-- Dare to... Eat Cookies --

Though I missed last week, and am definitely a day behind for this week, I am still thinking about and trying to participate in Kim's Dare to Do It Yourself Challenge.

This week's challenge was (and lets just say, its one of my favorite :):

"As we begin to attend holiday parties, share your favorite cookie recipe for all to enjoy. It’s like a digital cookie swap. Share the recipe and a review of the cookie. If you can, add a picture. And don't worry about the extra calories. At Christmas, cookies are calorie-free."

For me, I feel you can't ever go wrong with a chocolate chip cookie and around our house, they are a favorite.  But, I do like them hot from the oven.  So, what I do is make a double batch, form all of the cookies and stick them in the freezer between strips of wax paper.  That way, when the mood for a cookie strikes, I can pull out as many as we are planning to eat that evening and stick them in the oven.  

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We use a very simple chocolate chip recipe:

Blend: 1/2 cup shortening

            1/2 cup white sugar

            1/2 cup brown sugar

Add:    1 egg

            1 teas. vanilla

Incorporate:  1 1/4 cup flour (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less)

                      1/2 teas. baking soda

                      1/2 teas. salt

Mix well and then incorporate 1/2 bag of dark chocolate, chocolate chips.

Bake at 325 for 14 minutes

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I've got to admit though, my luck with cookies has not always been the greatest.  Usually they would burn on the bottom by the time I got them fully cooked in the middle.  But, that all stopped when I found these little babies:

These look just like a silpat liner, but they seem to do a different kind of job.  The cookies bake perfectly even and they are soft and chewy in the middle.  Its like magic!  Last year I bought one for every female in my family because I love them so much and now they also rave about them.  I got mine at Canadian Tire for less than $10.  Best cookie-related invention ever!

Next week's Dare is to give homemade gifts.  I have considered doing a little bit of a giveaway at the same time as next week's Dare post, but I'm not sure that there are that many people actually reading.  If I could guarantee that at least 10 people would be part of the giveaway, I could easily find myself giving a homemade, Clark Wood Creations gift to one lucky blog-friend :) Who wants to see a little CWC giveaway?

-- O Christmas Tree Farm --

Our day at Will's Christmas Tree Farm - in pictures.

A day of corny signs...

Family time...

Evelyn, Purdy and Jeff

Hey - do you like this one?

A unique method of marking our favorites... :)

My mother-in-law Nora

Jeff and Evelyn by their tree of choice.

Picking and choosing until we each found "The One"...
And then the massacre that followed :)

Tree baling and shaking...

Ornament shopping...

Loading the trees and heading home.

Loading ours up with 1200 lights.

Now - must find some time for the actual decorating.

-- A Hint for Tomorrow --

Guess where we went today?

Here's a hint.

Full recap coming tomorrow :)  Hope you had a great weekend!

-- Busy Day --

We've had a busy day today.

Lucas went to the Woodworking show in Toronto for the morning (and I suspect he did some Christmas shopping for me too since he is being really cryptic about why he was gone so long).  I got all of the Christmas presents we are sending to family via mail, boxed and ready for wrapping.  I then went out to do some shopping for my niece's birthday, and got groceries.  After, Lucas and I went out for some lunch/dinner and came home to do some Christmas decorating.

We also turned our outdoor lights on for the first time this year.  Its feeling quite festive around here!

How do you like to spend your weekends?  Do you like to be busy with lots of plans and commitments or would you rather spend lazy days in PJs at home?

-- Week One --

I'm just about to log off my computer which will mark the end of my first week as a PostDoc.  There have been ups and downs, that's for sure, but as it turns out, the things that I feared the most are actually going over quite well.  Here it is in a nutshell...

The Good:
-  Taking the GO bus is actually almost enjoyable.  The bus is spacious, the seats are like on an airplane, and so far, the bus has been empty enough that no one has even needed to sit beside me.  Much different than the GO train or the subway in Toronto!

- The walk from the GO bus station to my building isn't that bad at all.  Its about 10 to 15 minutes, which I'm sure will be less comfortable as the wind chill gets worse around here, but all in all, its good exercise.

- Getting up early has actually been tolerable.  In fact, going to sleep at the same time as Lucas has been really nice.  Waking up is tough, but honestly, its just as tough getting up at 7am as 5:30am.

- Work from home days are awesome! I worked from home yesterday and just having that one day of not having to travel, or dress in anything but PJs completely balanced my week!

The Bad:
- Monday sucked.  Bad.  It was a crazy long day and I crashed at the end.  I expect that Mondays will continue to be really difficult as I need be at work for over 9 hours.  Add to that 4 more hours of commuting-related travel and thats a LONG day.

The Ugly:
- I'm not going to share a picture, but suffice it to say, that going to bed with wet hair, does not make a pretty picture in the morning :)  I'm trying to make it so that I can get ready faster in the mornings, so I tried showering before bed last night.  It certainly saved some time, but I had good 10-15 minutes of flat-ironing to do this morning to tame the beast :)

** To top it off, I'm headed to the One of a Kind Show right now - a great end to the week!

--Straight No Chaser --

We bought tickets!  And I am super excited!!

April, if you are a fan, you could always join us for the weekend ;)

In other news, we are heading to the One of a Kind show tomorrow night and are hoping to finish most of our Christmas shopping while there.  I'll be sure to take some pictures to share.

-- Christmas Time is Coming --

Are you playing Christmas music around the house yet?  

We are and I'm loving it.

I downloaded Mariah Carey's new album Merry Christmas II You and while I don't love every song, there are some great ones that I'm definitely going to enjoy for years to come.  We've also been breaking out the Straight No Chaser tunes :)  This amazing a capella group will be performing in mid-December in London, ON and Lucas and I are considering making the trip.  The only thing holding us back is that the concert is at 8pm on a Sunday so we'd have to take Monday off.  

Check out their video:

We are also going to be finishing up some Christmas shopping this week that needs to be sent out to our family on the East Coast.  I'm really looking forward to breaking out the Christmas decorations, the wrapping paper and the hot chocolate this weekend!!

-- Day Two --

Ok. Day two is over and it went much better than yesterday. The drive through the city was more manageable and the actual day was much less frenetic!

I also finished my last lecture of the term this evening. It feels great to finally get my evenings back but I know I'll miss the teaching so it's kind of bittersweet.

Tomorrow I take the GO bus for the first time so I'm crossing my fingers that it goes smoothly!

In other news, the hospital where I'm working was having an event tonight so they were setting up tables and chairs when I was on my way out. Every dining chair was a 'wannabe' ghost chair which completely blew my mind. I took pics and will definitely share tomorrow :)

-- First Day --

My first day is over and now, even though it is only 9pm, I am headed to bed.

Tomorrow is another day.  Hopefully one that will allow me to get a few items checked off my To Do list.

Luckily, tomorrow night is my last Psych 101 lecture which means that I will soon get my Tuesday evenings back.  Even though I really love teaching, surprisingly, this makes me so very happy :)

-- Yikes! --

I start my Post Doctoral fellowship (real-world job) tomorrow morning.  I'm freaking out a little.  This means that the last thing on my mind is putting together a sensible blog post.

If you have some time though, my blog friend Kim at the NewlyWoodwards is hosting Week Two of the Dare to Do It Yourself challenge today/tomorrow and I'm sure she would be happy to have you drop by :)  Her tablescape looks amazing and I'm sure everyone else's does too.