I'm in tech rehearsals for A Christmas Carol, as has been my way for the past 18 years.

I have a pie crust part-baked, a turkey in the fridge, and I have to clean the house and prep for the house-sitter. Then bake a maple-walnut pie and maybe a set of pumpkin muffins before going to bed hella early.

At least at work I got some stuff done, if not as much as I would like. My boss is still out on sick leave (massive back surgery) and 2 other team members are going to be in Europe for about 2 weeks. I sure hope we have no emergencies while I'm in charge!

first two pies are in. I was live on FB prepping them if you want to hear me babble.

I am going to get one more in tonight and do the other one in the morning.

The turkey is brining and both pies are cooling on the counter.

My pie turned out a little ugly (I just slightly overfilled the crust, so the filling got on the fluted crust and then the foil crust protector stuck to that and it got all weird), but it's going to be tasty as hell so I don't care.

Making cornbread in the morning.

I was trying to come up with topic changes if anyone in my family is stupid enough to bring up politics, and Tim was like, "Just ask them 'Hey, have you seen Good Omens? Here are all my thoughts on an angel and demon fucking!' " He's right -- that ought to shut any Trumpsters up really quickly.

I still have a couple of hours to go on A Christas Carol, we just started the dress run through. Then it's 60 miles across Los Angeles to home. Hopefully by the time I get on the road the holiday traffic will have died down, and the weather will be cooperating. It was raining for the whole drive in earlier today.

Weather~ma, ND!

Made it to my folks' house, traffic was not bad at all, hope that carries over to alla y'all

I'm feeling cursed by the baking gods. I made brownies last night from a new recipe and I'm not super impressed. Ok, fine. But then I tried to make my pumpkin pie and it was weirdly bubbly and some of the pecans in the crust floated up into the pumpkin. And then I tried to bake the cookie dough I made yesterday, and can't figure out why it spread and oozed everywhere. Is there an issue with my oven temperature? Did I leave something out, or get the wrong amount, or mix it wrong? Whyyyy?

I still have no idea of a move date, but the holiday cooking I have decided is the beginning of my emptying of the pantry.

Today's total - 1 type of flour, 5 canned goods, and 1 bottle of salad dressing - gone.

Don't feel alone Steph, my pie came out pretty ugly too (why did I decide to flute the crust instead of trimming it and making fork grooves?). But if the smell is any indication it'll be delicious.