Crunch Day

So, today is it, huh? End of the world. It’s gray and windy and 34 degrees, which is almost the predicted high for today, but it just doesn’t seem apocalypsy. So I am going to continue as if the world won’t end today. There’s just too much to cram in tomorrow if it doesn’t end.

Nothing makes me quite as crazy as things being behind and I am behind. After this post I’ll probably have another cup of coffee, no schnapps before noon, but by noon I might be tempted! Today will be crostadas and cleanup for tomorrow night. I’m not overly worried about that. I’ll get it done on time. Just right now out tree has half the lights on it and no ornaments. If the tree is only partially done, I’ll live with that. No one really sees anything but the glow of the lights while we’re enjoying each other’s company anyway. What’s making me unravel is that our Christmas Cards aren’t out yet and while they may get put in the mailbox before, they won’t get anywhere by Christmas. So, if you usually see a card from us, you still will, it’ll just be a “Hope you’re still enjoying the holidays” wish rather than a “Have a happy holiday.”

Still, I grumble inside for what I can’t do to help keep us on schedule for the holidays. I’m considering toning things down for next year. Oh, I’ll still bake and still do the fabulous dessert bar, but I’m pondering asking someone else to host the venue. Maybe do the party in Michigan next year instead of here. It’s the combination of baking and cleaning/getting the house ready for guests that’s making me nuts. So maybe I need to outsource the location.

Our Christmas Bat under the mistletoe

I have officially composed the Friendly Beasts verse for the Christmas Bat. I was mistaken about his eating mosquitos at the First Christmas. I created the story of the Christmas Bat; I can change it if it works better. This does!

I said the bat that flies at night.
I outstretched my wings so he could sleep tight
I shadowed his eyes ‘cause that star was so bright.
I said the bat that flies at night.

There ya go; the Christmas Bat got between the star and the Baby so he could sleep, but everyone else knew where he was.


Davinities

I sent out some Davinities boxes in the mail this year. I promised that I’d tell about this year’s offerings on my blog, so here are the Davinities gift-box treats for 2012:

Krisp Kringles

The Original Davinity

This year’s Kringles are crunchy peanut butter and butterscotch rice squares. The compressed and cut preparation holds it shape better, therefore ships and travels better.

Mr. Goodcookies

This is the traveling Davinity and the one that I make for other occasions through the year, including that it’s the one I packaged for the Paws and Whiskers bake sale in September. They are crushed Mr. Goodbar, milk chocolate with peanuts, in a traditional tollhouse cookie base.

Chocolate Chunk Hazelnut Cookies

I created these especially for David. Well, you know, he’s going to put the Nani Bakery in his train layout, complete with a water tower! These are crushed hazelnuts and dark chocolate chunk cookies, each one garnished with a whole roasted hazelnut.

Pecan Pie Cookies

Back when my friend, Marie, had her baking business, Celebration Generation, up and running, I ordered cookies to augment my Davinities at Christmastime for the parties. When she closed Celebration Generation, she posted the recipes to her cookies on her Celebration Generation blog over time and I’ve been adding a different Celebration Generation recipe as one of the Davinities each year. Last Year it was the Black Forest Cookies and this Year it’s Pecan Pie cookies. They were one of my favorites of her cookies and I’m with the way they turned out from my oven too! There’s really not much to say that isn’t in the name. They are pecan pie filling in a brown sugar-based crust.

Ginger Bats and Bells (and Birds)

These ones are my favorite! I tried many different gingerbread recipes and finally found the right one. This is a semi-soft gingerbread cookie with cream cheese frosting. My opinion, it’s just the right balance of sweet and spicy and crunch and chewy. The ones that break between cooling and frosting get frosted too. I have to be able to taste to be sure they’re good right? Gingerbread is my favorite holiday cookie and while I pretty much like all gingerbread, I wanted mine to be my favorite; I succeeded.

Loaded Loaf

Back again from last year, loaded loaf is a great breakfast cake. The loaf is pumpkin-based with chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins. Experience from Christmas morning last year – a slice of loaf given a little time to toast up in a toaster oven with cinnamon butter is heaven!

And there’s the 2012 Davinities gift-box lineup. You can see the Celebration Generation Pecan Pie Cookie recipe here: Pecan Pie Cookies. Recipes for many of the regular Davinities are available at Simply Davlicious. Simply Davlicious will be getting an update with pictures and new recipes in 2013.

Twas The Hodge Podge Before Christmas

I’m still here! We’ve just been busy with the party coming Saturday and all. I’m bummed that I skipped out on the Monday Quiz About Me again this week. I like the interaction with my fellow bloggers and when I take my afternoon break, I might still get back to answer some of those Monday questions!

The squirrels have been all over this morning! We’re expecting rain changing to snow tonight; I wonder if that’s what all the squirrel-action is about? It doesn’t matter. I love active squirrel days and I’m enjoying seeing one or two busy ones out every window of the house!

Today will be another day that my wedding ring spends in the 1/3 cup measuring cup in the kitchen drawer and it will probably stay there until Friday. That’s where it stays when I’m doing stuff with dough that I don’t want caked in the setting. The next at least two days are the final Davinities baking days before Christmas. Today will be 2 small and a few mini Loaded Loaves. I like a loaf for munching on Christmas morning and so we have some for the party. That Loaded Loaf is one I made for the first time last year and I hope everyone who gets to taste it likes it as much as I do! (Rina loved it last year) The loaf is pumpkin-based with spices, raisins, chocolate chips and walnuts. It’s very good!! Tomorrow will be dough-day for the crostadas we’ll have for Saturday and the ones that will go to Michigan with me on Christmas Eve. I also have wrapping to finish up and we need a couple of little gifts for my brother’s present.

But, for now, I’m joining Joyce at From This Side Of The Pond for Wednesday Hodge Podge!

1. How will you spend 'the night before Christmas'?

Christmas Eve is my family’s Christmas dinner at my cousin’s. It’s been, all of my life, a bounty of mostly fried fish, although last year there were some tasty non-fried options. As I’ve said before, I don’t go for the food, I go to be with my family, but I just might chance fate that there will be un-fried options again and pass on my traditional Christmas Eve burger on the way.

David will meet us back at Pop’s house after he gets off work. The family meal is an early dinner and dinner starts about the time he gets out of work…an hour and a half away! Pop says we’ll bring him a doggy-bag. LOL Then we exchange gifts between our sibling families. My cousins don’t exchange gifts amongst the adults, so we have our gift exchanging at Pop’s. We did that before dinner last year, but this year David won’t be there until later and besides, Dave didn’t like it earlier, so both of the “Dav Men” will be happy..


2. What is one thing you are not?

Fast



3. Fudge-are you a fan? Your favorite flavor?

I do like fudge, although oddly enough, I don’t care for the smell of it cooking. Yes, I’m odd. Give me something that tastes like fudge and smells like a steak cooking and I’m all set, but if it smells like fudge cooking or tastes like steak, keep it away from me!

I won’t eat Rocky Road fudge or anything with cookie dough I it. Other than that I pretty much like it all! The favorites I’ve tried have been plain old chocolate, black forest and pistachio.



4. Did you attend any craft/vendor fairs in the month of December? Do you prefer homemade goodies or the more professional stalls? Are you giving any homemade gifts this year? 

No, I didn’t attend any events.

I do give cookie boxes as gifts and have also done hand-made gifts over the years. I did wool-capes for both my Mom and SIL years back as well as wool scarves and one year everyone got a cross stitch ornament. Most recently is the silk-screened pillows I had done for my Aunt with photo art I had done of both of her dogs.

This year, I bought a couple of hand-made gifts from Etsy shops and I’m a very satisfied customer. That may be a regular place I look for gifts going forward.


5. What's your favorite type of holiday gathering?

My favorite type of gathering is coming up! I like small groups, fewer than ten people, where everyone can be part of the same conversation and enjoy each other’s company together.


6. We're approaching a new year...what's going to be different in 2013?

Well, as 2012 is ending, I am an official TARPS rider and have available paratransit services curb to curb. I’m also in the process of getting a power chair. Hopefully that means that 2013 will see me get out of the house more and hopefully, find employment. Golly, I miss the 3 P’s that make working worthwhile; People, Productivity and Paycheck!


7. Share a favorite scripture, quote, saying, or song lyric relating to peace.

I’ve always loved the hymn “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”


8. Insert your own random thought here.

Kaline has a vet appointment tomorrow. We think she has a sore tooth/teeth. She sniffed at treats and struggled to eat them yesterday, this morning I gave the kids treats and she acted like she wanted it, lacking her chops and it and sniffing, but didn’t eat it. She did the same thing with breakfast; acted like she wanted it, but ate one kibble and walked away. She’s not acting otherwise sick, which is why we think it might be teeth. Poor baby-girl! :(

Happy Lunchtime!

Busy, Busy day today! That’s lunch. David laughed because I sent him a text yesterday asking him to pick up salad on the way home. We’d just opened a new bag on Wednesday, but after lunch. He asked if I “went all rabbit” on the salad. The truth is, and it’s been the truth for many years, baking makes me crave salad. Dough on my hands, pinch a taste to make sure the seasoning is right, taste the “test cookie” to make sure the taste is acceptable to be a Davinities treat, I baked 8 dozen cookies yesterday morning; my veggie crave was off the chart!

So now I’m relaxing with my crunchy veggies; celery, carrots, radishes and red bell pepper, protein: a sliced string cheese and Omega-3 fat; 6 Kalamata olives with lettuce shaken in 2 TBS Newman’s light Balsamic vinaigrette; a feast fit for January.

So, now I’ll tip my cap to Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin' Time and thank her for hosting Friday Fragments! Here are the rest of my tid-bits:

**  So far I made the batter for the loaded loaves and have two small ones done. I’m waiting for them to cool so I can remove them from the pans to reuse. My new pans are the perfect size for gift trays. The ones last year were the entire gift. I like to give variety.


**  I’ll be finishing the Oreo Truffles before David gets in from work and the Pecan Pie Cookies will be after dinner. They don’t take an awful long time to bake..

Once you taste them you forget what they look like!

**  After considering the lines at the post office on a Saturday before Christmas, David and I decided to do our mail drop on Monday, his Sunday. We’ll still, I hope, have time to get the tree up.


**  I have the most awesome husband in the world!

I’m late in saying that, but I ate the last of the support material that goes with that declaration for breakfast.

David got these for me when he was combing grocery stores looking for my “solo uvetta” (only raisins) panettone before we left New Jersey Monday. He didn’t find only raisin panettone, but he found pumpkin cupcakes with Rudolph decorations! AWESOME!


**  I don’t care for the traditional panettone and Noni always had the only raisins bread for Mom and me. David found one that was just raisins and candied orange peel and I said I’d give it a try because the citron is what I didn’t like. Well, it turns out that what I always thought was the reason I didn't care for it, the same reason Mom didn’t like the traditional panettone, was not the reason I didn’t care for it. It’s the candied orange-peel. I tasted on piece off the top and didn’t cut it, so I’m taking it to Dad’s on Christmas Eve. I ordered a raisins-only one for me…at 4 times the cost of the one I didn’t like!


**  They discontinued offering the bracelet I had my eye on at Swag Bucks just before I got enough points for it. But they did start offering the one you see below. So I cashed in part of my Swag Bucks for it. I was wondering if they’d charge me for the shipping. They didn’t! Then I expected to see my bracelet sometime in January. It took a week before there was a package in my mailbox! Wow! It kinda makes me want to watch some more videos.

My Swag

Wednesday Hodge Podge

Joiniung Joyce at From This Side of the Pond for Hodge Podge

1. So, when did you last take a walk in the woods? A stroll along the beach? A drive going nowhere in particular in the car?

When David and I train-chase, it often starts as a drive to nowhere in particular. I used to go to the park to walk every day when it was nice and no snow. Yes, even in the cold as long as there wasn’t ice and snow to slip on I walked about a mile or so daily. I think now I might consider going to the park for a “walk” for the mental relaxation, but after the power chair is okayed and here.


2. Are you sending Christmas cards this year? About how many do you send? Photo card or something more traditional? How do you display the cards you receive?

We send cards, either our family cards or train cards every year. I always sent family cards and David always sent train cards, so now we send them both. They are photo cards that I created using Digital Scrapbooking and I write the verse on the card.


3. What's a word you've heard too much of in the past week?

“Grrr.” ?? I audibly “grrr” when I get frustrated, like getting in and out of the car on long rides or the lifting and moving necessary for baking. I don’t like to be grouchy, but a temporary “grrr” and some minor grunting helps me get what I need done. Think of the grunts you hear in a tennis match; it really does help!


4. December 13th is National Cocoa Day-are you a fan? Plain or flavored? Marshmallows or no marshmallows?

I love cocoa! I like really good cocoa just in its chocolaty awesomeness, but I also LOVE cinnamon hot cocoa and I like it with a splash or two...or three, of peppermint schnapps!

I can do without the marshmallows although as long as they melt, I can deal with them.


5. What is something you do to help alleviate the hectic pace of the Christmas season?

Oh! The hectic pace of the Christmas season is what I do to alleviate the mundane day to day of every other season!


6. Besides jewelry, what's a favorite sparkly-glittery item in your home or closet?

Wow. I’ll think of something as soon as I hit “publish” but I can’t think of any sparklies that aren’t jewelry right now.


7. Share a favorite line or two from any Christmas carol.

“How do you measure the love of a mother, How do you write down a baby’s first cry?” From Candlelight Carol

That was the first song on the CD I listened to while meditating on Christmas Eve the year my Mom died and I cried for about a half hour. It still makes me tear up but they are happy remembrance tears now.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m on break right now from Ginger Bats, Bells and Birds baking. When I can barely lift the tray from the hot pad on the chair to the counter to put the cookies on the cooling racks, it’s time to take a break! It takes me longer now, but I still get it done! (And I love it!)

Now you may have noticed that there are birds added to the mix in my Ginger Belles and Bats. It occurred to me, strange as it sounds to me, that some people may not appreciate the blessing of the Christmas Bat. I know, I know, how odd, huh?

Bronner’s, my favorite Christmas store makes up stories for some of their ornaments. I mean, “Legend of the Christmas Chile Pepper?” So, why not the “Legend of the Christmas Bat?” A cute furry bat with garland on its wings, right? Think about it; if God saw fit to make sure Noah put 2 bats on The Arc, I highly doubt they flushed the bats out of the stable. If “I said the dove” cooed that baby to sleep, couldn’t “I said the bat” have been the one keeping the mosquitos away from him? I think it’s perfectly okay to offer all of God’s creatures a place in the Christmas celebration.  (I have a dog and three cats in my Fontanini Nativity.) And before you bring up spiders to my arachnophobic self, there IS a story about a spider creating the first strands of tinsel on a Christmas tree, which is one of the reasons we don’t use tinsel, but I even respect that there is a place for a Christmas Spider; just that place is in someone else’s home. Ours has a Christmas Bat.

Wednesday Hodge Podge

Good Wednesday morning! Let's get right on to joining Joyce from From This Side of the Pond for Hodge Podge!

1. Share your traditions surrounding the Christmas stocking.

Christmas stockings were something everyone got; my brother and I had the really big ones that Mom made and everyone else got smaller ones. Mom filed the stockings with everything from lip balm and tic-tacs to socks ad scarves to perfume and nice jewelry. I filled hers and had so much fun working on duplicating that same style of contents but very personal for her, like she did for all of us.

The first Christmas without Mom was hard; she was the Christmas Spirit in our family. I tried to do her job, to fill the stockings, even my own because Tori and Rina weren’t elves yet and Santa had to be properly represented; I had NOT been bad, and create the over spilling tree. I think I did okay. I remember that my meditation time after putting Baby Jesus in the manger on my nativity was long that year with lots of tears. I think I let out everything I’d held in since September that year. But I finally felt closure and a great peace on Christmas morning.

2004 was a little easier because Rina and Tori had become elves. They transitioned from believing, to telling me that Santa didn’t really travel on Christmas Eve; he just told parents what to buy if the kids were good, to embracing that magic joy of giving when you grow up to be a Santa yourself. Alter having gone from kid to elf in one brutal day at school, I was so happy they had such a neat view on that transition!

David and I started with the rule that we only exchanged what fit in our stockings on Christmas morning, but somewhere between gifts that were too big that we really wanted to give and Mom’s influence showing as I put so many packages of candy and fun little things to fill the stocking that even a package of Ferrero Rochers didn’t fit and were under the tree one year, that we’ve opened that up and added a couple gifts when we find them. I like that a few gifts under the tree make the tree look better. Last year when Rina was with us on Christmas day was the best because I got to fill 2 stockings and do a lot of the other old family traditions.


2. How many hours of sleep do you average at night? Is it enough?

5-7 depending on the night. Yes, it’s usually enough. I learned self-hypnosis quite a few years ago, it’s a lot of why I am an EX smoker 22-1/2 years later. Being able to quickly get into a deep sleep was helpful when I finished my degree going to school full time and working 3 part time jobs!


3. If you had to give up one thing for the remainder of this year what would it be? 

Pain! The question didn’t say it had yo br something I liked I was giving up!


4. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (or Wills and Kate as I like to call them) have announced they're expecting a baby. Do you follow news of the Royals? 

Um, ahem… If I lived in Kansas City I’d probably follow the Royals, but Toledo is perfect for me because we get the FOX Sports channels for the Reds AND the Tigers!


5. For me, the sound of childhood is__________________.

It’s also one of my favorite springtime sounds; the sound of childhood is the sound of laughing outdoors when a group of kids are at the playground.


6. Fruit cake-yay or boo? What's your favorite dessert made with fruit?

Depends on the fruit cake. Ridley’s Café  in Rochester Michigan makes an awesome tea cake with fruit called “It’s A Wonderful Loaf.” Celebration Generation made the BEST Fruit Cake cookies. You can’t order them anymore, but the recipe is here:Fruitcake Cookies


7. What is one thing you want to accomplish before 2012 comes to an end?

Get my baking done. I’m physically having a hard time this year. Before next year I really need a taller kitchen work chair and a stand-up mixer. My arms are just not doing so well with the reaching up or the mixing anymore. The thing is my Christmas baking is my greatest joy at this time of the year and I’ll still do it even if it wears me totally out.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I woke up with an ear-worm and I don’t know WHAT I was dreaming about to but it’s there. I can’t get the old Fritos jingle out of my head!


Munchabuncha munchabuncha munchabuncha munchabuncha Fritos go with lunch…

Hustle and Bustle

I was wondering about that term. Tomboy me totally gets the hustle part; move quick and don’t get called out. It makes sense in a Christmas context because there is a deadline and the rest of life doesn’t take a break so you can keep up. But the bustle part…

I had to look up bustle to make sure there wasn’t a definition other than the big butt of a Victorian skirt. Of course there is, but I wanted to know the origin of the word defined as energetic and busy activity. The best I got that wasn’t a dress was possibly from an obsolete Norse work buskle, also busk, which meant to prepare oneself. So, hustle and bustle is to quickly prepare oneself. Okay, that works for me!

I saw lots of video and photos for bustle, as in dress, including a how-to for “bustling a wedding dress.” There is so much I missed not doing the wedding thing. I had a very different definition of train for my marriage celebration. But bustling is what the maid of honor does so nobody steps on the train. Because the wedding was so expensive that one last fitting to adjust the hem on the dress would break the budget? Yes, I don’t understand wedding dresses and if there had been a wedding, I think the only train would have been the one we were photographed photographing in our wedding suits.

I suppose that’s one of my few regrets with not having a wedding. The shocking photographs we’d have had done of things you don’t do in a wedding dress and tux. Like the bride and groom trackside photographing a train or mini golfing in a wedding gown. You see a train on the putt-putt course would have messed up my game and let’s not even go there on what it would have done to my skill in the batting cage! No joke; when we talked about what we’d want to do if we were doing a real wedding, it was “take pictures early, because I’m planning to wreck the dress.” Old family tradition is to do something to the brides dress so it can’t be worn again. My mom’s aunt stomped the hen on her dress near the end of the reception because it hadn’t been torn yet. The reason is quite simple; One wedding, one marriage. It is a blessing and if something doesn’t happen to the dress on its own, someone had to ensure that blessing is made on the marriage. Can you imagine in this day and age where a wedding dress can be used several times by the same bride and few bat an eyelash?

I do understand the concept of passing the dress onto a daughter, but even that I question. Styles change so much and a beautiful dress a mother wears could be considered a major fashion mistake by the time the daughter marries. I like a concept Tori want to do much better. She asked if she could have my Mom’s dress. That id my Dad couldn’t send Mom’s dress to Good Will and he gave it to me. Tori asked for it before I had to think about where it should go. She wants to use part of it incorporated into a gown she has designed. Mind you Tori is an 18-year old college freshman, not currently dating. The Wedding Industrial Complex is always glad to see wedding plans on a Pinterest board for very young, very single women. But her idea is mushy wrapped in memories, totally the kind of thing I’m a sucker for. And I’ll happily go to hopefully her only wedding and at the end of the reception, unless she’s already spilled wine on it, like she always did with white shirts and fruit punch as a kid, I’ll stomp on the hem of the dress to wish her luck.

Okay…But bustle in hustle and bustle is only really related to the dress in that the maid of honor hustles to bustle the dress. MY bustle is baking. Er, my hustle is baking? Anyway, holiday baking wave one starts this afternoon.

Right now, why don’t I do the Monday Quiz About Me? Thanks to Heather at Acting Balanced and Wayne at Touristic for hosting again this week!

1. When was the last time you had your picture taken with Santa?

I don’t really remember. I’ve talked to Santa and hugged Santa, but not sure when I had my picture taken with him. The last photo we found in Grandma’s house, under her buffet, was a picture of Dave and me with Santa dated 1972. I was 6 and still believed. By 1973 I’d become an elf, way too young to be an elf already, but I’d become an elf, but I probably went anyway because Dave hadn’t become an elf yet.

In case you weren’t sure about the reference, an elf is what you become when you are no longer receiving the magic but have become part of making it happen; Santa never dies just because you grow up. I never stopped “believing” in the magic.


2. Which do you prefer - ham or turkey?

Ham, although this year we’re planning on turkey for Christmas Day dinner. We winded up not doing Thanksgiving dinner except for Cracker Barrel after all and I’m still craving my mom’s stuffing! But usually I prefer Honey Baked Ham for Christmas. It too makes awesome soup! But we don’t have a set traditional Christmas meal. On Christmas Day it’s usually just David and me, so we decide what special meal we’d like together.


3. Do you give more to charity in December?

No. I think I actually give more of what I can afford; money or time, during the less busy times for giving when it’s still needed.


4. Which US City would you most like to visit and why?

If you remember from Friday, there’s the whole “I saw this place in a dream” thing, so San Antonio, Texas, just to see the place I saw in dreams. It’s also close to Lulling to see the watermelon water tower!


And don't forget to add a 5th Question on your own blog so we can answer as we hop around!

5. My question for you I need 5 jars of preserves for my Crostadas. I have Apricot, Peach, Raspberry and Cherry. I’m not sure if I should get another flavor or double up on one of those four. So question #5 this week is what are your thoughts? Would you pick one of those four for an Italian cookie-cake or is there a different flavor you’d prefer?

For me, being a black forest gal, I’ll always pick the cherry. But I also know that for the crostadas we have for our party, I always make sure there is a raspberry for David too.

Fill-In, Dream, Fix, Frag, Cook, Smash, Scrap

Happy Friday! Tomorrow is December already. Wow. November was actually a pretty quick month. I think that’s because the political ads made things seem r….e….l….l…y…s…l…o…w And the holidays make time seem to just zip by! But don’t worry; things will slow back down in January, not politician slow, but nothing to do slow. I always find that I can make January go faster if I stress about Valentine’s Day. Whether it was “Oh please, not another February 14 without a date,” or “What can I give him that he won’t take the wrong way?” or “I’m married now; what can I give him he will take the wrong way?” stress with a deadline makes things go much faster!

Yeah, that wasn’t as happy an opening as it could have been, huh? Sunday evening is the big grocery trip to buy the necessary things for Davinities season and the start of things going on every weekend that I’ll be baking for. Okay and you all know I love it! In the midst of baking and gatherings, there is also a train card to put together so we can get everything printed and mailed, a few gifts to mail, including my Secret Santee’s box. My Santee’s gift(s) will be wrapped today and mailed tomorrow or Monday, depends which works for my sleigh driver.

Fun Fill-ins from Hilary at Feeling Beachie today and some big frags on my blog to clear that I’ll share with Mrs. 4444 for Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissing Time, so let’s get to it!

This week’s statements:
1. I have always dreamed of ____
2. My ___ is my ____
3. I love to ____ when I ____
4. I will never forget ____ with ____

My Answers:

1. I have always dreamed of visiting San Antonio, TX. There was a place I’d never been and never seen pictures of that I kept returning to in dreams. The dreams were never the same or the same people, so not recurring dreams, just a recurring place. When I saw pictures of San Antonio, maybe 10 years ago, I was shocked; it was the place in my dreams! Now I want to go see it for real!

2. My husband is my blog editor. He took the place of my Mom’s proofreading the poor typist who is equally poor at proofreading…but I do okay with the ideas and words part of writing. Every text I get telling me of a typo on my blog leaves me convinced that sound I hear is Mom laughing at me. She would have loved David.

3. I love to sing when I bake.

4. I will never forget going fishing with Kelly that first year we knew each other.

** 

 

Doesn’t that look good? We had Cocoa Pork Chops for dinner this week; SO GOOD! I agree with a comment about a similar recipe I read, “Cocoa and chili powder together?" But they are fabulous!

Since there’s just the two of us for dinner, a recipe for a family is usually way too much, but for this one, I made the full recipe for the rub and keep it in a zip-loc with the other seasoning mixes. Good thing too! When we had a leftovers night and there was a serving of pork chops and a serving of meatloaf, David picked the Cocoa Pork; score!

The recipe for the rub is simple. 2 TBS brown sugar, 1 TBS cocoa powder, 1-1/2 tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. salt, ½ tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. cumin. Put the spices in a zip-loc bag and shake them to mix. Rub onto pork and prepare in your favorite way. The first time I made them, I rubbed oil on the chops and then rubbed the spices and baked them for about 20 minutes at 375. Last time, I rubbed the spices on the chops without oil and grilled them. David and I both preferred the grilled method, but both were good!


**  Ronalyn, of The Adventures of Esa and Zed, asked in comments to see some of my current Smash book pages. You might remember seeing some of my Smash Archive pages here, and I like them. They are personal and fun to look at, fun for me to look at anyway, and I think that’s the point. They aren’t works of art, except that those of us that paper craft add our art without even trying.

Here are some of the pages I’ve done in my new Smash book:

First pages; Nani past and now likes

 

Cool stuff

MS Awareness pages with information from magazines

(Still filling that one)

I want to get some bags of crafting letters. The MS has really taken its toll on my penmanship so I’m cutting letters out of magazines and writing some words ransom-note style, which I think looks pretty cool! A nice assortment of styles and colors of letters would also make way for some cool Word art too. Of course there are the gazillion pother fun things that will complement my stickers; clips, pockets, paper tapes… that I have on my wish list that I’ll add after Christmas since I don’t spend on me in December, but I really am enjoying smashing and I love the quality and size of the K & Company books.


**  If you’ll all indulge me in a little scrapbooking brag time, I’d like to share some of the fun things I’ve been working on.

Credits: Christmas In July contributions from Amy Peck,

 Blue Heart Scraps, Connie Prince, Pixels by Jen, Rosey Toes Designs, 

Twin Mom Scraps, Z Pink Boudoir, Find Your Bliss Designs

I did this for the scraplift challenge for November at Ginger Scraps. I like how it turned out. I do a page documenting each year’s Davinities with my Christmas pages for that year. Last year was a banner year for Davinities, the cookies and baked goods were all so good! I was proud of how simply huge by golden-brown thumb was! I’m almost intimidated going into this year’s baking!

The next layout goes with the sentimentality of the Christmas season.

Credits: Ladies’ Boutique by Darlene Haughin

That’s Kelly and me! The photo on the right was taken way back in the 80s; Kelly and her maid of honor, me! The photo on the left is from this January, when Kel and her dad visited 24 years is a lot of history!

Besties was made with Darlene Haughin’s Ladies’ Boutique kit. It was the current kit and this layout was done before the end of October and before the computer that died necessitating the new computer that was replaced with the one I’m typing on now. Ladies’ Boutique is still on introductory sale, but today is the last day!



**  Darlene has a new kit in her 3Scrapateers and My Memories  stores:

A Very Merry Christmas is available and ON SALE for 30% off until January 4. So you have some time to make some of those Christmas memories that will be perfectly scrapped with this kit! If you’re like me, you still have a folder or Christmas 2011 photos on your hard drive begging for this kit while it’s on sale to get caught up!


**  Let’s finish off this week’s fragments with a freebie! Darlene okayed me to share the quick-page version of my layout with Ladies’ Night with you at The Chronicles of Nani! There are two quick pages in the download; one with and one without the Besties word art:

Click mage to download at 4-Shared.

And my blog is all clean and defragged and ready for the weekend!

How Davinities Started

2011 Davinities

If you’ve been a regular at my coffee shop, The Chronicles of Nani, for a while, or if you searched for Digitalegacies Designs scrapbooking freebies or found some tidbit that encouraged you to read back a bit, you’ve read and seen photos of my Davinities creations every Christmas. My Secret Santa this year could be one the folks reading the old entries, maybe? I have found not just good reading getting to know my Santees through their blog archives, but I also found some nice tips for their gifts. I’m not revealing anything this year, but Linda, of Linda’s Bee Hive, is the one who gave me the idea to send her a letter from Santa Claus, Indiana last year! Let it suffice to say that if I follow you, I’ve read your first blog entry and a few in between.

The beginning of Davinities is somewhat like the beginning of a blog. If the current blog is the first blog you did and you’re still blogging a few years later, watching the transformation is neat as the blog grows into its present level of blog proficiency. Maybe you blog more often now, maybe less often but you only blog about causes you really believe in. Maybe you started blogging before you were even expecting and now your blog is a full-blown Mommy or Daddy blog. Me, The Chronicles of Nani started out claiming it was a coffee shop on the Information Superhighway, which it still is, but I really feel like I moved in more of the comfy chairs. I hope you all like them!

So, Davinities roots were, plain and simple, a little girl trying to make Daddy happy, and everyone knows a nice treat from his Little Princess makes Daddy happy! Princess was what Pop called me when I was little. I imagine I was princess baby since I honestly don’t remember a time before he called me “his princess.” Davinities is what I call my baking at Christmas, often shared with friends at gatherings or given as gifts. The story goes that there was once a Little Princess who so loved the King that she wanted to create a confection of his favorite flavors to present to him as a gift. Pop’s favorite sweet flavors are peanut butter and butterscotch, and I found the recipe for what later became the Original Davinity when I was seven, so of course sweets were the only flavors that mattered. And Pop really did/does love them. So the rest of the story is that the King was so pleased that the Little Princess honored him by sharing them with all of his people, and the tradition of sharing Davinities with special people was born. I’ve given and shared Davinities every Christmas since then. I‘m 46 now; that's a LOT of baking!

But the beginning is not just a recipe I tried at 7, for how did I ever get the idea of making something special for my dad? Well, it was the first time that I used the stove by myself, under Mom’s watchful eye and with a chair to boost my height, but it wasn’t the first treat I’d made him!

Circa Nani's Easy Bake Oven

I got my Easy Bake Oven the Christmas before. Pop ate many mini chocolate and yellow cakes with white or chocolate frosting. That’s possibly four totally different cakes! I loved the magic of baking with a light bulb and seeing my dad smile when I presented him with dessert. It’s not like I never ate any of my cakes, I did and I liked them a lot. I made them for Mom and even Dave, although sometimes he wanted to help and it bugged me that anyone wanted to “bake in my kitchen.” I did get over that when I made the first Krisp Kringles, then called Peanut Butter Scotch Krispies in my first cookbook. I was in Mom’s Kitchen and she shared, I guessed I could too.

Circa Tori's Easy Bake Oven

When Tori was 7, I got her an Easy Bake Oven. Rina didn’t get the oven because she didn’t have the cooking passion Tori already had. If “Baby T” had been Trevin and not Torine, and he showed the desire to bake, he’d have gotten one too. I don’t buy the “sexist toy” crap about getting the oven for girls and I wouldn’t have bought the “girl’s toy” crap if I’d had a nephew who was interested. I really didn’t hear a ton of feedback, but then again this is the daughter of the kid who gave back a drum to my Mom, and complained that it sounded like a toy, the Christmas before he got his first real drum set. It’s possible she thought the cakes tasted like toys too! But she is a great cook at just 18. I was a great baker, but in trying to create a meal, I’d burn Kool-Aid until my mid-20s, so she has a serving-table leg up on me there.

What brought this reminiscing about my younger baking years to mind was an internet search for a Christmas gift that brought me to a search hit for this:

Today's Easy Bake Oven

The modern Easy Bake Oven plugs in but NO LIGHT BULB! How do you pass up the joy of baking with a light bulb? Let alone the additional science questions and answers that come with baking with a light bulb. It’s how we knew in the early 90s that putting a bag of mini hotdogs on the dashboard of the car in the zoo parking lot would give us hot cooked hot dogs by lunchtime. It’s part of an adult not having to tell you not to leave a candy bar on a sunny window sill or touch the bulb when you turn off a lamp. It teaches not just how to bake a cake, but it also imparts some critical thinking too. They do still have a light-bulb powered oven, but it’s the lesser product.

I’ll comment more at some other time about “girl’s toys” and “boy’s toys” and how awful those stereotypes are. Dave and I played with our dolls together; oh excuse me, action figures. My PJ action high school girl dated his GI Joe doll while my action coed, future lawyer Barbie was in love with action med-school Brad while action construction worker Ken and the Six Million Dollar Man doll fought over the attention of action Barbie’s action sorority sister Christie. Oh, it was something like that.

So, did you or someone you know - friends, kids, grandkids - have an Easy Bake Oven?

And Soon The Week Is Done

I’ll probably blog some more this afternoon when I take my baking break. This is going to be a big baking day for me. I’m making half-dozen packages of Mr. Goodcookies for the bake sale at Paws and Whiskers on Sunday. I’m making 10 dozen Mr. Goodcookies to package in half-dozen bags. It’s definitely a labor of love!

This week’s statements:
1. I wish I had ___ to ___
2. I stopped wearing ____
3. My favorite song right now is_________because________.
4. I always sing while________.

My Answers:

1. I wish I had money to hire a crew to come in and clean/remodel our house.

2. I stopped wearing skirts. Anyplace I’d go where a skirt or dress would be appropriate I’d use the wheelchair. Skirt in a wheelchair is not a good look!

3. My favorite song right now is Dear God by XTC because it’s a very passionate song. (PLEASE see more about this song in Fragments!)

4. I always sing while I’m baking!

1. What is your favorite fall family tradition?

Apple picking! We’ve, and by “we” I mean me and any members of my family that want to go, gone apple picking since Tori and Rina were a year old. They’ll be 18 next Thursday. Another great tradition that’s part of that is that I make apple chips in the dehydrator. This year I’ll be shipping apple chips to two different places for my college-girls!


2. If money weren't an issue, how many kids would you have?

Still none; money had nothing to do with my choice not to have kids.


3. If you were to get a tattoo, what would it be and where would you put it?

I’d never get a tattoo for real, but I wore a temporary summer tattoo in my teens and 20s; a rose on my ankle. Trite, huh? I’m glad I didn’t get it permanently put on.


4. What condiment is a must in your house?

David likes his mayo on ham sandwiches (mayo-ick). I am a mustard girl. Honey mustard is the number one for pretty much any kind of meat but I like others for sandwiches, cooking and pretzels. I have 4 bottles of mustard that do all get used; honey, spicy brown, Dijon and classic yellow.


5. How did your spouse/fiance propose?

He didn’t. I didn’t either. We were already living together and he was working nights the week before Christmas, so we “went to city hall.” Yes, David worked on our “wedding night.” I scrapped.

**  David and I visited Hollywood Casino for the first time since it opened in April on Labor Day. We both did the smart thing when going to a casino decide how much you’ll lose and when you’ve lost that, you’re done. I did that the first time, well only time, I went to Vegas and considered myself a winner because I only lost about a third of what I planned to lose!

The truth is there’s only been one time that I went to a casino and left with more money than I came in with. John used to go the Motor City Casino in Detroit often enough that he got the occasional big coupon to Iridescence, the very hoity-toity restaurant there. That’s when he called little sis and asked me out to hoity toity dinner and some gambling. It was a chance to spend an evening with one of my closest friends, have a very nice diner with edible art dessert and donate my $20 to the casino while having a little fun with the draw poker machines. This was while John was playing the table games.

Well, that one night, after John has spent his donation to the casino for the evening, he found me having a jolly time at a machine not noticing what the total of credits was because I knew I was winning enough that it hadn’t asked for more coins. That was back when the machines still used coins; much more fun than putting paper money in and getting a paper slip if you win. John had looked at the credit total I was ignoring with huge eyes. “You know that credit total is eighty dollars’ worth of quarters, right?” I lost the next few hands after realizing how much was there, so I hit the cash button and listened to almost eighty dollars in quarters, with bells, spill out of the machine. That’s why I like the old-school coin machines better than the new-fangled paper ones. Like when I cashed out of machines in Vegas, you just feel like more of a winner when the coin cup gets too heavy to carry!

On Monday, because I didn’t really want to go because I didn’t have money I wanted to donate to the casino, David gave me a gambling stipend. We found a draw poker machine I liked and he put the bill in for me and left to find the poker room. I brought my Nook and our agreement was that when he was ready to go, I’d either be in this area playing poker or I’d be having a latte and reading. The machines are really set up so that you win often enough and big enough or almost big enough, to make you feel like you really did well, almost won, but after a decent while, they still get the money. I like that! Just next time I need to pick one of the machines for people who are there with people who play well and last longer! David found me reading the end of the current book and having just finished my latte. He wasn’t a winner that night either, but I think we might go again sometime.


**  We gathered up the cats for that annual trip that if you listened to them you’d swear we were going to the violin string factory. The greatest thing about choosing a vet that is less than a mile away is the ride with the cat chorus is short. We called it playing “Meowco Purro” as Carla would sound the desperate cry from her carrier and Kaline would respond with equal pathos from hers. Carla is 12 pounds and the paperweight that sleeps on my hip is 13! They said it’s average for girls and they look and sound great otherwise. It’s just amazing to me because in all her 17 years, the heaviest Azzie ever was, and that was only one time she weighted in that heavy, was 8 pounds. She was usually 7-1/2. I asked to be reassured that 12 and 13 pounds was normal and was told it’s normal. They eat light cat food, their preference, we tried to go back to regular; they were not impressed, run and play like crazy and don’t have a ton of treats, they’re not crazy about people food either. If they were overweight, I don’t know what we’d do.

Kaline’s seasonal eye problem is allergies. We were given the choice between eye ointment like last year, pills or children’s Benadryl. We’d had better experiences with liquids in the past, so we went with the children’s Benadryl. Yeah, that was a good idea! We got a drop of the first dose on her tongue and she was foaming at the mouth trying to get it out. Her eye is getting better and we’ll try the medicine again if it doesn’t keep improving, but adding that much stress isn’t going to help her.


**  The book I almost finished at the casino and did finish Tuesday morning was Blood and Bones by Austin Camacho. It’s the second Hannibal Jones book and I have all of the Hannibal Jones books; three read, two more to go. I love Hannibal! He is strong, smart and one of those champions for people. If you enjoy mysteries with a lot of action, some violence and great, but realistic, moral victories, definitely try out Austin Camacho’s Hannibal Jones mysteries!


**  About Dear God, by XTC: Don’t get this wrong! Dear God is an old song that I’ve recently become aware of and it is NOT a religious song, in that atheism is the lack of religion. The song has made me think a lot. Churches try to “save” atheists, but after listening to the lyrics, I wonder if those trying to save them have ever asked WHY they don’t believe. While people are starving, living in the streets, children and animals are abused, families are falling apart, many churches are fighting for superiority amongst themselves and government control. I really think I can understand why they don’t see God. We don’t always do a good job of showing Him. Maybe churches aren’t here to “save” the atheists; maybe the atheists are here to save the churches. Just a little food for thought.

Wednesday Hodge Podge

1. I included this quote (attributed to William H. Danforth) in my blog post yesterday... "The best cure for a sluggish mind is to disturb it's routine." When was the last time you 'disturbed your routine' and how'd you do it?

Well, I guess I disturbed my mind’s routine when I started taking college classes again. The goal was to earn a certificate in some area or another of computers. Now as I’m not in a financial place to afford tuition right now, I want to get the tools I need to get back to work and possibly back to school soon after. My mind is in a constant state of disruption, so it doesn’t get sluggish until bedtime, :)


2. What's your favorite fried food indulgence?

Fried Sweet Potatoes! They are my fried weakness!

I occasionally get a small order of fries (or a half of a small with a Happy Meal) at McDonald’s and I like the chicken bites, but as a rule I really don’t like much fried food – frying adds fat and destroys the flavor of most things.


3. Did you have an allowance as a kid? What did you do with it? Do you give your own kids an allowance?

I had an allowance in the summer, when we were out doing things without Mom there. As I recall maybe it was $10 a week. That was a lot when I was a kid! I spent it on arts and crafts, baseball cards and candy and an occasional Chocolate Honey Dipped donut at Dunkin Donuts.

We don’t give our kids an allowance, we just buy them everything they want. We’re obedient cat-parents.


4. What's something you wish you knew more about?

Pop culture; I wish I just magically knew more about the TV programs and movies everyone references without having to watch them.


5. Is there anything you feel too old to do anymore? If so, what?

Drink to any excess. I’m too old to party irresponsibly like I did in my early 20s. We did always have a designated driver when I went out to clubs with friends, but the “need” for alcohol to socialize is something I’m glad to have outgrown.


6. What's a song you think has a great first line?

First one that comes to mind is “Hold On” by Kansas; “Look in the mirror and tell me, what do you see?”


7. Who are you writing to/for when you create a blog post? In other words...as you write, who is the audience in your head?

You! I’m always writing to anyone reading, be it someone I do or don’t know. I occasionally I will mention a friend or fellow blogger in a post and address them, but I write to everyone reading my blog.

When I write in my personal journal I write to the journal itself, but occasionally recognize that one day Tori or Rina will be able to read it* and address them, but usually the private journal is treated as the journal itself is my personal and most intimate, non-judgmental friend.

** Tori and Rina will inherit the right to read my most personal thoughts. They can decide then if there would be any value in selling them.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

This was my snack after baseball and Degrassi last night:

peach butter and sugar cookies

I started the peach butter in my crockpot Monday night, drained excess liquid yesterday afternoon, milled it in the blender and put it back in the crock post to finish cooking yesterday afternoon. I made a quick batch of simple sugar cookies to put the peach butter on. Mmmm-M! I haven’t figured out if there are enough peaches left to do a peach crisp or if I’ll just eat the rest of them.

Sunday Sharing

We’re on break from the White Tornado now. David is helping me with some of the liftables that are more than I can handle and the David-specific stuff that I refuse to be the one who decides if it goes or stays. That and I want us both to know where his stuff goes!

David was at what I lovingly call a “grownups play date” yesterday, a model train operating session at a friend’s in Michigan, so he was gone all day. That gave me nothing but uninterrupted scrap time! I got the last three pages done for the major project I’ve been working on for over four years. Now starts the proofreading. That’s a David thing. He’s the pro and I’m, especially bad at seeing my own typos because I know what I meant to say and often, that’s what I see. Plus, I like having a second pair of eyes check out the layouts before I get them printed. Once the printing is done, it’s done. It’s just too expensive to do it twice. If David asks why I laid something out the way I did, or tells me it looks cluttered or not balanced, I can make adjustments. Still, editing is most to proofread my typos!

Part of scrapbooking, for me anyway, is that I often create templates of special elements in separate files to use in my layouts. Those separate file often end up being freebies. Since the project is a gift, I can’t show the page just yet, but I can show and share a word art I did for one of the pages.  This is a special book to me and sharing little pieces of my creative heart only make the whole project more special.  I’d like to share this word art with fellow digiscrappers and anyone who might enjoy the sentiment to enhance a photo or add to their blog!

Click preview to download at 4-Shared.


We had brunch around 11:30, so in lieu of lunch, for our afternoon break we had cake! I was inspired by a blog I read yesterday morning. I don’t really remember how I got there, but I think I followed links from Pinterest. Of all things, recipes are the greatest thing I get out of Pinterest. Well, that and an organized place I can keep my White Tornado links, but I have been inspired by so many wonderful recipes! So I found myself in the archives at GFE, Gluten Free Easily, and a few different gluten free versions of Mug Cakes. I never realized how many types of Mug Cake recipes there were! So, as I was looking at the vast variety of recipes, I started wondering if there was a Weight Watchers friendly version. I found a couple “healthier” recipes, but they all ended in a whole regular egg and 3 tablespoons of oil. I got out my little points calculator and came up with 10-15 points for one mug cake. No thanks. The oil was way too abundant for my mind for just a mug of cake. So, on to recipe building.

I analyzed a total of 7 recipes from different places boasting benefits for different reasons. There are some things you swap out and some things you don’t. I wanted a cake that was fluffier than the gluten free recipe and lower in oil than, well, lower in oil than any of them. I came up with a combination of ingredients that seemed like it should be good and the total was only 6 points! YAY!! But the big question after all that – does it taste good? Because what is it worth if it’s within my dietary guidelines but it tastes bad, right?


So I combined it, nuked it and WOW! Warm and tasty chocolate cake!

Ugly, but tasty!

My rule for posting a recipe that I put together is that I have to have all the accurate measurements, and I have to recreate the recipe with the same results at least twice after the measurements are finalizes. Well, with this one, I wrote and used the exact measurements the first time. I just remade the recipe, plus the regular sugar variation and even my finicky Hubby says he’ll eat it again!

So here’s my version of the 3-minute Mug Cake:

Nani-style Mug Cake

¼ cup almond flour
6 packets Splenda
1 TBS cocoa
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ c milk
¼ c egg substitute
1 tsp. vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients in a coffee mug, microwave on high for 3 minutes.

Serve warm. It's not a pretty cake, but it's tasty!


(I made David’s substituting 2 tablespoons of sugar for the 6 packets of Splenda.)

Links

GFE - Gluten Free Easily

Follow Friday Four Fill-Ins

Every Friday Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the Follow Friday Four Fill-Ins.  It’s a quick and fun meme to challenge your thoughts to squeeze into the spaces of the week’s statements and compare them with other who often have a very different view of what fits!

This week’s statements:


1.       I never ___ on a ____
2.       ___ is my favorite holiday
3.       I think my ___ is/are ___.
4.       When there is a ___ I ___.

1.       I never substitute the healthier alternatives on a holiday recipe.  Christmas cookies and cakes are meant to have real butter and cream in them.

2.       Opening Day is my favorite holiday.  Really, it’s whichever holiday that I really celebrate is next.  (Opening Day, David’s Birthday, My Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Our Anniversary, Christmas, Valentine’s Day)

3.       I think my face is not aged enough for my gray hair yet.

4.       When there is a snow day I want to hibernate!

Come on over the Feeling Beachie and see whose brain yours matches or not!

Take A Break

It’s definitely break time. I can tell you that I now know the cake-pop maker Dave, Laura and the girls gave me for Christmas works! I don’t have any sticks, so I didn’t make cake pops; I made cake bites or cake balls, 2-1/2 dozen chocolate! I am troubled because they’re drying after I put chocolate glaze on them. I think I added too much whipping cream. They’re not setting. But, maybe I’m just being impatient. I’m going to take a break for right now and then go shower. The maker cooks faster than baking them, but it’s MES-SY! I have the cake pop maker cooled and cleaned off, the dishes done and all the cake batter and glaze off the counters. Thus why I need the break before I hit the shower! I’m kinda full too. I chocolate glazed a few strawberries and had a bunch of the leftover strawbs for lunch. I also tried two of the cake balls and a pretzel bagel. As lunches go, it’s kinda shy in the milk and protein department. Well, I did say the glaze wasn’t setting because there was too much milk. That counts for something, right?


I want to mention that I am honored to have received 2 blog awards from Tere on her blog, Tere’s World. I follow two of her blogs and enjoy reading them. She uses her blogs to express, share and vent, like many of us. I have a space that I present this year’s awards on the bottom of the blog, my trophy case if you will. I’ll be doing the “things about me” part and awarding these awards, probably tomorrow, when I get back to my normal routine.


Right now, while I still have time for it to be Tuesday, I have some Nani facts to Tell!

The question for Tell Me Tuesday at Suzanne’s The Coloradolady is:

What songs bring you back to really great moments in your life?

There are a few that paint pictures in my mind that make me smile.

Age of Aquarius – This is probably my oldest memory with a song attached. I vividly remember a snippet of this song coming on the radio while I was playing under the kitchen table while Mom was washing dishes after lunch. Mom was humming along with the song and I remember the deejay introducing the song as a current popular song. The 5th Dimension’s version came out in the spring of 1969, so I was a few month away from turning 3. Mom said I played under the kitchen table when Mom was in there often when I was little. I only actually remember that one time.


Your Own Special Way – This is David’s favorite love song and he played it for me on Valentine’s Day 2005, our first. We slow danced in his kitchen after dinner. I told him just yesterday that dance was the moment when I really realized that if it was up to me, he’d be in my world the rest of my life. (SO glad he felt the same way about me!)


Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off – The version with both Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers singing was a song Tori and Rina loved when they were little. I had a copy from the Shall We Dance soundtrack. They loved the song and even watched the movie with me, but they preferred color movies. When they made CDs of their favorites to play in Papa’s car, both CDs had this one. It makes me think of when they were little.


Sweet Caroline – This one makes me think of when I was little! This Neil Diamond classic was the first grown up song I knew all the words to and the first 45 RPM record that wasn’t a kids’ record that I owned. I think I had to keep my room clean for a week to earn it, but the record was played a LOT!



I Feel The Earth Move, Carole King – This was the song we danced to in my first year jazz class at the spring recital. It was my second year dancing, but this song is the one that flashes the hot pink leotard with the star and fringe. It always makes me smile.

Tell us about those songs that make you remember and smile! Join Tell Me Tuesday at The Coloradolady!

100 Things I Love

It’s not an original idea of mine. I’m riding coattails! Marvi Marti posted the first ten things on her list today. She initially got the prompt from Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online. The list is done in tens, Marti did her first ten today, so now I am too.


Okay, let’s get this love-fest started!

10 Activities I Love

1.  Baseball Games - I love baseball and I don’t really think there was a time I didn’t.. I’ve told the story about Mom dancing with me when the Tigers won the 1968 World Series and how much I loved following the Tigers and Reds as a kid. I saw a game in the 1984 World Series and watched the final game in an all ages club on the big screen with my parents. I was allowed to TRY to watch the Reds World Series games in the 70s, but my single-digit aged self couldn’t make it.

Last year, David and I tied my season high of 21 games seen, finishing it with a Division Series Tigers game. Would have broken the record if the Tigers had made it to the World Series. We had tickets.

My current dream is to be in Cincinnati on Opening Day


2. Train Chasing - It’s funny. When I finished trade school, I had firmly decided I was moving to Atlanta. My first interview was with Green Frog Productions, a railroad video company in Marietta, Georgia. I loved trains and the entire thought of chasing trains and videotaping them was just an incredible idea to me. Alas, I didn’t get the job and while my Mom went with me to museums and on tourist trains, she wasn’t going to go chase freight trains so I could photograph them and there wasn’t anyone else who would even go to the museums with me.

14 years later I replied to an email inviting me to a presentation at a Mensa event. I had no idea who the man was that was inviting me, but the presentation was trains he’d photographed, his hobby. This man did that I had wanted to do so many years ago. When I emailed back and said, “Trains, I’ll definitely be there,” it led to a few emails exchanged, an invitation to a baseball game for a first date and, well, we’ve been married 3 years now. We still love to chase trains together!


3. Scrapbooking – My scrapbooking is both the pictorial record of my life and an art, my self-expression. It’s evolved from photo albums from high school, most of the photos with no names or places, to photos with captions, hand-written, raped on paper strips. Then it became pages with ephemeris and typed and cut out captions and title on magnetic pages, followed by actual paper scrap pages and after a short while of printing the photos from my first digital camera, I started digital scrapping. That was 2007 and I was scrapping 2005. It was a couple years of “can’t afford to print the photos,” that put me behind. I’m catching up now.


4. Baking – I love kitchen stuff in general, I come from a long line of great cooks and I grew up with the kitchen gadgets in several drawers and a utensil pot next to the stove. That’s why the obsession with my future kitchen. I designed it in my mind and my storage is full of boxes of peach and greed gadgets, dishes and calicos. I have a green calico kitchen cat and a kitchen pig wand. The pig want removes the calories when you wave it over the food. :)

I’ve made my own recipes for many things from scratch or by doctoring up ready-made things, but I love baking the most of all the kitchen-crafts. Baking allows my culinary gifts to really shine and while a good meal makes people feel satisfied and they enjoy it, something baked and sweet always make everyone smile!



5. Board Games – I love games night with friends, I love just playing Yahtzee or Qwirkle at home with David. Games give your brain some good exercise and they aren’t like concerts or other activities you do outside someone’s home because it’s quieter. It allows for conversation and quality time with the other people of your choice.


6. Having Coffee – Coffee is not just a drink. To me “Having Coffee” is being with a friend of two for conversation. The act of having coffee with someone is much more intimate than just a beverage. I used to have coffee with my great grandmother every Tuesday once I started driving, I had coffee with Grandma on the phone on Mondays and I make a point of having coffee with friends in Michigan at least once or twice a month.



7. Aunting – Kids just get cooler and cooler as they get older! I truly enjoyed the time spent with Tori and Rina when they were little, helping them learn and learning from them too. As they got older and could learn at a higher level, it was fun watching them figure things out and then form their own opinions about things. Now they drive when they are over and we share many things we have in common and can debate, in a civilized way, they things we see differently. I mean, last mouth I had a political discussion with the baby I comforted when she had a tummy ache. How cool is that?


8. Reading – Since getting my Kindle, the old one with the grey background and black writing, I’m enjoying reading with a new vigor. You see that darker background has solved whatever conditions cause my dyslexia and I read much more comfortably and faster. I LOVE my murder mysteries!


9. Coin Collecting – this is something I started doing with Grandma, who did it with her uncle. My biggest passion in coins is pennies. I collect both American and Canadian pennies. My oldest Canadians are 1920 something and the oldest American ones are Indian heads!


10. Cleaning and Organizing – I think I would have to say I love this in the same way any addict loves getting their fix. Once I got started cleaning and organizing in the annex, I found myself in that addict spot. I can not pick up something when I’m near it. It’s a healthy obsession!



Whew! Okay, I see why it needs to be broken up into segments! Net ten will be…soon!

Links

Marvi Marti

Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online.