December 3 and I Almost Forgot!

I just finished emptying the dishwasher and thought I'd make a last check of email and Facebook when I remembered I said I'd try to write each day until Christmas.  Arrgh! Such a short memory!  

So, what happened today?  It was a gloriously beautiful day with sunshine streaming in the windows.  It did seem a little strange to be setting out Christmas decorations on such an unwintery day, but pretty much the whole upstairs is decorated now. Yes, including the bathrooms. (And even the laundry room downstairs gets its little additions.  More on those rooms on another day.) 

I was a little shocked a few minutes ago when I realized this is our twenty-second Christmas in this house.  By far the most Christmases in any house I've lived in.  Which actually makes it easy to decorate as I don't change from year to year. Tradition!!  (As Tevye would sing, although he didn't celebrate Christmas . . .) 

The window pane wall hanging made its way upstairs last Christmas to replace the red and green log cabin star. It was a success, so it is back again this year.  Hmmm, that makes me realize that some traditions do  change over the years.  

And here's true tradition, Bear Corner.

A happy little group backed by a beautiful copy of The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by one of my favorite artists, Susan Winget. 

It was a good day, with much accomplished, including getting my hair cut!  Always an upper.  ♥

Just Checking In

After yesterday's post, I decided I would see if I could do a post each day until Christmas.  I imagined lively words, some photos, and generally an update as to our preparations for the Big Day.

Today I began in earnest, getting out quilts, wall hangings, and table runners.  These things are all stored upstairs on shelves in the boys' room on shelves in one of the closets.  I have quite a number of all three items to spread throughout the house and it takes some time to take down the Americana and put up the Christmas.  (And why does it seem like I just took them down?)

Yesterday I swapped out my regular dishes for the Christmas set, trotting up and down the hall to the cupboards where they are stashed the rest of the year.  When I was little, I dreamed of having Christmas dishes and I love that my dream came true.  We use them all month and well into January.  They make me smile.

However, I believe I may have mentioned in the past that I'm a very linear person, not a good multi-tasker.  And yesterday proved to be a case in point.  While swapping dishes, I was watching a movie on my kitchen TV (The Intern with Robert DeNiro which I hadn't seen before), while also making a pumpkin pie with some leftover pumpkin.  That's three things at one time.  The pie paid the price.  I reset the timer for forty-five minutes when the first fifteen minutes were up at 425°, but forgot to turn the oven down to 350°. When the final timer rang, I was shocked to see that the crust was a very, very, very dark brown at the edges and then I noticed the black spots on the pumpkin filling.  Then I realized what I had done.  I assumed the pie was a loss, but we tried it (minus the edge crust!) and it wasn't bad.  Not great, but not bad. 

Apparently pumpkin pie is very resilient.   ♥

Christmas Decorating

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Ann and I went to a wreath-making workshop at our friends, the Brusvens, Christmas tree farm.  We'd wanted to go last year but ended up having other things come up on the designated day.  This year we were determined to go.

It was a cold day and there was snow on the ground, so we bundled up and it was a good thing!  I thought it would be indoors, and it sort of was, as it was in a barn.  They did have big heaters on, but still, it was chilly!  

No problem though, as we were busy the whole time and since we were excited, we stayed warm. Annette showed us what to do and then turned us loose with different types of branches.  Ann and I shared a table and there were times we couldn't see the top of it.  Branches, nippers to cut with, ribbon, extras to tie in.  We were focused!

Here's my result, mounted on our front door today.

For my first attempt, I'm pretty happy with it.  We plan to go again next year!  ♥

November's End

I really meant to do four posts this month, but the busy end seemed to be my undoing.  And here we are, on the last day of November. Oh well! 

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We ended up celebrating on Friday with Ann, Eric and the boys. (Daniel asked what we ate on the actual Thanksgiving day and I told him, "Frozen ravioli and salad!"  He seemed astounded.)  But on Friday, we had the whole Thanksgiving dinner! We enjoyed all our visiting the most, I think.  (The pumpkin pie Dan and I had for Saturday morning's breakfast was pretty good, too.)

Now it's time to think about decorating for Christmas and I decided to wait until tomorrow to start.  I've been cleaning bathrooms today and as I set things out tomorrow, I'll dust and vacuum. Some days I really miss having the cleaning lady of my teaching days.  But then some days I really enjoy cleaning, so there's that.  

I finally finished the Peace on Earth wall hanging and I am very happy with it.  My plan is to hang it in the downstairs guest room where I have a large, empty wall just waiting for it.

I have also been continuing to do a lot of reading. Ann loaned me an interesting book and I really enjoyed it.  

The Traitor's Wife is a fictionalized story about Peggy Shippen Arnold, Benedict Arnold's wife, but it is based on fact.  As it turns out, history has shown that she was the major force behind his defection during the Revolutionary War.  If you're looking for a good read and love history, this will surely appeal to you. 

And that's it for the end of November, in the strange year of 2020.  ♥

And the Snow Came Down

 

And I'm thrilled I'm finally getting the camera figured out and was able to capture the snow as it fell.  It was so beautiful!  And yes, I had Christmas music playing.  ♥

A Tale of a Rotisserie Chicken. . . and Stew

I mentioned that we went to Costco a week or so ago. One of the things we purchased was a rotisserie chicken for the amazing price of $4.99.  I meant to have it for dinner that night when we got home, but we were later getting to Costco than I had anticipated, which meant we were later leaving, so we popped into Taco Time and got a bite.  Which was interesting because they served it to us in a bag, which we carried to an available table and unpacked.  Such strange times. . .

Anyway, the chicken became our Saturday night dinner, and then again on Sunday.  And there was so much left!! A day or so later, I decided to chop some up and make chicken and black bean enchiladas.  The recipe said it made four or five, but I ended up with a dozen!  I froze six and we ate the other six that night and the next. And still there was chicken left, so I chopped it up and froze it.  Saturday night I decided to make pizza and opted for white sauce and the frozen chicken, along with a little Canadian bacon, red peppers and olives.  We ate the pizza for two nights and I ate the rest for lunch today. (Dan was so kind to let me have it!) And we still have those six enchiladas in the freezer.  That $4.99 chicken has already fed us numerous meals with two still to go. I feel kind of like it was the loaves and fishes!  I think I'll be buying another soon.  

And stew?  We have had a very cold November.  We have snow again, with more forecast for tonight and tomorrow night.  I love cold weather cooking--soups, stews, breads, muffins.  Right after breakfast this morning I pondered supper.  I knew I had some potatoes and celery in need of using up, so I thought of stew.  I have a recipe I clipped from the paper years ago called Five Hour Midnight Stew.  It's fairly simple, but you have to remember to get started early as it bakes in the oven for five hours as the title states.  

It tasted so good!  I had some leftover muffins from a couple of weeks ago in the freezer so I zapped them to complete our dinner.  There's lots of stew left, so I'm good to go for a few nights.  ♥

A Family of Readers

Here it is, the end of October and Halloween. We've never been big Halloween people, with the exception of hoping for good candy--you know, Snickers, Peanut Butter Cups, etc.  I remember being totally bummed as a kid when someone put an apple in my bag.  Junk food, that's what Halloween was all about, and by the time it was November 2, all was gone but the dregs which would most likely be tossed.  Oh, and this lovely poem my brother used to recite:  Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. LOL!

But, that's not what this post is about.  It's about reading.  Yup, reading.  I've loved to read as far back as I can remember.  I know my parents read to me from the time I was little, and once I could read for myself, I was never without a book. I used to get in trouble in grade school for hiding a book under my desk and reading when I was supposed to be listening.  (I remember the first day of my very first batch of students and a dad brought his son to the door and told me that the son liked to read all the time but would always know what was going on in the class.  I told the dad I completely understood as I'd done the same thing as a child.  Dakota, if you are reading this, that boy would be you!)

Fortunately, I married Dan who is also a reader. Our house is full of books, they line shelves and fill boxes labeled by author.  And it's no surprise that our kids turned out to be readers, too.  And now, our grandchildren.  

We were at Costco yesterday and I spotted the latest Wimpy Kid book.  Cam and Keat loved Wimpy Kid books when they were young, and now Daniel does, too. They're kind of "graphic novels" in that there are stick drawings and words.  (They are truly funny.  I read one last summer and laughed my way through it!) Anyway, when I spotted the new one, I snapped a photo of the display and texted Ann.  She said, "Yes, please!"  

When we dropped off some other things we'd picked up for her, I asked if she wanted the book to remain hidden and she said no.  They've been quarantined for the past two weeks as Keat and Eric had tested positive for the virus (no real symptoms, just a brief fever and lethargy for a day or so) and poor D has been a good sport but getting very tired of the whole situation.  The book was just what he needed.  When I handed it to him his eyes lit up and he kept saying, "Thank you!"  

Ann texted us this picture a little while later.  

Under his blanket, totally engrossed.  Made this Grammy's heart smile.  ♥