This is when the whole moving-across-the-country thing gets easier, once the movers are here and have packed up most of our belongings. We’ve already organized and sorted and done laundry and figured out what we need to take with us on our road trip and set that all aside. Once the movers take everything else with them, it’s not our responsibility any more. Now we just have to drive, find pet-friendly hotels with pools to stay at, visit some family and friends along the way, and find a place to live once we get there, preferably before Troy has to start his new job. Piece of cake. (Ha.)

The house is full of boxes, stacks and stacks of them. The movers left our beds up so we could stay here tonight. Tomorrow we’ll do a last load of laundry to wash the sheets and towels we’re using, and then those will all get packed and loaded onto the truck with everything else.

Our dear friends the Jays are moving to Japan next week. What with one thing and another, we hadn’t seen them in months. We barely managed to see them at all before we all left California. From the time Troy got home till now, we were pretty much busy every day they were free and vice-versa. But they managed to carve out a couple of hours between meetings and appointments and entertaining out-of-town visitors to come have lunch with us today, and we’re so very glad they did. Seeing them is always wonderful, even when months or years have gone by in between times, which makes perfect sense because they’re framily.

Framily is D’s fabulous word for friends who are such great friends that they’re like family. Except framily is better, because there’s no baggage, no drama or getting mad if you can’t make it to Thanksgiving dinner. There’s just, “Too bad, hope you can make it next time!” Everyone should have framily like the Jays.

We had a great crew of guys packing us out today. They were all efficient, professional, friendly, and courteous. We always bribe our movers to handle our stuff with care show our appreciation to our movers by supplying them with drinks and food throughout the day. Usually we have coffee, bottled water, and soda on hand as well as offering to buy them pizza or some other takeout for lunch. This morning I was going to make a Starbucks run, and went around the house asking each of the guys if I could bring them back a coffee. One guy asked for black coffee, another said decaf with cream would be great. And the biggest, burliest, tattooed-est guy asked if I could get him a grande iced caramel macchiato. That totally made my day.

Tomorrow they’ll load up the truck. Our car will get picked up so it can get shipped across the country. We’ll clean and take care of some odds and ends, maybe go see a movie if we have time, eat dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants. Saturday the carpet will be cleaned, we’ll meet with our landlords, and then we’ll head east. Good thing we’re planning to visit family in Texas for a couple of days along the way; that’ll give the snow more time to melt before we get to D.C.

If you’re seeing this in a feed reader, you might not be able to view the slideshow below—I couldn’t see it in Google reader, anyway. Click on through to see the photos!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR from bethany actually’s Flickr photoset farewell fiesta.

Brenda and Toby hosted a last-minute Mexican-themed going-away potluck for us this past weekend, and it was completely fun. I’m not going into detail describing it, because most of what I’d say would probably be pretty boring, and I think the photos above give a good idea of what it was like. Also, Brenda wrote a wonderful post about the party that makes me smile and tear up a little each time I read it, and there’s no way I could top that, so I’m just gonna send you over there to read her post. Before you click over, I’ll just say this: we have awesome friends here in California, and we’re going to miss them a lot. Thanks, you guys!

I’ve been talking about my all-time favorite apricot cookies for two Christmases now, and promising to post the recipe. It took me a little longer than I planned, but I’m finally getting around to it.

Honestly, these are more like little pastries than cookies. But years and years ago when we were first married, my next-door neighbor Julie gave me a plate full of assorted cookies on Christmas with the recipes attached, and the title of her recipe was Best Apricot Cookies so that’s what I’ve always called them.

Reasons 1 and 2 that these cookies are so good: butter and cream cheese, lots of both.

Reasons 3 and 4: dried apricots and Grand Marnier. Yum.

They’re not terribly photogenic, or pretty. They require some thinking ahead, what with the dough and filling both requiring time to chill in the fridge, and rather fiddly with all the rolling-out of small circles of dough. But oh man, are they ever delicious and highly addictive. Consider yourself warned.

Best Apricot Cookies
Adapted from Julie Thomas’s recipe
Makes about 6 dozen cookies

The chilled dough will be very hard to manipulate at first, but as it warms up it gets very sticky, so if you want you can work with half at a time and leave the remainder in the fridge. I find these cookies are much easier if you have someone helping when you assemble the cookies. Your helper might complain about how annoying they are to make, but let them taste a warm cookie from the first batch and they’ll see the work is worth it. (And really, although the day-old cookies are tasty, the hot-from-the-oven ones are divine.)

DOUGH:

• 16 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 2 c. (4 sticks) butter, softened
• 4 c. flour

FILLING:

• 16 oz. dried apricots
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
• powdered sugar and flour for rolling out dough

DIRECTIONS:

1. A day ahead, mix the cream cheese and butter together, then add the flour a cup at a time and combine thoroughly. Cover and store in the refrigerator overnight.
2. Also a day ahead, place the apricots in a saucepan and add water just to cover. Simmer over low heat till the apricots are soft enough to mash with a fork and the water is mostly absorbed. After you mash them all up, add the sugar and liqueur, then cook over low heat till the mixture is thickened and bubbly, usually just a few more minutes. If you like you can run the filling through a food processor once it’s cooled but it’s not usually necessary. Place in a glass or ceramic bowl, cover, and store in fridge till ready to make the cookies.
3. Preheat oven to 375F.
4. In a small bowl, mix equal parts all-purpose flour and powdered sugar together, about a half-cup of each.
5. Roll the chilled dough into 1-inch balls, coating hands with the flour-sugar mixture as necessary to prevent sticking, and rolling each formed ball in the flour-sugar mixture to coat it.
6. On a clean surface dusted with the flour-sugar mixture, roll each ball into a circle about 3 inches in diameter.
7. Into the center of each circle, place about a teaspoon of filling. Fold one side over the filling, then fold the opposite side over so it sort of looks like a burrito with open ends. Or you can experiment and find the best method for yourself. I’ve also done mini-turnovers (fold the circle in half and pinch the edges shut). Lightly press the open ends with your fingers to seal.
8. Place the cookies one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes, till puffy and golden. Move to cooling racks immediately. Try not to eat them all at once.