Bah humbug!

Yikes, I am in the full throes of pre-Christmas traumatic stress syndrome. First of all I was way behind on everything as I was out of town from December 8th through the 13th. When I got home from my biz trip at 11 pm on the 13th, and drove up to my completely dark, undecorated house, I shed a tear, knowing the horror that would await me inside after 6 full days away. All things which Sisyphus dreads, laundry, homework, vacuuming! Did anyone vacuum while I was gone, no. Did anyone help middle child do 11 notecards on Malaria which were due Friday, no! Did anyone help my youngest make her costume for the holiday program which was Friday, no! Did my husband complete the one task I assigned him, which was to take the Christmas picture, no! I had to prioritize! Thursday night, did the notecards and costume (she had to go dressed as a toy, she was a puzzle). Friday, cleaned the house. Saturday decorated the tree. Sunday, baked 4 pans of gingerbread and invited the neighbors over to make gingerbread houses. In between, tried to knock out as much shopping as was humanly possible. Monday, mixed up some Christmas cookies which I baked off just now. Only they didn't come out. I thought the dough seemed impossibly buttery, but I went ahead and baked it, after ending up with a buttery pile of nuts on the cookie sheet, I realized my mistake! I was using Plugra high end butter and I used a whole block which is 2 cups! instead of the 1 cup called for. Usually I crank out 600 cookies 2 weekends before Christmas, I guess I don't work well under pressure! I've posted a picture of a truly dedicated mom for all to enjoy. Apparently this tiger had 2 cubs who died, and the tiger got very depressed. The zoo decided to try dressing piglets up as tigers so that she could have babies to care for, and it worked (luckily for the piglets!)