a familiar yarn

Every year, KnitPicks has a huge half off yarn sale.  Every year, although I have plenty of yarn, I succumb to temptation and order a little more.  I mean, you can't beat half off.

I was surprised to discover that my newest skeins would not fit into my yarn cabinet.  I knew it only had a limited capacity...

...but I was caught off guard to open the doors and see balls of yarn sproinging at me like accordion snakes released from a confining can.  It was an absolute mess:  loose strands hanging, colors out of order, and yarn I'd totally forgotten about stuffed in the back.

I decided to haul it all out and organize it.  I was pretty surprised (and somewhat chagrined) by how much I had.  This is just the fingering-weight yarn:

The whole shebang:

Once organized and consolidated, though, it all fit neatly (albeit snugly) in the cabinet.

Success!  Now, no more yarn purchases for a while...

This week, too, I decided to bake some cookies to mail out.  Even though I only did half-batches, I still ended up with a lot of cookies!

I took the most popular chocolate chip cookie from allrecipes.com and split it into two equal (half-size) batches.  To one batch I added chocolate chips.

They baked up nicely:

I took the other half-batch and added peppermint chips.

I much preferred these to the chocolate chip ones.  So tasty!

Of course, I had to make Nutter Butters (recipe link here): 

Last year I purchased the Two Peas and Their Pod e-book, Cookie Cravings.  I decided to modify the Double Chocolate Oreo Chunk cookies found there by leaving out the Oreos but including the last of my peppermint and chocolate chips.

They were, in a word, AMAZING.  Soft on the inside, very slightly chewy along the outside edge...and the chocolate/peppermint combination continues to be my favorite.

I had enough cookies to send a huge box to Todd's work, as well as make up several decorative bags to send out.

Ah...holiday baking!

It's been below freezing at night here in the South, but it's usually in the upper 50s during the day.  I've definitely been pining for snow.  I have to keep reminding myself that for every brisk snow walk:

...winter project...

...surprising discovery...

...and beautiful flake formation...

...you have cold, blowing snow...

...and hazardous ice.

Shoveling, cold fingers and toes, dangerous and slow driving, sniffles, high heating bills...I'm trying to convince myself that warm is better, but I sure would like to see a white Christmas this year!

Merry Christmas to everyone, and I'll touch base again in the new year!