The last of the
Thanksgiving turkey is in the soup pot, and this
Grammy is left with memories of another Thanksgiving come and gone.
One thing I'll never forget are the rolls that were almost a disaster. There was an unlabeled plastic bag of canning salt in the cupboard next to the sugar canister (I won't tell who was responsible for that, but it wasn't me).
While mixing up my traditional holiday rolls, I ran out of sugar, and replenished the canister from that plastic bag (it looked just like sugar). I was wondering why the sugar wasn't dissolving as it usually does while on the stove top with the butter and milk...wondering why the dough seemed a bit weird.
While stirring the
sugar, butter, milk mixture for the next batch of dough, and noticing the sugar still wasn't dissolving, I stuck my finger in the
sugar clumped on the bottom of the pan. YUCK! Then I tasted the first batch of dough. DOUBLE YUCK! Tasted worse than the Dead Sea. My taste buds were ruined for the rest of the day. . That canning salt is powerful stuff. Luckily this happened early enough in the day, so I was able to start all over again, and was very
thankful I did a taste test. It took a while for my taste buds to forgive me for that one.
We had a houseful of little cousins having so much fun together and creating memories. Their laughter and chatter fills the house. They get along so well. The only crying is when someone gets hurt or a baby is tired.
Today, I'll put up the Christmas tree. What a day to do it! This morning, deep in the heart of Texas, the rain turned to snow ... for about an hour the biggest, fattest flakes came tumbling down. It stopped for awhile and now snow flurries are coming down again... freezing temps.
tonight.
A little one experienced his first Christmas eve.....
And we gathered around a candle-lit table for our traditional dinner of Christmas Eve soup...
Then, around a fire (built from logs from oak tree branches downed by Hurricane Ike),Grandpa told the story of the Jesus' birth. 
We had a lot of silly laughs.
For home evening night, on the Monday before Christmas, we'll be doing this again and again and again.
Yes, I sure did. Earlier this month I turned 62 (not too depressed about it, since I'm still below 65.) ..... and to celebrate this birthday month I finally did it --- during my long run today, I reached my goal of easily running 2 miles without stopping. Don't snicker all you super marathoners out there; it took me a long time to get to this point, a lot of baby steps, a major accomplishment for me. 5K here I come ... someday! What a beautiful day to be in Texas, and running in the park -- 71 degrees, no humidity, sunny, blue sky. Meanwhile, up north in Minnesota, Mark is buying ice skates for his family so they can skate on the frozen pond in back of their house.
I wrapped up an unused bathrobe one of my son-in-laws left behind in an upstairs closet. And look who got it! Matthew says he loves it.
The girls will be chasing Justin on his college campus when they find out he is the proud owner of so many springy keychains (at least 20).
Donna loved these limited edition Target slippers soooo much that no one had the heart to steal them away from her (Jessica was coveting them).
Hank enjoyed smelling his basket of fragrant body lotions. Donna will probably steal it away from him when they get home. Maybe they can just share.
And "Merry Christmas" from the Ellis siblings here in Texas to Billy in Pennsylvannia and Beverly in Utah. Wish you could have been there with us!
Before the big freeze hit this weekend, I picked the last of the lemons off the Meyer lemon tree in the backyard. These beauties are as big as oranges. Here's what I'm cooking with a small part of one tonight. Since I'm using just 4 pieces of chicken (thighs), I halved the marinade ingredients. I'm going to broil the chicken. 
Next week, when the boys are home from college, I'll make these. Looks like they'll be yummy.
