Alone but not too lonely in Going public

I’m spending Christmas alone today. I’m not sure if it’s my first Christmas alone, but it’s definitely the first one in a few years.

Would I rather have bought overpriced plane tickets and traveled across the country with a sweet family in the Midwest to go home to? Yes, yes I would.

Would I rather have a husband and kiddos to create Christmas magic for? Yes, yes I would.

But, alas, I don’t have a sweet family to go home to. I don’t have a husband or kids. Just me, and my cats, and foster cat Daisy.

I’m feeling okay though.

Usually I do a bunch of holiday baking, but this year I hadn’t been feeling very inspired. I usually bake 5-6 treats and take joy in sharing them with others. But with all my health stuff this season and the Daisy project, I wasn’t feeling it, or that I had the time for it.

I went to a solstice party a couple days ago at my good friend’s house. The morning of the party, I randomly had the idea that it could be fun to decorate cookies at the party. I cleared it with the host, and then spent all day baking and prepping. I went to the store to pick up some ingredients I was missing, and then mixed up the dough for gingerbread cookies. I went to the gym, and when I returned I mixed dough for sugar cookies. I then prepped royal icing in three colors (white, red, green), ensured they were the perfect consistency for decorating, and made two bags of each, complete with piping tips.

Enough time had passed to where the dough was sufficiently chilled, and I proceeded to bake a couple trays of gingerbread cookies and a couple trays of sugar cookies in the following shapes: snowflake, mitten, gingerbread man, and Christmas tree.

I am a sprinkle hoarder, so I had probably 15 different containers of Christmas and winter themed sprinkles.

I’m happy to report that most people at the party loveddd the decorating activity!

https://imgur.com/vsYUN1h

https://imgur.com/H9frvw0

I brought home the extras, and have had cookies for breakfast the last two days!

Then, yesterday, I made one of my favorite Christmas treats, cornflake wreaths:

https://imgur.com/aM1V4Rc

I also bought groceries to make a nice meal for myself today. I settled on vegetarian mashed potato bowls. It’ll give me something to do, at least.

I’ve been on my phone too much. I really want to disconnect and make some progress on my library books!

Last updated December 25, 2023