loser cookies

why does it seem like the lakers lose EVERY christmas day game?  oy vey!

it made it rather bittersweet to work on a cookie order for the day after christmas.  i'd been asked to do a hundred basketball-shaped sugar cookies in laker colors for an office open house, and with the bean asleep and the rest of the family off doing their own thing during the afternoon of christmas day, i got to work.

i'd made most of the dough earlier in the week, so i got to work on mixing a couple more batches before i started on the rolling and cutting.  it went pretty quickly, and the table i'd asked the hub to set up in our still-unfinished breakfast nook was perfect for spreading them out to cool and frost.

man, let me tell you - tinting the frosting in purple and gold was a bitch.  i'd busted out my kobe jersey to use as a guide, and i found myself using ungodly amounts of gel coloring to get it just right.  the gold wasn't too hard, but that purple - good gracious.  i mixed in drops of violet, regal purple, a bit of red, some navy blue, and a little black.  and even when i finally gave up, it still wasn't exactly the right shade.

i outlined all 100 cookies first, and then thinned out the rest of the purple frosting for the flooding process.  i am so not good at drawing perfect circles freehand.

i'd also thrown in some gingerbread cookies and trees for a post-christmas BBQ treat.  now those, i'm getting pretty good at.

flood!

i went back and drew on the lines for the basketballs, but when i was done i wasn't quite thrilled with them.  they just didn't look right, but i couldn't figure out what was missing.

but i was pooped.  so i cleaned up and went to bed.

the next morning, when i got up to check on my creations, i took one look at them and realized what they needed:  an outline in gold.  luckily, i'd saved the rest of the frosting.

somewhat better, right?  and lucky for me, they weren't being picked up until hours later.  so i turned on the ceiling fan to help move the drying process along and left them alone.

while i had the frosting bags out, i remembered that i'd cut out a few extra shapes with the leftover cookie dough.  look, mini lakers:

and laker cupcake cookies!

they dried fairly quickly, and when i was sure they were ready (and while the bean took her nap), i got them all bagged and tied with purple ribbon.

i just heard from my customer, and she said they were a big hit.  yay!  i knew they were tasty (duh), but i was happy to get confirmation.

now, let's just hope the lakers get their shit together and start winning again.

santa rocks the house

christmas eve dinner this year was at the hub's grandparents' house, with brother wan in charge of the meal.  i already knew he was planning on doing a rack of lamb - which i really despise - and knowing that the teen would likely be adamantly opposed to eating any of it, he threw in a turkey, too.  thank goodness.

she and i had stopped at forever 21 earlier that day, after taking a cookie delivery, so she could find something to wear for the new year's eve party she's throwing.  and, well, i wasn't exactly against the idea, with my super sucky wardrobe.  we both managed to find stuff we liked pretty quickly, and were pleasantly surprised to find that there were no craptastic long lines to deal with.  in fact, we walked right up to the register, and then breezed home in record time on traffic-less freeways.  pretty awesome.

i'd found a really cute ensemble all put together on a hanger - a plaid shirt, a short-sleeved sweater, and a striped hooded sweater coat over it.  sounds kinda weird when i spell it out like that, but trust me, it was pretty fab.  and the teen had done my hair for me in waves with my flatiron, braiding the front and clipping it to the side.  i was feeling pretty awesome...until brother wan opened the door at the grandparents' and we walked into a freaking oven.  seriously, it was about 97 degrees in there.  christmas with old people, man.  sheesh.

and so i found myself peeling off layer after layer until all i had left was the plaid shirt and my jeans.  at least my hair was still cute.

my girls were even cuter than that.

the grub:

i really wanted to pay my respects to brother wan's expertise, but ew.  i just can't do lamb.  like, at all.  blech.  the turkey was delish, though, as were the sides - garlic smashed potatoes, sauteed asparagus, homemade gravy.  he rocks the kitchen.

we sat around for a while after dinner, and then the hub and brother wan decided to hit up toys r'us for some last minute shopping.  i packed the girls in the car, hoping to hit up old navy, but by then it had closed.  i stopped at the grocery store for a few things and ended up renting a couple of movies from the redbox.  we closed out christmas eve with "shrek forever."

when the bean was well and truly in snoozeville, i heard elves arrive and head into the garage.  the ILs had bought her a fabulous play kitchen and had stashed it at the grandparents' until it was time to bring it home and assemble it for her to find on christmas morning.  MIL was convinced that it would be mostly assembled in the box, requiring just a few screws and a bunch of stickers to peel and stick.

shockingly (heh), the damn thing was in about a zillion pieces.  oy vey.  they were out there banging on the thing until well after midnight - i think it was actually closer to 1:00 by the time they came inside.  i felt really bad, but knew they would be stoked to see her reaction to it.

whenever someone asked the bean what she wanted santa to bring her, the answer remained amazingly consistent:  a slinky dog.  and so i'd trudged to the disney store in the holiday shopping madness to make sure that her wish came true.  it made a good bribe for a while - whenever she was acting up, all i had to say was "oh, santa is NOT going to bring you a slinky dog if you keep [insert naughty action here]!" and she'd stop immediately.  yeah, i'm *that* mom.  i wrapped it (along with her other presents from santa) in special wrapping paper that didn't match any of the other presents, and before i went to bed i put them all under the tree.

she's such a crackup.  the first thing she said when she woke up wasn't "merry christmas," "good morning," or even "i gotta go potty."  oh, no.  it was, of course, "is my slinky dog here?"  ha!  i made her  go through the morning routine and wake up her sister before letting her run into the living room, where the ILs were groggily wrapped in a blanket, waiting for us.  and it was awesome to watch her scurry in with her mama bear & santa, catch sight of the giant kitchen, and toss them aside in her haste to get to it.

we all watched her in amusement for a while, and then got started on our annual gift opening extravaganza.  the hub tormented the teen with her first one, making her reach and stretch and finally get her ass up off the couch for it.

the bean finally tore herself away from her awesome new toy to come over and watch her sister open her presents, and the hub brought over the stockings from the chimney.  she had fun going through hers while wearing the first thing she took out:

and then she was super excited as the very last gift from santa was her beloved slinky dog.  look, we now have toy story in its entirety:

i had a little fun, too.  muahahahahaha.

santa came through for me, too, in a big way (please excuse the makeup-less face and general hideousness)!

the teen was stoked to find some fun stuff of her own.

the ray-bans the hub picked up for her weren't the exact ones she wanted, but he knew that.  he told her that she could just exchange them for the right ones when the stores reopened.  in the meantime, i kinda liked 'em.

i also got a fun new cupcake book, and some SUPER random stocking stuffers.  i guess that's what i get for claiming the biggest stocking in the house - you just never know WTF is going to end up in there.

why yes, those ARE butt wipes in there.  but i also got this:

we found the yule log on TV (it's much nicer in HD):

and although we hadn't yet had breakfast, i let the bean have a treat from inside her stocking.  hey, it was christmas.  nothing is off-limits on christmas!

the aftermath.

by then, it was time to get up and take the teen over to her dad's to celebrate the holiday with him.  so sad.  but i guess it's only fair.

'twas quite a merry christmas indeed.

the father of all buns

haha, you could do so much with that post title.

i had an order of macarons and cookies to deliver to a customer who'd ordered them at the book signing at onesipkim a couple of weeks ago.  dragging the teen with me (to ensure lawful entry into the carpool lane, heh), i rewarded us with a trip to try something new.  my co-worker rock-ell2 told me about papparich a while ago, but i'd not had the chance to give it a shot.  and with the little bakery just steps away from my customer's condo, we headed over as soon as we dropped off the cookie order.

i really didn't have any idea what was so special about these things.  but when we stepped up to the counter to place an order, it was all right there in black and white.

i love mocha.  i love butter.  and i like waffles.  sold!  we ordered some to take home, added drinks to sip on as we waited, and looked around.

the teen's peach tea and my pink lemonade.  both were super delicious.

clutching the bag containing our treats, we stopped outside to take a couple more pictures before heading home.

luckily, there was zero traffic.  and the aroma of those fresh, sweet buns made our mouths water.  my car smelled so freaking good, i hope the scent lasts for awhile.  and although i chomped on a subway sandwich as soon as we got home, i made sure to leave room for dessert.  but i was good - the teen and i split one.

oh mah gah.  these things are ah-may-zing.  this could be bad.