Cake and Stockings

The holiday spirit FINALLY hit me tonight, and I started the annual rum cake bake. I have 12 mini cakes and two larger cakes - rum or chocolate sour cream (for those who don't cotton to alcohol) and probably a few more to come. Over the weekend I will make Joe Froggers and Lemon Sugar Cookies and package those up for my work gifts.

The snow has been coming down since about 2pm, and everything is beautiful and sparkly. I will find out tomorrow if we will open. I live just three miles away, so I am fine with working, though I don't know if many people will venture out to see us. If I get the luxury of staying home, I will bake, wrap, and watch movies all day - sounds good to me.

Naturally, Christmas itself will be an endurance event for me. We'll be visiting the children Christmas Eve Day, Mom and I will visit my brother and his crew, and then I will bring Mom back to our house. Then I can relax.

Mom will sleep over, and I will have my stocking ready for me in the morning. Yes, you read that right - I am forcing my mother to sleep here so that I can have my stocking as soon as I get up. I LOVE my stocking. When I was little, my brother and I would get up early and dump our stockings on the bed. OK, by "little" I mean that we did this until moved out-of-state permanently. The stocking ALWAYS has an orange in the toe. Mom continued with stockings until Matthew was living with his eventual wife: "Well, I guess I can stop doing stockings now." "Um, what? No, I still want a stocking." "But you're a grown woman!" "And, your point?" Last year Mom said, "Don't tell your brother I still do a stocking for you. Just remember, when you're married, I get to stop doing your stocking."

Ha - little does she know!

That reminds me - I need oranges for Mom and Dan's stockings - because I love giving as much as getting.