been a while...

close up of Christmas tree (and yes, those are mardi gras beads)

Bar at Christmas time...

Life gets busy... especially at this time of year. There's Christmas lights to put up, trees to decorate, gifts to buy, cards to mail, and goodies to bake... not to mention Christmas parties to attend as well as grandkids pageants and performances!

We have one of the latter this week when the Saint Joseph's kindergarten class will be singing Christmas carols. Grand daughter will take part in that so we will be sure to be there. And last night our pottery group had their Christmas get-together and cookie exchange. Great food, good conversation, and came home with loads of goodies!

So... I've been lax on blogging. Actually I've read most the blogs I follow, but may not have commented and certainly haven't posted anything lately.  Yesterday I baked almond tea cakes and cheese biscuits for the pottery get-together. Today I will continue with whiskey balls, chocolate graham cracker crunch, and home-made granola to mail... and eventually rum cakes and more cookies for neighbors and friends. 

That's pretty much where we're at... probably the same for all of you.

Julie  'helping' with Christmas decorating...

Moose doing the same...

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a safe Happy New Year 2019! (Wow! that's the first time I've written that...)

cats, possums, and cookies!

Poster I came across this the other day and thought... yep, that's true. 

Julie

Julie sleeping on her spot. She was upset with me because I moved her spot off the counter while I made cookies today. Just gave it back to her.

Tux

And Tux was playful today... lying around on his back playing with his toys.

possum

And THIS is what we saw the other night sleeping in the feral cats' bed on the front porch... a fat ol' possum just making himself at home.  Today we went out and swept off the porch, took away some of the extra box bedding, and will spray and wash the cushions.

Sunday...

Well, I started this yesterday and was interrupted, so continuing today. The possum from above came back again last night.  He doesn't stay all night... seems to nap a few hours and then takes off again.

possum back!

As you can see, Saturday we cleared off all the other beds and wind breakers we had on the porch for when it was really cold. Now we just left the little bed... and apparently it is appreciated.


Here is a picture of the cookies I made. My grand daughter's favorite color is pink... thus, the pink rabbits, carrots, and stars. 

tea cakes and caramel cookies

The pink ones were just iced almond tea cakes, the others were stuffed with home-made caramel sauce. Grand daughter (5) told me that I made the best sugar cookies... that I should make one as big as a house. I asked her why... who would eat a cookie that big? A giant? She said, "no, silly... me!"

And grandson (19) who is visiting with us right now said that those cookies were very nostalgic for him. He remembers the taste from when he was little. (Side bar actually shows a picture of him helping me make those years ago when he was about 4).

OK... just went off to meet a friend for coffee and found that the Starbucks we were meeting at was 'out of power'.  Apparently the whole section of stores on that strip were out... due to the thunderstorm we had during the night or perhaps the high winds??
So we talked for a little standing outside our cars and decided to try again in a week or two. It's pretty chilly and overcast today - and we like to sit outside, so hopefully in a week or two the spring weather will have arrived... (we hope).

Wishing you all a happy Sunday! Thanks for stopping by and praying you all get beautiful spring weather soon! 

New cookie recipe...

White chocolate coconut macadamia nut cookies

Yes, I'm baking again.  On DH's birthday (since we seldom give gifts these days), I picked up some new Lindt Chocolate bars. We always get the dark chocolate with sea salt, but this time I picked up a dark chocolate with sea salt and caramel as well as a white chocolate coconut.  Both are very good!

I'm not a white chocolate nor coconut lover, but I have to say that this white chocolate coconut is so buttery and flavorful that I decided to try using it as a base for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. So this morning being the typical Monday morning... nothing special... I decided to cheer it up with my cookie try-out!  Needless to say, it was a success.  I only made half a recipe... so maybe just a little short of 2 dozen cookies.  Baked half of that and left the other half of the dough for tomorrow. So-oo good (even the dough is good).

new find: white coconut !

Another reason that this cookie try-out went over so well this morning is because I spent the better part of the morning paying and organizing bills.... (putting Medicare and Supplement papers together, etc.). So I think I needed a treat...

Crazy week... so I'm making cookies :)

This has been one of those crazy weeks.  One son out of town from Sat until Tues. Another son out of town Tues thru Thurs. And DH out of town from Wed thru Saturday.  Sons off on business, but DH off to spend a few days with his mom down in Baton Rouge, LA.  We would have both went, but as it happened, Grandson was still in school with Dad out of town, so I stayed to do the "to school and from school" run.  We enjoyed it.  He and I went out to eat and got to talk about "stuff".

MIL is 95, still lives by herself (although there is family close by).  I love to visit her as she is another cat lover and lives on 15 acres.  As it happened, family members in BR all needed to be out of town this past week also... so DH went down to stay for a bit.  Actually she does pretty well on her own, but this last year has been a little hard on her.  They have talked about moving her into a nice assisted living place - and she has visited there - but she's not sure about it (and I can understand that).

Anyway, since I had the house to myself most of the week, I took the opportunity to clean out some areas that needed cleaning.  I also took the 2 little kittens to the Adoption Center where they immediately vaccinated them and put them into the Adoption room.  I had kept them clean and groomed, well fed, and friendly, so they shouldn't have any problem getting homes.  And if I keep them too long I start to get attached.... it's not hard looking into those trusting little faces.

So I steam cleaned the bathroom floors, washed all the 'kitty blankets' that we have around the house, comet-ed and Clorox-ed all my counter tops, etc.  It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to cook or run errands, or do things for other people.  I even got in a nap one or two days... and met a friend for coffee!

Now I'm making Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Julie's helping

Actually I'm making Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodles... as I added Cinnamon Sugar on top.
I mean, really, it can't be bad, ya think?

Oh, one more thing... Got a video (granted not a great one as it's through the French Doors) of the outside black and white kittens cavorting on the back patio.  They are playing in a basket... can you see them?

Have a wonderful weekend!