Thanksgiving Week
Tuesday, November 24, 2009.

Having just celebrated my 45th birthday, and having been blitzed with many, many, *many* good birthday wishes, I find myself once again deep in Procrastination Mode. I am truly so deeply touched by everyone's ecards, snail mail cards, email greetings, and gifts, prayers, and good wishes. Y'all are much too kind and good to me. Somehow, I will find a way of thanking everyone individually... A friend of mine is my comrade in Thanks Procrastination, and he hit the nail right on the head about saying we suffer from a "potentially overdeveloped sense of obligation". I add to this that we also suffer from DPD (Discouraged Perfectionist Disease). Take both conditions together, and you have a person who is really so deeply touched by and grateful for being so undeservedly, generously, warmly, lovingly remembered by family and friends on her/his birthday that she/he feels she/he must pull out all the stops and shoot the works in thanking... and the thanking just never seems good enough to match the kindness and generosity expended on her/him.

Yes. I know. I'm a mess.  But the liturgical New Year on the Roman Catholic calendar begins this coming weekend on the First Sunday of Advent. One of my primary resolutions is to thank people, by the grace of God! I just need to remember that I don't need to thank all 38 people on the same day. I take after my Grammy, and I take after her son (my dad) in stubbornly persisting in the notion that I must do it all in one day. It is no freaking wonder that I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; I don't know how to pace myself. I don't know how to do anything by halves, and I don't know how to blooming pace myself. GAH! And please, don't anyone say I could do a "group thank you". That is so inadequate after I received so many thoughtful, overwhelmingly kind notes and cards and gifts. That is so inadequate when people give me the gift not only of their friendship but also of their love and prayers.

Anyway, here it is - Thanksgiving Week! I did have a marvelous birthday despite being miserably ill, but I always feel much more Birthday-ish on Thanksgiving Day/Weekend. I was awfully ill over this past weekend and on Monday, but I think I'm making a comeback, albeit vewwwwwwwwwwwwy slowly. It's just going to take awhile to recover from my latest bout with illness. I'm not certain, but I am thinking that, considering how extra wiped out I am, what I have had the past two weeks was not a mere head cold but was H1N1. In any event, my cage has been rattled. I get this ill once in 20 years, and that's saying a lot because typical of a CFS patient, my poor immune system is practically always on Red Alert. The last time I had something viral of this magnitude, I was left with a permanent worsening of CFS and fibromyalgia. I am hoping for the best this time around, but I am also going to take extra good care of myself. This means BED REST and lots of it.

I am thankful that God blessed me with the strength to bring the multitude of Christmas tree parts and Christmas decorations downstairs to the living room from the upstairs loft right before I succumbed to It (H1N1 or whatever in Hades it was). The boxes cluttered the living room for a week before I put the tree up. I was too ill to care. When I did put it up, it took a mere 22 minutes! That's slower than last year's record of 17.5 minutes.

I am grateful that I survived putting the lights on the tree without losing my temper! I was not feeling well when I did it, but I was determined to do it. It was pure grace that I didn't lose my sometimes very nasty temper! Usually, Christmas tree lights are a breeze for me, but I was feeling feverish, nervous, and weak. God is good. I got the job done!

It was a blessing to be able to get the tree about 2/3 trimmed by my birthday on Friday. I have a couple more boxes of red ornaments to bedeck O Tannenbaum with. Am thinking I will refrain from putting the special blue ornaments on this year, unless my dad especially persists in asking me to put them on. I'm just in a red mood this year.

When I finish trimming with the ornaments and a few more of my Italian Nani's crocheted white snowflakes, I will vacuum the living room (unless my dad beats me to it, which he usually does) to remove the ever dreaded artificial Christmas tree needles which are now littering the carpet (at least they vacuum up more easily than real Balsam Fir needles!) and then put out the Caroling Bears which a little old lady friend gave me last year. They belong front and center beneath the tree. I promise I will take a digital movie of the Singing Bears and post it here at Xanga. Maybe we can even have a "Name Those Singing Bears" Contest! For now, I call the bears DuWayne and Bernice, after my friend's husband and herself. I pray for them (D & B, not the bears!) when I look at the bears and listen to them sing "Winter Wonderland"). Right now, they sit atop a pile of photo albums on the top shelf of my computer desk.

It's time for planning Christmas Baking 2009! My mom and I had a splendid conversation on the phone on my birthday, and I am in the baking business once again. I'm afraid she found the Gum Drop Cake from last year much too irresistible, so she, being ever conscious of her waistline, wants me to skip it this year. If I get mad at her for any reason, I will gleefully sabotage her perpetual diet by making and sending Gum Drop Cake for New Year's. (I am sooooooo evil. Each slice contains approximately 975 bazillion calories. Yes. Very, very, dietarily evil! Muahahahahahahaha!)

I think I did take a few pictures of 2008's Gum Drop Cakes fresh out of the oven, but never posted them. If I can locate them on my hard drive, I'll post them. Keep in mind that they are absolutely stuffed to the gills with spice gum drops, and after being baked, are wrapped in cloths saturated with good brandy. They do give one a bit of a buzz. It was my Italian Nani's specialty, and though for me, it's an acquired taste, for my mom it is simply irresistible and she oinks it down like a little piggy. Does my heart good to see her enjoy something enough to forget about her perpetual diet!!!!

 


Lots and lots of Cut Out Cookies this year! You know if someone loves you if she/he will go to the trouble to make cut outs from scratch - especially if you put in a special order for THIN cookies. Anyone can make them thick and soft (which is the way my dad likes them...) but it requires extreme measures of Patience, Skill, and did I mention Patience? - to make them thin. I use my Grammy's recipe for these, only I "Italianize" them by flavoring them with pure Almond Extract rather than pure Vanilla Extract.

Then there will be the All Butter Spritz Cookies in vast quantities. I have pictures to share of those, also. Typically, these are flavored a bit on the strong side with Almond Extract and a hint of Vanilla, but a couple of Christmases ago, I "invented" Chocolate Mint Spritz. These are TO DIE FOR and are exceedingly addictive. Just in case you chocolate mint peeps out there (and you know who you are!!!! ) decide to try making them, please keep this in mind: decrease the amount of flour by 1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup baking cocoa. Add lots of mint or peppermint - whichever is your fancy. But please, please, please remember to decrease the flour, otherwise you are headed for disaster. For the record: Chocolate Mint Spritz look (and taste) lovely when dipped in mint/peppermint pale green icing.

Here are some Spritz from a couple of years ago:

  

Then there will be Nani's Gingersnaps, which are prizewinners. I Adler Bakery-ize them by frosting them with Vanilla Icing. My dad swears they are better than the family bakery's from when he was growing up. My dad is a Cookie Connoisseur.

And lastly, the pieces de resistance are Nani's Rum Balls. The secret is that they call for at least twice as many finely chopped pecans (thank God for the food processor!) as most other rum ball recipes. That and we kick up the rum and the baking cocoa a notch, too. Also key is to use Bacardi Gold Rum and not mess with any other brand. Because of my pain medications, I can't drink, but I will indulge in a very weak Rum and Coca-Cola at some point in the next month.

This is all a LIGHT baking agenda this year. And as I discovered that Momsie hasn't been reading the blog, I can divulge this: I will be singing the "Fatter der Grandma Up" polka all the while I'm baking and confecting. Momsie needs a little padding on her posterior. Hee hee.

Of course, if I manage to evade/avoid any more extra super nasty germs before Christmas/New Year's, I might try some of these wonderly new Christmas treat recipes from Taste of Home Holiday magazine.

The good news is that when I am baking, I am not inclined to gobble the goodies. The trick is to get them packed and shipped before I'm in the mood to nosh. Sometimes easier said than done - especially since I find baking easier and less patience-challenging than packing and shipping.

Time for ice cubes, a root beer popsicle, and some Extra Strength Tylenol. Apparently, I haven't beat this fever yet. At least tonight, I don't feel like getting in a bath tub filled with ice cubes. I think sipping ice water and slurping popsicles might just help tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving Week Tuesday, Everyone! Thanks so much for honoring me by visiting my vanity blog.

Blessings to and prayers going up for one and all - no matter whether I know you or not,

- Miss Chris