Beauty

[JustJazzmom]

@SleeplessinSD  What a pretty photo you posted. 

My neighbor down the hall really liked the cookies. He stopped by & handed me a pound of Dunkin ground coffee. I'll have a cup of that tomorrow. My cookies are packed up & divided & I finished packing up my car. My day has been quiet. I got to see some snow fall today but it didn't stick. It just looked pretty falling. 

I finished up rthe rest of my French lentil salad & I made a green leaf salad too. I treated myself to a margarita with a Tajín rim over a salted rim. 

Hope everyone had a lovely day.

[viva923]

my daughter took me to disney world for 7 days

[MariotaMurielle]

this day went by so fast and I didn't quite get everything done that I had planned. I did make a chocolate pie and a pecan pie, finished wrapping presents and did some laundry. I didn't get the vacuuming and dusting done, but I can do that tomorrow. my family won't be here until about 4.

DH and I put Ezra's bicycle together. it's so cute and it's red, which is Ezra's favorite color (and the same color as my car). of course there was an essential nut and washer that was not included in the packaging but DH found some in his toolbox that will work for now.

I know this is not the happiest holiday this year for some of us, with family members facing very difficult health issues and some of us experiencing recent losses in our families. I include all of you in my prayers.

here's a Mississippi River sunset at Natchez.

have a peaceful evening, y'all.

[Hayfield]

Good Morning!  I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, ours was quiet since only our DS came but nice, DD & her DH went to his family's this year.  I cooked big breakfasts on Xmas Eve and Xmas Day morning and made a pot roast for Xmas Eve, it turned out well and the manicotti and meatballs were good for Xmas Day, easy day yesterday.  I'll make some chocolate chip cookies today, per DS's request, I didn't have time to make them before Xmas, I'll send most of them home with him.  He'll be here until Sunday.  

[JudyL]

@SleeplessinSD  - Glad to hear you are feeling better and that you were able to enjoy the day yesterday with your family.  Sun is out here too and blue skies with no clouds to be seen.  Heard we're getting more rain starting around Noon-ish but it sure doesn't look like it.  

[Dazlin]

Hi to all...day after Christmas 🎄. 

Everything went great yesterday. 

Today has been continued clean up and putting everything away, washing tablecloths, etc.

Hubby surprised me with a bike Christmas morning....I felt like a little kid seeing it.

I got to take it out today and test everything out...it has E bike on it too...I used a bit to see the adjustments on it.  Really nice riding.

  I started to put a few decorations away.

All in all, wonderful day with my family. 

Very tiresome though.

I think I should figure a way to down scale future events. 

Hope everyone is doing well and able to recoup.

Take care

[JustJazzmom]

Good night all!

I ran errands this PM before snow moved in around 7PM. We are expecting up to 3" of fluffy snow. Where I used to live it could be 9" or more. The NY Governor declared the LI counties in a state of emergency. I even got an automated message from my former Town Supervisor telling me no trash collection tomorrow. Not such which towns get Saturday collection. I spoke with their public service department asking for my number to be removed from automated messages. I told them several years ago, I got one of those messages & requested removal then. I'm going to see if their website has an option to remove the numbers from these automated messages. 

I had a very nice Christmas with my family & we all ate & drank too much. My youngest son took home some of the spiced nuts I had made. 

[JustJazzmom]

Good afternoon. We got twice the amount expected of snow -- 6". 

Hanging out at home & going to make pastina soup for dinner today. I am halving the recipe.

I will head to the supermarket tomorrow. Next week having cereal for breakfast & will need more milk. 

Found out that my DIL's brother tested positive for the flu the day after Christmas. I am going to text to see how he's doing in a bit. 

So far I'm okay. 

Found out something today I've wondered about for years -- which fruitcake company used to have a poodle that liked to eat their fruitcake & was sold at Macy's in the 1960's? It was Beatrice Bakery Company or Grandma's Bake Shoppe. My Mom used to buy their dark fruitcake every year at Macy's to serve at Christmas. Being a child, I didn't know the name of the company just the dog story. 

My Dad & I enjoyed the fruitcake. When he was alive, I found a fruitcake recipe to make from scratch. I eventually adapted the 4 mini loaf recipe to 2 mini loaves. When I was part of LI Horticultural Society, I used to make the 4 loaf recipe & bring 2 loaves sliced to their annual holiday party. I never brought home leftovers. The remaining 2 loaves went to my Dad & me. 

[MariotaMurielle]

hi all. our little family had a very nice Christmas. they came over in the afternoon of Christmas day, so they could enjoy Christmas morning at their own place. Ezra loves his new red bike. he giggled when he saw that Santa had taken big bites out of several of the cookies on his Santa plate. ( @Hayfield  I bought the plate from a vendor on Etsy.)

DH has always been the "grill master" at our house but since we've been through such an ordeal with his health over the last year we haven't used the grill. it's just been too difficult for him to get out there on the deck and clean & maintain the grill and cook. so, I have perfected my own method of "grilling" meat inside, browning it in a cast iron skillet on the stove top and then finishing it in the oven. up until now I have just been guessing about the doneness of the meat but I bought myself a digital food thermometer while I was Christmas shopping, which makes it even better. so, everyone enjoyed their perfectly cooked steaks, along with (per DD's special request) speckled butter beans, cornbread, macaroni & cheese w/croutons and deviled eggs. Ezra doesn't like beef so I cooked him chicken & pasta and green beans. my pecan pie crust stuck to the pie pan so badly that we had to scrape the filling out with a spoon and eat it like pecan pudding , but the chocolate pie was perfect.

yesterday we drove north to spend the day with our old friends. it was a beautiful day and aside from the amount of traffic we had a good trip. there were way too many people out on the highway, but that's to be expected the day after Christmas.

it's been almost 80 degrees here for the past 2 weeks but in a few days were are supposed to be having a drastic drop in temperatures. 

BBL