‘Tis the season…
…to completely neglect one’s blogging. Fa la la la la la la la la.
We have been busy as tiny little Christmas bees (striped green and red) baking, knitting, watching the Grinch, going on walks and wondering where the heck the time goes. Where does it go? I can tell you. It is stolen by the anti-knitting demons who do not want me to finish socks. Really. Luckily they have ignored hats and scarves and Helena’s scarf and my mother’s hat are done.
My parents came up for 24 hours to have a little injection of Christmas cheer. We went to the Brandywine River Museum and looked at their Christmas trains and Victorian dolls and then said hello to the pig and cow statue. Someone made mooing sounds as we approached the cow and Helena said severely: No. This cow does not make that sound. Because it’s a sculpture. They reclined on the cow and rode the pig. It was very cold.
We also had friends over and made and devoured a gingerbread house. (I smiled when I saw that Maggie and her children had done much the same thing on much the same day). It was far less chaotic than I had thought it might be but oh boy did those children get sugar crazed. CRAZED. We had to eat it as soon as we’d made it because otherwis
e the Christmas mice would have moved in for good, happy that we had made them a combination feast/place of residence/toilet. Daniel quite liked the idea of Christmas mice living in the house but luckily liked the idea of eating the house even more. Helena liked the icing while Daniel prefered the red and green MnMs. Their friends were pretty pleased too, although it’s hard to photograph children actually eating. 
Daniel’s friend Caroline made a tiny gingerbread boy and girl and declared that this was their honeymoon cottage and then ate the head of the boy. Daniel promised that he would marry her when they grew up.
Now I have to go make cheese straws, custard, marzipan decorations for the cake, pack, wrap, practice the piano, knit a sock, knit a hat (which has not even been cast on yet), make macaroons and cry about the pastry which totally failed to work. Pastry is a mystery to me. As are monster trucks, but they are not interfering with my ability to make mince pies. Ed may have to wait until we return from NYC for some mince pie goodness.
‘Ed may have to wait until we return from NYC for some mince pie goodness.’
Well, good. I didn’t get any so neither should he. Hrumph.
Have cool hands, work quickly and drop the mix from above the bowl as you’re rubbing, to aerate it. Let it rest in fridge for at lest 20 minutes and roll out without handling too much.
In a perfect world…