Catching up: Sugar high

This post is from mid-December. Why am I posting it now, on Feb. 4? Because I'm easing myself back into blogging after life took a little roller coaster ride the last two months and writing for pleasure flew to the bottom of the priority list. With this post, loose ends are all tied up and we're on to the next (fully in the present) S.R.S. adventure!

There was once a time when, at the behest of my very health-conscious father, I did not consume sugary foods.

During lunch time in elementary school, I would peer down the long rows of cafeteria tables at my fellow fourth-graders as they consumed Capri Suns, fruit snacks, Doritos and Lunchables. I was too shy to try negotiating a trade, so I silently lusted over their treats, faking enthusiasm over the apple slices and carrot sticks in my brown paper bag.

Dad, I gratefully owe you my good health, my love for vegetables and oatmeal and my embarrassing lack of 80s and 90s pop culture knowledge purity of mind.

However, today, sugar and I have quite a different relationship. For one thing, there's all the coffee I drink. Black is bitter, so my morning wake-up call (and afternoon/evening deadline-crunch caffeine fix) usually includes a half-teaspoon of sugar and a nice helping of cream. Then there is the abundance of cookies and other sweets that magically appear throughout my office on any given day, 12 months out of the year. My coworkers love baking, and they are excellent at it, so why resist?
 
Yesterday, I took my love for sugar one step further and participated in my first-ever holiday cookie exchange. There are many reasons why this type of activity is foreign to me, sugar being the only familiar element. For example, in order to participate, I had to complete a seemingly endless list of tasks over a period of weeks (weeks!), like finding a recipe, shopping for ingredients, and emailing back and forth with the hostess about what I was going to bring for both the cookie exchange and the potluck dinner.

Once gingersnaps and a Greek pasta salad were confirmed, there was the baking and cooking itself. I spent three hours in an apron, in my kitchen, listening to Christmas music. Yield: six dozen cookies, a salad that could feed 20, a sweaty, flour-covered me and a sinkful of dirty dishes. Did I mention I was also required to print out 20 copies of my cookie recipe for distribution? Don't even get me started on how much time, effort and creativity went into those (other people's) little recipe card designs.  

Half of the delicious spread (and that's not even counting
the real food!) at the CDNY Eat Drink Blog party.

Phew. To top off this weekend of classic American holiday-prep merriment, I bought wrapping paper and gifts on Friday ... as in Friday, Dec. 17, a full week before Christmas. That may not sound earth-shattering, but if you know me, this awesome display of advance preparation might surprise you. Last year, I ripped the tags off my family's gifts as I ran down the stairs to where they were waiting for me by the tree on Christmas morning. Lame. 

(And, I wrote most of this post in December and I'm just now putting it on the blog.)

Anyway, the Capital District healthy living bloggers I met at the cookie exchange are a fun bunch of women, and I learned a lot about their community. A few brought their men -- non-bloggers who quickly sought refuge together in the kitchen when they realized they were outnumbered something like 5 to 1 in a room crowded with loud, laughing, opinionated women. I kind of felt sorry for them, hanging about, being chatted up by a quieter guest who wandered in from the main room seeking a refill and a break from so much (AH!) large-group interaction.

Wine and quiche and off-color jokes were had in major quantities. Many fabulous cookies were gobbled up. But the pre-party in my kitchen, singing and baking in solitude, was actually just as good.