Back a few years ago when I made them, I asked
It makes so many cookies (and that was after my dad cut the recipe down three times!) that you're just baking and baking and baking. I had to shut the oven off and go sit for a while, in between big batches. But now they are baked and I will try to ice them all tomorrow, or at least as many as I can handle, so I can share them with the only people who wouldn't hate them. They don't taste terrible for all that I fucked up, but I can really tell I messed up mixing the early ingredients, and wish I'd read the instructions and musesfool's advice before I started. What a dumbass. Also, it's really a lie that turbinado sugar or succanat can substitute for white sugar. I didn't want to go out just to get sugar, which I thought I had enough of, but it does not turn out the same without white sugar and they are liars.
I bought myself some stuff to make a little Christmas dinner for one, but my stomach was roiling today for most of the day, and ended up just eating a bagel and some of the cookies that caught and were too burned to give away to anyone.
Now that I am so exhausted and the house smells so good, I think I'm going to head to bed early--I stayed up too late last night anyway, because it's my tradition to always watch It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve and then I was poking around in the Yuletide archive for far too long. I was so shocked that it opened in the middle of the day yesterday! I didn't see a whole lot that looked intriguing, since I'm so out of the loop on fandoms these days, but there's definitely some stuff to read and I was really thrilled to see that Rose Lerner's book True Pretenses had a fic written for it this year! So I had to read that one immediately.
Anyway, I hope you had a great holiday if you celebrate, and a very nice Thursday if you don't, and I will respond to all your kind comments on my last post soon, I promise.
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2025 is:
grandiose \gran-dee-OHSS\ adjective
Grandiose is usually used disapprovingly to describe something that seems impressive or is intended to be impressive, but that is either not possible or practical.
// The long-vacant historic building has finally been purchased, and the developer has announced grandiose plans to make it the center of a new theater district.
Examples:
“Henry [VIII] was a leader known for his grandiose presentation, a love of dramatic rhetoric and self-promotion, and a fondness for blaming others. He carefully curated his image, issuing official portraits and closely managing public appearances. His reign concentrated power in one man and his obsessions.” — Philippa Gregory, LitHub.com, 29 Oct. 2025
Did you know?
When it comes to bigness, there’s grand and then there’s grandiose. Both words can be used to describe something impressive in size, scope, or effect, but while grand may lend its noun a bit of dignity (i.e., “we had a grand time”), grandiose often implies a whiff of pretension. The difference between a grand plan for the city park and a grandiose one, for example, might be the difference between a tasteful fountain and a garden full of topiaries cut in the shapes of 19th century literary figures. So if you’re choosing between the two, a helpful mnemonic might be that the extra letters in grandiose suggest that one’s ideas, claims, promises, schemes, dreams—you get the idea—are a bit extra.
We're at my parents' place having a pleasantly low-key celebration (lots of joy! but also, us plus two elderly people = a lot of lying around on the couch reading, and not a lot of impetus to go all-out for the decorations and feasting), and meanwhile the weather is giving us scenic snow all around.
And also! I got an INCREDIBLY GOOD Yuletide fic!
The Villainous Princess Saves Her Kingdom is a note-perfect post-canon story for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born. I mostly enjoyed the heck out of that kdrama, in which everyone is a dramatic lesbian who cares deeply about their all-female melodramatic theater, but the heroine makes many incredibly stupid choices and there were various things that frustrated me about the ending. This story focuses on Seo Hyerang, a secondary character who does not care at all about our beloved stupid heroine (and that's beautiful to me), and it deftly and delightfully fixes almost all of my complaints, and made me cackle several times. It's everything I hoped and dreamed for in a Jeongnyeon fic! I'm so happy!!!
I think it's readable without canon knowledge, but you'll have to do a certain amount of piecing things together as you go, and the emotions won't hit as hard. I had many emotions, though. What a treat, what a delight!
2. It feels like Saturday but I still have three more days of weekend! Tomorrow we're staying in and Alex is coming over and Carla is making a roast for dinner, so that will be fun. If the weather's still nice we're planning to go to Knott's on Saturday for one last go at their holiday food.
3. Gemma loves these crinkly stuffed carrot toys.

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We Are Lady Parts/Riot Women | TRON | Sinners | Some Like It Hot | Home Alone | The Fugitive (TV) | The Fugitive (Movie) | Farscape | Dragonriders of Pern
( 10 fics )
I recently found out someone's been sneaking up onto the roof to smoke, and they've been doing it in the social area, or so close to it to make no difference. I figure that if they could smoke in their apartment, they would, so this is probably someone's kid, and it's easier to go to the roof to smoke than head out to the breezeway next to the building.
My concern's not any of that, but rather that they're doing it badly. When I was told about the sneaking, I remarked that they'd do better to sneak farther away from the social area so the smell doesn't linger. I said if it's cigarettes, they should do it over the breezeway so they can tap the ash away, and if they're really dedicated, they should bring along a tin of some kind to carry the refuse away with them to dispose of the evidence later. The smoking's one thing to protest, and what really gets to me is the person's total lack of tradecraft.

Click here to see the comm's DW page and get more details.
by Anonymous
Hawks starts and turns towards him. Tsunagu is leaned against the doorframe, head cocked slightly and lips only barely visible over the top of his silver and blue scarf. He looks really nice, clothes form-fitting, tactfully festive, and obviously a point of pride and comfort for the man. Hawks doesn’t really feel comfortable in anything but his old uniform, and that aspect of his past doesn’t have much relevance anymore. The thought makes the ever-present pain in his shoulders twinge a little worse.
--
post-war arc, hawks meets tsunagu's parents, no chaos ensues, everyone wins!
Words: 2114, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
- Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
- Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
- Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
- Categories: M/M
- Characters: Takami Keigo | Hawks, Hakamata Tsunagu | Best Jeanist, Original Characters
- Relationships: Hakamata Tsunagu | Best Jeanist/Takami Keigo | Hawks
- Additional Tags: Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Light Angst, Meeting the Parents, Holidays, Disability, Physical Disability, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Final War Arc (My Hero Academia)
Note: I'm not counting Guardian for this; that lives in a category of its own. <3 And most of my answers are about the dramas that were new to me this year, though obviously I love and adore the shows I rewatched, too.
( Kdramas I watched this year )
The Meme
Total number of dramas watched: 22 Kdramas, 1 Kmovie, 1 Jdrama, and 1 Cdrama.
Number of rewatches: 7: Sell Your Haunted House (with Pru), Semantic Error, Tale of the Nine Tailed (with Andrew), Family by Choice (with Pru), Good Manager, Nothing But Love, While You Were Sleeping (ongoing)
Number of dramas watched with Andrew: 7 dramas and a movie: Undercover High School, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Aema, Low Life, Bon Appétit Your Majesty, Typhoon Family, Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, Bogota: City of the Lost (movie).
Percentage of new-to-me dramas that were awesome: I watched 15 new-to-me dramas (and the movie, which was fine but not really my thing, so I'll set that aside). I loved 9 of them. That's 60% -- an amazingly high percentage! I had a really good drama year. (Of course, there were dozens that I started and didn't get beyond episode 1 or 2, and a few I watched more of but didn't finish; I'm only counting one of those.)
( The meme, continued. )
[10 out of 20] Sherlock Holmes (ACD): Gen
Dec. 25th, 2025 04:46 pmFandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Prompt: snowflakes
Rating: Gen
Length: 400
Characters: Holmes & Watson, OC
Summary: Holmes has a young client on Boxing Day.

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Small Potatoes (503 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Dianda Lorden/Patrick Lorden/Simon Lorden | Simon Torquill
Characters: Dianda Lorden, Patrick Lorden, Simon Lorden | Simon Torquill
Additional Tags: Domestic Fluff, Babies
Summary:
New babies mean new routines.
A couple of days ago, I was going to write a post lamenting how year-end k-pop gayo shows don't hit the same way anymore. But I saw this ^ video of NMIXX's Kyujin, LE SSERAFIM's Hong Eunchae, and IVE's Leeseo covering Blackpink's "Pretty Savage", and I was like, "nope, scrap that, it's still pretty good, actually!"
I really love collab stages. I gasped sooo loudly when Eunchae started singing; I think this was a perfect song choice and it takes me back to good times (I really loved the Blackpink album this came from, too!)
This may be a maknae collab stage but their respective groups have actually been active for 3-4 years already! I don't think I'll ever be ready for Gen 5, I think Gen 4's as far as I'll go...
I also watched Chaeryeong's performance of Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" but was a bit disappointed in the length, and that she wasn't singing here. But of course, she still killed the dance. Aside from that, I also liked the intro for LE SSERAFIM's performance. So shocked when they brought out the drag queens!!

