At the turn of a page, 2017 will become ‘last year’. Wow, that happened quickly! I could sit here and write about making resolutions, goals, plans, and the future, but… I am not going to do that.
Instead, I just want to wish you a wonderful and joyous end of the year and an exciting and blessed 2018. I look forward to hearing great things about you.
Be safe, love life, and cherish your family and friends.
Sincerely and with love,
Merry Christmas and Happy Celebration!!
I thought you might enjoy a favorite holiday cookie recipe, Chocolate Jumbos. They are a chocolate spice cookie with a butter cream frosting. They have a hole in the middle — and they just don't taste right without that hole. Even as I write this, my mouth begins to water for the taste of those cookies.
The recipe has been in the family since the 1800’s. We always make Chocolate Jumbos during the holidays and even now these cookies remain a family favorite. Recently my youngest daughter called me and said, “Mom, I want to make Chocolate Jumbos with you. I want to learn how to make them properly.” That made me feel good within my soul. To spend the time with my daughter carrying on a family tradition makes these cookies a taste of the past, the present, and the future.
This recipe is all we ever had to go by — just the ingredients, no other written instructions. I did make my own changes. I only use butter, no shortening.
My mother always rolled out the cookies with her rolling pin and used a biscuit cutter to cut them out into perfect circles. I have added my own flare by using a scoop. I scoop out the dough, put it on a cookie sheet I have sprayed with cooking spray, then flatten the dough with my hand. Using the handle tip of a wooden spoon, I swirl in a hole.
Have fun!! I truly hope you enjoy these cookies as much as my family does; a part of my life I share with you.
I have been walking around the house for about 2 hours looking for my computer cord. What made it complicated was this: on Friday, one of the hoses from my washing machine detached and we had a flood on the bottom floor of our house. The water went from the laundry room, to the hallway, into the den, and my craft room. What a mess!!
I pulled out towels to soak up water, called my husband at work to come home and help. We moved stuff from the downstairs, up to our living room, and even into the kitchen. I hauled out my shampooer and started vacuuming water from the carpet, which was soaked.
After hours of piling up wet towels and dumping water outside, we took showers and left to go to visit our daughter in Virginia. It was planned trip — and what could we do but let things dry out? Besides, I was emotionally drained! The visit was great and gave us an opportunity to get away from the mess.
We came home this evening and as we walked in the door, I knew I had to finish the blog post I had started before the trip (and the flood) so it could be put in the queue and ready to post. I sat down with my computer on my bed and started working. After a couple of minutes my computer was running low on power, so I reached for the cord — but it wasn’t near my computer. I looked in all the obvious places where it might be: beside the bed, on my desk, in the kitchen… it was nowhere to be found. I started searching the house, bounding over boxes and moving around the miscellaneous stuff that currently waits to be sorted and put away — no cord.
Bedrooms, dining room, kitchen… I kept searching throughout the house. No cord.
Upstairs, downstairs, under dressers... I even looked in the bathroom. Still no cord.
My husband started searching with me. We went back to all of the places I had looked before.
Finally, after nearly 2 hours, he came down from the bedroom and asked, “Is this it?” He had found my cord! And guess what? I had put it away right where it belongs! A while back I made some bedside pockets that hang on my bed; this is where I keep my journal and my computer cord when I have those things in my bedroom.
As for the search, was it time wasted? Not necessarily; my Fitbit indicated I was lacking in steps today. Not anymore, I’ve got plenty now.
(And by the way, I still haven’t finished the blog post I started before the flood.)
Today I removed the Nandina from my garden because I learned that the berries are toxic to many birds. My yard is a certified wildlife backyard habitat and certainly I do not want to harm the wildlife I am welcoming into my yard.
My friend, Debbie Foster, is an expert in many things concerning birds. She owns Parrot Ps and Qs and has the alphabet after her name in what I call, "birdology." (If you need help with anything concerning birds, contact her!) Debbie told me about an article she had read about how the berries from Nandina, also called Heavenly Bamboo, killed a flock of waxwing birds. I researched it on the internet and today the Nandina were removed from my yard.
I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed having the plants in my landscape; they are quite pretty. In the warmer months, they produce cute little white clusters of flowers. Each flower then produces a berry that turns red in the winter. The leaves do not shed, which is also a plus in the Fall when trees are losing their leaves. However, those beautiful berries kill birds.
If I wanted to make a life analogy (excuse me while I clear my throat), what do we keep in our own lives because it looks pretty but really needs to be pulled out by the roots? I have a fellow storytelling friend and I run my stories by her from time to time. She reads them or listens and says, "You need to cut your darlings"! I know what she means. There might be some very unnecessary things in the story that I love, but which just drag it down. That's what happened in my garden — I cut one of my darlings.
Later on I’ll look at replacing those empty spots in the yard with native plants. But that’s another blog for another day...
This is the time of year I get transported back to my childhood in upstate New York. I sat on my front door step here in Charlotte a couple of days ago and ate an apple. It tastes different in the fall as the leaves softly float to the ground. Somehow it is sweeter, crisper, more delicious.
When I was a kid I would go out to the orchard in the back of our house. Now, I had to walk through the pasture and across the creek to get to it, but those mountain apples in that unkempt orchard were the best. They were small, red, and so very sweet. Many of them were “protein apples”, meaning they had a little worm in them — you eat around that part. But no chemicals, no GMO, just an apple. The cows liked them too.
We also had a couple of winter pear trees. My father would lift my siblings and me up in the bucket of our tractor and we would pick pears in the fall and put them in bushel baskets. They would then be put in the cellar of our house and throughout the winter they would get ripe and we would have fresh fruit during the holidays. Mom would can many of those pears, too. I liked them better when you could hold them in your hand and bite into them.
I think this year, as my family gathers together, I will ask my kids what memories they are fond of from their childhood. I’d like to know what brings them back home as they sit on their front door steps, too.
Right now, I think I need to get a cup of apple cider and sit on my front door step and go back to the Catskills for a few moments. I’ll return to Charlotte in 20 minutes or so.
