Getting There

Things are starting to feel a little more comfortable here. True, there are still boxes cluttered in all corners of my room and the storage unit hasn't even been touched, but my mom and I (and the rest of the family, sometimes) have been working hard and everything is coming together. On Monday my mom took some time to show me all the special things in the kitchen, like the pots and pan cupboard that has hooks that slide so they all fit, and the warming drawer, the built in silverware drawers, and the new flour and sugar drawer. It's all really neat and organized.
Something about being in the kitchen and seeing all of my mother's special kitchen things make me all the more excited about culinary school. I just want to take that big, beautiful room and tear it apart, making mess after mess with flour and sugar and cakes and anything else I can manage to pull together. I want to dance around with an apron on, my CD player blasting, and no shoes on my feet. I want to make christmas treats, like peppermint bark and homemade fudge. I want to decorate sugar cookies then sell them at the mall along with hot chocolate. I just want to bake things.
Last night James and I decided to bust out the ginger bread house kit our home teachers brought over. We mixed the icing and put all the candies into bowls in preparation. Our first attempt to stick the house together pretty much failed all around, with the icing too runny (even after I thickened it with LOADS of powdered sugar) and one side of the house longer than the other. Eventually it was sticking and it seemed about ready for the extras. I loaded the roof with icing, letting it drip down to look like snow (it looked pretty awesome), and James decorated it with colorful candies that looked like christmas lights. Then the roof slide off. The sides of the housecaved in. Overall, it was a disaster. We ended up dumping the whole thing into the trash (except for the extra candy. James ate those).

Christmas is in a week. We don't have a tree or decorations out (except for one nativity that James and I came across in the office and took the liberty of setting up on the hearth). Mom hasn't done any shopping yet. It's different this year, but I'm okay with that. We're in this fantastic new house and everything is so beautiful and nice. I love it.