I haven’t blogged, lately have I? I’ve been busy having a beautiful Christmas (evidence above).

Feel like there’s so much I should say. Probably also, so much I shouldn’t say.

I have here an old draft of a post I started to write after my belly dance group’s Christmas party. I’m going to preserve it, even though it’s outdated because my instructor said something really nice about my dancing.

Ian came and brought Hannah. Rachel performed with her group for a house of other (adult) dance students and parents of her classmates. I performed with my group. And even Hannah showed off her shimmy skills.

Amy’s mom came by to say hi and meet my daughters and said of Hannah, “I remember when you were in a carseat. Heck I remember when you were in your mom’s tummy. You were pretty much born dancing, weren’t you?” And I asked her when her daughter is coming back (I miss you Amy! There’s an empty cubicle right next to me, you can have it!)

We left halfway through because the girls were exhausted. But as I was running downstairs to pack up my stuff, my instructor stopped to chat and she said I was fantastic. Fantastic! She used that word. She elaborated something, I don’t know, I hardly absorbed it because I was like, “are you effing kidding me? I was so shaky.” But she said how we all, at the beginning, when we get up and solo, come from a place of nervousness and rushing through the moves and quite obviously struggling with the question of “what next?” and overthinking things. And she said that night, no, I just got up and I danced. And I was in my own self, and dancing to the music that was there and right in the move and the audience could feel it… like ‘Hhhhhhaaaaaah’ [she used that word].”

Anyhow, it was so nice. Like the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me about dance. Also, I do know what she meant. I was shaky up there. But I wasn’t thinking, “okay. what next?” And I wasn’t looking at the audience like they meant me harm. It was more like, “…let’s see, what have I got here for you. Oh, I know, check this one out.”

You know what, though? It helped that my two-year-old was right in the front row. So when I stood there and shimmied, I didn’t have to think, “I don’t know what to do. Oh god, I guess I’ll just shimmy. Don’t judge me for using the fall-back shimmy. GOD, DON’T JUDGE ME!” Instead, I was beaming at her, “look Hannah! You know this one. What do you think?”

So I suppose Hannah just has to come sit in the front row of every performance then.

Other than that, I’ve been working a lot of overtime, neglecting my family, Christmas-ing it up and crafting whenever I have a moment. That picture above should have also had a picture of the bag I’m crocheting and the pretty new Christmas decorations I purchased after Christmas for next Christmas (oh my god, I can hardly wait). But I haven’t taken any pictures of them yet.

But what is there, clockwise from top-left, is mini-photo-album Christmas crafts that the kids and Ian and I made for all the kids’ Christmas presents. Vintage Christmas balls that my Aunt Apple got, sitting on the floragold tray that I got my cousin for Christmas, my bed, singing the nap song – which it does every afternoon that the sun hits it at that angle, but I haven’t been around much to hear it lately, and, finally, gluten-free ginger-chocolate cookies that I made just tonight and they were fantastic.

Anyhow, I promised my family I’d share the gluten-free ginger-chocolate cookies recipe, but I thought it could go here instead of on my family’s super-secret family-forum.

Gluten-Free Chocolate-Ginger Cookies

3/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Baking Mix
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp ground ginger (I felt like it could use more ginger)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
7 and 1/2 ounces semi-sweet baker’s chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
confectioners sugar

Mix baking mix, cocoa, salt, ginger and cinnamon in medium bowl.

Combine butter and 3 ounces of the chocolate in a double boiler and stir occasionally until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Remove top saucepan and set aside for ten minutes.

Stir the granulated and brown sugars into the melted chocolate mixture. Drop in the eggs, one at a time and mix briskly until smooth. Stir in the vanilla extraxt and gradually add the dry mixture. Fold in remaining chocolate and the crystallized ginger. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in refrigerator for min 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Shape chilled dough into balls of rounded half tablespoons, dropping into a bowl of confectioners sugar. Roll to cover and place them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. If the dough becomes too soft, return it to the refrigerator until chilled. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Place cookie sheet on wire rack and cool for 2 minutes before removing them to racks to cool completely. (No, actually, we did not let them cool completely. We ate them pretty immediately.)