CHRISTMAS SEASON IS ON!!! and other seasonal chaos in my life!!!

Today was my annual Christmas shopping day with my sister! Every year, we go on our annual "pilgrimage" to the holy land...ie MALLS and "get r done!" We hit 3 malls today, 2 in town and 1 in a neighboring town and much to my surprise I am almost done.!!! It was a successful trip!
With most of the shopping out of the way now, it's time for the baking portion of our season! I started last Saturday actually: I made Streuselkucken-(german) for Hubby's B-d. This is the cake his mom always baked for his birthday. However, since she is no longer with us, this task has been taken over by me, for all family functions, I'm actually getting good at the German dishes that his mom made. ( Which is pretty awesome since she was a fabulous cook, and also very hard since alot of her good recipes are in German... I suck a coverting metric measurements to Standard.) I also no longer get.. "well it's good, but not quite like my mom's" And my bro-in-law has also given me the sign of approval. Then that followed with lemon filled cookies my Zia makes. I'm hunting high and low for my dad's Pizzelle iron, and while my mom said I have it , I can't seem to find it. once I find it however, I need to perfect the recipe. It was always a tradition during the holidays, that my dad made about 12 dozen Pizzelle cookies, He'd have Monday night Football going while standing over a hot stove cooking each cookie one by one! Our neighbors, and teachers loved being on the receiving end of these cookies! and it was always cool explaining to a new teacher about these cookies! But the iron hasn't had much action since my dad passed away, and I've tried a couple of times ... but mostly I made a mess and wasted a lot of flour, sugar and eggs. I once called my Aunt to see if she had any pointers, but was not much help. And now at the age of almost 90, she has trouble remembering that I am even old enough to be married with Children. But I will seek this Iron and make these damn cookies...or die trying. Ok a little dramatic, but if that idea tanks,, then Biscotti it is and a couple of other cookies.
The house has also been on edge too, as Little S is taking Baby K's Daddy to court to try to some type of custody arrangement taken care of. He's a D*ck and we never really cared for him. Gritted our teeth while she dated him. and then...GUESS WHAT... He's trying to bully her into things and she is wearing her emotions on her sleeve, so he plays her like a finely tuned fiddle. He'll get tired of the "daddy thing" and totally flake eventuallly, but for now... she's al little edgy.. I will be glad when tomorrow is over.
We have this house around the corner from us, who every year put an elaborate "Grinch" display. They have "whoville" on the front lawn and the Grinch and Sleigh high atop the roof and a continual story of the Grinch, with Boris narrating it. It's really spactacular. We can't wait to take the babies to visit it. Even the Big girls still like to visit! I will try to snap a shot and post along with other visuals around town. One house has an elaborate Nativity Scene, when I say elaborate, I mean Mary and Joseph are beyond life size, I think, they are about 10 feet tall? It's beautiful.. I doubt I will be able to snap a pix as this man is rather wealthy and there are security people around. I'll see what I can do!
I'm rambling which pretty much means, I'm a "pooped little camper" It had been a couple of days since by last blog and you all needed to know I didn't fall off the face of the earth, but I'm just really busy...(throw an 11 hour days on top of all the other activity..) I will try to blog when I can.

Happy Christmas Season, Have a great Tuesday.. And be careful out there!