Happy Halloween

I recently went to a Halloween party for the first time in thirty years. A guy from my SF Writer's group had the bunch of us over and I had a great time. I didn't have a costume so I just wore my Garfield shirt.

I am really impressed with all the clever cookies that I've been seeing online Here are a few of my favorites.

                       The Walking Ginger-Dead?

                      Fang-tastically & Dentally Delicious!

                             Evil lurks everywhere!

Happy Easter, everyone!

A major holiday approaches

We never actually celebrate Christmas on the 25th. With several nurses and a policeman in the family plus in-law obligations to reconcile, it just doesn't work out. It hasn't dampened our fun however.

This year, we'll meet halfway between the two farthest points in the town where my youngest daughter lives. She has reserved the fully-equipped community room in the Assisted Living Facility where she works. This year we are having a non-traditional menu and going Mexican. We're having tacos, enchiladas, refried beans, rice and lots of accoutrements. I'm calling it our Mexicano Navidad.

I've got all my calendars bought so now I have to wrap them. When we get together for Christmas, the adults no longer trade gifts as it got to be too expensive. We each bring a $15 gift and then play a dice game. After all the gifts have been won, we continue playing so the gifts won are up for grabs. Anyone can take away your gift and give you theirs. A popular gift may change hands many times, so it gets to be lots of fun.

      All the cooking and shopping does tire a person out!

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Who's got the census?

This will be the first Easter in memory that I haven't cooked a big dinner for my family and friends. This really didn't hit me until several days ago when I was reading through the grocery store ads. There were all the things that I was rarin' to shop for, and no reason to do it. It was the first time I fully realized how much I enjoy cooking for others.

This probably explains why I frequently have dreams where I'm frantically trying to get a meal together to feed a bunch of strangers. It's always a different setting and indistinct people who ignore me, yet I'm rushing around in my attempts to create order and feed the throng. It's kinda sad when you think about it--my deepest need is to cook!

I will be going out of town to spend Easter with my daughter and her family, including my three great-granddaughters. So, it will still be a very special Easter.

BTW: This morning's paper said that today is the deadline to mail back census forms. No forms ever came to my house, so now what? Will the Feds be coming after me?

After Christmas cleanup

It's time to put away my little Christmas tree and take down the decorations for another year. All my Garfields go into pillow cases and then into a plastic bin to "rest".

It always contributes to the post-holiday letdown to take down all the festive decor and return to the old everyday look. Boy, do the winter blahs start to set in then!

Then there's the pile of Christmas cards to go through. It's always a conundrum on whether to toss them or save them. Should I make a list of who sent cards to me or is that petty? What should I do about those who I got a card from but didn't send a card to? How do I deal with the guilt of of having overlooked them? (I now realize, when you don't send cards to anyone, you don't have to worry about that.) I got really beautiful cards from some people and that makes me feel like a slacker for sending boxed Dollar Tree store cards. Some folks wrote nice things in their cards, I didn't.

Well, there's always next year!

2009 is gone-gone-gone!

Join us in our Happy Dance!

I took the girls to Cub Foods yesterday for a little shopping. We had already gone through a gallon of chocolate milk and a gallon of white milk this week. We got a few frozen pizzas and some pop for New Years Eve.

The oldest girl insisted we had to have some horns for the party. After traipsing all over the store, we finally found them up by the cash registers (DUH!). The package of four "tooters" was $1.99. So, after we got home, we baked some New Year's Eve cookies (peanut butter with chocolate chips). The girls sat at the dining room table and frosted them and then covered them with colored sprinkles (the best part!)

We invited a neighbor and his son to come over and he brought a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne. Around 8:30, we had our champagne toasts and the girls really got into that! I had brought out my collection of small jelly glasses with dinosaurs and muppets on them. When the the girls discovered that clinking glasses was fun, everybody had to be toasted individually by every other person. After the toasts were finally done, they and the neighbors all went out in front and made a racket. But since the wind chill was 20 below, that didn't last very long.

It was a full evening and the girls didn't get to bed til 10:30. They woke up as usual around 8:00--the youngest first. She was still in her jammies when she asked me if they could go in front and blow their horns again.

I like that kid's attitude!

A slightly askew Christmas

Our Christmas plans are on hold due to the dastardly weather moving into Minnesota. The plan was that we would all meet at Sauk Centre which sorta midway for all of us from around the state. The location was reserved, the menu decided, the date and time set...now all we need is for all of us to get there. Ding, Dang, Darn!

(Well, at least I'm not stranded in an airport!)

Here's wishing all of you a safe, snug and warm Christmas tomorrow, wherever you may be.

Favorite Christmas albums

I'm an old fogie when it comes to Christmas music (but not so bad that I listen to Bing Crosby records). Still, I'm old enough that I remember when I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus first played on the radio and when Gene Autry first sang Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

I remember saying my "piece" in front of the church on Christmas Eve and feeling so special because my mom had fixed my hair in Shirley Temple ringlets. And to top it off, every kid was handed a brown paper bag of goodies as we left the church afterward. Inside the bag was a bunch of peanuts-in-the-shell, an apple, some old-fashioned Christmas hard candies and best of all--chocolate covered vanilla creme drops! (Some stores still carry them this time of the year.)

I love a lot of the Christmas candies that are sold only at this time of year. I'm nuts for chocolate covered sponge candy, peanut brittle and nut brittle, those tiny little pillow mints, almond bark and divinity! Actually, divinity with nuts is the ultimate candy as far as I'm concerned. I think it reminds me of licking the beaters when my mom made 7-minute icing for birthday cakes when I was a kid.

So many happy memories are tied to foods, it's no wonder we overeat at Christmas!

Christmas decorating on a budget

Well, I've got the majority of my Christmas calendars bought. Thank goodness for Half-Price Books stores. They sell new calendars at half price so I saved a lot of money. There are a few more that I will probably need to get at the Mall but that's the only thing I need to get at the Mall! (I consider it a successful shopping season if I can avoid the Malls.)

We just got out our little monofiliment tree again this year. It's great because the four cats ignore it. I shudder to thing what they would do to a real tree!

Finally, it's Thanksgiving!

Now I'm off to make the stuffing, peel potatoes, get the sweet potatoes ready and run the dishwasher.

Enjoy your day, everybody!

Halloween is a done deal

We never get any Trick or Treaters in our building. I don't even bother to buy candy anymore (except for myself--I love candy corn!)

The place where I live is on a cul-de-sac that ends at a steep slope covered by trees. You can't see the building from the corner because of the dark wooded lot next door. To a kid, I suppose it would look pretty spooky. Having seen a lot of spooky movies, I can understand that feeling.

Have a nice Halloween and remember to Fall Back your clocks tomorrow!

Drunken Punkins

My cousin emailed this to me.
It's topical, if not funny.

There's so little time left to
display Jack-o-lanterns.

(FYI I don't drink.)

Having a Halloween Party? You simply MUST serve Kitty Litter Cake!

OK, I know the idea seems outrageous, but I found the recipe in the paper several years ago and passed it around at work. Everybody got a big bang out of it. So, at the risk of offending someone, here is the recipe:

KITTY LITTER CAKE

1 Box spice cake mix
1 Box white cake mix
2 small pkg instant vanilla pudding
1 12-oz pkg vanilla wafer cookies, crushed
6 to 10 regular-size Tootsie Rolls
Powdered sugar
Green food coloring
Method:
Prepare 2 cakes and pudding according to package directions. When cooled, crumble cakes into a brand new kitty litter pan. Then add the pudding and mix. Take 1 cup of the cookie crumbs and add a few drops of green food coloring and set aside. Mix the remaining cookie crumbs into the pan. Next, soften the Tootsie Rolls in the microwave for 10 seconds and shape to resemble droppings. Arrange them on top of the litter pan and sprinkle with the green cookie crumbs. Then sprinkle on a little powdered sugar. Serve with a brand new pooper scooper.
Serves 20 to 24.

(I've never made this myself, but with all that good stuff in it, how could it be bad!)

Things that make me smile

I find dogs dressed up for Halloween are adorable. I know that some folks think it's demeaning to the dog but this little fella doesn't seem to mind.

Last Halloween, my granddaughter invited me out to her neighborhood pet store where they were having a "cutest dog-costume" contest. She dressed her two Chihuahuas as a pirate and a vampire. Among the many competitors were a wooly little lamb and a bumblebee. The contest winner was a handsome Great Dane in a cowboy outfit.

When I googled "Halloween dog costumes", I discovered it is really big business! So, enjoy the fun while it lasts.

I personally have never had a Halloween costume. Although, once I wore a pair of Garfield Deely-Bobbers to a party. As I remarked at the time, "There really are so few functions where one can wear their Deely-Bobbers!"

Viking Grandma

Whoa! I'm a week behind in my blogging! I am such a sluggard. Well, actually, more like crazy- busy getting ready for the Holidays.

As I mentioned previously, we are cheaping out this Christmas. Despite that, I bought a new 2009 calendar for everyone on my Christmas list, something I've been doing for many years. (I love calendar art--I save all my old calendars and can't pass a store display without checking them all out.)

The Clan agreed that when we get together for Christmas, we'll each bring a $10.00 wrapped gift and play Bingo for the prizes. And, did I mention we're having meatballs instead of ham? This will not affect the amount of cookies and goodies, however. There is always an excess of pie, candy, munchies, cake and what-have-you.

We also have a little program at our Holiday get-together. The kids will play songs, sing, read or do something goofy. I insist on inflicting a Norwegian Christmas Carol on them every year in return. All my grandchildren have Norwegian genes from both sides of the family. So, I have taken it upon myself to make sure they have at least that much heritage thrust upon them.

The carol is mercifully brief and is called, "Jeg er saa glaa hver Julekveld". This translates to, "We are so glad this Christmas Eve". My eight grandkids and three great-grandaughters are going to grow up with that little bit of Norway in their heads in spite of themselves!

A Fresh Outlook on Christmas

At Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, the family and friends gathered at my dining room table were discussing how different Christmas will be this year. With the economic climate so uncertain, we all agreed to cutback on gift giving this year.

Today is Black Friday--the day when the shopping madness begins. We will have none of it! This year we will practice restraint and limit our spending (except where the little kids are concerned). We are in a recession, people are hurting and no matter how good your income is,
flamboyant, luxurious gifts are just plain tacky.

What I find surprising is that everyone is so up-beat about it. The anticipation of a frugal Christmas and giving simple, homemade gifts seems to really inspire everyone. So, this year, the trendy thing to do is Cheap Out!

Who'd of thought!