It’s time to start planning.  That is to say, it’s time to start telling people about my plans.  I’ve been planning for months.  It’s just a little weird to tell people that, I find.

I’m making lists for my Christmas presents.  I’ve got one last thing to pick up, and I’ll get that on Sunday.  Bam!

I’m planning out all the chores that need to be accomplished in the next few days.  I’m planning like crazy.

I like to plan.  It looks good on me.  But this year, I’m not planning a Christmas dinner.  Whoa, right?  I thought it was funny how much Wilde talked about missing Thanksgiving dinner this year.  It’s a little funny, but it also makes sense.  When you talk and think as much about food as food bloggers do, it’s hard to just turn that off.  And people are used to your inability to just turn that off.

But the thing is, there are things I like more than food.  Like my boyfriend.  And he and I have planned out how to see both our families on Christmas day, but it’s going to mean traveling rather than cooking.  So that’s just that.

On the other hand, I’m anxiously awaiting the goodies our respective families will create.  I’m looking forward to banana bread and cranberry bread (I need to figure out a gluten free variation for my mom’s recipe).  I’m looking forward to hot chocolate at breakfast, and probably another cup in the evening.  I’m looking forward to excited nephews.  I’m looking forward to hanging out with my sister all next week.  And boy, oh boy, am I looking forward to presents! That’s not lame, is it?

P.S.  Dear Boys, Your girlfriends think you’re swell.  They really do.  But when their friends strongly suggest that you purchase a very specific gift for your girlfriend, you would do well to listen.  A girl’s friends know her ring size, whether she prefers gold or silver (or platinum ), and definitely what she wants for Christmas, especially if it’s a piece of jewelry from that hippie store across from a favorite bar on Main Street (just saying…).  Sincerely, Jenny.

P.P.S.  Lest you think that was me hinting to my boyfriend, you all should know that my boyfriend is absolutely the best gift giver in the world.  And while I can think of some things I hope he gets me, I’ve also been with him long enough to know that he’s going to get me something far better than I could possibly even imagine to hope for.  It’s what he does.  (No pressure, sweetie.)

The weekend when I got totally, completely sent for a loop by being glutened, I had planned the most wonderful Christmas party.  There was going to be homemade hot chocolate, wonderful music, and ornament making.  Just simple salt dough ornaments.  No biggie.

But then I got sick.  The party was cancelled.  But the timing worked out well, because I was totally going to make gluteny ornaments.  It hadn’t even occurred to me not to.  Had I not cancelled the party, I wouldn’t have seen this in time. Going gluten free with these ornaments was an excellent decision.  The baking sheets never touched gluten, the counters too.  But mostly, I didn’t have to stress about cross-contamination, which is always a plus.

A lot of families seem to have these very eclectic Christmas trees with ornaments collected from various occasions over several years.  And a lot of young single people seem to have Christmas trees that might as well belong in a department store.  I’m not saying one is better than another (yes I am), but…

2 recipes of these ornaments and the boyfriend’s tree totally has that eclectic feel to it.  We wrapped the tree in ribbon and tulle (which sounds hideous, but really isn’t, I promise), then hung the ornaments.  It’s really quite a lovely sight.  I’d post a picture, but the lighting is all wrong any time after 4pm, and since I’m a regular 9-5er, that’s just not happening.

A few notes about the ornaments.  I plum forgot to poke holes in these babies before they went into the oven.  Halfway through their baking, I realized my mistake and started to freak out a little.  The boyfriend had some similar ornaments growing up, and they just had hooks glued to the backs of them.  Fine.  That was just what we would have to do.

Except when they actually came out, the boyfriend decided to pull out his power drill.  And I told him it wouldn’t work.  And he said he wanted to try on one of the ugly ones.  And I said that none of my ornaments are ugly.  And then he apologized.  And then I said he could try to drill a hole in one of the bells (we had quite a few, and in truth, one of them was quite ugly).  So drilled holes he did.  And that worked out just marvelously.

I was crafty.  He used a power tool.  It’s an all around fabulous project.  I promise.

I positively love amazon prime.  I love ordering every single Christmas present online.  I love shopping in my pajamas.  I love getting packages.  It’s pretty swell.  I’m constructing a cardboard fort in the corner of my bedroom with all of the packages I’ve received.

Let’s have a recap of this week.  Last Friday, I got glutened hard core.  I was sick all weekend.  And then I made things worse by glutening myself a few times.  Like with ibuprofen.  Did you know that was a thing?

I stopped eating gluten.  All day Monday, I drank apple juice and ate bananas.  That’s all.  And I got better.  I’m still feeling a bit of the aftermath, but I’m well on my way to recovering from that.  It seems like the better I get at avoiding gluten, the worse it is when I slip up.  But I learned some things (like about medicine having gluten in it sometimes), and I’m ready to do this thing called life.

There’s this episode of Gilmore Girls where Emily is freaking out because Grandmother Lorelei is coming to visit.  And Lorelei explains the secret to dealing with impossible people: laugh.  Today, I got super frustrated with someone.  You know… the I-have-to-leave-the-room-so-I-don’t-lose-my-temper kind of frustrated.  A few hours afterwards, though, and I’m kind of amused by the whole thing.

Life is just loads of laughs, and I’m learning to enjoy them.  Like earlier this week when this totally mortifying thing happened.  A coworker asked me if I had a sec.  I told him that I had lots of secs.  Out loud.  In real life.  That happened.  I didn’t even realize it until minutes later.  Because I’m slow like that.  In real life.

I got glutened.  Which is totally unbelievably frustrating.  But it’s also kind of amusing that the things I did to make it better actually made it worse.  Because that’s life sometimes.  It can just be like that.

Here’s to finding the frustrating amusing, to eating our vegetables, and to not taking ourselves so seriously.  It’s been quite a week.

…plans changed.

There’s nothing quite like being sick all weekend to make you realize that you really aren’t in control.  That all these plans you made – well, they just aren’t going to happen.

I’m coming out of this sick fog I’ve been in for the last couple of days.  I’m realizing how much I want an antique wardrobe to match the bookcase I bought this summer.  And I’m also realizing how much I like planning in my imagination.  Mostly, I like planning.  I do it in my imagination too, is all.

Last month, I resolved to blog every day.  This month, I’ve resolved to do two things: 1) become more frugal while still creating tasty food, and 2) use more cream.

The second is a little bit silly, but I would really like to master a good cream sauce.  I really should be able to use cream for more than just ice cream, and I don’t know that I ever have.  My skinny jeans are not happy about this.  They can deal with it.

I’m happy, you know? I like my life, I like my friends, I like my… stuff. My time, my space, my TV.

Except for me, I’d probably say “computer” instead of TV.  Or perhaps bookshelves.  Not sure.

The point being, I’m really freaking happy with how things are going.  And yet I’m so busy getting upset because the stuff I want to happen hasn’t happened yet.  I’m a rather impatient person.  I have trouble remembering to enjoy the gifts I have right now.

I’m having a party tomorrow night.  We’re making Christmas ornaments.  I’m going to watch curling tonight.  These are things that I love.  We’re in the middle of advent right now, which is my absolute favorite time of year.  A time of year that focuses on expectant waiting.

And I don’t want to wait.  I’ve never really wanted to wait.  I don’t think I’ve ever been very good at that whole patience thing.  I’m just praying that I’ll remember that this, right now, is good.  And the future will be good too, but I don’t need to worry about it.  Now go watch some curling and make some ornaments.  Don’t know how?  I can’t help you with the first, but here’s a super simple recipe for you.