Christmas preparations

All right,  I am finally getting ready for Christmas.  I have made my gift list, checked it twice and I believe that I have finally ordered all of my gifts.  Some are already purchased and wrapped.  I went out yesterday (by myself)  and cut a tree, so I can FINALLY have a good, FRESH tree this year!  Today I brought it in and have it decorated.  I did not do a lot of decorating.... I have three boxes of decorations and I believe that I need to weed through them again and purge... but really what I have are mostly keepsakes and very little that  is expendable.  I have sorted through quite a lot over the last few years, and even though I have things that I don't put out, I am not ready to part with anything that is here... with the exception of some faded ribbons.  So here is the tree:

For the past few years, since we have lived in McHenry, I have opted for a small tree that will sit on a table. This is the largest one so far, and I like it.

Other than the tree, I have made more cookies, Swedish Ball Cookies is what the recipe says, but we call them "dust balls" because they crumble so easily.  They are made with butter, a bit of sugar, and the equal amounts of flour and chopped nuts.  I also made fudge, but it is not my best.  I had made spritz cookies last weekend, when we had my M-I-L over to have supper with us; it is her recipe and her cookie press, so it is her tradition that we are trying to continue.  I stashed them in the freezer so we would not eat them all!  I still want to make some Gingerbread cut-outs - hopefully before Tuesday so I can take them to training class for our Christmas Party, and to celebrate Elvis and Buckaroo's good scores at the trial last Friday.  

At the trial, both of the boys did well... Elvis was in Rally Excellent for the first time and got a score of 94 out of 100, and third place.  Buckaroo was in Novice B and got 98, and fourth place.  Not bad - considering we were at our own club and had several of my students watching us!

Well, after all that decorating ( and cleaning) I need a good sit-down...and I have almost forgotten that I have chili on the stove.... gotta run!

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