Absent minded and Snowballs

I have been absent. Absent from this blog, absent from work, absent from myself. There is a shell that looks and talks like me, that walks and laughs like me, that works just as hard--But the filling has flown the coop.
I'm not quite sure where I've gone. Maybe that is what is left to be decided. My bones are tired and my hands swollen, and the space of a day, filled with an infinite amount of work and chatter, there simply isn't enough space for my heart to catch up.
So I lay here somewhere, in this liminal space, this purgatory of neither happiness nor sadness, and I suppose part of be is just waiting. Waiting for time to pass, for some sign, for some shoe-shaking, dust-raising, hair-flinging lightening bolt to show itself.
I don't have enough time in this life to wait, but I also don't seem to have the will or drive in a day to do anything else.

So in the meantime, I bake holiday cookies, I go to work, I read, and I try to let my hands relax every once in a while.

These are cheerful cookies. They are light and round and bright and it is hard to be sad when you are munching on one. They are easy too and very satisfying. They are small clouds of sugar dust to melt in your mouth and make the world seem just a little lighter.

Snowballs

1 cup butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour (or cake flour if you have it)
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup powdered sugar (for rolling)

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, flour, pecans and salt. Mix until just combined. Roll out into little balls on a baking sheet. Make them smaller than you might think. Imagine a large marble. (They are so much for satisfying when you can pop a whole one in your mouth).
Bake at 350 for 12-15 min. They won't look much different, but their bottoms will be golden.
Roll in powdered sugar when cool.