Dash is famous for being cute around this house, but I had no idea it had leaked to the outside.

On Costumes.

The following is brought to you courtesy of a very strong pot of coffee. My apologies in advance for any caffeinated rambling. I’m not in control of it.

Dash has been running a fever on and off for the last few days and is now waking up roughly every half hour through the night. Awesome. We think he has some more teeth coming in, resulting in much drool, fever, and need to be in mommy’s arms every moment of every day. Again, awesome.

And the moments he’s not in my arms, he’s walking around the house getting into the cabinets and bumping his head. Yes, that’s right, he’s WALKING. It started last week and it’s come in fits and spurts ever since then. I’ll save you the math- he’s only about 10 months old. Is that early? He seems pretty excited about it. Hmm… maybe that’s what’s causing the fever?

Anyway, fever boy is sleeping it off (for now) so I have a few blessed moments with my coffee and a stack of things to do. Must wrap gifts. Must pack up HappyDashery goods and Christmas gifts for family out west and head out to the Post Office (should be fun, what with this being prime holiday shipping time, yay!). In stark contrast to how I usually procede through the day, I’m going to keep my To Do list to a bare minimum to accommodate the Dashster’s feverish needs. Also, let’s be honest. This was the last of the coffee, and I don’t think I can do anything more than what’s listed above without passing out.

But if by chance I do pass out, I hope I land somewhat near our Christmas tree. I really love it this year. We decided to go with a short tree and put it up on a table out of reach of Dash. Strangely, we’re lacking in tables so it’s on my hope chest. Right at Dash’s level. Good plan, eh?

Anyway, I love it.
And that’s all just to tease you because I can’t seem to get the pictures up right now. Grrr….

Here’s the flickr link to satisfy your curiosity until I can figure out this problem.

Also! My new favorite place to hang out and get my vintage Christmas groove on? Vintage Christmas 1945-1970. You will not be sorry.

I know I said I’d do this before the weekend, but well, I lied. Hopefully this gave you plenty of time to gather the necessary ingredients. Not that you knew what they were yet, but you know.

Without further ado or excuses, here is the recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Originally given to me by my mother and adapted by me so she doesn’t kill me.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 can pumpkin (or homemade puree if you have it)
2 eggs
3/4 cup safflower (or canola) oil
1/4 cup water
3 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar (half a cup more if you want it sweetsweetsweet)
1 Tbs pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cups really good chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.
In a small bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, and water.
In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients (not the chips). Add the pumpkin mixture to this and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Place spoonfuls of batter onto a greased cookie sheet. They won’t spread too much, but leave some room between. Bake for 13-15 minutes, depending on your oven. Let them cool on the sheet for a moment or two while you get out the cooling racks. Transfer to racks. Once cool, or at least not raging hot, try one. You’ll be happy you did.

They freeze well, so if you can stand it, put some in a freezer bag and hide them from yourself. It is a happy day when one of those bags is uncovered in the freezer after you’ve forgotten about them. Yum.

So enjoy! Write in with your baking experiences if you’d like. Or share the pictures. We can all start a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie flickr group together. We’ll be the coolest!

Can I just tell you how happy it makes me that someone:

A. did an internet search for “puddle jumping,” and
B. that it brought them to my site.

That’s so cool.

Just for you, puddle-jumping pal, I promise to talk more about that. And maybe even show some pictures. That’s how much I love you.

Still laughing over this and this.

Also, eating too many of these:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies don’t last very long around here. Too good. Too many!