Christmas Plans

I'm not really doing a December Daily or a Journal Your Christmas this year. Probably not. Our plans are up in the air so ya never know. Where we'll be, what we're doing. I'll get back to you!

I did get this card from Shimelle and this is how my December is planned.

You know we digi scrappers can't leave well enough alone so I did have to add that little red bird. Maybe not the bluebird of happiness but then I always like red better!

Maybe you'll want to fill in a journal card like this and set your own Christmas mood. Setting the stage helps the play evolve closer to the way you want it, and who doesn't want a calm easy December...

A Very Short Night

Boy do I now get how it's easy to stay up late when you are on a roll and things are flowing. Thank all that be that working with templates in Photoshop Elements finally CLICKED with me. Do you remember the woman who said she wasn't a scrapper? Oh I hafta eat mah words. Somehow I realized that working with words & images and doing it digitally has morphed into gasp...scrapbooking. Grateful? oh you better believe it. I was afraid I'd never figure it out or find someone who could show me how to do it on my Mac. Happy Dancin' round the house!!

This one of The Mammogram Day is going to be a hybrid - digital with the mammogram receipt and the good results papers added also.

It was just 4.5 hours of sleep till good old Sebastian woke up hungry. Who misses her hubby most at 6am??? See my hand waving in the air??? Well, just one more day of being on Feline Kitchen Duty. Phew!

Have you had any kind of great Aha! moments this week? I'd love to hear about something that just clicked for you.

Wordless Wednesday: Glimpses of a Day

Souper Saturday cooked on Sunday

Well the thought was there Saturday and the recipe came out. Then I remembered I was going to be having a big meal midafternoon and really didn't need lunch or dinner at home. Ok. Let's move on to cooking on Sunday and the final result to start.

This recipe came from Jessy (aka the Wicked One) over at GardenWeb. I'm not sure if the Uncle Bill in question is her uncle or not. One of these visits to CA, I'll have to ask Jessy about it. First, my lovelies, you read the recipe. Oh I know, you always do that. Well, I always think I do but sometimes I realize as I'm in the Midst of It that I've kind of skimmed it, not read it. DH would say this is typical of my rush to Not Listen. btw, that binder you see is ALL soup recipes.

I might have chopped the onion and garlic by hand but I wanted to make hummus next so I used the food processor which would then have a little flavor leftover for the hummus.

Saute those babies up, onions first then the garlic for just a tad. No burning!

Add the next batch of ingredients and blend nicely. You can see I used Knorr shrimp base instead of chicken or vegetable as I was adding some crabmeat.

Here is the soup with the dried oregano and pepper added. It was toooo cold to go out and get some fresh oregano when I was starting this but that oregano is a hardy soul and still flourishing outside.

I finished it up by adding about 1/2 cup of crabmeat and a good handful of feta. You can find the whole recipe and my notes here and check out the blender pureeing tip from Chow. This was a perfect Sunday lunch. Now I just need to get some more crab for the leftovers.

My Weather; His Weather

Thank all that be for down comforters. Gonna be a cold, cold night.

Warning! Spoiler Below

I'm reading Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas prompt for today, and thinking of childhood Christmases. DH and I talked a bit about our memories of his childhood and mine before he left for the Florida trip. He, of course as a person 4 or 5 years older, sometimes pulls age on me. He did have more of a WWII experience than I did, tho I heard about the war which had just ended as I made my start in life. It's not a common occurance to have a soldier (Daddy), a sailor (my Uncle Jack) and little cannons under the tree these days...or is it??? I won't go into how many children may now think of Daddy or Mommy in fatigues these days somewhere far away.

My one memory that is funny now but also shows how detail oriented I was at age 5 or so...nit picker according to dh...concerns the Christmas I finally acknowledged that I KNEW there was no Santa Clause. Very much like young Natalie Wood above, I gave my mother that look as she tried to verify Santa Clause's existence. "Hrmph. Well, you left one of the stickers from Wanamaker's on one of my presents. Look!!!" I said accusingly and oh so righteously! (We lived in the Washington DC area and Wanamakers was in Philadelphia. Shades of a trip to see family.) I got the hurried explanation that Santa Clause just brought some of the presents and she bought others. No, no, I wasn't buying it and reveled in my oh so clever knowledge. Ah the arrogance of a smart little girl. Now as a parent, I also see how hard this must have been for her to hear. Watching your child's childhood slip away in one of those first Aha momemts is so very poignant.

I guess in looking back on this it's neither a good memory or a bad one. Wry perhaps in seeing a glimpse of my character even then. Do you have any Christmas memory that makes you see...Oh I was so me even as a child! I'd love to hear some.

In My Car I Have

Well I don't have it yet, and I'm not on the road that much. All my jobs for the prior 20+ years were barely over 1 mile from my home but I am gonna restock the items that left the car during the summer. Here is a guide to Winter Safety that might be especially good for those who have never faced a winter drive - yet. The DC area is always full of these transplants who Never Knew.

original

Trust me, we can get a winter here. Valentine's Day...I place my bets on that one for a Big Storm. You have been warned. It isn't fun being stuck with on 50 or 66 with a bunch of lunatics and who wants to join That Group.

Things You’ll Need:

• Flashlights with extra batteries
• First-aid kit with scissors
• Windshield scraper
• Maps and compass
• Paper towels, tissues, and moist towelettes
• Blankets
• Extra warm clothing and socks
• Gloves or mittens
• Rain gear
• Large plastic trash bags (for impromptu rain gear)
• Gallon-size resealable plastic bags
• Calorie-dense nonperishable food (e.g., energy or granola bars, nuts, pemmican)
• Pocket knife
• Bottled water
• Waterproof matches
• Newspaper/wooden shims (to burn for melting snow)
• Metal container such as a clean can (for melting snow in)
• Collapsible shovel
• Jumper cables
• Tow rope
• Bag of sand or nonclumping kitty litter (for traction)
• Red bandana or other brightly colored cloth (to make a distress flag)
• Small amount of cash (e.g., $20)
• Large permanent marker
• Bar of white soap (to write on interior of car windows)
• I add...if short people are part of your daily drive, I'd add munchies, diapers, good boots or at least loads of plastic bags and heavy rubber bands for their tootsies in the event you ALL have to hoof it.
  

Also...keep cell phone fully charged tho service will probably be &#^@% up in a big storm. Always is.

I'm just grateful that we don't have this kind of weather on a regular basis. Really grateful.

Committed

Since DH and I got married, we have tried to keep our Christmas as a fairly low key season. I knew how much he hated the overabundance (addictive greed?) of some Christmas celebrations we had seen or known. I had certainly enjoyed decorating the house but when we combined furniture, there was less and less room even post renovation.

Finally we agreed that with 6 adult children, their Christmas was their Christmas with no obligation for anyone to travel in either direction. December would be a time we would do something for our marriage, and we have often have gone to CA for a couples retreat. DH does not like cold weather very much but one of our best 'Christmas' trips was to Prague, Vienna and Budapest in 2006. Cold but neither one of minded it. That may be a future repeat!

The tree saga you have read below.

So this year, we were to go to Florida - Marco Island (Marriott Preview) and then Miami for his conference. However my lingering cold and our inability to get a cat sitter led me to decide to stay home and have a Quiet Week. His gift to me is time and space. We will go to Hilton Head for New Year's and hope for some warming up there.

So with all this free time ahead, what's a good blogger to do? Not only sign up for NABLOPOMO but also for Ali Edward's December Daily AND Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas. This is sounding dangerously like I'm becoming a scrapper but...I'm committed.


For me these are not three different things, but one way to continue to document how I Cook My Life. I may not have an album like Shimelle's above with lots of bought goodies including a string of pearls, and it may not get done even in December, but it will be fun, and it will keep reminding me how good my life is and how many blessings I do have. Sharing the love...isn't that Christmas?