Category: Daily Thoughts

Casseroles · Chicken · Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Green Chile Chicken Casserole

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Tonight we took dinner to our kids. Tuesday evenings are pretty hectic in their household so it has been so neat to cook for them and have them walk in to their house to dinner.
They like chicken so I always try to think os something that will be easy to carry over there and yet something that everyone likes. Today I decided to make this casserole because it is so easy and they loved it.

1 can of mild green chile enchilada sauce (10 oz can)
2 chicken breasts cooked an diced (save some of the chicken broth that you cooked the chicken in ”
1/2 cup onion
1 oz package shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3 oz package of cream cheese
3 tables butter
18 yellow corn tortillas
garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste
1 tables corn starch stirred into 1/3 cup water or chicken broth.
Oil for searing tortillas

Spray a 7×11″ baking dish with Pam.
In a skillet, melt the butter and add the diced onion. Cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes or until onion is clear and tender. Add the garlic powder, salt and pepper and stir. Add half of the can of the green chile sauce to the onion mixture. Pour about 1 cup of the chicken broth into this mixture. Stir in softened cream cheese. Mixture will be thin, cook over low heat for a few minutes or until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in the corn starch mixture a little at a time stiring continually until mixture thickens. If it thickens to much, add a little more chicken broth or more green chile sauce from another can. (I always buy two cans for this reason.)
Set this aside.

In a separate skillet heat oil. Taking the corn tortillas one at a time, drop in oil for 2-3 seconds per side until all 18 have been heated in oil. Drain on paper towel.

Pour other half of remaining sauce that is in the can in the bottom of the baking dish. Layer 6 of the tortillas on the bottom. Sprinkle 1/2 of the chopped chicken over the tortillas. Sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese over this. Layer 6 more of the tortillas,now the rest of the diced chicken and another 1/3 of the cheese. Layer the remaining tortillas on top. Pour the sauce from the skillet over the entire casserole and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top.
Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until casserole is bubbling and cheese is all melted and lightly browned around the edges.
We served this with a pot of pinto beans and Spanish rice.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Seniors On the Run

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Bonnie & Clyde, Guido & Gina, running away from so many different things. So much difference between the two couples. Bonnie & Clyde were running from the law. Guido & Gina are running from everything that is familiar, family and friends. Even though we are leaving for Italy in the month of April, we are not trying to escape tax season. We are just trying to run to someplace which will grow us as seniors. We won’t have Walgreens on every corner. There will be no Walmart to run for heartburn meds or Geritol.
We won’t have familiar faces driving down the street, stopping to engage in conversations about government or the latest neighborhood gossip. Yes, it will truly be a whole new experience for us both. It is different when you travel overseas with tour groups. Safety in numbers, right? Well, there is just the two of us, with the exception of a couple of weeks when we will be blessed with some of our kids and friends coming over to stay with us. This trip has been a dream for us for a long time. Why is it that these bucket lists possibilities are never a possibility until we are old. I am sitting here thinking about what we are going to be doing and what it would have been like going when I was 25 or 30. No fear, no thoughts of “oh my gosh, what if one of us falls and breaks a hip while trying to take a selfie at the Trevi Fountain?” What if we get heart burn so badly that we can’t tell if it is just heart burn or a heart attack? Can we really carry our 50 lb suitcase up 4 flights of stairs? What if we loose our passports? Will we get on the wrong train? What if we get lost and can’t explain to our Italian friends where we are trying to go?
Thoughts like this never enter young peoples minds. They just go and enjoy the ride.
After my doctor told me last week that unless I gave up certain foods that I would certainly find myself having a heart attack or stroke, I thanked him for giving me something else to worry about. Now, instead of walking the streets of Florence with a gelato in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other, I will now be afraid to eat anything other than a piece of dry crusty bread or a sliced tomato. Gelato? Forget it, the closest thing I will get now to that is a frozen slice of banana. Young folks, listen to me….steal, beg or borrow and go travel before you spend your nights preceding the trips, practicing getting out of small cars without looking like you will be bent over for ever. Guido and I are already practicing each evening how to say in Italian, “where is the closest emergency room?” We have sewed pockets in our shirts for extra Tums and ID cards in case one of us looses our memory while we are gone and get separated in the crowds.
Just this morning, when I was tempted to stop at Chick Fila to buy a new Key Lime pie flavored shake, Guido looked over at me and says, and I quote, “No, remember what the Dr said and I can tell you right now, if you have a stroke, I will put your make up on you so heavily that you will look like Tammy Fae Baker. I will not keep your face shaved, or your hair done like you like. Also,you will be laying there with a unibrow. So let that be an incentive for you to enjoy those bags of lettuce we just bought at Trader Joes.” Bless his heart, God love him….he is so caring.
Yes, in a couple of weeks, we will be seniors on the run, praying that we will return 3 months later with memories which will prove that oldies can go, grow and explore new places even loaded down with heavy suitcases, purses filled with meds and snacks that would make my doctor proud.
Trust me, I’m not leaving Italy before having coconut gelato, pizza or limoncello….even if I end up with Tammy Fae makeup being applied to my face!

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Orlando Magic

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Spring is in the air in Orlando and the sun is shinning. We have loved our time here more than I ever imagined. Because we have had time to go and explore so many wonderful places, I thought I would post several different places that you might love, other than Mickey&Minnieville.
Because some of our kids live here, plus we are staying at a friends’ condo here in downtown Orlando, we have been so privileged to find local places that have simply won our hearts.
Besides the gorgeous lakes that seem to be around every corner, the people we have met and the wonderful restaurants, we have simply fallen in love with Orlando. In times past of visiting here, we always thought of Orlando as one of those places that could never seem like “home”. But our opinions have changed. Orlando is simply put, “magical”. No wonder Mickey and Minnie love it.
It will be hard to leave. We are thankful for the hospitality of CC, our sweet friend who invited us into her home here and put up with us for 2 months. She also has a home in The Villages where she also invited us for a weekend. We have been so blessed to share meals and worship services and made some sweet new memories with our kids here.
We have seen alligators, fairy hair, (which yes, I had put in my hair), walks around beautiful moss filled trees and views that we woke up to outside our windows of lakes and gorgeous buildings which outline downtown Orlando.
When you visit Orlando, get off the beaten path and walk around Winter Park. Sit in the park and people watch, then head across the street to one of their many wonderful restaurants. Be sure to stop in for a chocolate chunk coconut gelato at Penbrooks Chcocolate shop.
For the best Turkish/middle eastern food, make a rsvp at Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine. Best hummus you can ever find, plus the most wonderful puffy pita bread.
Hop on the train across the street for a ride.

If you love wildlife, head over to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. It is free and you can see so many beautiful birds and alligators just resting in the marsh and along the edges of the lake, You drive through on a road that allows you to see so much nature.

On Saturday mornings, the Farmers Markets of Winter Garden and Winter Park cannot be beat! They are fabulous! From kettle corn to jewelry to fabulous fresh fruit!

The restaurants which we have fallen in love with here are:
Breakfast/lunch The Coop in Winter Park
Hamburgers That One Stop Burger, Ocoee
Sonny’s Barbecue, several locations
Great Appetizers & lunch/dinner RuSTeak in Ocoee
Awesome Beef/pastrami Sandwiches Beefy King in Downtown Orlando
Italian Bella Italian in Winter Garden
German Food Hollerbach’s Willow Tree Cafe in Sanford
Seafood JB’s Fish Camp where you sit outside and sometimes see manatees and great view of the coastal inland.
in New Smyrna Beach or Norwoods Tree House! You actually eat up in a tree house.
For Great Deli Sandwiches and the Best Chocolate Chip Banana Cake head to
TooJay’s. There are several of them so choose the one closest to your hotel.

If you have time be sure to spend time in Sanford and DeLand. Beautiful small towns about an hour away from Orlando and many antique stores and small family owned restaurants that will truly make you want to go back. In fact, we are headed back to Hollerbachs in Sanford this Sat with our kids to have more amazing Spatzle with gravy and Schnitzel. We love this place and their Honey Bee Almond Cake is out of this world. You will be too full to eat it then but treat yourself and take a slice to go.

For Beaches, head to New Smyrna. They have a wonderful beaches with free parking and a boardwalk which gives you easy access to sit and enjoy the sunshine and beautiful Atlantic ocean. This beach is a little less touristy so you don’t have as many crowds. I love this one because there are as many older ladies with hail damage on their legs as I have and cover ups that cover them up from neck to knees, just like me.
One of the most beautiful walks we took was around Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. The fountain in the middle of the lake was simply gorgeous and the tree lined lake makes for a most relaxing walk. Treat yourself to this beautiful part of town. Lots of restaurants close by also.

If you need a mall, choose the Millenia Mall. It is just gorgeous and so easy to get to. Exit 78 off the 4 takes you to an area that has every type of restaurant you could want. Even a very nice Dollar Tree and Target are here.

For Sunday services there are so many wonderful churches. If a choir and orchestra are something that is important to you, head to First Bapt Orlando 8:30 Sunday Service. Amazing preaching also.
We visited First Presbyterian downtown Orlando and was so very blessed with beautiful music and preaching.

First Bapt Winter Garden is where our kids belong and we have been several times with them. We love the pastor and the people are so friendly. The music is a little more contemporary but very spirit led and awesome praise band.
So there you have it. Will add to this list in the next couple of weeks as we end our time here before heading over to Italy for our 3 month adventure. But wanted to go ahead in case some of you were planning your summer here in Orlando. It will be so very hard to leave, but are so thankful for the time we have been here and the new memories which are going with us.

Daily Thoughts · Starches · Uncategorized · Vegetables

Lemon-Green Bean Pasta

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This week I saw this recipe on FB and decided that I had to try it. We cooked it Friday evening and it was delicious. No meet, yet, it was so good that we didn’t even miss the meatballs! Quick and easy, you might even have everything in the house that is needed to make it. We have decided next time to add some fresh spinach along with the green beans but you will love this wonderful meatless Italian dish.

1 box angel hair or spaghetti
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tables olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped purple onion
5 tables unsalted butter
4 teas lemon zest
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teas Italian Seasoning
1/2 teas crushed red pepper
2 cups fresh green beans (I bought the bag of fresh green beans that you can cook in microwave in the bag and cooked them for 3 min in microwave before adding to the skillet.
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
2 teas lemon juice

Cook pasta according to directions on box, set aside saving about 1/2 cup pasta water.
Add olive oil and butter to skillet and stir until butter is melted. Saute onion, garlic and green beans in the oil/butter mixture until onion is clear. Add salt and pepper to your liking. Add the crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning and cook until green beans are tender (remember I cooked them first in the microwave to save on time). When these vegetables are done, add the pasta to the green bean mixture along with the pasta water, lemon juice and zest to mixture. Add the Parmesan cheese to the mixture before serving. Serve with garlic bread and Tomato-Mozzarella salad!

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Mountains & Valleys

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Last week, we enjoyed so much going to church with our kids who live here. Because I was fighting the flu, and didn’t know it, we drove on to church with me laying down in the seat with my feet on the dash of the car. If you read my previous blog, you will know that I was actually not just feeling weak from giving blood the day before, but was already experiencing flu symptoms. Randy kept asking me if I was sure I didn’t want to head to Urgent care but I told him to just drive in the direction of the church and I would let him know by the time we arrived if I needed to go to the doctor or if I was able to go to church. Thinking that surely the effects of donating blood would simply go away, I choose to drag myself into church. After all, getting to sing and hear God’s Word taught “should” energize me and help me forget how bad I felt. So in we go, all the while hoping that I would be able to stand to sing.
The preacher began to talk to us about living our Christian lives and how we seem to think that if we do everything “right” we would have more mountaintop experiences. As I sat there and listened to him speak, it became evident that he had a word that I needed to hear. The scripture reading was from Luke 4:30-44
“Once when he was in the synagogue a man possessed by a demon began shouting at Jesus, “go away, why are you bothering us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you are are–the Holy One sent from God.”
The pastor brought up an interesting point that I had never thought about before. This man, who was possessed, was sitting right there in the pew, listening to Jesus preach. Were the other’s so use to this man being there every week that they never paid attention to him? Did they just think he was just a little weird? Did the others there that day think that he was just like they were? All scripture tells us is that there he was, sitting in church, listening but yet unwilling to surrender. The pastor began to talk about us as Christians, we think that the more “mountaintop experiences” we have, the holier we are. But is that what Christ is calling us to? Nothing more than people who live for those mountaintop experiences? No, we need the times in the valleys when we are reminded that Christ should be our hope, our peace and the one we strive to grow into His likeness. Mountaintops give us times when we experience times of refreshing and experiencing God’s faithfulness. We know that the prize of our salvation awaits us for all eternity. BUT..it is those times in the valleys which grows our faith and allows us to serve others while they are going through the storms and valleys of life. We are called to serve. We are not called to live on the mountaintops. We must come to the point in our lives as Christians that we seek out those who are struggling and come along beside them to show Christ’s love, compassion and giver of eternal life.
He ended the sermon with this thought:
Am I a friend to Jesus or a demon in the pew? Am I sitting here week after week, listening to Jesus Words, but not allowing Him to use me or surrender to what He has for me?
This week I have had more time than usual since I was quarantined for 3 days to think about that? Am I living for just those those wonderful mountain top times, not wanting to surrender to the valley times so that His light will shine thought me to others? Or am I sitting there, like a devil in the pew week after week?
Thank you Pastor Grosshans for a great reminder that God didn’t promise us a life of no valleys, but He did promise us that He would go with us through them.
The Christian life does have some mountaintop experiences. But we cannot stay there and just glance down to those in the valleys. We have to be down here with others, serving, loving and praying that God’s glory will be evident from our hearts to theirs.

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Brain Exercises

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Well, here we are in Orlando, Florida enjoying the great state of sunshine and oranges. Except for today when it is cloudy and cold…and I have the flu. We were told that when we got to Florida everything would be sunny and glorious. That the weather now would just be perfect. And for most parts it has been, other than a few days of rain which was really neat to cool the day off. Guido has decided in the last couple of days that he is growing his mustache back. He told me that he thinks he looks to young to be with me so has decided before we go to Italy next month that he will grow it back so that we look more closely matched. When he left this morning for errands, I had the locks changed.
A friend of mine has been telling me about all the brain exercises that she and her husband do on the computer that is suppose to help your brain keep active. They do sound really fun and probably do work, but I told her that we have a game of our own that is not on the computer and that is certainly keeping our brains active.
The game is called, “keep moving around to different addresses”. As I was writing a few cards this morning while sitting and resting and drinking lots of Dr Pepper to help me get over the flu (I wonder if that is what the Dr meant when she told me to go home and drink lots of fluids?), I started to think about all the zip codes I have had to remember to put on cards and bills since we left Arizona the end of December. Yes, I know we could get a PO box and have everything sent there, but what is the fun in that? It is more fun to keep people guessing where we are and how long we will be in each spot.
Our kids have given up. They just text us and ask us what we are having for dinner and that helps them know where we are. For instance, if we are having Tex-Mex or Whataburger, we are in Texas. If we are having fried seafood, we are probably in Louisiana or Florida. If we are having Fried Chicken, grits and Pee..can pie, we have traveled a little north to Savannah, so I can hopefully catch a glance of Paula. Surely the third time will be successful. But, getting back to our memory, each time we settle for a little bit, I have to learn a new return address and zip code.
The last few days when I finally decided to find a urgent care to see if I was diabetic, dying from high blood pressure or high cholesterol, just the exercise of calling a million different places to see if they took our insurance was exercise enough for a week. After calling about 10 places, we found an urgent care about 25 miles away. Then we add it to our phones and have to navigate our way there, fill out 10 sheets of paper and then if you haven’t died yet, you get to wait for an hour to see a 15 year old Dr. But, my brain has had a great workout this week. So hopefully after I am over the flu I will feel good enough to try my hand at one of the brain games on my phone. But right now, I think it has had a good enough workout for a few days.
FYI, all the things you have heard that are signs of having the flu are not complete.
The only symptoms I had were: weakness, dizziness and so tired, I felt like I had baked 100 cupcakes in an hour and tried to walk in a pair of 3″ high heals.
No fever,no congestion, no cold symptoms, but when I crawled into the Urgent Care office, I tested positive for Type A…go figure! Would have never even thought about having the flu. But was to go home and rest and drink and stay away from others. I thought all the symptoms that I was having were a result of giving blood on Saturday.
Randy and I had seen a Blood Donating Bus in front of the movie theatre a couple weeks back with a sign out front that said “Donate Today and get 2 free movie tickets” Well, you don’t have to ask Randy twice to do anything if he is going to get something free. So Saturday morning we awoke to him saying, “let’s go online to see if the blood mobile is still in front of the movie house and we can get 4 free movie tickets.” Bless his heart, he gets so excited when he knows he can get free stuff. So off we went to the blood mobile. We climbed the stairs into the big red bus, filled out the forms and gave my butter laden blood to a poor recipient who, I pray will not have a heart attack from getting my blood. But as the technician gave us our paperwork for the free movie ticket, it said we would get one free ticket. WHAT? I had gone through all that for one ticket? When I ask her about getting two free tickets, she replied that that was a special promotion that weekend only and we only got one ticket each now. We took our free cookie, free movie pass and climbed down the stirs with a disappointed heart. I looked at Randy and said that if he took me to Dillards, I would forgive him for making me go through that ordeal for one ticket. So we walked across the parking lot to Dillards. By the time I got inside the door, I was close to fainting and about to vomit. So he sat me in a chair right inside the door in the shoe department. Normally any shoe department would immediately energize me but not today. I told him that he had better ask someone really fast where a bathroom was as I was about to loose it. So off he goes in search of a bathroom. People began to come over to me and ask me if I’m ok. I guess I looked worse that I had thought. The manager comes over and tells me she is going to call EMS and sends another lady over to get me a water. I assure her that my husband is someplace in the store and that he will surely be back in a few minutes and I will be fine. the 3 ladies standing over me tell me I don’t look fine and proceed to ask my husbands name. When I tell them, the manager pages Randy over the store intercom to please come meet his wife in the shoe dept immediately. Well, about 10 min later, here comes Mr. Turtle, moozing over to where he had left me. It took 3 people to help me walk to the car. As soon as I could talk I began to ask him where he had gone and why did it take him so long to come back. He told me he had finally found the bathroom on the second level. And anyone who knows Randy knows how slow he walks on a normal day. When I told him that I had got concerned that maybe he had walked off someplace and got as week and faint as I had got, he told me “no I was fine but just could not find any bathrooms on the first floor. When I ask him if he heard his name being called out over the intercom he replied no, he did not hear it. Our next brain exercise will be to find an ENT Dr. for him that takes our insurance.
I guess I already had the flu and giving blood just sent me over the top. So my advice to you is, if you are not feeling exactly “chipper” do not give blood, even if they are giving away free tickets to anything. It is not worth it. When I get well, Randy has assured me I get to choose which movie we see with our free ticket. He just gets sweeter and sweeter.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Only God

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This week has been such an up and down emotionally roller coaster. Loving all the things about Christmas, the carols, the Christmas Eve services with family, the dinners that gathers us around the tables, allowing for laughter, retelling of memories and partaking of God’s abundant provision. Christmas is a glorious time of reminding us of what God truly did for mankind. We have been given the most amazing gift that anyone could receive. The gift of eternal life and a most abundant life here on earth.
Sitting there Christmas Eve with our kids, we were so blessed to have our 9 year old grandson say that he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart. What a great memory to have as we leave this place in a few days. To know that Caleb has made the most important decision of his life, and we were blessed to be there when he did.
As we are moving on to our next adventure of traveling for a few months before settling back in Texas, this past month has been, like I said, had it’s ups and downs of emotions. Everything we have done with friends or family has been great, but then we stop to realize that each of those things we were doing for the last time for awhile. That always brought some tears and tore at our hearts. But to have witnessed some of the things God has done these last couple of months has been such an amazing gift to know that God, in all His glory, still cares about the things that are important to us,no matter how small they may seem in the scheme of things.
Randy and I made a prayer list of things in October that we have been praying and asking the Lord for. One by one, we have been able to check the requests off that lists. Out of the 9, there is only one that remains, but it isn’t time to worry about that one anyway.
About a month ago, we decided to try to sell our living room furniture. We began to think that if we didn’t have these 3 big chairs and couch, we would be able to fit everything into one pod and not have to pay to store a second pod. Each week, I kept revising the price and details of the furniture on several web sites that specialize in selling preowned furniture. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No one ever showed up to look at it, much less buy it. Randy kept asking me where we would sit, should it sell before we were ready to leave on the 27th, but I kept saying that I didn’t think he needed to worry about that as no one had even come to look at it. When Jodi, our daughter, and I started talking about the furniture last week, we both talked about that if it didn’t sell before Christmas and the movers were coming the 27th (tomorrow) it would just go to Texas with us.
Also, I had just shared with several friends that the Lord had not revealed my word for 2019 to me yet. I had told them that I felt that maybe my word was “trust” but it had not been confirmed to me yet. At Christmas Eve service the pastor ended his sermon using the word “trust” several times and I began to think even more that God was showing me that that was going to be my word.
Well, today about 11 a.m. I was on the phone with Jodi when I told her that someone had just written to me asking if our furniture was still available. So I quickly responded to the lady that yes it was. I didn’t get excited because several had written in the last month, but then I never heard back, so figured that this was going to be the same. But then the lady wrote back to ask if she could come look at it. She showed up, and ended up paying for it, BUT…..she cannot pick it up until tomorrow. God worked it out that we still have it to sit on until the movers get here tomorrow. Only God…..He always goes far and above anything we can ever imagine. It is always exciting to see how He reveals the word He has for us and this year was no exception. He not only confirmed my word to be “trust” but took care of our needs in the process.
Only God….can make a way when there seems to be no way.
Only God….can arrange our lives in such a way that not only brings Him glory, but allows us to have a story to tell others.

Trust and Obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Only God! Thank you Lord for all the ways you have taken care of us and continue to show Your faithfulness. May we always trust in You, no matter the bends in the road, no matter the circumstances.

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Precious Christmas Memories

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This Christmas season has been very different for us. Instead of spending time hanging outdoor Christmas lights or sitting down with Christmas cards in my lap to address, we have spent the majority of our time packing to move. If I EVER decide to do this at Christmas season, will one of you slap me back into reality? At the beginning of December, we kept thinking, “we have got this. Most of the glass dishes and antique cabinets had already been packed for several weeks. Thinking that if we did that, it would give us plenty of time to watch all the Hallmark movies and make multiple pans of fudge. We were wrong. We did not figure in the fact that we are a couple years older than we were 3 years ago. We also didn’t figure in the fact that apparently we have acquired, should I say, “some real keepsakes” living out west. We unloaded 3 pods when we moved here and it looks like it might take 4 when the movers get here next week? That brings me to another fact. Our clothes are a bigger size than when we moved here. IT’s amazing how much more room a size larger pair of pants takes up.
Because we are trying to make the most of the time we have left here, Jodi and I came up with a great family night plan. Two nights ago, we went to their house to have pizza, watch Christmas Vacation and then head out to a Christmas light spectacular called Illumination. IT was worth every dollar, especially since there was a coupon on Groupon. The coupon is for the entire car, so load it up we did. We had Randy driving, with Eric and Noah in the front seat. Jodi and I had Caleb in the back. After an hour wait to actually get the car inside to begin driving through the light show, we were excited. Of course, the sign gave instructions to turn our radio onto a certain radio station so that the lights blinked in sync with the music playing. Of course, it took until we were almost through the park before we figured out how to restart our computer in the car to where we could find the particular station. But, because we have a SUV the boys decided to climb over both seats and watch the show from the back of the car. Apparently, when little boys are not strapped in with seatbelt, they feel the mood to roll around, kicking the backs of our heads, of course, all the while keeping with the beat of the music. While we were waiting in line we began to laugh about different Christmas memories. Doesn’t it seem that memories sometimes get funnier as time passes?
One of our favorite Christmas memories was from about 2010 when we had about 15 people at our house. Because there were going to be so many people having dinner, I rearranged the furniture. We put the dining room table in the den and put the den furniture in the dining room. That way we could seat more folks AND, it put us closer to the food. That is so important. Well the night progressed and we had a lovely dinner. Everyone left and Randy said, “if you want, I’ll start putting back all the chairs while you do the dishes.” That is always how we work, he starts putting everything up while I am in the kitchen, cleaning up. Thats why Frosty and Noel make a great team.
In about 10 minutes, Randy walks in the kitchen and tells me that we need to call Eric and Jodi. When I ask him why, they had just left, why did he need to call them, he responded with, “they need to come back, they forgot Craig, he is sound asleep in my chair in the dining room.” Craig is Eric’s brother and in the hustle and bustle of everyone leaving that evening, no one noticed that Craig was asleep in the dining room. Now we had to decide who was going to wake him up and tell him that they left him behind. We decided to let him sleep until Eric got there and could explain to him why he was still there. We now post a sign at the front door to be sure people get ALL their belongings before they leave.

Another great memory involved us renting a 15 passenger van to take friends around looking at Christmas lights. What a special memory. We made chile for everyone before we went out and then each person had their own little box of Christmas cookies to snack on while we looked at lights. It truly was a magical evening. As Frosty played Christmas Carols over the radio, everyone begin to sing and laugh. Well, almost everyone, our adult kids were sitting in the back of the van and kept making faces like, “you have got to be kidding me, we are in a van, driving around with all these oldies singing with their Christmas sweaters on”. That made us sing that much louder. They couldn’t get out of that van quick enough when we got back. We loved it. Felt like they were teenagers again with their parents still embarrassing them.

Today running into Walmart to buy butter (yes, I was almost out of butter, only have 2 sticks left) I remembered years ago when being so excited seeing the new Christmas tapes/CD’s in and loved going through them to see which new ones I was going to buy that year. I miss that. It was so much more fun than just going onto Amazon to download songs for my phone. It was so great to get back in the car, open the tape/cd and insert it into the player and driving around listening to the new music we had just bought.

Christmas…brings back so many different memories and emotions. Some of them wonderful, and some bringing tears to our eyes. But regardless of the emotions which it conjures up, we can be sure of one thing. Memories hold a very special place in our hearts.

As you celebrate Christmas this year, may you make memories of joy, hope and laughter with those you love.

#Jesusisthereasonfortheseason

Breads · Breakfast · Casseroles · Daily Thoughts · Holiday Fare · Uncategorized

Monte Cristo Casserole & Raspberry Sauce

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Years ago we use to have a restaurant in Texas that had the best Monte Cristo sandwiches. It is no surprise that this breakfast casserole caught my eye in the December Taste of Home. After reading the recipe and realizing that I could make it the night before, it became the breakfast of choice for Christmas morning this year. Cannot wait to serve it with a side dish of hash browns and a fruit compote.

1 loaf French bread, cut into 20 slices
2 tables Dijon mustard
1/2 lb sliced deli ham
1/2 lb sliced Swiss cheese
1/2 lb sliced deli turkey
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 teas sugar
2 teas vanilla extract

Topping
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teas ground cinnamon

Raspberry Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 tables cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Line a greased 13×9″ baking dish with half of the bread. Spread the mustard over bread. Layer with ham, cheese, then turkey and remaining bread. Dish will be full.
In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla. Pour over top. Place in fridge, covered overnight.

Preheat oven to 375. Remove casserole from fridge while oven heats. IN a small bowl, mix topping ingredients, sprinkle topping her the casserole. Bake, uncovered, until golden brown, about 30-40 minutes.

While casserole is baking, using a small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in water, lemon juice and maple syrup until smooth.
Add raspberries. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Cool slightly.

Let casserole stand 10 minutes before cutting. Serve warm with sauce.

Serves about 10

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Frosty’s Follies

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

Today Frosty suggested that we go out shopping like we use to while we lived in Dallas. To just go out all day to get among the Christmas crowds and hit the local Starbucks for a gingerbread latte and see what Santa has out this year on display. It was then that I suggested that we go looking for a new suitcase for us to take to Mexico and Italy. So off we go to look for the perfect traveling companion which would hold all our clothes that hopefully make us look like we “belong” and not like a tourist.

Getting out in this most beautiful day made me hungry. When he ask me if I was ready for the Starbucks stop, I informed him that maybe we should start off with something a little more filling, so off to Chick Fila we go, all the while me listening to him talk under his breath about “we have just left the house where there was plenty to eat but now she wants to go to Chick Fila” Maybe Frosty isn’t quite in his Christmas spirit yet. When I ask him to repeat what he had just said, he told me that he was glad we were having lunch out because then we could save the food at home for dinner. When I told him that was not what it sounded like when he was muttering, but I let this one go. After all, I didn’t want to start off our fun Christmas shopping day not speaking. So after we downed some chicken nuggets and a peppermint chocolate chip shake, we headed off to look at luggage. We stopped at a store that has a little bit of everything, (no it wasn’t Walmart) ok, it was almost Walmart, it was Ross. So after looking over the luggage and deciding that we needed to go other places before deciding, I informed Frosty that after much discussion with several friends who have traveled extensively, I wanted to go look at the backpacks. Thinking that would be a great way to carry all my necessities, leaving my arms free to hold the gelato or pizza in Italy or hail cabs in Mexico, my mind was made up to buy a backpack. I found the perfect size, beautiful, quilted olive green backpack which had some outside pockets. Asking him to hold my purse so I could try it on for size, I proudly, turn around showing him what I look like with a back pack. No I didn’t ask him if it made my rear end look big, but I did ask him what he thought. This was his reply, “well, if you really must know, you look like a Ninja Turtle”
The backpack went back on the shelf and we left the store in not so much of a holly jolly mood.

We had already decided that today we would visit the Apple Store to look at the Smart Watches. I had told our kids that instead of buying me those cute little signs that sometimes read, “what happens at Nana’s stays at Nanas or a shirt that might read, TGIF This Granny is Fantastic, I would rather them just donate to my Smart Watch Fund. So in anticipation to being gifted with one, we decided to just go look at the watches. We walked out with the cutest little Smart watch EVER. It is now synced with my phone and everything is out there in the cloud. So any money that comes in now from the kids can just go to cover a cute new color band for the watch or a new phone cover that matches the cute little watch. The first 3 hours it was the smartest watch I could imagine. But after coming home and sitting down to watch a Christmas Hallmark movie, I glance over to look at my new watch and there is an alert that is telling me to “get up and move around, you have been sitting too long.” WHAT? I now have a watch that makes me feel guilty for sitting and watching a movie? What have I done? After a little longer I get another alert telling me to breathe deeply for a minute as it is good for my brain. Are you kidding me? It knows what shape my brain is in?
If I cannot train this so called “Smart watch” a little better than it is now, it is going back to Apple. If I designed a smart watch it would go something like this:
You Go Girl….it has been over an hour since you ate a cookie, why don’t you have another one.

Ding Dong, Ding Dong, it’s time for your favorite Christmas movie, grab yourself a cup of hot cocoa and sit down and relax.

Oh Bless Your Heart, you have worked hard enough today, drive up to Donut Worry and buy that apple strudel donut you love.

Dolly Parton singing Working 9 to 5 and “just warm up the leftovers, you don’t need to cook a meal tonight.

Now that’s truly a Smart Watch that I would make. But until then, I guess I had better close and start walking around before it alerts me that I have been on this computer long enough or reminds me that I have only burned 23 calories today. And to think I paid money for all this guilt. Merry Christmas to me!