Yesterday was a standout of stressful days at work, so I decided to take a mental health day today and get a head start on my 4 day (now 5 day) holiday weekend.

In our house, more than gifts and decorations, the holidays are about yummy-for-the-tummy treats, so I headed to the grocery store just before 7:00 am this morning to try and beat the crowds and get all my shopping done. I had to buy baking supplies and dinner supplies for the long weekend. It was snowing out so, although a little slick at points, it was very pretty to drive in. As soon as I got home, I started baking, and when all was said and done, several hours later, this is what I had to show for my efforts:

Labeled above, you’ll see my shopping and baking efforts (all gluten free goodies), plus one tin of gluten-filled cookies baked by a friend of mine and sent to us for Jeffrey’s enjoyment. Way more sweets than anyone needs, but I like variety. Not shown are the deviled eggs, BLT dip, and Garbage Bread I prepped and put in the fridge.

My only disappointment was that I really wanted to make gluten free rice crispie treats (my all time favorite treats) but I could not find gluten free rice crispies cereal or gluten free marshmallows to make them with (they exist – I’ve had them – but I couldn’t find them at my local stores.)

Although exhausted from baking and doing all those dishes over and over again (our dishwasher is broke and I needed to use several dishes over again) I still managed to run out in the snow (again) to pick up my comic books (nothing better than spending a Saturday morning reading comics under blankets with coffee and puppies,) do laundry, and sweep and vacuum before Jeffrey got home.

Once Jeffrey was home, he built a fire, we ordered delivery for dinner (to give me a break from kitchen duty) and I whipped up a couple of new cocktails I’ve been eager to try. “Green Lantern Cocktails.” I stumbled across the recipe while doing some random google search for something and, of course, I HAD to try them. Its made with Gin, Kiwi, Viognier White Wine, Lime juice and Simple Syrup These are the things with which I needed to make them:

And this is what they look like, mixed:

Yummy! We really like them.

Once these were mixed, and dinner had arrived, we retired to the Living Room to relax and enjoy our dinner, drinks, and watch a holiday special or two, when we discovered Rita Mae and Harvey had beat us to the punch:

It’s a dog’s life around here, for sure!

Tonight’s feature presentation: Rudolph, a terrible story about misfits being rejected until they’re useful.

However, I love Hermey the Elf and can totally related to him hating his job and wanting to do something different. Plus, I love the Misfit Toys (especially Charlie in a Box) and I love how the misfits band together to look out for one another. (F*ck you, Daddy Donner, Santa, Elf Foreman, and bullying Reindeer for rejecting Hermey and Rudolph!)

With all the wrapping, shopping, baking, meal prep and cleaning done, I get to just enjoy the next four days.

Now THAT’S a Happy Holiday to me!