Christmas baking time!

I cleaned my house up yesterday afternoon, especially the kitchen and dining room. (I even cleared the dining room table enough to put out my Christmas tablecloth - it's one I made from a fabric with a design of pink poinsettias and pale holly leaves. It's subtle enough I could probably leave it on through January.)

So my house is clean now, which feels good. I even washed the throw rugs.

This morning, on my grocery run, I bought the supplies for the cookies I want to make for FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. (probably too many F's there, but it's the Five Festive Finger Foods Feast...uh, days. During exam week, we all bring in snacks and put them in the break room, in acknowledgement that our exam schedule is weird and on some given days people may not have time for a proper lunch, and also in celebration that we've survived another semester.)

I usually make cookies as this is one of the rare times that I have time to bake, plus an "audience" to bake for.

So, my plans are to make:

the good old Almond Bars (from a Better Homes and Gardens Christmas cookies book I have)

Peanut butter/chocolate kiss cookies (I made some last year and people went crazy over them; the recipe I have IS pretty good)

Chocolate chip refrigerator cookies (with the tiny chips, so they're easy to cut).

I also MIGHT do a batch of Millionaire's shortbread; I have everything needed for that but I'll see if I feel like doing it.

And I'm going to play Christmas music while I do it. And not think about schoolwork.

(You might think it odd that I clean my kitchen BEFORE a big bout of baking. Well, in my case, "cleaning" largely means "putting away the stuff that occupies the counters" - during the semester, I'm in a hurry all the time, so when I pull out a box of tea to make tea, it stays pulled out, or I don't always get the stuff from the high shelves back to where it belongs. And also, a "dirty" kitchen makes me twitch a little; it feels unhygienic (though in my kitchen, only the floor probably ever really is). So I like cleaning first and THEN cooking. And then if I need to I can sweep again or clean the counters again.)

I also bought some more goodies for the beaded icicles I was talking about; I'll probably make some of those this afternoon and post the photos later.