Baking for Christmas

Saturday - 20 December 2008.

I woke up this morning feeling so tired. My leg muscles ached and my back hurt from bending too much during the stage and props cleaning up on Thursday. My plan for today was to bake as much cookies as possible.

I started today with a morning walk with RW in Lake Gardens. We met Uncle Chow, a 70+ year old man who walked past us with his quick steps and he did more rounds than us. We met Minch and Matt (they only jogged/walked 1 big round) towards the end of our two-big-round session.

RW and I spotted a tree that could hold a decent tree house. RW said it was too low for one, but I thought it was just perfect.

We saw so many "stars" in the Lake Gardens. When they planned the revamp of the Seremban Lake Gardens, someone must have given it some extra thought on adding the "stars" to beautify this place.

Matt, Minch, RW and I went for breakfast at our usual place in Rahang. We met Pastor Ben there and chit chatted. Then RW and I went to my mom's house. I started making the dough for shortbread cookies. RW bathed and went out to town for a personal matter.

I made 2 types of cookies - Shortbread and Hawaiian Nut cookies. I also made the dough for the gingerbread house but was to tired to bake it. I left it in the refrigerator.

Most of the time Tusi helped me with the baking. Rachel came for an hour and half (to check on me) to help and my mom who is lactose intolerant and hates the smell of butter, helped quite a bit by decorating the cookies and putting them in the jars as soon as the cookies were cooled.

Sze-En came at 11am and she was a blessing. I thought that this 9 year old kid would cause trouble, but she did her part by decorating the cutouts and checking on the oven (every few minutes, mind you). My mom's oven is very old.. probably older than me and it uses gas for heat. There is no timer and someone has to always check on the oven. At first she was very scared to go near the hot oven but we made her do it and now she claimed that she was an oven expert. I also taught her how to roll the dough but she was not strong enough to roll it evenly. I also taught her how to remove the baked cookies onto the wire tray to let it cool, but it was to heavy for her. She loves to decorate so most of the time she decorated the cutouts... and also checked on the oven.

By 8pm, I finished baking and was dead tired. Aunt Annie was there and she massaged my back. I felt slightly better but can still feel aches everywhere. I bathed and slept in my mom's house for 2 hours before going back to my house.