Bake off or Blog off?

All is fair in baking and blogging.

Well, actually it wasn't a competition. Tamara and I just had a fun afternoon baking cookies together and we both knew we would blog about it. You can visit Tamara's blogspot at Mara's World to the right of this post and see how she handles the same subject!

We made comfort cookies for our husbands - chewy oatmeal raisin with walnuts and for a bonus we made Meredyth's snowball treats - which are the bomb, if I say so myself. Scrumptuous!

Are you kidding me? Did you think we made these too???

This is the reason I didn't take pictures of our cookies.

These little lovelies belong to Judy and her daughter Jennifer.

Some things are beyond me.

First of all, I would never even be able to make the cut out shortbreads, let alone decorate them!

My red chef's hat off to Judy for an excellent job. If there really was a bake off she would have won.

Here she is hamming it up with her doggy Tucker.

Carol, Linda,  Carol, Judy, Diane, Karen

Susan is missing in the group photo...

Here's the Joy Club enjoying Judy's eggnog lattes.

Hey, it's a rough life.

And check this out...

Here I am with Diane and she's actually telling me that she's going to try Bikram's hot yoga with me.

That's a conversation worth recording!

And do you know what?

She did it!

Again, my red chef's hat off to Diane for a job well done.

She managed to stay in the room for the full 90 minutes.

She was rewarded by our teacher Barb singing opera to us.

And it just happened to be Diane's favorite childhood song that her

mother used to sing to her in French.

Is that a reward, or what??

I haven't mentioned that Diane had Bob and me as guests the other night

for a gourmet meal that you wouldn't believe. I might as well just give

her the red chef's hat. She's amazing!

Fun times and more keep coming.

Balcony Queen

I've been so busy enjoying the holiday season that I'm not sure if I'm winding up or winding down. And funny enough with everything that has been happening I haven't been taking pictures but just enjoying the moments. I'm not here to give you a blow by blow account of my days and events but just to say that it's been a wonderful couple of weeks with friends and lovely occasions with many more on the horizon.

It seemed to start with our anniversary celebration and our visit to the Opera. The production was Bellini's "Norma". I am happy to report that Bob really enjoyed it and we will probably go to another production in the spring. We were in the balcony with our opera glasses. From that night I believe I should have started to carry opera glasses in my purse for the following week. As it turned out I found myself in three more balconies enjoying The Singing Christmas Tree production at Broadway, The Welsh Men's Choir along with Winter Harp and concluding (so far) at the cinema seeing my first ever 3-D movie The Christmas Carol with Jim Carey.

And then there have been luncheons and dinner parties and evening gatherings around the fire. I am hosting two parties this weekend and am invited to a third!

Sandwiched in all of this are all the day by day workings that make life interesting, challenging and well worth living.

I hope you are finding the Baby Jesus everywhere you go as you celebrate the Christmas season. As someone once said, "Dat Baby Jesus, He make me smile!" It is because of Him that we have LIFE. I sometimes chuckle when I am in the thick of it and say, "The abundant life is killing me!" Who can keep track of the many blessings that come every single day?

I think of you, my family and friends (who are really family too), and love you in my heart and thoughts and wish I could gather you in my arms this holiday season. I am trying to be with as many loved ones as possible - hence the fulness of days! I hope you too will find the time to spend with those you love and not let the hectic-ness of the season bring you down...Find ways to just relax in it and enjoy the LOVE....

Blessings on your head.....

Done! - Part Two

Done!

Okay, for those of you who weren't at Joy Club on Wednesday I will give you a backdrop to my story. One of the things we chatted about was 'decorating' for Christmas. I'm kind of grrrrrumbly and grrrrrrumpy when it comes to decorating every year so I decided to have a new attitude this year. I always like Christmas but for some reason I always drag my heels when it comes to preparing for it. I enjoy decorating and it's part of my lifestyle so it always seems a nuisance to tear apart my living space to put red things into my summery pink dwelling.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that within less than 36 hours of our Joy Club, Linda has decorated her home for Christmas. Somehow I am gloating over it. I had to look up the word and yup, that's the word I wanted to use. Maybe my gloat is over and against my Scrooge self and also for my over-the-top-Christmas-y friends in the fact that I beat some of them to it this  year. Whatever the reason, I'm worn out but satisfied with my accomplishments. To tell you the truth, I left Joy Club and picked up a couple of ornaments before I headed home. Nothing like shopping for something new to bring inspiration...

I'm starting with the pinker side of my decor because even my blogspot has PINK. You can see my dilemma with adding RED. I'm not a fan.  And as a side story, one year I did away with red. I went pink and Victorian. I was working at Fidalgos and had access to all kinds of goodies. It was the same time that we went with an artificial tree. Well, needless to say this did not go over very big with the girls - some more than the others. In fact, Gina won a speech contest in Jr. High that year with an essay she wrote about the horrors of artificial trees with pink decor. It was funny because she ended up working at Fidalgos in the land of artificial trees and flowers and had to sell the darn things to people!
So somewhere along the line I bought these three little trees and that's when we made Chris and Bob join us in making  little ginger-bready style ornaments that I still use today. I think Gina may have been off traveling by that time so she wasn't home to impress.  And now she has a home of her own and will be out cutting down a real pine smelling, needle dropping super duper Christmas tree as she has done every year. In fact, I got to go out with them one year in Calgary to get theirs. You have to understand that the girls grew up in north Idaho and every year Daddy would take them out in a sleigh and they would chop down a tree from our own property. You can't blame them for not liking the city slicker Christmas decor.
Anyway, there are more pictures but they turned out too dark. You just have to be here to really appreciate it.

Which leads me to another dilemma. Maybe that's why I don't like this Christmas thing all that much, for you see, I feel like I'm all dressed up with no where to go, so to speak. I have lived away from my family for 32 years and now even my girls have moved from me. It makes me sad every year that I can't share my home with my loved ones that are blood relations. It's a sentimental time.

But enough of that.

Okay, I wonder if I'll actually do any baking? I seem to be on a Christmas roll...and the other REALLY BRIGHT side is that we will be spending Christmas with Sara and Dave and Chris, Laura and Sophia. It's a good season indeed...

These two photos are for the girls to laugh with me about. Every year I have a good laugh when I add them to the tree. They were made by Chris and Bob that year when I actually got them to hand stitch ornaments with us. They were such good sports. Anyway, it's definitely an inside giggle...

Let the fun begin....

Well, it's officially December and this 'grrrrrrumpy don't want to decorate lady' is going to have some fun with it. I decorate every year but it just isn't the same with the family out of town. So I bought myself some little grandchildren representatives today to cheer me up. Who knows where this will lead me? Sheila, watch out girl, you may have some competition afterall! Anyone want to make gingerbread cookies?

The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get~

Greetings, from sunny BC. It is one of those days where I've stayed home and have opened all the windows to air out the house. It feels like an early spring day and I'm loving it. I'm getting lots done. Grama Laura either used to say, "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get" or else she had a little embroidered decorative display that said it, but it came to my mind as I sat down to blog. Today I feel it is an appropriate thought because the more I'm getting done, the more I'm finding to do. I'm hurrying through one thing to get to the next!! Daddy, do you remember the saying? Grama had a little black mammie that had a big skirt that sat on top of her sewing basket that was in the sun porch. Is that where the saying was stitched? Do my sisters remember?


Speaking of the sun porch! It was the place where all the grandkids congregated to play games like "Button, Button, Who Has the Button?" and "I Spy" the little thimble. Grama was a great game player. Yes, she came in with us kids too! She taught us how to play Canasta and would say, "Does anyone want to play Nastie?" She would make us sodie pop floats using bright pink creme soda. Did I mention she was the best popcorn maker in the county? She only used white popcorn and she would pop it on the stove in some kind of wonderful grease and then serve it in a big enamel dishpan. PaPete would be watching Gunsmoke and he would call out, "Popcorn, woman!" and Grama would hop to it and make us this wonderful salty treat. She had a great big turn of the century white house on First Street with plenty of nooks and crannies and a full basement that was accessible only through going outdoors and down some little steps where we kids would put on shows. Ah, the good old days.


There were just two things I always desired in my home and that was to have a sun porch like Grama Laura and a breakfast bar like Grama 'For. Thanks to my awesome accommodating and skillful husband I can now say that I have both. I only hope my children and grandchildren will look back on this house as a place full of wonderful memories gathered around the table and playing on the sun porch. Funny, I don't call it a sun porch because it's not always that sunny here. But today, it is definitely a sun porch and besides that I could call it a dirty window, dusty porch as the sun beats in and reveals my lack of housekeeping. So, on that note, this little post is finished and I will hurry on with my chores!


Blessings, Linda....


P.S. This just in from my sister Lori:

I tried to write a comment on your blog but it wouldn’t take it:

The Hurrier I Go, the Behinder I Get…

That was delightful...such vivid memories. I play "I spy" with my grandkids, but haven't figured out how to do the "button, button" game for them like we always played with Grama Laura. I'm still giggling about the mammie doll that I had not remembered in all these years before you mentioned it. As for the popcorn, Grama had special popcorn bowls, different colors of metal bowls. I have 2 of the matching cups in my home now and treasure them for that fond association. I do love reminiscing! -- Lori

Thank you, Lori for your reminder of those lovely metallic bowls and glasses. Yes, I remember them too! They would always get so drippy on the outside due to the condensation - ice cold inside, hitting room temperature on those hot California days. I forgot that you had a couple of them. Imagine what memories we could all come up with. Well, actually we always do when we get together and that's partly why it's so much fun to visit!! --Linda