Holiday Preps Underway

Busy day. Between blowing my nose and applying Chapstick to my parched lips, I got a fairly good start on house prep and decorating today. Serves me right, going to Barbados. I seem to have picked up an airplane headcold of the icky variety (I guess there's no such thing as a non-icky headcold, but this one is up there in icky factor as it includes sinus headache and blocked ears).

Headcold be damned, I soldiered on and accomplished:

• shrink-wrapped living room and dining room 90 year old, single-glazed-ill-fitting wood windows that function more as screens than windows in winter.


• vacuumed those rooms


• lovingly removed from storage and set out my favourite all time Poppyprint-made Christmas decoration, my beloved Woodland Santa (photos soon)


• did 3 loads of laundry


• wrapped with LED white lights and hung my new gorgeous faux cedar outdoor wreath on the front of our house even climbing ladder to do so - possibly not a very bright idea considering foggy head! (will take nighttime pix for you for full seasonal effect)


• found a satisfactory display spot for my incredible new German Christmas Pyramid (this was my promissory gift from B last year, seen above and ordered online from this place earlier this fall)
• ate a delicious bowl of homemade turkey soup delivered to my door by my fantastic friend Shelley
• made a batch of spectacular spiced nuts. Photo and recipe coming right up.

Now I'm going to sip a cup of hot lemon/honey water and await the kids' school Christmas concert this evening. I plan to snag an aisle seat with B next to me in order to minimize germ transfer.

Elaine's Spiced Nuts

(I have no clue who Elaine is, but her name is on the recipe that Susan sent me, so I'm giving credit where credit is due!)

1 egg white beaten with 1 Tbsp water in large bowl

add 8 cups mixed nuts (I used pecan halves, whole walnuts and almonds)

Toss nuts to coat

Combine 1 tsp salt, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp nutmeg and 3/4 C sugar.

Sprinkle over nuts, toss to coat. Toast in a 275F oven for 30 minutes on a greased cookie sheet. Remove from oven and let cool before storing in an air-tight container. Makes 8 cups for sharing with friends, neighbours and other holiday dropper-inners.

Tomorrow it's cookie day. I have to produce 12 dozen for my exchange on Sunday. That's a lotta butta! This year I'm ditching my old standby of Mexican chocolate chili drops for chocolate oatmeal shortbread rounds...stay tuned for results. Oh! and the holiday photos are uploaded, just need a little more of that elusive thing we call time to compile some mosaics for you.