Happy birthday!

That's what Frosty always says when he 'come to life,' but he means 'Merry Christmas.' I haven't seen Frosty the Snowman in years. Working nights sucks for TV viewing. I'll either see that something has aired two days prior, or I'll see that it's airing that night and I didn't set my DVR. I'm debating downloading it to my iPod, but how old am I?

I'm finally decorating the place for Christmas. I don't have a tree because cat + tree = disaster. I just don't want to deal with coming home one night and finding the entire tree on the floor. It will happen. I bought a floor lamp once. It lasted for 12 minutes. Lesson learned.

I don't know where I got so many damn snowmen. Or so many decorations for that matter. I guess living on my own for 9 years, I've collected a lot of stuff, but when I pulled down the big, red plastic bin from the closest today, I couldn't believe that I'd collected so many Christmas decorations. There are eight different items of snowmen. Where did they all come from? I didn't even realize I liked snowmen that much until I rounded them all up.

I have a couple Christmas-decorating rituals. A) Make a peppermint martini and b) turn on Christmas music. This really is the best way to decorate.
Also, if I offend you, sorry, but I wait until December to decorate. I know there are people who decorate the day after Thanksgiving and (gasp!) even before, but I wait. Why? Because that's what we did growing up, so that's what I do now. It works for me.

So back to the martini and Christmas music. Since iTunes has entered my life, I have all my Christmas CDs under one playlist entitled Christmas! I put it on shuffle and it plays for a couple hours. My favorite CD actually is a couple years old, but I really enjoy it. It's Chris Isaak "Christmas." It's a lot of fun. Others include: Christ Botti, Diana Krall and Harry Connick, Jr. I highly recommend the Isaak CD.
Martini: Be warned: this will get you drunk. I always try to serve it to people because it's good and it will get that person flat out drunk, which is fun.
So I'm decorating and making cookie dough and not shopping. I'm a last-minute person.

Peppermint Martini
2 parts vodka
1 part (white) Creme de Menthe
1 part Peppermint Schnapps
mini candy cane

Pour ingredients first 3 ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into chilled martini glass. Add a candy cane in each glass for garnish.