Merry Christmas 2015

FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS

 On Sunday John and I made up some neighbor gifts...Candy Cane Dip and fresh Golden Delicious Apples and packaged them up along with the recipe for the dip and a candy cane.  I loaded them up into a basket.

 John and I boarded Eyeore, our Kawasaki Mule, and drove around the 'neighborhood' to selected houses and dropped off our gifts.  It sure was fun. 

One year we gave out jiffy pop popcorn....now to think about something different for next year.  Thank goodness I've got a whole year to come up with something. 

We had planned to go to Silver Dollar City this past Saturday - our annual trip to see the lights and our favorite show, A Christmas Carol.  When we got off the freeway and got into line for the City, there was a sign pointing to the right saying the regular parking lots were full and they were using alternative parking...John got a funny look on his face and I told him I was okay if he wanted to NOT go.  I almost got a whiplash when he immediately did a u-turn and started back toward home.  We were disappointed not to get to the city but certainly NOT sorry to miss out on all the crowds.  Our niece and nephew evidently were there already and they said the crowds were the worst they'd seen in a long time.  Instead, John and I stopped in Springfield on our way home at the Longhorn Steakhouse for a late lunch/early dinner.  We hadn't been there is a very long time and it was lovely to sit and chat while being served a most enjoyable meal.  We came home and watched Christmas movies for the rest of the day.  Perhaps we can get to the City before it closes for the season on Dec. 30th..if not, we will indeed purchase season tickets for next year and make sure we get to the festivals we so enjoy.

From southwest Missouri to wherever you live,  we wish you a most Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Blessed New Year. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Between the Holidays

Thanksgiving this year was so fabulous.  We had 2 of John's sisters and one nephew and his family to dinner.  John roasted a turkey on his Big Green Egg and a turkey breast on the Weber grill.  We had homemade dressing, green beans with onion and bacon, mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted brussels sprouts, candied sweet potatoes, rolls and butter, olives and pickles, cranberry jelly and cranberry relish, pumpkin pie, mince pie, cranberry pie, and pecan pie.  It's really no wonder folks gain weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas with the way they eat!

                         
  What a lovely group of people.  So glad to be able to share the holiday with them.

     I saw this recipe on Pinterest (if you haven't tried Pinterest, you are missing out on an amazing website - and an enormous time suck!).  Homemade caramel sauce made form sweetened condensed milk cooked in the crockpot for 8 hours, then left to cool...when you open the can, it's caramel!

 Here you see Mr. Gilligan acting as the CrockPot Guard...

 It's still got another hour and 15 minutes to cook and then about an hour to cool....hoping when I open it, I will find caramel...we sure do like caramel sauce here at Pieceful Harbor...

Today was the day to decorate the house.  Well, the great room and entry and kitchen...John has our lighted deer and angel outside to put in the front garden but he hasn't done it yet.  The inside is done.  Tree up and decorated.  Stocking hung, several figurines on the entertainment towers.  I need to pick up some candles for the advent setup but then we are done.

I've got 6 friends coming tomorrow nite for a Crafty Ladies Nite.  Each of us will demo a craft, not necessarily for Christmas, and bring enough of the items needed to make the item for each of us...everyone will end up with 7 craft items to take home.  There will be tree decorations, hand scrubs, votive decorations, a lovely candy cane dip for fruit, and - well, I'm not sure what some of the others are bringing to demo.  Then we have our library holiday party on Wednesday and Bunco on Friday....I'd say this week is our party week!

If you ever get a chance, try out Facetime on the iPad to talk with long distance friends and family.  It's wonderful.  I spent 2 hours on Facetime with my friend Shelly in California this morning.  Sometimes it's actually years between visits. And sometimes it's only 5 months-like this last time.  Regardless, it was such a treat to talk to her.

Well, I'm off to sit and knit on a warm winter shawl for myself for the rest of the evening.  Thank you all for stopping by.