FTC

F*ck them cookies is my new mantra. Ever since I was young child I can remember my mom would always make spritz cookies. They were nothing fancy but the fact that they came out of a press and could be made into several different shapes made them fun. For some reason over the last few years I have felt the need to continue this tradition. I have tried many different presses and I am convinced that these little cookies are a product of the devil. They may be disguised as cute little snowflakes and Christmas trees but they are pure hell to make. If you’ve made these cookies can appreciate what I’m saying. If you’ve never made them, don’t. It is not worth the aggravation. Next years cookie exchange is going to be something simpler, something less maddening. I was up until 11pm with those little bastards last night. Trying to get them to stick on the cookie sheet, reloading the press, pulling off the bad ones and throwing them aggressively back into the mixing bowl and literally rethinking a lot of my life’s choices.

Yesterday was a me day. Ok, not exactly but close enough. It’s very rare that we have a Saturday with nothing on the calendar. I woke up yesterday and decided that I wanted to go thrifting. Thrifting is one of my favorite things to do. It’s really the thrill of the hunt. You literally have no idea what you need until you see it. Thank god my husband is a trooper and will make his way to the books, find a chair and sit there patiently until I’ve turned every corner of the store apart looking for treasure.

After 3 thrift stores we decided that we better get a jump on stocking stuffers. It’s the stockings that will suck you in and drain your pockets fast. This year I am determined to not spend a small fortune on shit they won’t use just to fill space. The one thing that is a must though is a Terry’s orange. I don’t know when it started but it’s definitely one that everyone expects to be in the bottom of the stocking. I was a little nervous because we are a bit late this year but World Market came in clutch fully stocked and an assortment of flavors.

We did swing into Texas Roadhouse for lunch. It’s been years since we’ve been there and it might be years before we go back. The older we get the more it hurts to pay for a mediocre meal at a restaurant. Now granted I got a side salad and a baked potato but those seemed pretty basic on the culinary scale. The fastest thing to kill a salad is a run of the mill ranch. It was definitely forgettable. If you’ve got good ranch the salad could be sprinkled with literal shit and it could be forgotten, but thick tasteless ranch is a hard pass. The potato would have been good if it wasn’t rolled around in a salt mine and served room temperature. Of course I didn’t complain and every time the sweet waitress stopped by I told her it was delicious. I’m an inward asshole not an outward one. We tipped above 20% and continued our shopping.

I can’t believe we are just over a week away from Christmas. As much as I love the holiday there are always a few moments that sting. My mother in law will be gone 6 years this year. That doesn’t even seem possible. She passed away on December 23rd. That was a rough Christmas. My Dad passed away on Christmas Day 2 years ago. Just after the kids had opened their presents I got a call that he had fallen in his hospital room, they had resuscitated him and he was in the ICU. I had no idea how long that day would be. Although it’s not how any of us intending on spending our holiday there is something extremely comforting in the fact that he went to his heavenly home on Christmas Day.

Today I will be attending Addie’s last basketball game and then I will be partaking in my annual tradition in honor of my mother in law, making Povitica. It’s a labor of love but it definitely wouldn’t be Christmas without it.

Merry Christmas friends!