Getting closer...closer...

Tonight is the night my husband and I shop for the girl (did you read the book, The Road? The main characters are "the boy" and "the man"...it's odd). I'm excited and nervous. My husband is a tortured soul. He hates crowds and this is going to be a living hell. I think he'd rather be poked in the eye than go Christmas shopping. BUT as long as he does his breathing exercises, we'll be fine (I'll take my flask in case of an emergency).

After this little excursion, we're done...except for food. We're having an open house on Christmas Eve and I am looking forward to my menu. So far I've settled on classic martinis, Cosmo martinis, Chambord and champagne cocktails, prosciutto-wrapped Parmesan-pecan dates, bacon-wrapped scallops, hot artichoke spinach dip, and Asian meatballs. Of course, I'll have a meat and cheese tray, veggie tray, crackers, pretzels, chips, salsa, cookies, blah blah blah. I'm still working on it.

You wanna come to my party, don't you? But you can't...I know, I know, I've heard all the excuses, "But I live in Carolina!" "But we do Christmas Eve at the in-laws house." "I'm going to my moms!" Blah blah bah humbug. I'm gonna party anyway.

I don't expect that we'll have as large a crowd as we did last year, but that's cool because I can get much more fancy with my menu if I'm not feeding an army. Can you imagine making 4 dozen bacon wrapped scallops only to have them all eaten within the first 20 minutes of the party?

I have the week of Christmas off of work. My daughter and I are planning all kinds of adventures. I was so excited to take her to the US Mint in Denver only to find out that all the tickets through the end of December were snatched up two weeks ago. We'll find something even more fantastic to do. Some of our best days are pajama days, so it's not like she has high standards.

I may or may not post again before the new year. If I do not, I want to be sure I wish you all a very happy holiday season.

Cheers!
- rachel