So in between...

'And so this is Christmas and what have you done?' - John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Happy Christmas (War is Over) - watch the clip!

...the beautiful ice outside, a killer training session with my favourite trainer (who pushes me harder than anyone else and seems to know exactly which way to push me to get that last ounce of determination out), drinks at Nina and Chris which was fun fun fun...

I never used to drink, more out of fear than anything else I suppose, but fear is something best left far behind, don't you think? I took them some japanese snacky things and a very festive bottle of wine.

The name got me. Who doesn't like something called Luna di Luna? Doesn't it sound and look faaaaabulous? Of course, Chris and Nina & Milla are fabulous, which is why they got the bottle. 

It probably tastes a bit crappy, so no doubt it's the wine you open after the other eight bottles are empty... but it looks so pretty. See the pink one? Valentine's Day anyone? Sometimes image is everything ...

Today I'm planning my menu for Christmas Day, baking some sugar cookies* with the kids, going swimming at the gym, trying the new treadmills again. The gym has Technogym equipment but the old treadmills were old and they new ones are new and they are so smooth and they have MTV and TMF! 

The tv channels were limited on the old ones and TMF got kicked in favour of news. So this is the best Christmas present ever. I'm so in love.

Oh, you want the cookie recipe? It's from Nigella, who taught me how to lick a spoon lasciviously and with feeling ... but really a sugar cookie recipe is just a sugar cookie recipe.

Nigella's Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Makes 30. Double the recipe.

For the cookies

90g butter, (don't shoot me, but I prefer margarine)
100g sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp imitation vanilla extract (yes, I know, it should be real vanilla extract, but what can I say, I grew up cheap)
200g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

For the icing

150g icing sugar
food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Cream butter and sugar together in the food processor until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and pulse.
5. You could add some lemon zest to the cookie mixture, yum. Or some koek-en-speculaas kruiden, or some gingerbread spice. Whatever you want really. What not add wasabi? ;)
6. Form the dough into a ball and then press into a disc and leave it in the fridge, wrapped in clingwrap for about an hour.
7. Sprinkle surface with flour.
8. Get stepladder and stools for children. Try not to fall over stepladders, stools and children.
   
9. Roll out dough to about 1/2 cm thick and then allow children loose with cutters.
10. Bake on lined baking sheets for about 10 -12 minutes.They should be gold on the edges and a little soft still in the centre.
11. Take them off the baking paper and cool them on a rack.
12. When they're cooled mix the icing by adding about half a teaspoon of water at a time to the icing sugar. Colour as desired. Have m&m's, sprinkles, nonpareils, and all kinds of other decorative things handy.
13. Avoid fingerprints in the icing.
14. Allow to set and then give them to your friends and neighbours on Christmas Eve.
15. Get many many brownie points for being such an organised mother. Heh.

So what are you doing between now and Christmas Day?

I have a free day tomorrow with the kids in the daycare so I plan to do something completely different.

A museum, a day trip, a drive... something different and fun.