Organizized.

Hard to believe, but I may actually have a grip on Christmas. The tree is up, the lights are strung, all gifts ordered/some wrapped, and I finally got the last piece of my Secret Santa compilation, and sent off that box (whew).

Church-of-the-Target had boxes of gingerbread housing for assembling & decorating, and I was on that like white on rice. Now, I don't want to lose any street cred, so let me just say that I have baked the gingerbread houses from scratch before, but I was quickly willing to bag that whole dealy this year when I saw these kits. I mean, the decorating is the fun part & the candy is really what my people want, so this was great. They even supply the icing -- mixed! -- in a bag that you can use to pipe.

It was really nice to see all the ornaments again, and decorate the tree. For a while now, our trees have been bare from the middle down in an effort to save ourselves some brutal breakage. That tradition continues this year. Lucky knows he's got some chewy bones wrapped up under the tree and went berserk one afternoon and ran off with the silver package, but we saved it, and he has been calm ever since.

Winter Warlock likes the solitude he finds under the tree.

And now...I've put out a call to my foodie think tank and am starting to plan the Christmas Eve menu. I'm definitely making New England clam chowder, and am going to pour through my books to see what else I can come up with.