This season, more than ever, all I want is some additional time in my life, and nobody can give me it! There was a marathon of writing cards, packing and shipping, and finding the last missing gifts, and I didn’t go to bed earlier than midnight (and one day, it was 1 AM again!). So many things went wrong this season, that I can only hope it will never happen again.
To answer the question I was already asked: Hettie, why won’t you skip this season or just downsize – I can’t describe the joy of seeing parcels mounting on my dining room table, going into big bags, and then to the Post Office counter! It feels so good that I was not even tired the other night when I stayed awake until 1 AM. I just feel an adrenaline rush, and I am so glad I did it!
Time will tell whether it was a good idea to try to accomplish the impossible. For the whole week, I would go to bed about midnight (except for Saturday, when it ended up being 1 AM Sunday)and wake up at my usual time, which is between 4-30 and 4-45 AM.
At work, having been in the office for only four days between two weeks of time off, I had endless meetings and then worked after hours trying to do some actual work. I was planning my presents, ordering things, writing the cards, etc. In addition, I had many problems with my conference website, sending tons of emails trying to correct them and meeting with the Talk Selection Committee. I had to prepare a million things for the upcoming PG Conf EU week and manage several 2024 conference submissions.
I took Friday off, and I decided not to go to the Corporate Christmas Party because otherwise, there was no way for me to bake my Christmas cookies. I want to be very clear here: this was not a sacrifice on my side; these are my priorities, and I would be way unhappier if I didn’t do cookies this year.
Lena also took Friday off and left work earlier on Thursday to drive to Chicago so that we could start baking early Friday morning.
I do not recall whether I mentioned it, but this year, due to all of the time constraints, I decided to utilize the Tree Santa company for my Christmas tree delivery because I knew I wouldn’t have time to go and choose it. Since Friday was literally the only day I was at home, I also scheduled the tree delivery for Friday.
It turned out the tree was too thick to fit into my tree stand, so they had to give me one of theirs, and it was not as nice as mine. As for the tree itself, it was fine, but the shape was not as I liked it (too thick in the middle), and the top was “tripled,” and Lena and I spent a lot of time trying to put the star on it.
At 5 PM, we called it a day and went to the Christkindle Market and then to Millennium Park to see the Chicago Christmas Tree and listen to the carolers.
Today, I started the day by making a big pot of borshch because I knew that people would be coming to help me with the cookies, I would need to feed them, and the oven will be in use. For that reason, I made baked salmon and roasted potatoes last night before going to the theater. I thought that salmon might not be enough, and I was right! Another thing I did last night – I made three kinds of dough: the gluten-free dough for sugar cookies, the regular sugar cookies dough, and one more portion of kolacki – all of them had to stay in the fridge for several hours, so it all worked great.
After I was done with borshch in the morning, I baked the gluten-free cookies to be done with them first and won’t contaminate them with regular flour. and then finally people showed up for cookies decoration:)
One more day of baking, and then packing, and all non-international shipping. And giving:)
I am so thankful to Lena for coming and helping me this weekend! I don’t know what I would do without her! Also, four people were helping us to decorate today, and I do not know what I would do without them!
Lena’s gingerbread cookiesMy Outrageous Double Chocolate Cookies in makingAnd ready to go into the ovenContinue reading “634 cookies!”→
The holiday season is approaching again, and it’s time for holiday cards and cookies. You know how it works, right? If you would like to receive a holiday card from me – let me know :). If you are anywhere in the US and would like to receive a time of Christmas cookies from me – let me know! If you are anywhere else in the world except for Russia – hurry up – I will send the cookies to the first twelve people who will respond!
And if you are in Chicagoland, maybe you would like to stop by and decorate some cookies with me? Let me know!
This year, the Night Ministry decided against the large Christmas party as we used to have in the Church – for the residents of all different programs. However, each program had its own party.
I can’t really tell whether I like it more or less this way (to be honest, I think the food was not of the best quality and variety in comparison with the previous years). But it was still fun, and my cookies were very much appreciated, although the residents kept asking when I will come to make Mom’s soup 🙂
I do not understand anything about the international mail this year! Although Boris suggested some ideas which might be legit. He says that the international mail is most likely sorted in the local post office right away. Then if there is not that much mail to a specific destination, they might wait longer (to fill a container?) before sending it to the distribution center. It makes sense, and it explains a lot. But now, all of my eight international parcels mailed on the same day are at different stages of their travel.
The parcel to the UK was delivered on Monday. The parcel to Germany arrived on Tuesday, but it was not delivered since a person was not at home. The parcel to Ireland just left ORD yesterday. The parcel to New Zealand was sent to New York (?!), and today it was in Japan (?!). Others either didn’t leave the US yet, or their movements were not reported.
