Merry Christmas!

May your Christmas be filled with many blessings and good times with family and friends!

Christmas Just Isn't Christmas Without...

...homemade chocolate chip cookies!!!

Here they are waiting to go into the oven...



Hosted on Fotki


And here's the finish product...



Hosted on Fotki


Now all I need is a TALL glass of COLD COLD COLD milk and I'll be set!!

Of course, with all this baking comes memories of my mom who passed away December 13, 1996. She instilled in me a love for baking homemade goodies from scratch, not just during the Christmas season, but all year long. Nothing says lovin' more than something homemade! Most of my holiday memories of my mom involve us baking TONS of cookies together. Every year, we would bake at least 2 double recipes of chocolate chip cookies, Oatmeal "Rocks" for my dad (so dry the only way you can stand to eat them is dunked in coffee!!), Coconut Oatmeal cookies for my brother (just past raw is the way he likes them best), and peanut butter cookies. Momma was always taking cookies to someone or some function during the Christmas season. They were always well received, too!

With the baking of the chocolate chippers came the never-ending argument of how long to bake them. Momma liked them semi-raw and I liked them well done, crunchy well done. We usually compromised and made half the batch her speed and half the batch my speed, but if I was doing the baking, more would be my speed and less her half-baked speed!!

So... the Christmas season is officially underway at my house!

What a Week!

I was doing okay until Wednesday when Trusty Steed died while I was out running errands. Nothing worse than having your vehicle die leaving you stranded!! I called my husband, who's at home recovering from back surgery and not driving yet, to let him know what was going on. He's also my mechanic. (He works cheap, too!) He comes to pick me up. Thankfully, I was only a mile or so away from home and he could drive slowly on the back roads just in case he needed to stop or something. Ends up it wasn't an easy fix, so we had it towed to a shop about 4 blocks from our home. We've never used this shop, but it was a great experience. They had me up and running the next day.

On Friday, I left work early to go to the doctor about my back. Went out to the truck and Trusty Steed was bleeding! There was a puddle of transmission fluid on the ground. Had it towed back to the shop and turns out to be a different problem! Some kind of seal on the back of the engine or something. Anyway, the man who owns the shop came in and told me he'd like to keep it for 20 years he likes it so much! (It's already 16 years old!!) I told him I'd give him visiting rights overnight! LOL Trusty Steed was good to go yesterday afternoon! We're on the road again!

I love my truck!! People ask me why I drive a 16 year old vehicle. I ask them why not?? It's PAID for is the big reason, but it's got a brand new engine in it, a rebuilt transmission (3 years old), a new AC system, and now a new fuel pump! When we have to do work on it, we're out maybe the equivalent of one car payment and insurance payment. If my husband is able to fix the problem, then we're not out the equivalent of one car payment. I'm never worried about it breaking down or quitting on me. It's actually a very reliable vehicle. And I'm thankful we don't have a car payment!

On top of the truck problems lasting from Wednesday to Saturday, my older cat, Callie was sick. She went to the vet on Tuesday. She's got an upper respiratory infection (a head cold) and is on medication. She's not 100% better, but she's getting there. Also on Tuesday, I went for a sonogram on my kidneys (to check for kidney stones) and to have x-rays on my lower back. I've been having some serious back pains and the doctor was thinking I had a kidney stone. My kidneys are FINE, but I have arthritis in my back. I need to make an appointment with the doctor to discuss the "options", but I think I'll continue seeing my chiropractor. I was going to see him on Friday when Trusty Steed started bleeding...

I'm hoping this week will give me more stitching time! I put up my Christmas tree yesterday. Hope to get it all decorated this week. Look for a picture soon!!