Sweetness.

I've spent an hour or so tonight updating this blog, removing old links, cleaning up posts and changing the template and style a little bit. Insomnia really helps one get meaningless tasks done.

I haven't blogged regularly in more than five years, mostly using my blog as a photo hosting site for various projects. Lately I've been feeling a desire to journal or write my thoughts down somewhere; I've looked at journals to buy and wondered if I was ready to actually write again. Coming here to my blog to get it ready for this year's Journal Your Christmas entries, it seems obvious that this is the place to do that once again.

The past three years have had a great many pains for me and for some of the people that I love. I've been wondering if this is the middle-aged turning point, where your friends begin to get ill, where you start going to more funerals, where your body makes creaks and pains it didn't before, where change seems to happen far more quickly than you're prepared for. I turned 46 a month ago. I was 34 when I started this blog. I've become a different person in many ways, sanded down at the edges, softer and more loving, and a little more hopeless sometimes, too.

I'm hoping that the thoughts will begin to flow again and that I can start capturing more moments that I want to remember. I have lost a lot to forgetfulness in the past couple of years and I can't afford to do that.

We spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with Todd's family, and did our Christmas celebrating at the same time. My niece Gianna mentioned that  she had never baked and decorated cutout sugar cookies before (despite being an eager baker), so we gave that a try on Friday night.

I didn't have my tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe with me; it only exists in a printout in my recipe binder, nowhere online. So we used a well-rated recipe from Allrecipes, which I can't find or I would link it. It was pretty good. We rolled the cookies out using powdered sugar instead of flour, since the dough was not very sweet. I think that helped the taste. Gianna made a big batch of royal icing, which I had never used before, and we made a bunch of colors and squeezed them out of ziploc bags. The icing was hard to control, but the end effect was pretty amazing. (I usually use a powdered sugar + milk frosting which doesn't give the polished look of royal icing.)

Gianna and Evelyn mastered it almost immediately and made really creative cookies, using toothpicks to create feathered and swirled effects. Anna, who is a bit of a perfectionist, got frustrated early on and went to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie with Grammy. I just love baking with these girls and seeing how their skills grow. When we were together for the Fourth of July we made our traditional Flag Cake, and I hardly had to help them at all--a far cry from the first year we did it, when they were young grade-schoolers, and I was running ragged trying to divide up the tasks evenly and help them each step of the way! That was in 2009. Gianna told me this weekend that Flag Cake is one of her great childhood memories (at the ripe old age of 15) and that made me happy.

Here's my tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe:

Eva's Sugar Cookies

2 cups unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
6 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and almond extract until light and fluffy. In another bowl, combine flour and baking soda and add gradually to butter and sugar mixture until combined, Bake in preheated 350-degree oven on parchment-lined sheets for 8-10 minutes until light brown at the edges.

This makes 12 dozen cookies, a ridiculous amount, so I usually halve the recipe. I use one extra-large egg as "half" of the three eggs. And I put a few drops of almond extract in the icing, too.

Catching up.

I climbed into bed feeling very sleepy, but then realized I was not. I hate it when that happens, it's like a false start in a race.

I found this $3.00 sheet set at an estate sale a few weeks ago, after searching in vain for cheap sheets at every yard and estate sale for over a year, and these sheets were worth the wait. They are the softest things I have ever felt. Far, far better than the scratchy sheets I broke down and bought at Kohl's a couple months ago. These sheets feel like rose petals. Every so often as I lay (lie?) on them, I think about the fact that I am laying (lying? neither one sounds right) on a dead woman's sheets, but I try not to dwell on that fact. I hope she'd be glad I'm enjoying them so much. They make climbing into bed so pleasant.

We spent three days last week in Columbus with Todd's family and three more days with my family in northeastern Ohio, plus one day each for coming and going, and got home Tuesday evening. I am still working on catching up--got the laundry done and now I need to buy a big pile of groceries tomorrow.

Plus putting away the goodies I found at an auction on Saturday and at the antique stores on Monday. I often don't have time for vintage shopping while I'm home, so I was glad to have a few spare hours to find great deals.

I was concerned about catching some Ohio cootie and ending up sick, but Todd was the one who developed a cold over the weekend. We had the following conversation in church on Sunday as we waited for the service to start:

Me: I'm so sorry you're feeling bad, sweetie.

Him: Well, it's better for me to feel bad than for you to feel bad. It's much better this way. Much better.

Me (after a short pause wherein I realize that my husband is subtly telling me that I am such a pain in the butt when I am sick that he'd rather be sick himself than put up with me being sick): Well, NOW I feel bad!

He's still sniffling and sneezing but seems to be feeling a little better.

I am looking for some good pictures to share from our Thanksgiving with Todd's family, but he seems to have secreted them in a file some place that I can't find. Here are a few from what's left on my computer:

We exchanged our Christmas presents on Thanksgiving...here's my father-in-law with my niece Anna, opening my present to him (a small scrapbook with pictures of him and the grandkids):

My nephew and nieces chowing down on pumpkin pie:

My mother-in-law admiring the frame Todd made for her:

When I find the rest I'll share a few more.

It was a really nice trip...we did the ThanksChristgivingmas (as I call it) thing with Todd's fam and took a family portrait at Sears; we got in a smidgen of Black Friday shopping in the snow; we froze our feet and noses off at a rural estate auction; Todd and my nephew Tanner helped Todd's folks with some of their moving; I took my niece Kylie to see the Disney "Christmas Carol" movie; I visited my grandma at the nursing home; and I had a nice lunch with my mom and my aunts Molly and Carol, with a couple hours of shopping with my mom afterward.

I got a bit of a late start on my 2009 Christmas journal, but I'm caught up now...I'll share those pages tomorrow. Right now seems like a good time to watch "Elf" again while I wait to get sleepy.

Black Friday.

That sounds so ominous, doesn't it? Black Friday. OoooooooOOOOOOoooh! Bring out your dead!

Todd is out this morning braving the crowds for a couple of sales, and I am home relaxing before we throw some clothes into a bag and head for my brother's house for the rest of the weekend.

We had a really nice day yesterday, if an unorthodox Thanksgiving. We went to Bass Pro in the morning and I got a new pair of brown clogs, on sale. I seem to have lost my liking for shoes with backs on them, except for sneakers. All my other shoes are either flip-flops or clogs/mules.

Then we came home and had turkey sandwiches (Todd) and German restaurant doggy bag (me) for lunch, I cleaned the kitchen, and then we tackled putting in our new shrubs.

We had put three boxwoods across the front three years ago after we moved in, boxwoods that a friend of Todd's wanted out of his own landscaping, so they were free. One boxwood died last year and we pulled it out, one is two-thirds dead, and the other is okay but not thriving.

So we pulled out the last two and put in three smooth-leafed holly bushes and two abelias, with gray-green leaves and a branchy shape that contrasts well with the compact dark green hollies. The abelias will have small white flowers in the summer.

Then we put in a large rose in front of our little white fence to anchor that corner of the yard, and it looks terrific already. The hollies and abelias are still small and not too distinctive-looking yet, but the rose settled into its corner and looks right at home. It has red leaves that look wonderful in front of the white fence, and it will bloom red all next summer and fall. I'm thinking about running back and getting another one today while the nursery's 50% off sale is still going on.

While Todd dug and planted, I busied myself with chopping down all the brown dead stuff, dead daisies, dead mums, vincas that were blooming until last week when we finally got a killing frost. It was a big task...I am very into my garden from March till June, and then when it gets hot, I completely neglect the thing until late fall. I resolve to do better every year, but I don't seem to.

I got some good ideas from Elaine at The Flower Pot, though, and some inspiration for next spring, and I'm hoping the shrubs will provide some of the structure I need to build in front of and really make the beds look nice.

Anyway, after getting cleaned up, we drove down to Virginia Beach and had a nice dinner out with my friend Bev, at a seafood buffet place that added all the Thanksgiving staples to their spread. It was actually quite good.

On the way home, I called my mom and learned that my dad is in Missouri visiting my grandma right now. She's still in the hospital and not doing great, unfortunately. And her condition seems to fluctuate--one day she's on the upswing, the next day she's worse. So he decided to go ahead and go out and see her. We're all pretty worried about her.

But it was a nice day, and we thought about our blessings, as well as all the people we care about so much and couldn't be with that day. It would be wonderful to be able to just zap myself to Missouri and sit with my grandma, or to Ohio to spend the day with my mom who enjoyed a very quiet holiday, or to enjoy the delicious dinner my father-in-law cooked for the Ferrante-Mozeleski Thanksgiving. But I also felt very grateful last night for my warm comfortable home, my sweet husband who was poring over the ads and planning his Friday attack, the delicious dinner we had with our old friend, and my hot cup of chai tea.

Well, I'm off to pack my bags. Have a good weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Aren't you glad you don't have to go out and shoot your own turkey?

We were going to go to Washington DC for a couple of days, but decided to forgo that trip and spend some time and money getting things done at home. We hit a nursery sale today and got a bunch of shrubs for the front yard at 50% off--score!

Tomorrow we're going to stop by a couple of early sales, then come home and plant our shrubs, and then go out for dinner with my friend Beverly.

Then Friday we'll head out for a couple of days with my brother's family, and Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. I can't wait to see my cute nieces.

I hope everybody has a fun weekend with family and friends--and don't forget to count your blessings!

Pictures.

I have a few decent pictures from Thanksgiving...if I ever master the art of taking pictures of kids and adults in ever-moving groups in indoor light, I will be truly happy. As it is, I always end up with either dark, chaotic shots, or flash-blown, whited-out faces. Ugh!

Here's my niece Natalie with the Little People Thanksgiving set I brought for her and Marissa. Next to her, I think my brother is illustrating the concept of "little" for whoever he's talking to.

Natalie and I playing with the set...I confess I bought it so that I would have a chance to play with it as much as for the little girls!

Marissa giving her dad a high-five.

We read a bunch of books together--Marissa loves books and can point to things and name them.

My goal for the day was to get one really excellent picture of Marissa, but that didn't happen. She is too fast for a digital camera, and I was distracted with all the activity. Someday I'll get that great shot!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I woke up early this morning, and it's still raining! What a turn the weather took this week--cold and rainy and gray--perfect November, finally. Now if we can all keep from floating away!

"Morning by morning new mercies I see, " as my favorite hymn says...we have so many blessings to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. Two wonderful and loving families, eight beautiful and smart nieces and nephews, a warm safe home, plenty of food in the pantry, our own health and the health of our loved ones, this peaceful country to live in, good friends, and so many other things. "Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!"

I'm going to try to stay off the computer the rest of the holiday weekend...I've strained my right arm, and mousing is definitely one of the motions that exacerbates the problem. Today we're hanging out here and having a turkey dinner in the late afternoon...tomorrow Todd is attacking a few Black Friday sales and I haven't decided whether to join him or not. Saturday we'll be spending the day with my brother's family and having another turkey dinner (yay!) and Sunday...I dunno. More hanging out, probably.

I am roasting a ten-pound turkey today, and I think it may be my very first turkey in 15 married Thanksgivings. I've done Cornish game hens and turkey breasts on our few Thanksgivings alone, but I don't remember doing a whole turkey before. Should be fun. The rest of the menu is very traditional: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, pumpkin pie. We both love all the traditional Thanksgiving components and look forward to them all year, well, at least I do. And there is nothing better than Thanksgiving leftovers.

Hope everybody has a blessed day with lots of food and good memories!