Hot Date on a Cold Night

Our hot date on a cold Monday Night:

Christmas Lights at Thanksgiving Point.

I really don't understand what "Thanksgiving Point" is, actually.

It apparently is a place with gardens and events and whatnot, and you can get a membership to it if you want to.

Whatever.

Bernie and I just wanted to go see the drive through their Christmas lights.

The drive had been advertised for awhile, and Monday was the last night that they could be seen.

I packed a thermos full of hot cocoa and we hit the road.

From far away it looked like this.

We paid eight dollars at the entrance. For two dollars more I could have had 3D glasses to wear, but with my glasses I couldn't make them work. Plus I didn't understand how something I was seeing in 3D could be made more 3D with the glasses.

We were told to turn off our car's headlight and drive slowly through the lights.

The displays were about two stories high, and were highly animated.

The smoke flew from the chimney and the windows and trees blinked merrily.

Penguins raced over igloos...

And Gingerbread men vaulted over our car.

There were Candyland scenes, Victorian Christmas scenes and 50's rock and roll scenes, all set to appropriate music.

Reindeer trotted up a ski ramp and launched into the sky...

Candy canes danced and hard candy patties spun about.

I think Bernie and I were the inspiration for this couple that raced along on their snow mobile.

(NOT!)

I got a kick out the gifts tumbling through the sky.

Busy elves put the final touches on a cottage.

I did mention that it was a cold night didn't I?

15 degrees F., -9.44 C.

Boy did that hot cocoa hit the spot!

We could see families taking in the lights in horse drawn trolleys and couple snuggling under blankets in horse drawn carriages, and I wasn't the least bit envious.

There is a time for such romantic conveyance, and also a time for good old fashioned common sense...which in this case meant staying in our car with the heater blazing away full blast!

Pretty fun.

As a Monday night date night, it was just right.

The only thing that could have made it better would have been if we could have been on the date as two three year olds.

Oh yeah.

That would have been amazing.

Maybe next year we can borrow a couple of tykes and see the lights through their eyes.

That is an idea to look forward to.

Christmas Night

Christmas Day...in a new place, with new family members in the pictures that will be part of our future Christmas memories.

Our daughter-in-law's parents and brother are visiting SLC...and joined us for Christmas dinner. It had been six months since we have seen Rachel's folks.

I had put out my album of Christmas pictures and Christmas letters from over the years; Jeff provided the background story on some of the pictures for Rachel and Debra.

The album begins with Christmas 1978, two years before Jeff was born.

A table groaned with pre-dinner treats which didn't get a picture, but allowed everyone to chat and savor time together while...

Bernie finished making Christmas dinner: Pan seared New York Strip Steak roast with a shallot sauce, and roasted carrot, parsnips and fingerling potato with cardamon and coriander seasoning. Bruce made crescent rolls from scratch, and the kids contributed a colorful salad to round out the meal.

Ohhh it turned out good!

Our table is designed to seat six, but one extra person at the end worked out just fine.

In fact, if the group was congenial, I think the table could even be used to seat eight!

Clockwise from top: Rachel's brother Scott, Rachel, Jeff, Rachel's dad Bruce.

The traditional picture in front of the tree before the presents are opened.

And a less traditional pose just for fun.

After dinner and gifts it was board game time. I had been re-arranging some shelves and had a pile of board games out downstairs. Jeff spotted a game from his childhood, and insisted that it be played.

It was interesting to watch a roomful of highly educated people think through their next move.

Child's game indeed! This one took some strategic thinking!

Team Jeff and Rachel won...and Jeff did the Happy Reindeer Prance in celebration.

Since I went digital my Christmas album has not been updated...at least three Christmas are not represented in the thick binder now.

But when I took a moment to look again, I realized the Christmas pictures stopped about the time the kids graduated from high school. After that, Christmas became a celebration that was changed forever for our family.

That was the year we sold the house that the children grew up in. We moved hundreds of miles away, leaving our daughter and extended family behind. Miles and then work schedules shifted our Christmas celebrations about, whereas before, for years and years, it had been the same: Christmas Eve at his parent's house, Christmas morning at our house, Christmas night at my parent's house.

Those were very good years.

After we moved it was Christmas in San Jose, then in Dallas, and in Houston, San Diego, Salt Lake City...some times with just Bernie and me, sometimes with Bernie's mother, or my parents sometimes with one child and sometimes with the other.

Since last year more extended family has moved away; a large part of the family now lives in Kentucky, some live in New Mexico, and three of the old familiar faces have flown away to heaven.

Debra commented at dinner that last Christmas, only a year ago, they had yet to met our son.

A year of change, and here we were, a newly created family, laughing and sharing like we had been family forever.

"And it came to pass..." the old beloved Christmas story begins.

I've learned that phrase in the Bible, for better or for worse, applies to all people, of all time and of all places, and no more so than for the short span of time that we celebrate each year as Christmas.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve...baking for the neighborhood goodie exchange. I made Persimmon Bread, Cranberry Orange Nut Bread, Pralines, Chocolate Pie, Rosettes, Reindeer Wands, and No Knead Cinnamon Rolls for the morning.

I had to laugh at one of the dozen of large eggs that I bought. Maybe the chickens took off from work early for the holidays...size "large"...yeah...whatever.

Jeff and Rachel had us over for our traditional Christmas Eve Tamale dinner, then the four of us went off to church.

On the hill above our house the neighbors had spelled out an appropriate message for the night.

Since we had no adorable tots with us on Christmas morning, Santa filled the cat's stocking instead.
Tiggie LOVED what Santa got him!

He couldn't decide what to play with first! Twenty-two new cat toys all at once!

"Missy" stared in at us from the cold deck outside.

I felt so bad...even though I am pretty sure this cat has a home of his/her own, judging from the cat's chubby figure.

I made the boys give Missy one of their toys. Missy batted it around the deck; it gave me such a warm feeling to see Missy enjoying his/herself so much.

Tiggie thought it was a dumb idea, and both he and Hart stared out the door in revulsion as Missy leaped about with the toy.

Well, I just told them charity begins at home, and that they had more toys than they needed anyway.

They went and took a nap while we got busy preparing for our Christmas Night family time.

(To be continued...)

And so it begins....

The last minute dash to the supermarket, where the lines were so long that people were striking up friendly conversation while they waited.

Outside day turned to night

Crystalline forms fell from the sky

Bejeweled the cars of the shoppers...

Who in their haste to get home with their bounty

Missed the glorious treasures that swirled around them.

Wishing my fellow busy bloggers great success with their last minute

Christmas

Eve

preparation

And eyes to see

and minds to know

and hearts that remember

that all that is around them

is

because

of

the

Miracle

of

God's

Infinite

Love

for

His People

and

His Creation.

About once every ten years....

My mom and I used to make Rosette cookies at Christmas time.

The batter: Nothing could be simpler.

If your food budget it tight and you need to make a treat, you won't find a less expensive way to make a few dozen cookie!

Of course the recipe could be "switched up" but we always stuck with the traditional milk/egg/flour mix.

While I am taking some vacation time over the holidays, I'm revisiting a few memorable recipes from my life.

A snowy day, time alone, and Christmas music inspires me to get baking and messing about in the kitchen

If you've never made the treat before, here is how it goes.

The cast iron form is screwed onto a handle. There are at least sixty different styles of molds to collect if you are interested. I have this star shape, a rose window shape, a butterfly and a heart which makes a quarter cup shape suitable for fillings.

The form is dipped in hot oil for a few moments to heat up...

Then dipped into the batter being careful not to have the batter flow over the top edge.

For the batter I used two eggs, 1 and 1/3 cup of half and half, one cup of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, cinnamon, and clove and a teaspoon of sugar this time.

The batter coated form is plunged into the hot oil.

About a half a minute wait....and the batter begins to separate from the form.
A dull knife can be used to ease off any batter parts that clings to the form.

The form cooks a few more moments to brown, then is flipped to cook the underside.

Then it is fished out VERY gently with tongs.

Drain the hot cookies on some paper towels....they are as fragile as butterfly wings at this point.

Sprinkle with sugar.

(Outside the snow was falling like the finest of sugar...I thought the world looked like I had gotten carried away with the sprinkling process! I had to take a picture to show how fine the snow was on our deck railing.)

A nice collection of snowflake cookies.

I pack them in an air tight bowl, and freeze them.

They will last several weeks, and taste their absolute best re-heated and served with a hot drink like cocoa, coffee or spiced apple cider.

(BEHIND THE SCENE: Just so you know...while it is "easy" to make Rosettes, in the same way that pancake making is easy, they still can be a bit tricky. The first few tend to stick to the form, and it can be rather aggravating to have to scrape a form clear and start again.

While I was growing up, one of the moms in our neighborhood noted that kids were like pancakes...the first couple you make are usually messed up and the kids and pancakes turn out better after the first few.

Being a second child myself, this flattering observation has stuck with me.

Having two kids of my own...hmmm...I wonder what the rest of my "batch" might have looked like if there had been more than two attempts.

Anyway...getting past my neighbor's winsome thought...it does help to let all batters like pancakes and these cookies sit for awhile before cooking. The flour particles take a bit of time to fully absorb the fluid, and that is why these sort of things get better with each attempt.

It also helps to have an attention span longer than a gnats...once the rosette is off the form and frying up, you can not wander off to do whatever catches your attention unless you enjoy burnt black forms.

It is also necessary not to do the math to figure out how much each rosette would cost to make if your current rate of pay at work was applied.

You must not think about how many of your family and friends will avoid a fried food.

You must resist eating ALL the rosettes that shatter.

You must resist eating each rosette as soon as it is sugared. (This is why I suggest freezing them...it will slow the mindless munch process down considerably by doing so.)

If you have a friend who gives you rosettes, know that it was a labor of love that she is giving you.

Either that, or she has lost her mind.

Making a loaf of banana bread or a tin of fudge would have taken her half the time. There has got to be a happier way to spend an hour of one's life than dipping batter into boiling hot oil at Christmas time.)

Wrapping Up Things in My Mind

Got little bits of yarn left over from a knitting, crocheting, weaving, cross stitch or crewel project?



Here's one way to use it up:

Get some cording at least as big as your finger in circumference, the kind that typically is used to make cording for furniture. Such cording is readily available in fabric stores, and quite inexpensive.



Wrap your yarn around the cording.

To start, put the end, or "tail" of the yarn pointing towards the middle of the cord and then wrap over the tail of the yarn from the end and continue wrapping toward the middle of the cording.

Use the same technique each time you change colors.

If you are particularly obsessive/compulsive or have busy fingered children around you can use a large needle to thread the tail through the cord a few times to anchor it more firmly.


Create "beads" along the way by doing multiple wraps in one place, then stitch over and through the bead with a contrasting color to keep the multiple wraps stable.

I personally like using metallic yarn for this part, and sometimes even thread glass beads on the stabilizing yarn to add more visual interest.

I created this cord years ago, using yarn from a weaving project in college. The cord has been on Christmas trees, used as a belt, and woven into greenery.

Wrapping the yarn is as simple as can be. To make the cord appear a bit more unified in the end, you could make sure you had a significant amount of one or two colors to insert regularly to tie the odd bits of left over yarn colors together.

Wrapping like this I really enjoy. Wrapping gifts? Not so much. I grumble and complain my way through every gift wrapping project, feeling guilty that I don't enjoy it, yet also feeling reluctant to spend the money on gift bags that announce that I am too lazy/inept to wrap up a gift with perfectly fitted folds and esthetically pleasing ribbon/paper co-ordination.

My daughter Laura on the other hand is an amazing gift wrapper. She plots her gift wraps, making sure what is outside the gift box is as special as what is inside it.

I have no idea where she got this talent from.
No one else in the family (for generations!) has been able to wrap a gift with any style at all.

On the other hand...I'm not sure that any of that matters.

Nobel Peace prizes are handed out for "thinking" about peace making; I am going to award myself kudos for "thinking" about doing artistic gift wrapping.

Yeah...that will work!

Oh...and by the way America is currently 11 trillion plus dollars in debt (and to give you a perspective about what that means...one trillion seconds will pass in 31,688 years) and yet Hillary Clinton is pledging that America will raise 100 billion to fight the faux global warming issue (one hundred billion seconds will pass in 3200 years by the way...oh, and Happy Year 2010 to you all in advance).

I've decided to see Hillary's offer and raise it another 120 billion.

Why not?

If she can offer money from a negative account balance, and since I currently have a positive account balance, I think I should do more than she has offered.

Do I have 120 billion dollars?

No...but remember...all that is necessary for good to attributed to us is to "think and consider" what we COULD or MIGHT do.

I challenge everyone reading this to do like wise: Offer as many billion as you feel/think you want to. Even if you are flat broke.

Remember, it is the thought that counts.

Don't get wrapped up in the truth...reserve that activity for using up your left over yarn!