If you have an Advent Calendar, today is the day that you should open up that twelfth little door. You've got 13 more little doors to open. No cheating! You can only open door number 12. For all the rest of you, you've got 13 more days before Christmas.

I made a double batch of Jan Hagel today. Most of these cookies are going to good homes. I fully intend to eat at least some of them though, diet or no diet. I sent my daughter a batch of unfrosted brown sugar cookies today. It's a sacred, secret, family recipe. I sent her a kit complete with powdered sugar to make the frosting and decorettes. I hope the cookies make it one piece. But I bet she eats them even if they come in several pieces. Brown sugar cookies are a tradition in our family. I think I'd be lynched if I decided not to make those cookies some year. Hey! Next generation! When are you all going to start making the cookies so I can go play Bingo and wait for my cookies to arrive in the mail? Good thing I like to cook. I'm planning on making another batch of said brown sugar cookies when my son gets home from school. He needs to know how to make them when he's off on his own. I made my first batch of brown sugar cookies, all by my lonesome, when I was an exchange student in Bolivia. Believe you me, it wasn't easy finding brown sugar down in Santa Cruz in the 70's...much less cream of tartar. They turned out great though. I think my youngest daughter made her first batch when she was in Florida last Christmas. I just sent the recipe to my oldest daughter. I wonder if she made a batch this year in Omaha? I still have to make the snowball cookies (Mexican Teacakes or Russian Teacakes), the fudge, the peanut brittle, and the spritz. I wonder what I'm forgetting?

Today's Little Bit of Trivia

The presence of a ring (halo) around the sun or, more commonly the moon in the night sky, betrays very high ice crystals composing cirrostratus clouds. The brighter the ring or halo, the greater the odds of precipitation adn the sooner it may be expected. Rain or snow will not always fall, but two times out of three, precipitation will start to fall within twelve to eighteen hours. We got some rain last night but I wasn't watching for any halo's around the moon.