Christmas Challenge Check-In (I Can Explain…)
Ah. Well, let’s just see how my Christmas Challenge is going. I got the idea from Kae to plan a specific holiday activity for each of the remaining twelve days of Christmas. Let’s just say things didn’t quite go as planned. When I left off it was Friday, and I called that a “Christmas Work Day.” It wasn’t exactly a fun activity, but there were several things I wanted to get done before my son came home; most importantly, finishing the outdoor lights. I had the lights up around the top of the house and in the palm trees, but hadn’t done the bushes yet. The PROBLEM was, Friday was extremely rainy and windy. So windy, in fact, that my lights in the palm trees blew down and were lying on the grass. Not only did I not finish the lights, but the decoration I already had up were UN-DECORATING THEMSELVES. Arg. Saturday. The planned activity today was a family dinner at the table with decorations and twinkle lights. Strike two! My husband got a last-minute gig (this is the life of a musician) so he wasn’t home for dinner. Not only that, but the original plan was for him to pick up my son from the airport while I made dinner. Now I had to pick up my son- which I was happy to do- but timing-wise it just wasn’t conducive to a family dinner (even if we wanted to do it without my husband.) The kids and I ended up eating re-heated curry in the living room that night. Sunday- make cookies. Okay, nothing could go wrong THIS time, right??? I specifically wanted to make these Festive and Easy Rum Balls to include in the gift for my daughter’s flute teacher. No judgments here, but let’s just say I really felt like she and her husband would enjoy a boozy cookie. I made them! The problem was, I got a text from the flute teacher saying she was sick and couldn’t make the lesson on Monday. Oh, great! This means we won’t see her till January. The kids were intrigued and excited to try the rum balls, so I let them… and they hated them. My daughter said they taste like nail polish remover, and my son said they taste like a delicious cookie that someone ruined by pouring alcohol all over. Now I will say… the recipe says the alcohol mellows after 24 hours, and the kids tried them the day I made them. But for now I have a batch of rum balls in the freezer and I’m not sure what I’ll do with them. LUCKILY I also made peanut butter balls! I used this recipe and everyone likes those, phew. By Sunday the wind had died down and I was able to get the lights back up into the palm trees- but no lights in the bushes still. At this point I’m wondering if that’s going to happen this year. Monday’s activity was starting the Christmas puzzle- and I did it! The problem is, I was the only one who worked on it. I’m hoping if I leave it out others will join in, but so far the only thing that’s happened is my husband complained that it hurts his back to have the puzzle on the coffee table like that. We’ll see how this goes… And here we are on Tuesday. The activity for today is more cookie baking (didn’t I just do that??) Well, it would be a great day to make my annual Christmas biscotti. My daughter has a guitar lesson tomorrow, and I can add biscotti to her teacher’s present (along with the rum balls he’ll obviously be getting.) Biscotti is kind of a pain to make, but it’s worth it. These have orange zest and chocolate chips… yum. Also on tap for today is making the Christmas playlist for my long run tomorrow! I’m getting exited about that. I’m hoping these Christmas Challenges become more successful as the days go on- I would hate to look back on this as the “12 Days of Christmas Debacles.” Next check-in coming soon! How is your week going? Header photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash