[stargazer]

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating Stateside and abroad!

[enfermera]

bumping this up to say Happy Thanksgiving to U.S. busties! much love.

[shinyx3]

merry christmas!

[sassygrrl]

It doesn't feel like Christmas to me at all.
We did manage to get most of our gifts early which is cool, they're just all being sent in the mail.
I'm making rum balls tomorrow for a Hannukkah party on Weds.

I'm anxious about going home for Christmas but I guess that belongs in the family thread.

[shinyx3]

those graham candies sound yummy!

we have our tree up but only have lights on it. i still need to get the ladder and put ribbons on the top and i will also put poinsettias all over it (fake of course) but it is really a huge job as it is a huge tree. i love it when it is all done though!

[ketto]

Sure doesn't feel like we're less than two weeks away from Christmas. It's cold here but not really all that snowy, which is really really nice. I still have to get ridiculously bundled up but I'm not worried about slipping on giant mounds of snow.

I managed to get most of my presents in the last week. I still need to get stuff for paperboy and one of my secret santa's but then I'm all finished. Yay!

I'm doing some baking for a number of my gifts this year. Yesterday I planned to be lazy at home all day but I ended up making a lot of gluten free baking. Sugarcookie dough, gingernsnap dough, apple crisp (for dessert yesterday), and then I made my own gluten free graham crackers so I could make cracker candy - you melt butter and sugar to create a caramelly topping and then pour it over the graham crackers and bake for 10-15 minutes until it bubbles up. Then I drizzle chocolate over, stick in the freezer, and break up when they're all frozen. Oh god, it was amazing. The graham crackers came out sooooooo good.

We're also getting our tree in the next couple of days. It's a real one and I hope the caretakers don't say anything about it. It's going to be a nice cozy christmas.

[shinyx3]

think i killed the thread. hmmm.

today i made short bread cookies and decorated them with my kiddo's. was fun! also am making candied orange slices. that take about a week though and i am on day 2.

[shinyx3]

i made a yummy wintery meal tonight. not so much holiday but anyway. venison stuffed acorn squash. it was buttery and garlicy and sooo yummy with a ragu over the top and parm cheese.

but yes i love love love holiday baking! just got home from thanksgiving with the fam and i did all the cooking and baking and it really kick started my into holiday mode. made 6 pies! no such thing as overkill. hehe. now i am ready to start on the cookies and sweet treats and cakes and such! happy holidays all!

oh, don't forget the drinks too. yummy mulled cider, the ever fav eggnog with vanilla ice cream and brandy, and my fav of hot oj with rum and honey and a touch of cinnamon. yummy yummy! i think i drink more in the month of december than any other time in the year. cheers!

[ketto]

candycane, I love christmas baking. We always do sugar cookies, ginger bread, something my mom calls "cracker candy" (basically this: http://southernfood.about.com/od/browniesbars/r/blbb565.htm), and of course shortbread. My mom also makes these fabulous caramel bars and lots and lots of pies and tarts. I love pecan pie and butter tarts. Yum yum.

[candycane_girl]

Okay, sorry for hogging this thread again but I can't seem to get Christmas off the brain!

So anyway, is anyone into holiday baking? My friends are having a party so I will probably do a batch of cookies for that party. I found a recipe for chocolate peppermint recipes on allrecipes.com. I'll probably also do regular sugar cookies in different shapes (star, candycane, christmas tree, etc.).

And on Christmas, I'm going to make a Kraft recipe for a candycane cake. It's delicious and has chunks of chocolate right in the cake. The only change I make is from Kraft's suggestion of icing the cake with Cool Whip. I think that's gross so I use vanilla icing.

[candycane_girl]

lol, I think you're enabling yourself. I think pine scented candles would be nice though. Christmas decorations might seem weird at Thanksgiving. That's the beauty of living in Canada. Our Thanksgiving takes place in October.

[treehugger]

yeah-maybe just some pine scented candles or something.

[kari]

Hmmm. Tree, I personally like Christmas decos after Thanksgiving, but I think there are a few subtle things you could do that would be Christmasy. Maybe some Christmas greenery?

[treehugger]

yay, I get to host Thanksgiving!

Sooo, I may be enabling myself, but should I do some christmas decorating for having people over for Thanksgiving? Or is it a touch too soon?

[candycane_girl]

Just popping in to say I am going to spend tonight watching Elf and decorating my tree! I think this will be one of the best Saturday nights I've had in a long time. Even though I'm losing my social life because of school it's kind of nice to just stay in and chill.

Anyway, no more procrastinating, I need to get to work on my marketing so that I can enjoy tonight!


eta: one of the best songs I'm adding to my mix cd is the Brian Setzer Orchestra doing the Nutcracker Suite. It's awesome, you should all check it out!

[koffeewitch]

What is it with boys and torrents? My boyfriend did the same shit. And twice we've gotten our service shut off because someone has traced some illegally pirated thing to our computer...

On the decorating: sometimes the same thing happens to me...it's so much fun to PLAN your project, but sitting down and doing the work takes the right inspiration/mood.

[candycane_girl]

Just be careful when using torrents about going over your monthly allotted uploading or downloading or whatever. My brother once got our internet briefly cut off for going waaaaaay over the limit!

So this is strange. I finally went out to get tree decorations and now I don't feel so in the mood to decorate. That's fine with me though because I wasn't going to decorate until Sunday anyway but it's kind of weird. Maybe it's because tomorrow is Remembrance Day so I'm in a more somber mood.

[koffeewitch]

LOVE those torrent sites. Especially for movies; so many things are discontinued or no longer being released in the U.S. If it weren't for torrents my asian film fetish would go largely unsatisfied. coffeebean (and lurkers) do you have a particular fave music torrent site? We are on tons of film torrent sites, but only on a few music sites. Looking for some good recommendations particularly for world music, dub, ambient, classical/opera, etc. In other words, sites that have a diverse range of seeders for things other than top 40/pop.

[coffeebean]

AP, you can use torrents (the program is utorrent) as well. Often times you will download the whole album but then can discard what you don't want. Completely free because it is based on file sharing - you download and upload at the same time.

[koffeewitch]

Nat Cole did a lovely Xmas album...the man had a gorgeous voice.

Aural Poison, those were some great picks...I think you've found your calling. The world needs more people who have a talent for making mixed tapes. (I know we're in the 21st century now, but I still call personal mixed music "mixed tapes". A bad habit and I'm showing my age. Hell, I remember 8-tracks. Freddy Fender, anyone)?