Brussel Sprouts & Steak

When I was younger, I loooved to read.

I still love to read - but this was different - I lived to read.

I devoured books - literally.

The library was my best friend: I even volunteered there a few summers.

But I would never allow myself to read more than 2 or 3 books at a time.

And it was hard.

Because I would be reading - say 1 book for school, usually historical-something. Then 1 book for pleasure.

And then, we'd go to the library and my heart would find a new book.

A whole new adventure, just waiting for me to eat it up.

It's not that the other book or 2 that I was reading weren't good - sometimes they were fabulous. But that new book - ohh mann. It was so tempting to just pick it up and go.

But if I did, I knew I would lose sight of another book and probably never pick it up again.
And then I'd feel guilty - because my books were like my friends. And I couldn't just put it away for something new.

So I had to discipline myself, to "eat my brussel sprouts before my steak" if you know what I mean.

And I feel that way about blogging sometimes.

I have so much I want to say and put here - that I can get lost in the new & exciting - and what was exciting yesterday will get lost.
Because honestly, I don't ever get a blogging idea that is nasty like brussel sprouts :)
But sometimes, something will happen today that is soo exciting I don't want to talk about what happened yesterday - I want to talk about today!

So anyway, I'm decided to take out my old book discipline.

Brussel sprouts before steak.

About a week before Christmas, one of my favorite photographers, Melissa Jill, blogged about a friend of hers throwing a Cookie Decorating Party.

The pictures were so darn cute, that I immediately texted a few girlfriends and asked if they'd be interested in coming over to my house to decorate cookies for Christmas!

I had been wanting to do something with cookies - since every year I always got together with Miss Tiffany [of TJZ Creations] and decorated cookies with her, and since I live so far away from her now, I wanted to carry on the tradition in her honor :)

As it turns out, a girls were able to come over and we had a blast!

I asked everyone to bring 1-2 dozen of their favorite "decoratable" cookies, and that I would provide the icing and "toppings".

Oh, and oreo balls - see them hiding behind the icing? hehe

And, basically, I baked enough cookies for everyone - so I was glad when Naomi came over and didn't have any cookies to decorate !! [not that she was being a slacker, she told me she wouldn't be bringing any since she wasn't home to make them!]

So, we iced and iced and iced some more. For a long long time really.

Let me tell you - these girls are wayy too creative. I was figuring we'd just slap some icing on, shake on some sprinkles and wah-lah! But nooo - they got wayy more creative than that.

I always thought I was creative, 

until Larissa crafted all of these guys:

Anyway, like I said, we had a good time :)

Some more of our awesomely decorated cookies :)

[notice SpongeBob & Patrick, the Gingerbread Man who is actually a lady & thinks she's in Hawaii because she has her bikini on, and the stocking with a K on it :D]

And, apparently, the roof is icy and Rudolph slipped off:

See? I told you the "brussel sprouts" weren't that bad :) And now I'm excited because I know the best is yet to come ! And I can move on without feeling guilty :) :)