Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here’s a hand, my trusty friend
And gie’s a hand o’ thine
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne
Monthly Archives: December 2006
She’s Baaaaaaakkk!
Some of my newer readers may not know that my youngest sister also blogs, as a part of the RedEagleSpirit group. She has been on hiatus thanks to an incredibly busy year, but she posted yesterday. I hope that you will click on the link for “Just My Opinion” and visit to see what she’s been up to.
Sis….I didn’t realize that you had been at your school for TWELVE YEARS! Had I been pressed for a guess, I might have said seven or maybe eight. Where has the time gone? Congratulations to you for continuing to take such good care of kids who really need to have someone care about them. Your halo is assured!
Happy New Year!
Lurking
I’m here. I just have time to read, but not to post, so I guess that makes me a lurker, or possibly a pseudo-lurker, because I’ve left comments here and there.
It looks like most of you have had a good Christmas. We had a lovely Christmas, with family from both sides. We went to my family for our traditional Christmas Eve, and to Dear Husband’s family for Christmas Day. It was a hoot to watch our granddaughter open her gifts!
Santa was VERY good to me. I received a Canon Cybershot digital camera. I’ve been spending most of my free time learning to use it. So far, I can take a picture and delete it *G* My stepson is my camera guru. Of course, HIS hands FLY over the buttons, and it’s nothing for him to download the pictures. I already have a file of Christmas pictures from 2006. I only hope that I can learn to be as proficient as Janet at using pictures in my blog!
I expect to be tied to my office chair for the next few days, and then I am going to demand time at my sewing machine. I’ll grocery shop early, and choose plenty of easy to fix things, and then bury myself in my fabric!
The Christmas cookies were a hit. We gave seven boxes or tins of cookies to the ladies at the salon, and I took two platters to share on Christmas Eve. There was another platter for home, and I think we have enough to last the week.
I didn’t get to the Kolache, but I think I may try to do them this weekend. I remember my mother making them when I was a kid, and it would be fun to revisit an old recipe.
In case I don’t make it back before the weekend, I hope you all have a great New Years celebration! Happy New Year, y’all!
One Lone Heron
I know….most herons are lone. Fishing is better when you don’t have a flock of young ones playing around in the pond.
What I meant to say, was that the heron we spoke of in November is STILL HERE! I know that this could be winter range for some of them, but this is the first time we have ever seen a heron this late in this area.
We’re having an unusually mild winter so far. We did have those six inches of snow at the start of the month, but it’s been gone for a couple of weeks. Our grass is green, and some of my herbs are still growing!
Saturday, as we came home we saw skein after skein of Canada geese flying NORTH. I just don’t know enough about goose behavior to know what’s going on. We realize that they practice flying in the Vs even this late in the year, and we know that many of them winter over in this area. These were quite large groups of geese, flying fairly high, and all aimed in the same direction. Does anyone have any insight to share on this?
Ed, our cranky, older, black cat asked to go outside today. It was a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine, and I saw no reason to keep him in. He’s always been an indoor-outdoor cat, or I might have reconsidered.
I was putting a load of laundry into the washing machine, and looking out the window on the north lawn, when I saw Ed come around the corner. A gray squirrel had discovered the sunflower seed feeder at the back door, and was wrapped around the feeder, filching the seed. When Ed appeared, it startled the squirrel, who went flying, five or six feet across the lawn. Ed skittered and then turned and they both crouched and glared at each other, as if to say, “This is MY territory!” I’m surprised Ed didn’t play chicken with the squirrel. Perhaps he’s feeling his age, or maybe he wasn’t hungry! *G*
Fudge Tarts
I tried a new Christmas “cookie” this afternoon. I wanted to see if a short-cut cookie might be something to add to our list of favorites.
The recipe used ready-made peanut butter cookie dough. You divide an 18 ounce tube of dough into 24 pieces and bake them in tart-sized muffin tins. During the last two minutes of cooking you press a rounded measuring spoon into the dough to create a well, then continue baking until the dough is golden.
The peanut butter dough makes a tart base that holds a fudge filling.
It seems to me that the tart is a bit thick. It makes quite a substantial cookie, perhaps one that men would like more than women. I know….that’s sexist. Don’t bother to point it out.
I’m going to freeze the tarts and then add the fudge the day before the cookies are given as gifts. I’ll have to see if the combination of the peanut butter base and the fudgy center will draw anyone back for seconds.
Walking on Water
Saturday, as Elegante Mother and I started our errands, we turned east to drive between the two retention ponds that flank the road. I burst out laughing, and pointed to the south pond. The Canada geese were walking on water!
Apparently, it had been cold enough the day before, and through the night, to form a skim of ice on the surface that was strong enough to hold about eight geese. The black surface of the pond looked like still water, rather than ice. Perhaps the upper surface of the ice had started to melt.
By the time we returned, the ice was gone and the geese were swimming at the water’s edge. The world was right once more, but not as funny as it had been earlier in the day.
Another Idea for Traditions
This came in my e-mail today. It’s titled “White Envelope.” I’d be happy to give credit to the author, if anyone knows who wrote it. The message fits in with my quest to change tradtions at Christmas. I think something like this would be a lovely way to remember the son we lost New Years Eve.
It’s just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas — oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it — the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma — the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church.
These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.
Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids — all kids — and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball, and lacrosse.
That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years.
For each Christmas, I followed the tradition — one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.
The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.
As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more.
Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope.
Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us. May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always.
Cookie Day
Cookie Day for 2006 has been officially canceled.
(sigh)
One of my nieces has been transfered this week, and has to work on Sunday, and another slipped and broke a toe. She can’t stand through a day of cooking. Several other ladies have just too much to do to give up a day to bake.
So…I need to look over the list of cookies and plan a strategy for baking a few a day until we have enough to fill our gift boxes.
I have some old favorites, and a few new recipes to try. The favorites include:
Russian Tea Cakes (Mexican Wedding Cakes), Sugar Crisp, Turtle shortbread, Peanut Butter Blossoms, and Raspberry Ribbons.
Here are the new ones I’d like to try:
Choco-Coco Pecan Crisps
Fudge Tarts
Pastry Pillows
Frosted Sour Cream and Chocolate Drops
Apricot Nut Diamonds
Chocolate Mint Thumbprints
Old World Raspberry Bars and
Chocolate Mint Snow-Top Cookies
Since there’s some duplication (but who can have too much chocolate?), I’ll weed a couple out after I read the instructions again.
I also found an old recipe that my mother made when I was a child, for Kolache. She used to fill them with raspberry or apricot preserves, and sprinkle confectioner’s sugar over them. hey were light, and sweet, and a favorite of the entire family.
I had to make a stop at Sur le Table to find the coarse sugar I needed for the Pastry Pillows. That doesn’t seem to be a common ingredient in most grocery stores.
And, I may give in and do a recipe of Sugar Cookies that can be iced. We don’t tend to do the traditional decorative cookies, so this might be a tip of the hat toward tradition.
Christmas Traditions
I had a few moments the other day, and took a quick peek at some blogs. One that caught my attention was Desiree’s. Desi was talking about the fact that she is going to change some of her holiday traditions. What she had to say made considerable sense, and got me to thinking about things I might want to do differently.
Other than decorating less, and focusing less on overwhelming gifts, there is one thing I’d like to change: Christmas cards. I’ve run the gamut of options when it comes to Christmas cards. I’ve given them to everyone I know, to no one, to just family, to just friends, to family and select friends. I have a problem with the idea of sending out a card with a pre-printed message and just our names at the bottom.
I was thinking at the beginning of November that I would be able to make time to write to people to let them know how thankful I had been for their friendship and help this year. By the time I was addressing Christmas cards (this is a family and friends year), I was really dissatisfied that I didn’t have the time to say more to each of them.
I think I know how I want to resolve this issue. Next year, I plan to make a list of family and friends, and each day write a letter to one of them. For every day from the day after Thanksgiving, to New Year’s Day, I hope to tell someone that I’ve been thinking about them, and how important their friendship is to me.
It seems that would be so much more satisfying than a card. Even when you find just the right card, and that’s much more difficult in these days of political correctness, it still doesn’t convey exactly how you feel. So, this might be the best of all worlds.
I know it will be a busy time. I know that it could be difficult to make the time, but if my goal is to write just ONE letter a day, I think I can accomplish that. And, if I find I have more friends than days, I can always start the project earlier.
What do you think? Are there traditions that you might change?
Thanks, Desi, for getting me to think about this!
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