatoes, and salad, with our usual chocolate roulade for dessert.

It's very satisfying to me that the eggnog uses exactly the egg yolks I have left after using only whites for the roulade.

Right now I need to wrap a few more gifts, and then prepare cheese and crackers for the elementary Christmas party. 

How are your Christmas preparations going? Are you all done, or scrambling to get it all done? Or maybe somewhere in between, like me.