Updated - What Julie wants for Christmas:

Every year I have several people ask me what I want for Christmas and every year I completely draw a blank when the question is asked. So this year, I decided to keep a running list starting in November so that I'd have a clue. This is not because I'm self-absorbed. This is because I'd like to avoid a repeat of two years ago when I received 26 various bath and body items from about six different sources. Apparently the hint there was that I need to chill out, but I haven't done that yet. (Or maybe I people thought I stunk.)

Here is what I have so far.

- One or two jumbo muffin tins (enough for 12 muffins)
- A nice pair of tongs
- A mortar and pestel
- A nice kitchen scale
- A santoku knife (I think Eric might have this one covered, but I'm not sure.)
- A temporal lobe thermometer (But I haven't researched it yet to find out which one's best.)
- Off-site babysitting services so I can get something done around my house!
- Gift certificate to Bed-Bath-Beyond, Linens-N-Things, Lifeway, Remington's, Landry's or some other nice place that's not Wal-Mart. (I have enough Wal-Mart in my life.)

So there you have it. What can you deduce about me from this list? I'm a busy mother who likes to cook.

Don't count your eggs before they're hatched.

So here's the story about Seth that I promised in my last entry.

I was trying to get a million things done on one particular Wednesday. Actually, it was October 4. I had run to Wal-Mart after picking Seth up from school at 11:30. We had already stopped for lunch and were making our weekly dash through Wal-Mart. I was about halfway through when I realized that I had promised a sweet youth at our church that I would make him some chocolate chip cookies and take them to church for him. Well, of course I had already made plans to run some errands after I grabbed Ethan from school and really needed to get those things done, too. So we finished whizzing through Wal-Mart and got home. Fortunately, Seth fell asleep on the way home, but by the time I got done putting the cold groceries away and could start on the cookies, it was after 2:30 and I had to pick Ethan up from school at 3:40. Hmmmm.....it takes 11 minutes for each batch to come out of the oven and 15 or 20 minutes to get the ingredients together. Not to mention the time it takes for them to cool so that I can even pack them up to take them. But I didn't have a minute to waste so I started throwing ingredients into the mixer (which sits out on my counter underneath the cupboard). First the shortening, then the brown sugar, then the sugar. Turn on the mixer to cream it all together and...CRACK! CLANK! SPLATTER! Shortening, brown sugar, and sugar...there should be no CRACK or CLANK to that! Maybe a little bit of splatter, but not THAT MUCH! So I reluctantly peer into the mixing bowl. And in it, what do I find but an EASTER EGG. In October. It looked something like this:



Of course, I realized immediately that Seth had been sitting up on the counter with me making pancakes the previous Saturday. We had five plastic eggs left over from Easter with various different candies in each one that my friend Twila had given the kids. Yes---they were still sitting on the counter in October. And yes, the remaining four are still there and it's almost December. (Maybe I'll put them in the kids' Christmas stockings for a little extra treat!) Anyway--one of Seth's little pasttimes is to hide the Easter eggs somewhere on the counter. He usually tells me about it, though, so I can find them. But, alas, this time he did not.

But the happy ending is that I finished the cookies in time to get my other errands run, although I had to call the school and tell them to put Ethan on the bus. That bought me an extra 1/2 hour. By the time I got done cleaning up the Easter egg mess and taking the picture so I wouldn't forget all about it, I needed it!

And the cookies were DEE-LISH!