Cookies!

Christmas is quickly approaching and my daughter and I have entered the baking mode. She announced to me yesterday that she wants to make cookies and dipped pretzels. So we embarked on a successful shopping expedition to acquire all the necessary ingredients. In order to ensure that we had adequate energy to accomplish such a monumental task, immediately following our shopping expedition, we took nice long naps. Then we spent our Saturday night dipping pretzels and making cut out cookie dough. I ran out of energy prior to cutting out the cookies, and we left that task for today.

So today we are going to cut out and lavishly decorate sugar cookies, make some fabulous melt in your mouth meltaways and, if we have time, whip up some powdered sugar tea cakes. This is quite a treat. I don’t think my daughter has made cookies with me since she was in middle school! I enjoy her company so much!!

So, if you are in the neighborhood this week, stop by and have a cookie. I make a first rate cookie, and who doesn’t like a pretzel dipped in chocolate and more chocolate!!

I am slowly starting to feel better. I had my last neupogen shot yesterday, so hopefully in the next few days I’ll start getting my energy back again and feeling more like myself. I don’t know if my white count is going to hold this time, but will get my blood checked again on Christmas Eve when I see Dr. Rado. My shopping is just about done, a few more small things to buy and I still have all that wrapping to do! Wrapping to me is not a routine affair, I believe in decorating the packages and making them gorgeous and sparkling. I don’t have the decorating talent like my grandmother did; who decorated packages so pretty you didn’t want to open them, but I have my own little way of making them sparkle and shine.

I went to see my son yesterday and we had a very nice visit. It is so hard to see him in jail, but I think he is starting to learn his lesson. The hard part is going to be when he is released. He will be a felon with thousands of dollars in fines, no place to live and no job. He has definite challenges ahead of him and there are no programs or organizations out there to help prisoners reintegrate into society. And we wonder why there is such a high recidivism rate. It is not about rehabilitation it’s about retribution. Don’t even get me started on the shortcomings of our system of incarceration. It’s a majorly screwed up system designed to keep people in it, not turn them into productive members of society.

So…on to lighter, and happier, subjects. Enjoy these few days remaining before Christmas. I love this time as we build up with great anticipation to the big day. All the preparation and expectations. A time of love and forgiveness, of giving and receiving. A time of hope and redemption. Enjoy the season.