What do you mean it's December already?

I'm going to make macarons for the ladies' knitting tea on Saturday, so I stopped by Bob's Red Mill to get some almond flour, and just had to take photo from the parking lot.    This is so wildly atypical; December is grey, leafless, rainy and oppressive.  It's really hard to get into the Christmas spirit with all this sun and blue sky stuff.  Yes, there's frost on the windshields in the morning, and the sun has moved so far south that noonday shadows are verging on the horizontal, but trees don't have leaves on in December.  This is aberrant!

I've gotten most of the rum balls shipped off, and am finishing up the packages to go to family.  I made fewer rum balls this year and found the perfectly sized tin at Joanne's to fit exactly into the small flat rate box that the post office provides.  I will not wind up going into debt to ship cookies this year! Yayyy!!!

 But it still doesn't FEEL like December!

I am finishing up lavender sachets for the ladies.  One of my silk hawaiian shirts gave up the ghost, so I cut it up, sewed the pieces up, and stuffed in the lavender.  Quite satisfactory.  My sis-in-law who loves flamingoes will get a flamingo tote bag and four flamingo-print potholders this year, because I found some awesome flamingo fabrics at an estate sale.  My oldest brother (impossible to buy for) is getting a cap from Lowes' Hardware that has built-in led lights so he can see things in the dark now.

And next Saturday's knitting is all planned up now.  Chocolate/orange/almond pound cake (I got red and green cupcake papers), orange/rosemary shortbread cookies, peppermint macarons, clementines, and chicken salad sandwiches - maybe with some rosemary.  I may have to hem a few red napkins to dress the table.  Really, these parties are more fun than should be legal.