Sleigh bells ringing... Diamonds blinging... Carol singing.... Favorite season

 

The fudge-making has commenced! Needless to say I have my own spin on it, just as much me following a crochet pattern. I tend to leave things out...like butter. However, the sugar cookie fudge seems to be fine without. I'll try to remember next time. It seems a favorite at work is my Peanut-butter Fudge which is just 2 ingredients to melt enough in the microwave to stir and then together and refrigerate best on parchment paper. Yes, you can't seem to do anything these days in the kitchen without parchment paper. 

Of course, last week our booksale lady brought her old-fashioned fudge which was amazing! Then today she brought peanutbrittle. It was perfect, but I only ate a tiny bit.

I overheard the booksale lady tell someone today that the doctor told her it was too dangerous for her to ride horses anymore. "But I don't care," she said. "I would die happy being on a horse." She also used to train border collies to work sheep. She used to be in dog trials. My grandfather also enjoyed riding horses and training border collies, too. Immediately, when she said that, I remembered him. He passed away while he was out riding his horse checking on his cattle.

How casual is your Christmas? We seldom coordinate. It's unusual to see us too dressed up for the occasion. I remember the fastest Christmas gathering we ever had was probably well over ten years ago. We knew a blizzard was coming and we would be snowed in at Christmas. We all got together waiting for the last one to get home on Christmas Eve from the post office. We ripped through those presents. Of course, we'd all sampled wine and ate our share of fondue. So as soon as that was over, people packed up and the snow was starting to fall. It did come a big snow that year.

One thing we will never do again at Christmas is have it at midnight. That year someone came home from work at midnight. We went to bed early and awoke as soon as he got home. And it was Christmas. We were away from relatives back home then so there was so much to open that many were excited about. And we stayed up all night. We didn't sleep at all.