As the coldest day yet of the season, I set about to try and stay warm…turns out that it was not as difficult as I thought. First, upon realizing that my apartment probably would fair better if I did not have a window open (not even the teensiest of cracks), I promptly shut it. Then, I set about to put on my usual weekend television programs…breakfast in bed on soap net. Yes, I’m one of those people. Sadly, it was not on this morning, like it was not on yesterday either. So, I channel flipped and found a Kate Hudson movie that I had never heard of, which was entertaining enough.

For a while now, I’ve been in the mood to bake cookies. I had had a recipe that a coworker had given me a few years back that was really good, but I wasn’t sure if I still had it. So, in the dark of my living room, after I had raided my “recipe drawer,” I sat on my floor in front of the television and went through the little recipes that I had, realizing that most of them, I had never actually tried. I found the coveted cookie recipe; thank goodness I actually have a habit of printing such things out, so I set it aside.

Last weekend, I had done a mass amount of food shopping, since I had possession of my father’s car, a lot of which are perishable. I had purchased the ingredients to make my famous split pea soup, so I decided to make my bed, get out of my pajamas, and get into the kitchen. While the film The Family Stone played quietly on my television, I set about chopping vegetables and throwing my soup together…also while chatting on the phone with Z, our usual weekend pastime regardless or not if we are hanging out.

After my soup was done, I picked up the cookie recipe again and studied it. Realizing that I only needed two ingredients and could easily walk to the store and purchase them, I threw on a sweater and vest, and headed out…oh and I put on my cute gloves. By the time I came back the only thing that was frozen were my hands.

I set the butter and cream cheese in a bowl to thaw and got the rest of my ingredients together, impatiently waiting. When it was finally soft enough, I preheated the oven, popped in my Christina Christmas cd and started mixing by hand…I am not one of those people who owns an electric mixer, although perhaps I should be. My second favorite thing about making cookies is eating the dough while waiting for them to bake…my first is the delicious fragrance that wafts into my apartment.

There’s nothing that puts me in the holiday mood more than singing along to Christmas music and making cookies, a tradition carried from childhood. I even managed to cook a little whole-wheat pasta for dinner while I was at it. Now, after all the dishes have been washed and the cookies put away, I am sitting on the couch contemplating what to actually do with all of them…surely I cannot eat them all :). Oh, and did I mention that I am pooped?