offer an inch, they want you to go the whole mile...

so, i make gingerbread cookies every year around christmas, and i tend to make large batches of them because i try to send them out to a lot of people.

my list this year includes:

the taylor family (36)
Soldiergrrl, Iohness and Liam (36)
2x for work (probably) (100 each time)
the local fire dept down the block (36)
my peeps at Logans (36)
Kentbob, depending* (120ish)
Revel (SCA Event) (200)
and Tegan from the Barony of Axemoor just asked me to make 2doz. (24)

*depending on whether he can get me his new APO in time - SOB's going back to Afghanistan, this makes 4 trips over to the MidEast for him...

so my target is 500 cookies this year, and i'm probably forgetting something.  this is a big project, made bigger by the fact that you have to chill the dough 8hrs before you can cook it.  and rolling it out will eventually make my back throb in pain to the point where codeine would be a nice thing (not that i get it, but it would be nice).  and then, even when i'm going whole hog, it takes me about 2hrs to get through 4 batches of dough. 

in addition, i'm trying to stitch around 3dozen christmas ornaments this year for various people.

and i've semi-committed to writing on at least 2 stories.  and i need to finish that damned chair cushion, and i should probably actually plug in the old laptop and see if i can get her to start up.

and i have mentioned i decided to do some faux painting for my two eldest neices in addition to the ornaments?

so because i have so much stuff going on, i decided to get organized so i can cross things off and feel better as i go.  so i posted on the Axemoor yahoo list that i was planning on making cookies, and was there a theme to Revel? i said i could buy a cookie cutter and some of that melt-in-the-nuker icing.  i'm thinking i'll get back 'buy stars' or 'buy christmas trees'. 

but no... my beloved fellow Axemorons say 'hey, can you make the Trimaris triskedele thing?  and you could make cookies in all the Kingdom's arms!' 

*head-desks*

come on, people, who do you take me for? Gillian**? 

and then Her Excellency Axemoor, who is a very good friend of mine, says 'that would totally be great!'

so now i'm committed.  don't get me wrong,i *love* making the gingerbread cookies.  i love that people love them.   but please.  these people have known me *how* long?  and *how* much crap have i *made* as opposed to *bought*?   how often do i contribute by donating materials and/or money as opposed to expertise, of which i have none?  seriously, if you want me to pull something like that off, give me my college calculus book and ask me to complete every single homework problem in it - *much* easier and less stressful for me to do, and you'll have a much better chance of me actually doing it.   and i don't know how the rest of Axemoor works, but Christmas season for me does not revolve around just 1 family... it revolves around trying to coordinate between at least 3 different sets of people, none of whom overlap, and this year, i'm trying to carve out some time for myself, hence ballet tix

i just refuse to *make* cookie cutters.   especially the Gleann Abhann goat, which is au natural rampant, which means the goat peen is an explicit part of the picture...

**well-known through-out our Barony and probably all of Gleann Abhann  for being able to *do* just about anything, *with* just about anything, in fairly short order, and do it *well*.  :-p

-bs, flailing, screaming, and shouting