I am a marathon baker. Other people run or walk marathons, I stand in a hot kitchen the day before Christmas Eve and bake like a maniac. I'm not sure when this started, but I can remember from little kid to now, I've always baked or helped bake at Christmas. The past several years, I've had some real motivational issues with getting my baking done, and thus, the marathon baking session was born.
Before I went back to college, I'd have plenty of time to get the house decorated, do my baking, wrap presents, and all the other stuff that goes with Christmas. As a kid, I'd decorate my room in addition to helping with the house decorations and I'd help my mother bake all the good stuff, and even the fruitcake. (I had to stir the concoction because it was too thick for my mom to stir it.) Then, when I got married, I suddenly had two households to help. My family and extended family was really shrinking by then, so we didn't have many presents to buy for my side... but Scott's side was really extended. At one point, we had over 30 people to buy for on his side. No names pulled, no gift cards, nothing but an actual present. Those were hard years for shopping, and this was before the internet. No Amazon back then...
However, time passes and slowly his family has diminished, just like mine. We now have a small group of people to buy for, around five or six, and I buy gift cards for my sister's family. The biggest consideration I have now are my four very closest friends. But I digress... The past seven Christmases have been plagued with finals from school. I feel this has led me to a lower motivational baking and cooking drive. Once I'm done with school for the semester, then the guilt of not doing anything for Christmas hits me full force and the next thing I know I'm spending 12 to 14 hours in the kitchen making cookies, bars, and other goodies for Christmas. In recent years, I've also had to deal with cleaning and clearing the dining room and kitchen from a semester's worth of neglect and Black Friday shopping carnage. Usually Black Friday yields Christmas presents, so it's not a total loss of time.
2014 was no different other than I really had a problem getting motivated. I just couldn't even get the slightest energy for baking going, and my poor husband was searching for the easiest recipes he could find for me. He usually makes fudge, toffee, and some other candy items, and it's a good mix between us. Cookies and bars from me, candy from him. So, on the 23rd, my Christmas miracle of getting my baking done, I pushed myself hard and baked. For 12 hours straight, I baked. Maybe this is why I don't like to do it anymore, but once on a roll, I didn't want to stop. I got what I wanted to bake done, and that was it. Scott made his stuff after I did so it was around 2 in the morning when we were finally done. A big sigh of relief and hopefully next year, a year without school in December, I won't be baking for 12 hours straight. I also won't have a 15 page paper due for my seminar class, and two other 7 page papers due for the other class. I had some motivational issues there, too, but I got A's in both classes, so apparently I did ok. 2015 brings one semester left for school, and then I graduate. Finally. And what a long, long trip it's been.
Merry Christmas to anyone reading this yet. I hope you have a wonderful, miracle-filled Christmas day, and a very, very happy New Year. You've earned it if you are still reading these blogs....
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