Wednesday, December 12, 2012

December Days


Not everyone understood my last rant post. My own mum gave me flack about it, "I thought Under the High Chair was a food blog" she said. It was, I defended, and gave the short version of how it has morphed into my personal blog. (Clearly Simple Bites is the 'all food, all the time' blog of the two.) "Well your aunt thinks you're pregnant," she sniffed.

However, unfounded baby rumors aside, a lot of people related to my sound off. A lot. Even one guy is sick and tired of being asked when he's going to start having kids. And he's a guy.

It's all very interesting. In a nutshell, we'd all wish people would stop asking us about how we are (or are not) building our families.

Now it isn't my intention for a second post to be about pregnancy, but I did want to mention that I received a lot of comments, emails and remarks in response to the post, before we move onto something a tad less serious.

Like cookies.

Here we are, two weeks away from Christmas, and this little family is deep into holiday prep. Before I sat down to write this post, I piled a plate high with cookies for Danny as a bribe to address our Christmas cards. It's a task I loathe; I hope my bribe works.

Stockings have been hung, a twig tree decorated, and the last few gifts stashed in the top of the closet. If only we had snow, I might really believe that the season of good tidings was upon us, but it is elusive this year save for a thin blanket of ice.

While we wait for the late-coming white drifts, the last days of the school year are getting crossed off the calendar, one-by-one, and we keep a growing list of activities we want to visit over the holidays.

My annual cookie swap has come and gone, and my freezer is lined with long plastic containers of fresh baked goodies. I organize them by similar flavors, so they maintain their cookie integrity. Everything chocolate in one flat, shortbread and vanilla cookies in another, and all gingerbread and spiced goodies are grouped together. It's a good system.

My girls baked some beautiful cookies, fudge and chocolate-dipped caramels.

We barely fit everything on the table - over 1000 cookies -and my simple, festive centerpiece of tea lights in jam jars bathed the heaping plates in a warm glow. It's a little bit like a beautiful dream, wouldn't you agree?


I captured a few moments via Instagram just to prove it wasn't all a dream.


This also could have been a scene from a reverie: a break from work and the kids to have an uninterrupted dinner with friends? Yes, please.

Let the holidays come. We're ready for them and we fully intend to take the hustle and bustle at our own pace. After all, it is the most wonderful time of the year.



Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays wherever you may find yourself this December.

ShareThis

Blog Widget by LinkWithin