Under the weather and trying to do to much

It is quite possible that I have too much planned for this weekend. I am slightly under the weather (a cold caught on our trip to San Diego), I think I am working a little too hard, and even though it is all for fun, I might need to cut back. Here is the deal:

On Sunday, I am hosting my annual cookie exchange party. To this shindig, I invite 8 of my friends who enjoy baking (or those who don't!) and we each bring a dozen of our favorite cookie for each other person and share them at the party. Usually, I put together a light holiday lunch to enjoy together. This year, I decided to get tricky and thought we would make tamales while whiling away the afternoon. The only real issue is that I have not ever made (well, once a loooong time ago) tamales, and I have some hesitation about bringing this to a group of folks who have also never made tamales. And, if that was not enough, I also thought that perhaps we would have three different fillings, a chicken with tomatillo, a stewed pumpkin and a black bean and corn. All of these would be made from scratch, natch.

Besides the party, I need to make my eight dozen cookies and package them in something super cute.

I also need to decorate the house. It is a holiday party, so I should probably have the house decked out for the holidays. This would mean putting up the tree, throwing out the festive tschotkes, and generally getting the house into a holiday mood. This is all on top of needing to actually clean the house, you know, sweep up the dust bunnies and throw the kid crap somewhere.

Oh, and then I actually need to make some lunch for these gals, since I cannot expect them to make tamales on an empty stomach. In keeping with the theme, I thought about making the Posole Soup from the newest Cooking Light magazine, along with the Ensalada de Noche Buena. And perhaps we should have a festive holiday drink. Oh, wait, I had this all figured out - Gruet, a sparkling wine from New Mexico.

I think this about covers it - decorate the house, make 8 dozen cookies, create a holiday lunch, and prepare for tamale making, all before Sunday. And it is Thursday night. I guess this is all do-able, but it is certainly not in keeping with my make-the-holidays-simpler motto.

Humm, so, do I change things up or make myself crazy? Big questions, and I apparently know the answer, but probably won't act upon it until Sunday at 12:30pm, 30 minutes before everyone arrives....