Can we "Holiday" yet....... NO!

This time of the year I think crafts people are in perpetual motion.  Get out of bed, make coffee, take care of needy things and trip to the studio at dark thirty.  It's been like this for over 35 years and you would think we would have figured stuff out by now.  Never gonna happen, at least not here in the land of illusion. 

Holiday Tip #1

Worried about cleaning? No need to clean those pesky cobwebs out of the corners, turn on that summer fan you never put away and toss some glitter in the air!  You my friend are decorated!  You're welcome! 

In my effort to go gluten free and failing I am now just eating the whipped cream I made to go on the gluten free cobbler.  Throw the cobbler soup out and just eat the whipped cream.  Well there is time saver.  

Rachael arrived from the frozen tundra of Alaska just in time for Thanksgiving!  WOO HOO!  We phoned and texted voraciously before she arrived!  She was bringing her running shoes and I was making salad.  I texted back, I am massaging the kale right now!  Oh such happy thoughts.... 

 I picked her up at the airport and the Midwest phenomenon happened.  Do you have cheese?  Where's the lard?  Oh I need to pick up maple syrup and can we make nisua?  (Finnish sweet bread filled with butter, sugar, milk and white flour, ya it's the Finnish Paleo life for us)  We toured museums, botanical gardens, ran to the land of bonnets and buggies (Amish holy land, Middlefield, OH).  We bought cheese, smoked meats, jerky, maple syrup, honey.... and those running shoes were but a distant memory.  And then she said; make the coconut cake..... NO, not the coconut cake.  We were all in and it was GOOD! and then I burned the recipe because no one should ever eat this cake, ever! 

She packed her bag and took an additional suitcase filled with Midwest goodness (fat), including the cake and loaves of  nisua.  I had visions of the poor drug sniffing dogs going over her suitcase at checkin.  At the airport while waiting on security, a woman in front her was carrying a cake carrier and just like that she had a new BFF.  She and her cake were going to Maryland and did you know it was National Cake Day?  Who knew?

And in return Rachael gifted us Alaskan salmon and halibut, 50 glorious pounds.  

We're gonna live!!

While Rachael was here, Santa Abby had my early Christmas present arrive.  An 8 quart Instant Pot. 

Do I need another addition onto the kitchen?  Holy Huge!  After much texting and discussion, returned for a 6 quart model.  It fits, no addition required.  

Ok I was really on the fence about this thing.  I am down sizing and do not need one more plug in appliance.  While Rachael was here she extolled the virtue of this "magical new thing you really need". 

It arrived the day before she flew out.  As it had an air fryer lid, we made bacon.  (shocking, I know)  

and I decided I kind of liked it because it kept all the mess in one place and one pot!  I started watching youtube's and there are people with an army of Instant Pots because apparently it is a cult.  I have used it everyday, really everyday.  If I don't embrace it for 30 days it will be shoved to a dark recess and forgotten.  I've made the best soft boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, slow cooked stuff, fast cooked stuff, air fried everything I could think of and it dehydrates small stuff.  The day I dusted the stove it earned a place in my kitchen!  

The old crock pot is now in the studio, warming throwing water and the giant air fryer that sat on the counter is gone!  Two gone, replaced one; I guess that is downsizing.  

And it's always happy to see me!  

Hi! Back at'cha Instant Pot! (I know its the temperature but again leave me my illusions!)

And it's a time saver, because life is just chaos at the moment. 

two more shows checked off the list...

Delivering orders and now calling myself Uber Ceramics.

But stuff is getting done and there is a light at the end of the tunnel and there is one more week of this chaos and then we can HOLIDAY!  (because it is a verb in this house!) 

and Kirby is living his best life 💞

and above all else when your adrift in a sea of orders and people who order and insist they must have it before Christmas for their dear Mom or BFF and then....... don't get back to you, they ghost you, won't even let you know they moved or died or choked on a candy cane, impaled while loading the Christmas tree in their Volvo..... well