There Aren't Enough Hours in a Day ...

... for everything I want to get done. All I can do is ... all I can do. And that's got to be good enough. I try to sneak in at least 6 hours of shut-eye each night, but that doesn't even always happen. But life will slow down next week. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying all the whirlwind activities of this week. Starting with yesterday ...

Tuesday brought supper with Jean and Amy at Redwood Room. This is Jean and I.

We all split a Margherita Pizza ...

and Jean and I had a salad.

It was a lovely, relaxing dinner. Then we hightailed it to Cinemagic for The Blind Side, a movie which we all enjoyed. It moved a little slowly, but all in all it was a heartwarming (true) story.

Today. After work, it was our annual lunch at Georgia's house. We've been doing this for maybe 10 years or so. It's a bunch of moms who had kids at Rochester Central Lutheran School and we still like to get together each Christmas and catch up on each other's lives. And laugh. We laugh A LOT. A big contributor to the laughter? Lori!!

She is a stitch. Anyway, we go around the table and rehash our year. We can't seem to do it in less than 3 hours! We all thoroughly enjoy it, I think it's fair to say. Lunch this year was a (Weight Watcher's recipe) mac 'n cheese and I brought my Autumn Apple, Pear, Pecan salad (recipe in my recipe blog). Dessert was Joy's delicious (fat free) steamed pudding with cranberries ...

She said the hard sauce was decidedly NOT fat free. But it was decidedly delicious.

Georgia's daughter Mallory put together a cookbook at her place of work, so I bought a copy. I love to browse cookbooks.

Then when I got home, I quick made another batch of cookies (chocolate hazelnut thumbprints, from the December issue of Cooking Light). They're very good. I had to try one. They're pretty small. It actually made more than the recipe indicated, so they have less calories, too. :-) The filling is 1/2 tsp. of Nutella, a chocolate hazelnut spread.

Want to know how to skin hazelnuts? I baked them for about 5 minutes at 350, then rubbed them in a kitchen towel until the skins fell off.

I put together a plate of cookies for after Carol on the Run.

We started at 6:00 at Running Room. 3 escaped before this photo, and 2 joined later.

Then we left for Charter House,

Samaritan Bethany on 8th and finally Ronald McDonald House which is my favorite stop.

This little boy was pretty excited that he got to ring Randy's bells during Jingle Bells. :-)

Here's my furry halo ...

and its shadow.

It was a great evening. It's a very good thing to spread some holiday cheer. I know I get too caught up in trying to get so much "stuff" done. I should do more of this kind of thing. That's the reason for the season as they say.

I had some open cheddar cheese, an open container of light sour cream , some scallions approaching the end of their useful life and some leftover mashed potatoes so I made baked potato soup. Really hit the spot after the run.

On tomorrow's agenda? Hopefully the progressive run with Byron Team R.E.D. Check their website for the latest scoop. Well, I'm off to wrap a few gifts. Talk at you tomorrow!!

Ha det.