Kate, A Broad: Christmas in Paris, Part II

My apartment's oven deficiency has been greatly lamented this year, I know, and what time of year could this lack be more greatly felt than at Christmas? No cookies, no pies, no smell of warm baked goods permeating the house??!!! WHAT?! Not to mention the absence of sprinkles, and red hots, and silver dragrees on which to test the strength of one's teeth! It had all the makings of a four-alarm holiday disaster. Luckily, the ladies of my knitting group came to the rescue and while they couldn't instill my apartment with the smell of baking goodness (I bought a candle for that), they could allow me the opportunity to fill my belly (and Jon's) with all the sugar it could handle. Behold the Great Cookie Bake-Off 2009...

Monica (in the middle) hosted the baking party-- we cut, decorated, baked, and ate cookies and drank champagne. And best of all, I came home with a tupperware full of baked treats to carry us through the holiday (well, actually only one week-- they were too good to ration out).

With cookies in the house, it was time to get serious about decorating. After at first thinking we wouldn't, we had a change of heart and got a Christmas tree. We didn't have one last year because of the move, and I just couldn't bear the thought of another Christmas (and our first away from home) without a tree, so... We put on some mulled wine, turned on the Bing Crosby albums, and got to work. Luckily, we picked up some Christmas decor in Germany, and I found some cheap lights and a bag of ornaments at the junk store downstairs. All of this provided us with just the perfect amount of holiday cheer in the apartment.