It is interesting to go back to my archives from this time of year last year and see what I was up to then. It was around this time last year when we found our property where we are trying to build a new house, and we have spent the entire year in environmental and road permitting. We have learned so very much since then, and are learning more all the time about the way things work within the various government agencies that have jurisdiction over land development.

It was funny, because it was a trip driving around the island looking at Christmas lights that started the whole thing. We were driving around and noticing the area at the same time and decided to go back the next day to see the area in the daylight. It was on New Year's Day last year that I found the property for sale that we eventually bought. We were going to drive around and look at Christmas lights again this year and I mentioned to Andy that I wondered how it might change our lives this time, and he hesitated, saying that maybe we shouldn't go. We never got around to it.

As far as resolutions go, I have never been much for them. And, as crazy as it may sound, I feel like I am living my life the way I want to, without any vices, so there is not too much to resolve to. For my hopes and dreams for 2007, of course my biggest wish is to be able to complete the construction of our new home and move in, hopefully by Christmas. I can't wait to see where I'll be this time next year!

It gets tough to even think of five things that you don't know about me, after blogging for almost two years and completing many memes. I feel like I have told so much already. So when Chris tagged me with this meme, I had to really rack my tiny brain. Here goes:

I always dread work when I am not there, but once I get there I generally enjoy myself. Of course I love my time off, but I have a lot of fun with the people I work with and sometimes feel some real job satisfaction that makes it all worthwhile. I guess I sort of forget about the good stuff when I am off? Who knows?

Although I am a major animal lover, I am not particularly enamored with cats. Let me explain. My mom developed a severe cat allergy in her early twenties and could hardly walk past a cat even outdoors without getting itchy, watery eyes and such. So we were never really around cats much growing up. I had an opportunity to befriend some cats that lived near me when I lived in the Virgin Islands, and they were fun, but I missed the "neediness" of dogs. Cats seem so aloof to me. And then I developed an allergy to them in my twenties just like my mom, so I never really got a chance to form relationships with cats. I don't dislike them, but I will forever be a dog person.

I am the fastest two to three finger typist that any of my friends or aquaintences has seen. I never learned how to type properly, but I am fast at executing text the way I know how. It sounds really silly, but in high school I didn't want to take typing because I was afraid that if I was good at typing I would be forced to be a secretary or receptionist and I had much bigger plans for my life. What a dumbass! I wish I had learned to type. I could probably be really fast if I knew how to type properly.

I am a little bit OCD. I love for things to be arranged perfectly. I will sometimes fix displays at the store that are out of place and I compulsively clean the break room at work- which I don't even use- just because it makes me feel better. We have a "hanger staging area" in our closet. When an item of clothing is removed from the hanger, the empty hanger is placed at the end of the rod on the bottom rack where the empty hangers can all be gathered quickly to take to the laundry room. I always push in chairs, straighten tables, etc. everywhere I go, more so when I am stressed. Disarray makes me feel uncomfortable.

I am not so much into the whole concept of a "meal." I never really thought much about it before, but Andy thinks it is weird that I am content to eat just a vegetable or just an entree with no side dishes as a meal. Just one thing to eat is generally good enough for me, I don't need anything else.

And there you have it, that is all I can think of right now that you might not know about me. Shoot. I feel like an open book, so it was certainly a challenge. Thanks Chris!

A lot has been happening lately with our new house project. There was a big rush to get our building permit package submitted to the county by today at the latest to avoid a large increase in impact fees that goes into effect in 2007. Our builder got everything in on time and the package was accepted, although it will be held by at least one department until our road issue is worked out.

I wrote about it at much greater length on my other blog that deals with the house project, Tortoise Hollow, but if you haven't been following along, it looks as though we are going to have to go before the board of county commissioners and see if we can be granted a waiver to build on our lot without making improvements to or having the county vacate the roadway to our property. It looks like we will have a really good chance as our documentation is impeccable and we have tried everything to complete the project the way they wanted up to the point where it was just not feasible anymore.

We went to the county offices today and spoke to one of the people we needed to talk to, but of course the real "decision makers" are on vacation for another week or so. We will set up a meeting with them as soon as possible, and if we can convince them that the road project is impossible due to land restrictions, environmental issues, drainage problems and the fact that it has gotten to the point now of being cost prohibitive, then that is probably all we need. We just need their engineers to say that without the waiver being approved we are being subjected to undue hardship in order to build and that isn't difficult to prove at all. There is starting to be a tiny bright spot at the end of the tunnel.

Clothes shopping over the holidays has made me think. Have you ever really thought about sizing, particularly when talking about things sized as small, medium, large, etc.? Wouldn't it make sense that the average sized person should wear a medium? Do you think this is the case? Clearly it isn't. We ordered some tee shirts at work not too long ago, and the order was almost completely extra larges and larger. There were only a couple of larges ordered, for the small guys. It just seems kind of strange to me that the little tiny guys would wear larges, and everyone else would be extra large or even 2X or 3X.

If I was in charge of sizing, the current extra large would be called medium. That way the tiny guys would wear a small, the average sized guys would wear medium and big guys would wear large, which would be the equivalent of 2X. Then today's 3X would become extra large. And for those that actually need the shirts we call small or medium today, well, most of them are probably not men and should not be buying men's shirts. If there really are men that small, I suppose they could have an extra small size for them. I'm telling you, we have some tiny guys at work and even they can't fit in a medium tee shirt.

And that is just talking about men's tee shirt sizing. Women's clothing is way ridiculous in its sizing and now the sizes aren't even based on anything at all. The size six of much of today's clothing equals a fourteen from the 1960s! So many clothing companies have made their clothes bigger to make women feel as though they are wearing a smaller size, even when they aren't. That is why they have had to come up with sizes such as the double zero. It is a marketing thing, but it makes shopping difficult. Too bad women's clothes aren't sized by something like waist measuments the way men's pants are. It would at least cut down on the time in the dressing room if we knew what sizes to start with. Nah, probably nothing would help with that.

Since we got little Virgil in November, he has been living in less than optimal conditions in a home that was a bit too small for a tortoise like him. You see, they like to roam, so even though his house looked plenty big, he needed a lot more room. I came up with a nice design for his new habitat, and over the first week of Christmas vacation, Andy built it for him, adding his own touches and finally finishing it today. This afternoon Virgil was able to move in. I think if tortoises could smile he would have a big stupid grin on his face right now.

His new home is everything an indoor tortoise habitat should be. The really cool part that I came up with is for it to be built with two levels, and that way the upper level hanging over gives him a place to hide. The bottom floor has a plastic trough planted with all of Virgil's favorite foods sunk down into a wooden guide so that it is level with the surrounding substrate. We bought several of these troughs so that we can plant extras with seed and switch them out when the one in his habitat gets chewed down too much. Also on the ground level is his water bowl, which is shallow and has steps so that he can get in and out of it. Then there is a nice wide basking rock set up right uder his heat light, and nearby a cuttlebone is fastened to the wall for supplemental calcium for him. His UVB light is on the other side of the habitat, over by the "stairs."

The stairs are actually a ramp textured with small twigs and dirt substrate. I loved the idea of making a two level enclosure for him because that way we could pack more square footage into a smaller form factor, but in reality I wasn't sure if it would work. I mean, I knew we could build it, but I wasn't sure if he would actually go "upstairs." As it turns out, I needn't have worried. From the first few minutes that he spent in the new home, Virgil has been motoring all over the place, upstairs, downstairs, back and forth. He loves it! We have never seen him this active before and it is so much fun to watch.

Here are some pictures of Virgil in his new fabulous habitat. I guess that would make it a "fab hab," wouldn't it?

And here is one of the tortoise house being built. You can see how the plant trough fits into it's wood box that is attached to the floor of the enclosure- that is how we keep the hole where the trough goes from filling up with dirt when we change it out. The trough is really just a plastic silverware tray I found at Target.

Do you ever have those "moments" of realization, those sort of light bulb going on type things? This morning I was out and about perusing the after Christmas sale at Macy's when I realized that I am old.

It is true, I have proof. I was finding some great bargains on skirts and pants and such but having a hard time finding any shirts I liked. I was in the regular women's section, and I thought I would wander over into the juniors section and look for some "younger" looking things. Well, the juniors section had nothing but crap. I didn't like anything there. To me it was all trashy looking and made of thin, cheap feeling fabric. Moreover I hated the music they played in that section. And that is when I realized, hey, I must be old- this shit no longer appeals to me!

There have been other signs that I am getting old, of course. I no longer like to go out at night, I go to bed early, and like to do *gasp* healthy things. I know, I have a real problem. Further evidence of this is how excited I was to get my favorite type of Christmas ornaments at Macy's for half off today. I got a nice pile of them for next to nothing. My excitement was slightly tempered by the fact that I am so old now that I probably have one foot in the grave. Oh well, I'll enjoy it while I can.

Yesterday I had to call Apple for the first time due to problems with my year old 20" iMac. It has been acting strangely as it pertains to internet connectivity and I wanted to get it cleared up. I have the "AppleCare" three year protection plan, and though I dreaded having to call, it needed to be taken care of. I have logged many a day on the phone or on hold in the past with Dell for my previous computers, and was not at all looking forward to the experience.

The first difference I noted was that instead of going through a ridiculous number of menus on the phone like I was used to, I got two. One where I selected "technical support" and the next one where I chose the product, "iMac." That was it. And then as I settled in to my seat prepared to wait forever to get to talk to someone, I was pleasantly surprised to wait only a few seconds before I got in touch with a representative. At this point, I was used to being required to give out boatloads of personal information, service codes, express service tags, order numbers, customer numbers and so on with Dell, but all I had to give was my name, phone number, and serial number of the iMac. Sweet.

We got right into troubleshooting, and there were several notable differences. I was not talking to someone in India and having to struggle to decipher a heavy accent, the representative did not transfer me EVER during the duration of the call, and he did not try to insinuate that what was wrong with the iMac was because of something I had done to it- yes, Dell actually tried to blame technical problems on me, even when the item was malfunctioning when brand new, right out of the box. With Dell, they always wanted to blame something else for any problem, for instance, since the problem I had this time dealt with internet access, Dell would have been certain that it was the modem, or the router or the ISP, even though we have three other computers connected to all of those that are working fine. Then they would have told me that they don't deal with third party equipment and would have directed me to the router manufacturer or something. The fact that the other computers on our network had no problems accessing the internet from that equipment was enough for the Apple reps to isolate the problem to the iMac. Also, the rep did not seem to be just reading from a script, he actually was on a Mac, doing the same actions that he was telling me to at the same time, so he could direct me accordingly with whatever screens came up.

The rep I was talking to was not a specialist in the area of the problem we were working on, but he apparently had instant access to a specialist and was able to relay the information to me seamlessly. In the past when troubleshooting problems with Dell, even if I told the rep I had already tried something, they would always talk down to me and say "well, let's just do it again anyway." The Apple rep would just move on to the next thing if I had already tried something, rather than treat me like an idiot. The very last thing we tried involved a process that took 45 minutes or so, and while it was running the rep gave me a case number and told me that if it didn't work, I should call back and give the case number. We hung up and after a while the operation completed. Unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem, so I had to call back.

This is where I was very hesitant. When dealing with Dell in the past, there were several times I was forced to call back. It would be infuriating, because I would always have to wait on hold forever, sometimes after they had "accidentally" hung up on me in the middle of troubleshooting- I think they do that at Dell when the rep is in over their head- and then once I got a new representative on the line, I would have to give ALL of my information, address, and numbers all over again even though they should have been in their computer already, and would have to start troubleshooting all over with each new representative, going through the same crap I had just done. They would never listen to me that it had already been done, even when I had a case number and they could look it up and see what was done.

But once again I was pleasantly surprised. I got right through to a rep again, and all they asked was my name and if I had a case number. I gave them the number and they took a couple of minutes to read through the notes and told me that since the problem had persisted after all we had done it seemed like a hardware problem and we made the arrangements to have it serviced. It will be sometime next week, but it will be taken care of. Whew.

So, I have to say, there is a HUGE difference in customer service between Dell and Apple. HUGE. Talking to tech support at Dell made me wish for death at times, and talking to the Apple reps didn't even phase me. They were courteous, pleasant, didn't talk down to me, and took care of the issue in a reasonable manner. When dealing with Dell, I used to feel like they wasted days of my life, but with Apple it was just like handling any other small household task. Not something you really WANT to do, but it has to be taken care of, so you do it, and you don't end up any the worse for it. Dell could take some lessons from Apple on the whole customer service thing.

The last few days have really shown me how much blogging has impacted my life. My Christmas card list this year for the first time included several bloggers, and I have gotten Christmas cards from Gry, who also sent me a fabulous carved wooden bear necklace from Finalnd where she lives, Anne, Nicole, and Stacey already, and Stacey even made me a lovely Christmas ornament that looks just like our parrot, Charley.

I talked to Melanie on the phone yesterday for for a good long while and was hoping she would be able to hear the double sonic booms of Space Shuttle Discovery returning to Kennedy Space Center over the phone, but it wasn't very loud this time so I don't think she could hear it on the phone.

And the day before yesterday, when I read that Melanie's sister-in-law was snowed in at the Denver airport, I tried to think of ways to help and remebered that I knew bloggers in the Denver area. I was amazed to find that after I sent just one little email to HDW asking if she could help, she went out of her way to contact a friend and fellow blogger, Kath, who lives right near the Denver airport. Kath generously offered a place for Mel's sister-in-law, Kristin, to stay and I think that is just great. Kristin had already gotten help from some military aquaintances of her husband's by that time, but I am sure she was tremendously grateful for the offer. It is wonderful to think of the network of people we have here on the internet, connected through our blogs. What a small world it has become!

Dawn tagged me to do this Christmas meme, so here goes:

1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? Depends on the gift, but in general wrapping paper is usually nicer.

2.Real tree or artificial? I like the smell of a real tree, but in real life they are too much of a hassle, so artificial.

3.When do you put up the tree? I like to have the tree up for a good while as it is quite an effort to put up our nine foot tree, so usually before Thanksgiving. We didn't put it up at all this year, though. No room.

4.When do you take the tree down? Towards the end of Christmas break.

5.Do you like eggnog? Ick. No. I don't even like eggs, really.

6.Favorite gift you received as a child? A doll my mom made for me.

7.Do you have a nativity scene? Nope.

8.Hardest person to buy for? Andy. I can't keep a secret so it is about pointless anyway.

9.Easiest person to buy for? Niece and nephew, Lauren and Jakey.

10.Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail them.

11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't recall any bad gifts.

12.Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story, it's a classic.

13.When do you start shopping? A few weeks before Christmas, I guess.

14.Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.

15.Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Grandma's cuccis!

16.Clear lights or colored on the tree? I have some little pearlized white globe lights I like on the tree.

17.Favorite Christmas song? Let it snow. Perfect for a Florida native, huh?

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home!

19.Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? I never really tried.

20.Angel on the tree top or a star? I have a Boyd's Bear dressed as an angel.

21.Open the presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas eve, definitely.

22.Most annoying thing about this time of year? Lines at the post office.

23.Do you have Jesus in your heart this Christmas? Sure do.

24.What would you like for Christmas? To be able to build a new house on our land!

Amen!

Even though we are "on vacation," Andy and I are making a concerted effort to get up early every day and get some things done. It is just that we have spent so many "vacations" away from work just relaxing and hanging out that seem to whizz past and we don't know what we have done with our time. It makes it seem like the break is longer when it is packed with things to do and places to go. And we are off to a good start.

We spent hours last night and much of today working on our Christmas cards to send out. I made up a little one page letter to go with the cards for relatives we don't see often and for Andy's relatives that we do see often but that like that kind of little shit even though they already know about everything written in the newsletter. We printed those out on some shiny paper, updated our address list, printed out and stuck all of our labels, wrote out the cards and finally trekked to the post office, of course on the busiest mailing day of the year, so that we would have the pleasure of standing in line with all the other procrastinators to get our second choice of Christmas stamps, as the one I wanted was sold out already. Oh well. How's that for a run-on sentence?

So, the cards are sent, but if you are one of my blog friends and want to be on the list, I am still sending out "straggler" cards as I get addresses, so don't let that stop you.

And I decided the other day that I am going to make a second batch of my Grandma's famous cuccis, as there weren't enough from the first batch to send to everyone, and I didn't have the updated list of family addresses at the time. They won't arrive before Christmas, but I am sure no one will mind. I have all of the ingredients and bought a new heavy marble rolling pin and a hand pastry blender to make the process easier on myself.

So anyway, I am ready for the rest of the vacation to fall into place now, as all of the time critical stuff has been taken care of. Tomorrow we are taking the two girl dogs to be groomed and then we are volunteering at the mall for a while in the afternoon- wrapping gifts to benefit the poodle rescue, but that is fun stuff. And then we have some other fun projects to work on- more on those later in the break. I hope you are feeling the holiday spirit as well!

Andy and I are slaving over our Christmas cards now, trying to get them out as soon as possible. If you are one of my blog friends and would like to be on our Christmas card list, please email me your address if I don't already have it. Thanks!

There's a lot of stuff going on with the plans for our wetland property where we are trying to build a new house. We may be at a real turning point with it- stop over at www.tortoisehollow.com, my other blog that is all about our big project, to see what is happening.

There are many things around the house still serve as a reminder of my poor Ollie, the sweet poodle we lost this summer at eighteen years old. There are still a few things of his that haven't been put away; his little bed is still in its place right next to my side of the bed where I could reach out and pet him during the night. Every night when I get in bed I still take my extra pillow off the bed and place it between his bed and the wall, where it served as a little "bumper" for him so he wouldn't hit the wall as he clumsily climbed in and out of bed. I think I will probably keep doing this until we move out of this house; it is a habit now and I don't want to forget him.

And since I don't want to forget him, I have found another way to pay tribute to him and possibly help other animals. At our vet's office one of the staff members is organizing a program to outfit all of the fire trucks in our county with sets of oxygen masks sized to fit pets that can save their lives in the event of smoke inhalation in a house fire. Regular human oxygen masks are too big and don't seal well enough to work on animals. For $70, you can purchase a set of three of the masks, a small, a medium, and a large one which should be able to accomodate most pets. Then the masks are given as a gift to the local fire department for use on a fire truck. The masks can even be given with a special message or tribute attached. Of course the set we buy will be donated in memory of our Ollie. I think this will be an excellent way to remember Ollie and help other pets in the community.

Is it poor etiquette to give a small Christmas gift to someone who has helped you out all year at work- you might have also helped them out too, but they aren't really expecting to get a gift from you- and tell them you don't want anything in return? Is is better just to give the gift and let them do as they please, or to relieve them of feeling that they have to reciprocate? What do you think?

Here is the photo from when fellow blogger Stacey and I met finally last week. I'd love to meet more blog friends in real life, so let me know if you cruise out of Port Canaveral or are in the Cocoa Beach/Merritt Island area.

I just happened to catch him napping this afternoon. Staying up late for the launch last night must have taken a lot out of him. Isn't he precious?

Is your dog as cute as this? I'm sure you think so and if you want info on dog supplies such as dog food with quality ingredients come here. We have the latest information on premium dog food, and organic dog food at ooowoo.com.

I just got back from watching the launch. I wasn't sure if I was going to go to the space center or just watch it from the backyard, but Andy reminded me that I had never seen a night launch up close and said that I should really see it. He was out there at work supporting the launch and he forgot to bring his boots, so I brought those to him and used it as a good excuse to go see. I took some photos even though it was almost too bright for my camera to handle. It was like the sun came out in the middle of all that darkness. See for yourself.

I am headed out here in a few minutes to the space center to meet up with Andy who is working to support tonight's planned launch. This will be the first night launch in several years, so I have to go out to see it. Photos to follow if it goes- wish us luck!

Okay, this is really icky, but I am going to share anyway. A couple of days ago I noticed thhat my very tiny tortoise, Virgil, had some poop stuck to his butt, and it appeaered that there was a long piece of dried grass- part of his food- through the center of the poop that continued up into his body. I kept expecting that he would eventually poop it the rest of the way out, but it had been there for a couple of days. I guess he was constipated or something. This afternoon I soaked him in some warm water for a while to help him poop, but it wasn't working. I finally decided to give the little piece of grass hanging out of him a little tug and when I did a giant piece of poop came shooting out. Poor little booger must've been bound up pretty badly. I think he feels a whole lot better now, and his appetite has increased dramatically, so I think that must have done the trick.

Well, we have just scrubbed the shuttle launch for tonight due to weather, but it still remains to be seen what the scrub turnaround plan will be. I am hoping that they will make another attempt tomorrow even though the forecast is not looking that great right now. Stacey will be back from her cruise tomorrow, and I would love to be able to take a blog friend to a launch and share the experience. Pray for good weather tomorrow!

Where else would I have found a man who not only puts up with us all but loves us too? He may be slightly sick in the head, but he's ours.

Last night the real world and the blogging world became the same as I met Stacey from the blog I need a [permanent] vacation out for drinks. Well, I only drank water because I had to work today, but you get the idea. We have "known" each other for about a year and a half now, and Stacey and her friend were in Cocoa Beach getting ready to leave on a cruise out of Port Canaveral. They were staying just a few miles away from where I live so I went over and met them. Meeting a blog friend is the greatest thing. It has the neat component of meeting someone new, but you are already friends and have a lot to talk about. It was so cool how we just "clicked" right away and I am sure we would be great friends if we lived closer. I was only able to stay a couple of hours, but I hated to leave. Stacey's friend took a photo of us together, so hopefully when they get back she will post it on her blog. She is even cuter in person than in pictures if you can imagine that. Their cruise returns Friday, and we are hoping- just this once- that the shuttle launch that is scheduled for Thursday is delayed until Friday, because Andy won a launch car pass and I would be able to take them up close to view the launch on the space center. Fingers crossed.

This morning I started the final stages of cucci making. I had high hopes, but I wasn't really sure if they would turn out right or anything near how Grandma's are. I set to work around ten o'clock. The first step was to roll out the little dough balls I had made yesterday into flat ovals. I quickly realized that things would go much faster with some help, so Andy came over and rolled out the dough for me until he had to go to work.

After the dough was rolled out, I placed a large spoonful of the fig/almond/orange zest/honey filling I made yesterday in the center of the dough and wrapped it up like a little package. Then I flipped it over, shaped it a little into roughly a kidney bean shape and then made decorative slits in the top with a razor blade. Then I repeated this over and over until I had a whole cookie sheet full.

Before going into the oven, the cookies were brushed with egg whites to glaze the tops. It is an optional step, but I like them better with the glaze. Then they went into the oven for around twenty minutes.

And finally, you can see how they came out. I made one hundred and two of them, so it took me five hours of work today in addition to the five hours of preparation yesterday. Whew! I mostly cut the tops the way Grandma usually does with tiny slits in the sides and some arcs across the tops, but I got a little crazy and did some flowers and birds on a few for fun. Dough doesn't behave very well for carving.

The best part is, the cuccis actually taste just like Grandma's, even on my first try. I was hopeful, but a bit skeptical as Grandma is a fantastic cook and has been making these for decades. So, after an entire weekend of cookie making, I have come to a few conclusions. These are my "lessons learned":

-An insulated cookie sheet does not work for these cookies. I tried one on the first set into the oven and they didn't quite cook right. Switched over to the regular kind of cookie sheet and everything was fine.

-If you are going to mix the dough in two separate batches, because there is so much of it, measure the flour instead of trying to eyeball how much is half of a five pound bag. I did this, and my dough was not consistent between the two batches. It all tastes fine, but next time I will measure or weigh the flour.

-If you run out of flour, even if you are just using it for rolling out the dough, whole grain flour will NOT do in a pinch. Go to the store. We did two or three cookies this way and then stopped and bought more flour.

-Invest in a good rolling pin. We bought a cheapo wooden one, and it made things a lot more difficult than they had to be.

-Watch your almonds carefully when you toast them. Move them around a lot and don't try to do something else at the same time. I burned about $10 worth of almonds because I wasn't paying attention and had to buy more.

And finally, I learned that my Grandma is one hell of a woman, because I am freakin' exhausted. Mt back hurts from grinding up all those figs and kneading all that dough and standing for so long. It has been a lot of fun, but I am glad this experiment is over. I think that I'll be making cuccis every Christmas now. I need to pack a box up to send to Grandma; she'll be so proud!

In case you didn't read about it last week when I posted about cuccidati, the story is that my Grandma has always made these traditional Sicilian fig filled cookies at Christmas time since before I can remember. They are called cuccidati, pronounced "goo-ji-data" or cuccis, which sounds like "goochies" for short. Around fifteen years ago, I was at Grandma's house around Christmas when she made them. I had the thought that I should write down the recipe and that is what I did. Grandma is the only one in our family that makes the cookies, and she does so from memory. It is quite an ordeal to make them, and no other family members have ever tried, but this year I decided I was going to keep the tradition going and make the cuccis. I purchased a meat grinder to grind the figs, a rolling pin, and all the ingredients, and this weekend I decided to set to work on the two day process of cucci making.

On day one, the fig filling is prepared, as well as the dough for the outer shell of the cookie. Then both are set aside to chill in the refrigerator overnight. After seeing how much goes into just that part of it, I am glad that the work is split into two days. Sheesh.

First and foremost I got some slivered almonds, no skin, and gently roasted them in the oven while moving them around frequently. I burned the first set because I was trying to do too many things at once, so then I decided to do one thing at a time.

Next I cut the stems off the many dried figs for the fig filling. They are hard little stems and wouldn't be too nice in a cookie.

After that Andy and I fed the dried figs and roasted almonds through my handy little meat grinder and ground them to a nice consistency. I got the same type of simple meat grinder that Grandma uses- they have been making the same one for over a hundred years. I read that in Sicily, the women would bring the figs to their butcher for him to run them through the meat grinder. You can get a real workout from that darned thing, but it does a great job.

Next I boiled a small jar of honey with a little bit of water, and added some vanilla. While it was boiling I zested an entire large orange. That's "oinge" to you, Mel.

Then I added the orange zest and the boiled honey/vanilla mixture to the ground up figs and almonds, and stirred. The whole thing was sprinkled with cinnamon and then set aside to chill in the fridge overnight.

Then I started on the dough. Grandma's recipe makes a TON, and I can see why. It is not worth doing to make only a few cuccis. So I am having to make the dough in two batches because I don't have a large enough bowl to hold the FIVE POUNDS of flour it takes.

Once the dough is made, it is kneaded into small balls and set aside in the fridge to chill overnight. Then the fun will really start tomorrow.

So that is day one of the process; it should get really interesting on day two. I am off to make the second batch of dough now and I am praying that there will be enough room in the fridge. It isn't looking too good now. I can definitely see why these are traditionally Christmas cookies, they are way too labor intensive for everyday. Wish me luck!

Update: I just fished making the last of the dough balls. One hundred and two of them. Five hours of work and the cookies are only half finished. I have a lot of respect for Grandma!