DPP Day 19: Home, Sweets, & Home

Well, it's a week before Christmas and it's fair to say that my schedule hasn't lessened much. Between now and the New Year, I have 9,000 words to write on my thesis (this deadline may stretch a little), research to do and an abstract to write on Shakespearean biographies, more than thirty episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation to watch (no, I'm not kidding; this is for research, I promise!), sixteen (possibly seventeen, if the missing one appears) papers to grade, more than thirty student essays also to grade, a Christmas knitting project to finish, and--the fun part--this gingerbread house to finish:

I've wanted to make a gingerbread house for almost as long as I can remember, and this year I finally made the time. Decorating it was, today, my treat at the end of a long day of writing and grading, and I spent hours (quite literally) making a snow-covered roof with dormer windows. Of course the house looks nothing like the ones I remember seeing in my childhood (the retirement community near my grandparents' house used to have an enormous and elaborate display each December) but I keep telling myself that this is just a first try, and that next year's will be much, much better. The best part, however, is that when I'm tired and burnt out from reading and evaluating the essays in my virtual stack, I can turn my energies to something a little more creative and less mentally taxing. Besides, I think it will taste nice when it's ready to be dismantled . . .