the end is the beginning is the end

Everywhere I'm seeing these "wrap up the year" or "summary of my last year's worth of blogging" type posts. I am too lazy for that, I'm afraid. I could let you know what my resolutions for the new year are, but I'm still rolling them around in my head, and I have not yet decided if I'm even going to have any. It's so much pressure. But I can share some of the great adventures of our year, Mr. Bump's and mine, some of which I didn't talk so much about here.

Santa Fe. Iceland. The California coast from Cambria to San Francisco. It has been a really good year for trips.

Feeding a rhino at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Almost losing an elephant's penis (there's been a bit of backsliding on that front, I'm afraid). But there is a great amount of satisfaction at the comments the Christmas cards apparently yielded from my aunts and uncles. It feels really good to be proud of something that you worked hard at. Much better than something that just sort of happened.

Having both my family and Mr. Bump's family together for Thanksgiving. It was such a special day for me, to have everyone together.

We made some new friends (hurrah!) whose love of travel goes leaps and bounds over ours. Their most recent trip to Africa in September was truly an inspiration to us.

Who knows what 2008 will surprise us with? We'll just have to wait and see. And in the meantime, plan and dream.

fever! in the morning, fever all through the night

SPOILER ALERT--If you expect a gift of food from me, this will ruin any surprise about what you'll be getting. If you keep reading, you'll know the contents of your tin before you get it. END SPOILER ALERT.

I've not been posting this December because I've spent every free moment focused on my latest project, which is the Christmas cookie/candy/fudge extravaganza. Something happened to me this year and I caught the fever. The baking fever. I can't stop myself. Every day I find a new recipe that I want to try and I go home and bake it. For example, the night before last, after a Christmas evening out with the girls, I came home and decided to make a batch of macaroons. After using an egg white for the macaroons, I had a leftover yolk, so I decided to make another cookie recipe I have that just calls for a yolk.

Last night I tried to make fleur de sel caramels, which ended up being toffee hard. I dreamed about trying to get the caramels right last night. I also made a batch of biscotti, which turned out beautiful. The weekend was a full on baking frenzy. I made peppermint marshmallows, a batch of granola, chocolate sauce, dipped shortbread and marshmallows in chocolate, and made nutella biscotti.

So far here is the grand total: 4 batches of granola; a double batch of penuche fudge; a double batch of caramel sauce; a double batch of chocolate sauce; macaroons; cinnamon diamonds; toffee; two different kinds of biscotti, chocolate dipped shortbread; peppermint marshmallows; and regular marshmallows. Somehow I'm dying to find the time to try the caramels again, make a batch of plain shortbread and cocoa mix. I can't seem to help myself. I'm burning up with the feva'. I'm dreaming about it. I'm sitting at my desk wishing I were home to do more baking.

Hep me! Hep me!

Normally I'd be exhausted from all this baking, but I feel high on it. I get a little flutter when I'm thinking about what else I might have time to make. I think I need to lie down for a bit.