This weekend we have a couple of fun things going on. First up is a show at Smith College with Bob McGrath and one of my favorite kids in the whole world - Maddy.  Despite the fact that her mother is pumped about the idea of her daughter getting to perform in a show with Bob from Sesame Street, Maddy was not quite so psyched as of a couple of weeks ago. Her mom thinks it’s because she has to dress up in a not-so-flattering duck suit (if I am remembering this correctly). And Maddy confided in me that she hopes none of her schoolmates will be in the audience. I’m sure the opportunity to be on such a big stage in front of a big audience will turn her around. She’s quite the showperson.

Sunday is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Holyoke - arguably the city’s biggest day of the year. The weather is supposed to be real nice and it’ll be a great photo subject. Plus, we’ll have Pat’s dog with us. How nice to be a dog owner for a day!

Hello! A sushi costume for Halloween! Make for me!

This year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is on St. Joseph’s Day.

I love my tree. my christmas tree. I’m going to have a hard time getting rid of it, even though it is very dead. The lower branches are drooping and it is browning underneath. It will be gone by the weekend, no doubt, but I’m holding on.

tonight i am leaving for pa after eating too many cookies this week, not packing enough, and not kissing my cats enough. I don’t think I feel ready to make this trip. If I were smarter, I would have picked the flight that goes out tomorrow, so I’d have plenty of time to carefully pack, do my laundry. The one thing I got right was the presents. The presents are all neatly packed up and will be driven to me later this week (along with a small bag of laundry).

Instead of finishing up I’m spending a few minutes to blog here, because I don’t know when I’ll be able to do it again. Of course I have a lot of work to do at the work before I can get out the door, and it’s going to be all busy busy busy until I head to the airport.

Despite a very challenging 2005, December has been a blessing. I hope that continues into 2006.

Can you tell me what it means when I keep having dreams that I am in celebrity weddings? My first celeb wedding was Britney Spears’ and my most recent one was Ashlee Simpson’s.

I kind of feel bad for Ashlee Simpson, what with her daddy trying to make her into Jessica 2.0, and the collapsing and all.

This weekend made me tired, albeit a fun tired.

Saturday morning I baked the almond cookies (nee almond crescent cookies) for my party that afternoon. I think they turned out well, although I haven’t really eaten any of them, except for the batter (irresistible, and goes great with coffee). When I got to the Great Cookie Swap of 2005 there was other yummy savory food. For instance flaky baked brie with chutney. And the tea. Very delicious and sophisticated.

It wasn’t until Sunday when my otherwise sweets-denying defenses were down. At a superb brunch prepared in honor of a friend’s birthday I did have some of the cookies, which were making the rounds. In addition, our brunch hostess had just baked fresh blueberry scones and an Irish friend o’ mine brought Clotted Cream, which is best served on top of fresh scones. Upon smelling it in the jar I could be heard proclaiming, “it smells like fat!” which is to say it smelled incredibly delicious (and it was, as were the scones).

We also dined on a lovely quiche and drank mimosas with fresh squeezed oranges (thank you, Northampton schools fundraiser). I also provided the salmon, cream cheese, capers, onions and bagels, a somewhat out-of-place, but otherwise yummy snack.

Back to the Great Cookie Swap of 2005. I have proclaimed my favorite cookie to be Jennifer Myszkowski’s chocolate (with white stuff on top) cookies, with Boyle’s gingerbread cookies a close second. Jennifer Adams’ Norwegian Flower Cookies were also delicious, and in actual fact all of the ladies did such a great job that it’s unfair to even proclaim a winner, since it wasn’t about a contest or anything. Plus, I don’t like coconut, so I couldn’t even try duffy’s cookies. I’m just telling you what I liked, I guess. That’s me. Telling it like it is.

As for Saturday night. If you saw me at Bar 19 and I acted a fool, please see my third glass of wine for an explanation.

Photo courtesy Adams.

Yesterday afternoon I tested out a cookie recipe. I am invited to a cookie swap on Saturday, so I want to make sure they will turn out perfectly.

Here are my Almond crescent (more or less) cookies.

The problem is that I am not good at making the crescent shape. They ended up looking like, well, something that is not a crescent. But boy are they delicious. My mom used to make pecan crescents, but I think the almond is a much tastier choice. I am not really partaking of the sugar these days, but I did try two (one without the confectioners’ sugar on top and one with) and they were spectacular*. If you see me coming with a batch of these, you should try them. *DISCLAIMER: I do not bake, so anything that turns out tasty is spectacular to me. I am not trying to oversell these things.