Early Christmas

Sister Kittie and brother-in-law David came down this weekend to help me not celebrate Christmas.

Christmas tree with
Mickey ornaments

As you know, I decided not to do the holidays this year, but I soon realized I just didn't want to do all of it. I had found a collapsible Mylar tree at Walgreen's.

They arrived late Friday evening, unloading themselves into the house. We talked and caught up on family and what we each were up to this December.

Mickey ornaments on the tree

On Saturday, we wrapped the presents Kittie had brought with her. I really enjoyed wrapping packages, especially when I didn't have to go out into the mercantile fray in order to obtain them. And, while digging out the wrapping paper, I came across the set of 12 Mickey ornaments Steve and I had bought several years back at Disneyland. I got them out and put them on the Mylar Christmas tree, and they looked pretty good.

For dinner, I had Kittie show me how to bake chicken breasts (I had six in the freezer and didn't want them to go bad). So we had chicken and rice for dinner and I cut up the remaining chicken to store in the freezer. That way, I've got cooked chicken I can thaw out in a day: Makes cooking for one much easier.

While Kittie and I were working, David was overdosing on cable television. (They do not have cable because David says he would spend every day like this if they had it.) It was football and car races and other guy stuff, and it lent a wonderful background sound to our putterings. After dinner, Kittie got my Joy of Cooking down from the shelf and we searched for a sugar cookie recipe.

A fancy and festive fritata for brunch.

I could not believe that Kittie had never made rolled cookies (although I've attempted them only a couple times). So Kittie mixed the dough and put it in the refrigerator to set. We hit the hay around midnight.

The next morning, I got up to David making coffee and Kittie still laying in bed. (The sofa downstairs accommodates two rather nicely, if you know how to position yourselves.) We emptied the dishwasher, which had filled quickly with dinner and chicken cooking and cookie making, loaded the awaiting overflow of dishes, and I made an asparagus-ham fritata with cheddar and mozzarella.

Christmas cookies await their icing

Clean the kitchen again (it's a pretty small space), then I took down the Christmas cookie cutters that I had gotten years ago and never used, and we picked out the shapes we wanted. (I won't elaborate on them, as you can see them in the accompanying cookie photos.)

David was wanting to fix the carpeting at the top of the stairs down to the garage. When they installed the slate in the entryway, they didn't finish off the carpet edge where the carpet meets the slate at the top stair. I had nailed it up, but David was right; it was a tripping hazard. So, in the only sojourn beyond my grocery shopping last week, we headed to OSH, where we got a metal transition plate to affix the carpet against the top of the stair.

Upon returning, Kittie had rolled out the remainder of the dough and was just finishing up baking the last batch. Even unfrosted, the cookies look festive.

Our final cookie creations on the holiday plate

Later, I made up some buttercream frosting and hauled out my decorative piping tools. The nibs and the points were in fine shape, but the piping bag had fallen apart, so we improvised with some plastic Zip-Loc bags, cutting a small hole in the bottom corner to house the nibs. It worked fairly well, though the bags did start deforming slightly as we squeezed them. I was adding some icing to the remaining cookies that evening, and the bag burst right through; wrapping a little plastic wrap around it kept the breach of icing in check, but actual, honest-to-God piping bags is what I really need.

The cookies looked nicer than ever once we got them iced: I put a red design down on the cookie, leaving room for Kittie to come in behind me and add green to the design I had started. The system worked out really well, as you can see from the photo of the finished cookies.

We got done with the icing while David was packing the car. They took a bunch of the cookies with them, as I did not want two dozens sugar cookies staring at me from the Christmas cookie platter (something I also discovered while we were digging for the wrapping paper in the closet). About 4 o'clock, they left to return home. I was alone again for the evening, trolling and schedule guide on the cable for Christmas fare worth recording. Believe me, there isn't much out there, except syrupy, poorly acted, quickly produced tear-jerk stories on the Hallmark channel.

So, here it is, Christmas Eve day. The tradition in my family, once all the kids were old enough to know Santa didn't really bring the presents, was to open gifts on Christmas Eve while enjoying a casual buffet meal (sandwiches and clam chowder, usually). The whole point is no one was obligated to leap out of bed at 5:30 when the first child awoke and saw the presents under the tree.

Steve and I continued that tradition, leaving the stockings as the Christmas morning surprise. I think I'm going to continue on my own. So this evening at 7:30 I'll open the present Kittie and David left for me. As for tomorrow, the stockings are packed away, so I'll just have to wing it, which is what you do when you're not celebrating Christmas.

In closing, here's another one of my favorite Christmas cartoons as a child. It's about a crazy old man who used to hang out with Betty Boop, but now goes from orphanage to orphanage, frightening the children into happiness and joy. Don't laugh: that's how Christmas goes down in a lot of families.