I may be late, but I still manage to get there

With Christmas a mere week away, I will begin to shop. Begin you say? In this crazy economy, I am limiting my gifts for the adults on my list to a bottle of my latest vintage. No one turns down a bottle of vino, and I have to admit, my White Cranberry Pinot Grigio has gotten plenty of good reviews.

I started making Christmas wine for the 2008 holiday season. That year it was a single batch of Blueberry Pinot Noir. It was a huge hit, but after giving out all my gifts, there was nothing left for me. So I made a batch of Peach-Apricot Chardonnay the following spring. There were only a few bottles of that batch left by the time the 2009 holidays came around. I then discovered White Cranberry Pinot Grigio. Not wanting a repeat of having a bare cupboard (or wine rack, as the case may be), I made a double batch. Spring of 2010 brought a single batch of Pomegranate Zinfandel. I opened the last of both of those batches in November.

This year, I made a triple batch of the White Cranberry Pinot Grigio. My gift list has grown, but I still want some for us to serve throughout the year. It’s been bottled and waiting for Christmas distribution since October.

With the adults taken care of, my shopping is limited to the kids: Walmart cards for the nephews and niece in Arizona, toys for Meredith’s new crew, shirts for the nephews coming for Christmas dinner, and a few extraneous items. It could be one-stop shopping!

I did start my baking a bit ahead. So far I have Molasses Sugar Cookies, English Raspberry Bars, Hungarian Apricot Pastry, Butterscotch Sticks, Raisin Cookies, five flavors of pizzelles (raspberry, cinnamon, French vanilla, almond and lemon-poppy seed), New England Bishop’s Bread, and a double batch of Mom’s rolls. Why I am subjecting myself to the holiday baking angst, I just don’t know. I guess it’s because everyone will be here for dinner and it’s expected? But I had to get those made early so all I have to bake on Christmas Eve are the pies! (Obviously because everything that is already made isn’t enough decadence.)

Don’t forget to download Fractured Anecdotes 1 on that new Kindle or Nook you’ll be getting from Santa. So far, Kindle editions are outselling Nook editions at the rate of 4 to 3. Nook is giving Kindle a run for its money! I didn't expect that!