Christmas Madness!

[Vallikat]

I'm not sure what this madness is that takes me over and makes me think I am capable of doing so much more than I actually can before Christmas. But somehow, I get caught up in it, almost always revolving around gifts for my co-workers. One year it was scarves. That was the worst. Each one only took an evening to make. However, put that together times 5 for people here and I forget how many others I decided to make for other people on my list and that turned into a whole lot of evenings where I could do nothing else but sit with my yarn and work. Meanwhile, nothing else was getting done.

I thought I learned my lesson after that and I downsized to ornaments. Take for example last year when I opted for snowflake ornaments. Each one was so simple to do. I made several of them so that I could pick and choose different sizes and types for different people. I felt really good about it until... Well since they were made of yarn they were soft and didn't really hold their shape the way they should. I decided to starch them. This took a few evenings of watching video tutorials and experimenting with the best possible way. Since most methods required drying time, I wouldn't know until the next morning if I was successful and then have to start again the next day with something else. In the end though, I was pleased. Yet, again I found that I had spent way too much time on them while other things I needed to do fell by the wayside.

This year it was snowman ornaments. A little more ambitious than the snowflakes, but I felt ok about that. I actually had done a lot of my shopping and decorating so I was ahead of the game. I sat down one evening and cranked out 7 snowmen bodies in 1.5 hours. I felt great. I mean that's the main part after all and I had done it with time to spare for other things. After that I just needed hats and scarves and to embroider on their features. Easy! Not so much. With just a few days left until Christmas I still have 2 more to complete. It's the embroidery that's holding me up. I have enough experience with the basic stitches to be able to make snowman faces and arms and buttons. But I'm not practiced at it so each one, simple though they may be, is taking ages to complete.

So here I am. I went from being ahead of the game (at least for me) to behind the 8 ball as normal. I still have these 2 snowmen to complete before Friday, all of my wrapping to do, gift cards and stocking stuffers to purchase, Christmas breakfast to shop for (oh and we probably need other food as well), and my house to clean (though it's actually in decent shape ATM). We have a holiday luncheon at work tomorrow that I agreed to make a hot dish for so I'll be making that tonight. Then I have the next couple of days to finish up. Thank goodness for Christmas Eve being on a Saturday this year!

Maybe next year I will learn my lesson. I have a funny feeling though that Christmas madness will still overtake me and I'll be in this same place come next year. I'm starting to think maybe I like it this way.

Anyway, whether madness overtakes you at this time of year or not, I hope you all enjoy your holiday season!

[Gridfan]

(maybe this will turn into a series of posts)

My madness is the following:

You know what would be a good idea? Take two pieces of marsipan, imbue one piece with rum flavour, imbue the other pierce with orange flavour. Then make then into thin rectangular sheets. Then layer one on the other and roll them together (creating thin rolls of dual flavours).
Then coat one half of this marsipan roll with dark chocolate, cool it then turn it over and coat the other half in light chocolate.

Mmmm. exiting flavour mixery indeed.

But holy xmas, either I need to start using some really weird muscles during "me", or I'll need to use a pasta roller machine because a rolling pin is a huge pain in the arms trying to make a perfectly rectangular and even sheet of marsipan.

Right now the darn thing is cooling off in the fridge so it's anybodys guess if the flavour mixery will pan out even close to what I thought.


On another note the bottom heat in the oven broke (just before xmas, yay) and getting it fixed post warranty is kinda stupid and can't afford a new one.
So it was McGuyver time to try and save the xmas bread dough that was resting in a bowl.
The trick was to move the oven plate up a few steps, put the dough on that. Then take a secondary oven plate and use it as a sort of "lid" by placing it upside down. This will hopefully create a air pocket and slow down the cooking on the top. Then use the fan in the oven to try and get the top heat flowing all over the oven to hopefully get the bottom plate warm enough.
End result....it actually worked. The xmas bread had a perfectly even nice brown tone both on top and under.

Have fun during the season hollidays folks.

[Vallikat]

I'd be curious to know the end result Griddy. Marzipan isn't particularly common here in the US. However, my mother-in-law is from England and she has sometimes served us marzipan covered cakes on Boxing Day. It's never been a particular favorite of mine but rum and chocolate would probably change my mind about it.

[Kermie]

i am totally bah hum bug this year. not sure why.

[Shigy]

I'm pretty slack when it comes to Christmas. However I decided to put together a USB stick of music for Faffles. I had forgotten how time consuming it was. I did a few hours at a time over several days. When I got to Q (aside from a compilation folder my music is sorted by artist name) I thought I was close to finishing it so I decided to push through till it was done. I finally finished it at 3am on that night
So that was my burst of madness. Keep it to yourselves though as post from Aus to the US takes a while and I only sent it a couple of days ago.

[Dharzee]

So that was my burst of madness. Keep it to yourselves though as post from Aus to the US takes a while and I only sent it a couple of days ago.

I had to read that line a couple of times before it occurred to me that you were talking about sending the stick and weren't talking about posting to the forums. Then again, I just woke up.

I don't suffer any holiday madness that I am aware of. I do sometimes overwhelm myself with ideas in general though. "I should do this, and this... and this! oh, and this other thing. Hmm.... what should I do first? I can't decide... so I think I'll go play a game..."

[Shigy]

So that was my burst of madness. Keep it to yourselves though as post from Aus to the US takes a while and I only sent it a couple of days ago.

I had to read that line a couple of times before it occurred to me that you were talking about sending the stick and weren't talking about posting to the forums. Then again, I just woke up.

I don't suffer any holiday madness that I am aware of. I do sometimes overwhelm myself with ideas in general though. "I should do this, and this... and this! oh, and this other thing. Hmm.... what should I do first? I can't decide... so I think I'll go play a game..."

Well I have joked at times that it would be faster to send a carrier pigeon at times.

And that sounds like a good solution to many problems.