ricardienne | Dec. 25th, 2005

I made a cake today: a gingerbread cathedral in my Cathedral Bundt pan. I decorated it with sliced almonds (for roof tiles,) white chocolate chips (for gargoyles) and gumdrops (for stained glass windows). I am never going near a gumdrop again. And next year I'm using dried fruit instead: it can't possibly be as sticky as slices of gumdrop are.

My step-grandmother sent me a needlework encyclopedia. I started to embroider a bookmark with a blackwork pattern I found therein. Only I'm using white thread on multi-colored gingham. It goes much faster than the trim to my Eowyn dress did.

And I am definitely going to go blow my 'Hannukah guilt' in the history section of Changing Hands during their 25% off sale at New Years. Definitely.

Good night: the solstice is over, and with it, Yule, Saturnalia was today/ended a couple days ago, but Hannukah and Christmas have just begun (ending January 2nd and 6th respectively). So happy rest of the holidays!

EDIT: So, it just occurred to me that now would be a good time to post my favorite most underappreciated Christmas Carol:

( The Cherry Tree Carol )

EDIT 2: I know. I need to go to bed. Perhaps that's why I found this so wildly funny, or maybe it's because I'm an (inchoate) Latin geek. (That is: I found it funny because I'm a Latin geek, not I need to go to bed… oh heck, obviously I need to go to bed… anyway (courtesy of