I am really enjoying December. It is full of fun things. Lest you think I am either bi-polar, schizophrenic or something like that, I have check marked quite a few things off my list and have been doing fun things.  

Starting with the day after my last pessimistic post, we had a fun but very chilly day for the LCB. We only served 60ish instead of 100. Guess the other 40 who said they were coming went to Mickey Ds or something. I had lots of nanner’ pudding leftover. Lots. There were grateful people who took it home for consumption. The extra 2 cakes were well received as well. All went smoothly except for the coffee, which was sad because it really was chilly to be eating outside and something hot to drink would’ve been good. Lesson for next time: either get there on time, and get the coffee maker going, and make sure it is on a different outlet than a roaster, that way there is no roaster to trip the breaker, and the 100 cup coffee pot may only take 1 hour to get ready instead of 3, or take a couple of 12-cup coffee makers along that are really fast.

It was fun though, the LCB was hot and ready when people arrived. As Joe O. said, experience is a good teacher. The first time or 2 they did that kind of meal, people had to wait on the food because of not allowing enough time in the beginning. Roasters are the best invention since department stores which were the best invention since sliced bread, which was the best invention since boys. (Did I say that out loud? )

That night, our youth group climbed onto the back of a dumptruck and went around the county, caroling and handing out plates of cookies to those lovely families who have hosted us on Sunday nights. It was a 45° or so and it got cold on the back of the truck the last couple of miles. We tried to warm ourselves with thoughts of how nice it was to not be sweating bushels like we do in July. We tried to sing of Our Favorite Things. We also sang of wanting Hippopatumuses for Christmas. We remembered Joe R, who was not with us that night, and posed questions such as: if we are traveling 55 mph, and it is 45° and some straw flies off the back of the truck, what color are my shoes? He would’ve said duh but if you know him well you probably know why that question would’ve been directed at him.  We ended the evening by drinking hot chocolate and eating leftover cookies and listening to Roland try to say “elephants eat marshmallows.” It is so cute but comes out something like “effa-leffa-lents eat marshmuffles.” He enunciates most words very well for a just-turned-2-year-old, so it is cute to hear this version. 

My calendar printing went much faster than I thought and as of last Wednesday night I have 60 sets printed, bound and hole-punched. Did you hear a scream coming from my house?  I will print 15 more sets after the holidays and life has settled down a little again.

I got most of my cleaning done that I was hoping to do but I took the Christmas card and letter of my list until after the holidays. It was one of those things that had to be postponed.

Sunday night was the school Christmas program. Great program, food and evening! Last night was company supper at Bonefish Grille. Bang Bang Shrimp, anyone? Delicious and fun supper!!

Yesterday we Hershberger sisters helped our mom clean part of her house in anticipation for having the family home for Christmas. Looking forward to a good family time this weekend. The nieces all plan to stay here with us. So late nights and good times ahead. 

And for your reading displeasure, I give you a fine verse to the tune of I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas:

I’m dreaming of a green Christmas
Just like some others I have known
Where the leaves are still turning
And children are yearning
To be in a place where it has snown…….

We have not had a killing frost yet so we have some peppers yet in the garden, our lantana in the flower beds still looks perky and the yard still looks somewhat like this:

To see what we have come from, this is what it looked like about Feb. or March of 2008:

(Please excuse my terrible stitch job.)

 

I wish you all a lovely Christmas wherever you are. Hope this time is filled with the joy and wonder of CHRISTmas!

Do you mind if I rant? I haven’t had a good rant post in a long time. And looking at that title I bet you think you know where I’m going with my rant.

You’re way wrong.

I have a serious pet peeve right now. Actually I probably have more than that but I try not to think about it. First is that the road construction on the 2-lane road going into town is really, really going on too long. Coming home in the evening is the worst for me. At the last light in town proper the road goes from 4 lane down to 2 lane right after the light. Most people get in the right lane before they get to the light to avoid merging problems since the left lane only goes about 50 feet after the light. That’s mostly a good thing. But you will have the occasional person (read: jerk) who will fly up the left lane, quickly merge into the right and in another 50 feet will hit the brakes to make a turn and there is no turning lane there. At all. So this whole line of traffic slams on the brakes while this person waits for a break in the oncoming traffic. If he/she would’ve waited in line like most people, they would’ve only forced several cars to stop, not 10+. You gotta keep your eyes open through there. Accidents will occur. One already has happened to a friend but I’ll spare you the details. My own personal witness protection program.

I don’t believe in conspiracy theories. In fact, I laugh at conspiracy theories but this is just something I can’t ignore. It looks to suspicious. Today I went to the fridge to find the 2 boxes of butter that I purchased yesterday (the second time that day I had been to Wally World). Nowhere to be found. Gone. Actually probably never there. This is the third time in the last month or two that I bought something there and later couldn’t find it here at home. Last month it was a package of Rhodes frozen dinner rolls.

It is nowhere to be found either. I wondered if I had remembered to actually purchase it but I found the receipt in my car during it’s bi-monthly cleaning and sure enough, I had paid for a bag. So with that in mind yesterday I remember asking the cashier, “is this all my bags.” And she said “Yes, that’s everything.”

SO WHERE’S MY BUTTER??

I really think it’s those evil plastic bags. There is just nothing good about them. They are bad for the environment, and they conceal your purchases so that you think you’re bringing home the bacon but you may have actually left it there. And then the next person will get it. Someone probably has my butter and they got home and said, “I Can’t Believe That’s My Butter®” but spread it on their biscuits instead of that other artificial stuff. Suddenly they realized how good butter really is. Now they are hooked on the stuff and are at the mercy of the diary farmers who slave away day-after-day wondering where the cream of their crop is.

And I’m stuck here at home, looking at the other 4 boxes of butter that I had gotten earlier yesterday, and wondering, “Will 8 cups of melted butter for Low Country Boil for 100 people be enough?” Oh the things I’m forced to ponder.

And lastly a note to myself: Next year the church calendars must, and I repeat MUST be completed by the end of October. November and December are too busy to try to fit that in as well. For once I’d like to decorate for Christmas before the week of Christmas. And I’d like to get Christmas cards out in a timely manner. I’m afraid mine may get bumped into January this year. Right now I don’t much like December.  I really want it to be the most wonderful time of the year. Even if we don’t get snow.

And with that rant over, my supper is over as well and I need to finish getting my stuff together for the company appreciation meal tomorrow. LCB plus desserts for 100 people. I’m only making the Banana Pudding. The other desserts I subbed out to other baking contractors, namely Anne B & Andrea Y. The men are taking care of all the LCB.

I’m making 2 large (as in steam table large) pans of banana pudding. These people around here are banana pudding freaks. I kinda like it myself.

 

please distract me. Or point me to my ever-growing list of things I need to do in December. Anything to get my mind off of designing

CARDS

So the weekend was nearly over and the weather was getting more gorgeous by the day, meaning bright sunny days. The previous weekend we actually had about 4 overcast days. In a row. Yeah, we’re not used to that. Spoiled is what were are. In the winter, anyway. Spoiled is what you northerners are in the summer. While we broil in our shells.

So we just go to the beach to make up for it. Our Sunday afternoon/evening was completely open so we went to Jekyll Is. Lovely except for a few sand gnats determined to eat supper. Oh, and by the way, that’s Jekyll Island, not Jekyl is. I have a good friend who was going to Edisto Is. with some friends and she kept wondering what was up with the Edisto Is. signs. She said, “Edisto is what?”

For you locals, in case you wonder where these were taken, we were on the north pier at dusk. Dusk lighting is the best. St. Simons Is. in the distance:

A grackle doing aerobics:

Another grackle is speechless:

Telephoto shot:

Wide angle shot:

A cropped shot:           

Trawlers on their way back home:

And so they returned home that evening, so rested that they had to drag themselves in the house, and drop onto the couch in a puddle of  …

Nevermind.