Sun Dance, watercolor on sketchbook paper, by Tammy Vitale

Merry Solstice!  We have made it through the shortest day of the year and are marching towards the longest.  wheee!  Though it is gray here (and if it were only colder it would most certainly feel like a holiday scene outside), the rain has stopped and I can pretend that the weather showing through the window behind my tree is all about snow.

You might recognize this as a sketch from Totem:  Sun Dance, which I gifted to a special friend yesterday over coffee.  I really like this figure and didn’t want to lose it (I made the tile close to 10 years ago) so I sketched it and in a moment of "just have to do this" sat down on the floor in middle of the day and did a fast watercolor of it.  I’m missing being in the studio but not enough to get down there and get in the mud.  Painting seems to have lodged into a new niche in my life (thank you Leah/AEM) , and so I just followed the instinct.  Best thing to do when those urges pop up around creativity – just go with it!  (Life too, mostly).

A comment on my last post re recipes for cookies came from Jana – i.e., post some of the recipes.  So here they are (and reports are they are all good.  I’ve been sticking with Aunt Rose’s butter (not sugar as written) cookies: scottish shortbread, according to my mother’s 1935 cookbook, but Aunt Rose’s cookies is a much better title; and oatmeal raisin cookies (because I can half convince myself they are healthier than the rest.)  Always play with the heat and timing on the first batch.  I almost always have to drop 25 degree and shave off minutes or burn my cookies from the time/heat recommended.

Aunt Rose’s Holiday Cookies:  2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar, 1 cup of butter.  Blend sugar and butter ’til smooth.  Add flour.  Mix until smooth.  drop by Tablespoons on ungreased sheet (or form balls by hand, which I do.  You might want to chill it a few minutes before you do this).  If you like nuts, press 1/2 pecan in top of each.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  I baked at 15 minutes in the middle rack.  Try for unbrowned bottoms – I never get there.  As soon as they are out of the oven, remove to cooling rack (keep the bottoms light colored that way) and sprinkle with some more confectioner’s sugar.  These cookies get better as they age in a container.  Great for shipping because any other way they aren’t going to last long enough for you to discover they do get better.

The rest came on line:  Peanut Butter Cookies, Quaker’s Best Oatmeal Cookies (note:  the recipe says "combine flour, baking soda salt and spices but doesn’t list any spices so I just added a tspn of cinnamon), and Caramel Cashew Squares (cakey – a lot like Monkey Bread if you’ve ever had it, only smaller).

Question:  Would you like to see answers and replies to comments here on the blog?  I usually email directly to the commenter, but have noticed that some blogs just comment right in the comment section.  Do you prefer getting your comment directly so that you know there’s a response?  Or do you visit enough to see the reply on the web and want to share that with everyone else?  I’ll take the responses into consideration for the New Year’s blog.

I hope everyone is finally calmly relaxing into their holiday weekend.  If you have last minute shopping to do, I hope you will take a deep breath, put a smile on your face and follow the feeling that comes with that smile before you go out into the bustle and rush.  Underneath it all, this season is supposed to be about love and relationship and community, how ever you define that.  Remember:   You can create ripples all around you by being the calm in the middle of the "storm."

Last Minute Gifts:  don’t forget to consider donating to CARE through The Web Women Giving Circle.  Just a little will keep giving – maybe even long after you are gone.  Think about it.

thought for today and the new year:  Peace on earth.