Christmas Cooking (and trama)

One of the things I most look forward to at Christmas time is all the cooking I get to do. Today started my kitchen adventures. I made thumbprint cookies and ginger kringles. I made chinese pork dumplings. Then I made dinner of lemon chicken and manchego risotto. And then I finished up the evening with my first batch of homemade pasta, which I turned into raviolis. Tomorrow brings cheesecake and pasta sauce, and then the big day of Christmas will be the beef tenderloin roast with sides (preceeded by the raviolis and an antipasto and followed by the cheesecake). It has been a busy day.

It has also been a bit tramatizing of a week. In my attempts to get my shopping done yesterday, I was in a car accident. I walked away, but my car limped (well, it was towed). I'm waiting to hear about how bad the damage is, hopefully I'll just have to pay the deductible and she'll be fixed when I get home from tour. I was pulling out of a parking lot, and due to the driving skills of an old lady, I didn't see the young girl coming along much too quickly on her inside and pulled out. Had the girl swerved the other way, I'd like to think she wouldn't have hit me at all, but instead she swerved into the direction I was heading, and hit my drivers front tire and door with quite a bit of force. I could barely exit my car, and certainly couldn't get back in. And her car had no visible damage at all. So, I am now at the mercy of my parents chauffering me around utnil I get my car back, as I didn't get rental coverage on my insurance policy.

All my shopping is now done though, and the only thing that remains is to wrap things up. We'll celebrate Hanukah on Christmas Eve and exchange presents then. And Christmas morning will bring bundles of things under the tree. And my tasty meal! (cross your fingers my ravioli don't explode when they go into the boiling water....)