Fri. Dec. 5, 2025: Still Baking
image courtesy of ivabalk via pixabay.comFriday, December 5, 2025
Last Day of Full Moon
Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Jupiter Retrograde
St. Nicholas/Krampus Night
Sunny and bitterly cold
And here we are, at the end of another week!
Online meditation group was good yesterday morning, and Charlotte was happy.
After breakfast, I mixed up the batter for the batches of molasses spice cookies and set them in the fridge to chill. The jar of molasses used to be enough for two batches plus a little to use in cooking. This jar barely had enough for the two batches. I loathe shrinkflation. But there is allspice in these cookies (along with cinnamon and ginger) which always makes me happy.
By the time the batter was mixed and the dishes done, it was time for the #FreelanceFriends chat over on Bluesky. That was a lot of fun. I wound up sending the Chocolate Crinkle recipe to a colleague who made them that very afternoon!
When that was done, it was back to the kitchen, and rolling and pressing the cookies before baking. By rolling, I don’t mean with a rolling pin – I don’t do those cookies any more for the platters. I roll them into little balls and press them down with a sugared glass, which gives them a sparkle.
The anti-fatigue mat helped, so my back wasn’t quite as unhappy as it would have been, but still, after 12 dozen cookies, ow.
Set them to cool, got a little research done on the historical mystery, so I can dig back into that soon. Tried to read an acquaintance’s cozy mystery, but about 40 pages in, one of her characters that I’m supposed to like, used “witch” as a slur against another woman, so I’m out. You’re not cute, you’re not inclusive, you’re not a feminist if you use this slur. It’s not a valid substitute for “bitch” in a cozy. It’s derogatory towards women, and get out of my life.
So that series is a no-go for me.
Cooked dinner (no leftovers finally, yay). After dinner, we packed the cookies in tins and put them in Tessa’s room, by the porch door, because that’s the coolest room. We also closed the door between Tessa’s room and the rest of the house, because it was set to be -6F overnight.
Bea has gone from being feral to asking for tummy rubs, which is just adorable. She’s not quite a lap cat yet, but she will sit next to me on the sofa, so she’s lap adjacent. She will get there. She just turned 3.
I wound up taping a garbage bag at the gap at the top of one of the windows in my office, because it slipped down and I couldn’t get it back up. In spite of newish windows, every time someone slams a door downstairs (which is, basically, every time they go in or out), the top of a window slides down up here, so I’m always running around climbing on things to get the windows back up. No, there’s nothing maintenance can do about it, at least not if I ever want to open one of the windows from the bottom again (which I do, in summer). I was worried it wouldn’t matter taping a piece of plastic up, but it made a big difference. No Arctic winds zooming through my office.
Slept so well that I overslept, waking up a little before 7 AM. Again. Tessa Was Not Amused. Again.
But I got everyone fed, and then Tessa coached me through yoga, as she now likes to do.
I dreamed about large green and black spiders, which I learned are lynx spiders. Why I dreamed of a spider I didn’t know existed, who knows? Trying to find an interpretation that’s not AI-generated has been a challenge.
I’m hoping the car will start without a problem this morning. I have the usual library errand, and then I’m getting the last few things for baking (and basic groceries for next week), and then running to Williamstown for the last few things on my gift list. I also have to stock up on parchment paper and wax paper. I ran out of parchment paper with the last tray of cookies yesterday. I need to remember to start stockpiling that over the summer.
I have three more kinds of cookies to bake over the next three days (one kind a day is sane), and packing the boxes to send off, and doing the domestic cards this weekend. I want to get things to the post office on Monday, and start delivering cookie platters, so that will be done next week.
It’s a big push this weekend, and it might not all get done, but we’ll get done as much as we can.
Then, I can focus on any ghostwriting coming in, the historical mystery, and the textile piece. And finishing the decorations, so we can enjoy the holidays!
There are a ton of events happening all around. I’m going to pace myself and do very few. Part of it is that people are running around sick and spewing germs unmasked, and I’m not having it. I mean, more people are still masking here than in many other areas, but too many people who are sick are not. Part of it is that I just don’t want to be running around this season. I’m grateful to be invited, but I need some quiet time before the year turns. There are things that need to be sorted out and figured out for next year, and they won’t do it on their own. I need to lay some track in the next few weeks, so that I can move forward after the holidays.
For decades, I was always sick on the holidays because I wore myself out leading up to them and took on other people’s germs. By the time the holiday hit, so did illness. I don’t want to do that anymore. So I need to adjust my schedule, and I’m fortunate enough, as a remote worker, to be able to do so. And I’m not twenty anymore, or even thirty, so I need to pace myself better.
Tonight is St. Nicholas night/Krampus. We celebrate St. Nicholas night more in our house, a family tradition. Although I must say, the photos and videos of the Krampus parades in Europe look like a lot of fun.
That’s the plan for the weekend! Have a good one, and we’ll catch up next week to see where we are.
#baking #cookies #events #freelancefriends #holidays #recipes #scheduling
