Oh The Pressure …

You know, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not Martha Stewart, and not recently, mind you, I’ve known for a long while.  I’m just an ordinary mom with ordinary skills … diapering, feeding, cleaning, schooling, etc.  But starting around Thanksgiving I suddenly become the Little Engine That Could and visions of sugar plums and expertly decorated sugar cookies, gingerbread, and more exotic desserts dance through my head.  I start the chant, “I think I can, I think I can” and, of course, in anticipation of all that free time I will find between Home Schooling 7 kids, chasing 3 toddlers and Snowboarding (powder falls early in our neck of the woods) I make all the necessary purchases.  The Hershey Kisses, the icing, the plethora of new, improved cookie cutters … this year we bought a set of cookie cutters that depict the nativity scene.  I buy the toffee, the pepeprmint … I spare no expense, I go hog wild because this is the year I will offer Christmas goodies, beautifully packaged of course, to friends and neighbors all over the Valley.  I will teach my children the joy of baking and giving that which you make from your heart and hands.

And then we get home.  Chaos ensues, the groceries are put away, and we all need a quick break after the whirlwind that is shopping has come to an end.  Maybe an hour passes and who knows what I’ve been doing, because nothing around the house has been done.  I tear open the bag of Hershey Kisses, I have a few and then a few more.  There’s a fight in the other room and a referee is needed.  I’m that referee.  I solve it and grab another few Hershey Kisses.  This scenario continues for a few HOURS.  Alas, finally the majority of the kids have escaped my growing wrath and gone outside.  Elly and I have a moment, we saunter into the kitchen, pull out the inspiring Holiday magazines with all their glorious Christmas treats and hone in on a recipe that seems possible.  Peanut Butter/Hershey Kisses cookies … Dan’s fav.  Perfect, I gather the ingredients and reach for the Hershey Kisses … wiat, where the heck did they go?  All I’ve got is an empty freakin bag.  Who ate them all?  Those darn kids … right?  It was the blasted kids — I only had a few.  I couldn’t possibly eat an entire bag on my own, come on!!   I decide to hit up the sugar cookies, only to find that the icing has been opened and spread on Saltines.  Grady today spread icing on pizza!!  OK, the toffee chips … yep, they are opened and 3/4 of the way gone because they add an extra “pizazz” to Hot Chocolate.  And so goes it … NOTHING lasts 1 full day in this house.  Kady is our resident baker and she knows us so well that she hides the ingredients she convinces me she needs in her own bedroom.  And she knows we will search her room for them so she hides them well.  And, the kicker … when we actually mix the ingredients and make what could become cookies — we burn them.  You can hear the moans around the world … most of you think that’s thunder, but it’s just the Kellogg’s trying ever so hard to be worthy of living in the same country as Martha. This year, Kady succeeded and made 3 Sugar Cookie Nativity Sets … 1 for her bff’s family, 1 for my bff’s family and 1 for our Priest.  We ate 2/3 … obviously we don’t let the pressure get to us!!  MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!  xoxoxoxo