This is an exciting night….4 couples are coming over to experience a true southern fried chicken dinner, complete with homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy and creamed corn. Their entrance fee is that each couple will have to sing a Christmas carol to get in the front door. Frosty and Noel are ready for this big night. We have our reindeer antlers ready to put on our heads, the bread is rising in the utility closet and the Christmas clock has brand new batteries to proudly play a carol on each hour. The phone is set to play, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” every time it rings; merriment will be felt everywhere. Christmas lights are lit, candles will be burning, it will be a fabulous night.
The greatest thing just happened. Frosty had told me to get out the electric skillet for him to fry the chicken. With 10 people here, it will require lots of chicken, and electric skillets will cook it just perfectly. Now, I had remembered that when we moved in we were discovering that the kitchen didn’t allow for little extras, like big skillets, or platters so off I went in search of the electric skillet. I looked under both beds, the trunk of the car and the storage bin in the garage. Then I remembered, maybe I put it in the cabinets in the powder room,which only had “seasonal” things like extra rolls of paper towers, extra cupcake pans, spring form pans,cheesecake pans, etc., so maybe I should try the bathroom cabinets. Well, I didn’t find the electric skillet, but I did find my Christmas tea pitcher that I had been looking for. There was no place else to look, could it be, hum…..surely not, could it be in the kitchen someplace? I went and got the step-stool out of the other bathroom cabinet and climbed upon it and lo and behold, there it was, shinning in all it’s glory….right above the oven in the kitchen cabinet. I am so glad I didn’t bet on that one. This is the first time in a year, since moving here that I actually found something I needed for cooking, in the kitchen and not under a bed or bathroom cabinet. This truly must be a Christmas miracle. So…tonight, we will be sharing a little bit of the south with our Sushi Friends…..who knows, they might just want to come back over for a little slice of buttermilk pie or grits and eggs next weekend. We just need to break them in one pod of fried okra at a time. We will discuss the next Southern menu over a game of Chicken Foot tonight….should they ever want to come back.

It happened quite unexpectedly this past Saturday. After many trips to our storage unit, we discover that we had left our tree back in Dallas for fear it would be to tall for our new home. Still feeling in the Christmas spirit and singing “Joy To The World” all the way out to Hobby Lobby, which is about 35 miles from our home, we walk in the door with a list of items to purchase. At this point, I am just thinking to myself, “Frosty is absolutely the best husband in the world to come with me to buy lights, ribbon, ornaments, and the real reason we had come….the tree. Let me remind you that we have a small car, which does have fold down seats which have been folded down quite a bit this year, hauling “treasures” back and forth to the house. But we round the corner and there it is….”our” tree…perfectly shaped, already lit, just the right height and…..it is on for 1/2 price, which thrills Frosty to no end. So our shopping trip is now coming to a end. Smiles on both our faces, we pay for our things and head out to the car with Box M, which is the Christmas tree. Frosty is just so proud of his purchase and we skip merrily out to the car already planning how we are going to decorate while listening to Christmas carols, drinking hot chocolate and dressed in our Christmas sweaters. We arrive at our car. Still thinking positive we load 4 to 5 bags of new Christmas treasures in the back and both of us pick up the tree box to push it in any way it will go into our little German pickup. After about 20 minutes of trying this way and that, Frosty begins to undress right there in the parking lot. His shirt flies off to expose him wearing a gray tshirt which as most of you know, Frosty’s idea of casual is penny loafers, button-downed Polo shirt and dockers with a sweater wrapped around his shoulders. So to see him strip off his shirt in public, well, this is just something that has never happened. I think the 87 degree weather has begun to melt Frosty’s attitude. He finally cuts open the tree box with our car keys and takes the tree out, which is in 3 pieces and begins to stuff it in the car. Cars have been coming and going, not daring to park in the empty spaces beside us as they could tell from the glare he gave them if they even thought about parking beside us that maybe they might just want to go look for another spot. Seeing that we have a two door car, both doors are open and people are giving us “the look” for now taking up 3 spaces. But after 30 minutes or so, we are now headed down the freeway with our new tree sticking out the sun roof. We didn’t need to buy so many ornaments as most of the needles flew off on the way home, but it is our tree and a new memory was made on Saturday afternoon, as the first new Christmas treasure I put out on Frosty’s side of the bed is a pillow that says, “Bah Humbug”…and that, my dear friends describes Frosty’s Holiday Melt-down. He hasn’t sung, Joy To The World since Saturday.

We might have overdone it just a little this year. We just returned from storage where we piled as many Christmas boxes as we possibly could in our Mercedes Pickup, knowing all the while that it would take us probably 5-6 trips to get all the “Christmas Treasures”,or as Frosty calls it,”Christmas Stuff” from the storage unit to our little Christmas Workshop. It is so easy to get in a festive mood while going through the boxes, taking each snowman cautiously out and going from room to room trying to decide the perfect place for each item. While my head is in one of the boxes, I hear a Christmas carol and think to myself, “oh it is just so great to have all 3 of my Christmas clocks here and listening to Joy to the World, I hear the message machine come on.” Oh my gosh, it was the phone ringing. I forgot that Frosty found a Christmas Carol to play whenever the phone rings. So now, while running from room to room looking under each bed or closet trying to find Christmas platters, I now have to listen carefully for the carol. OK, I think I have this down now…if I hear Winter Wonderland, it’s the home phone ringing. If I hear Frosty the Snowman, it is Randy calling me on my cell. Jingle Bells is Jodi calling on cell, We Wish You a Merry Christmas is general public calling my cell. ALL the other carols are going to be one of the 3 Christmas clocks chiming away on the hour. Oh Wait, I forgot….Just bought a Josh Groban Christmas CD to play on the kitchen CD player….Oh my goodness, I don’t think I can remember all this….maybe I should just sit down and have a cup of tea in my new Christmas Carol playing tea cup and go over this list one more time….BUT…..on the way to the couch, I just cannot resist pinching the toe of my new little snowman Frosty bought me last year. That way I can do a little dance to “Rockin Round the Christmas Tree” with each sip of tea…..Something tells me that this is going to be one of Frosty’s best Christmases…..Gotta go, am headed to load 6 Christmas CD’s in my car. Oh my gosh, I just thought about something. Surely they have horns that play Mama Got Run Over By a Reindeer for the car…wouldn’t that be a great new addition to our Christmas Treasures this year?

This is the greatest place….2 hours and you can go from crowded city to the mountains where snow awaits us. Some friends from church have invited us to their home up at Big Bear Lake, where the weather reports say that it was 19 degrees today with snow expected again over the weekend. Well, as most of you know, that is my favorite kind of weather and sends me into the kitchen faster than you can say, “which isle is the butter on?” so…have just finished making a chewy chocolate raspberry cake which I posted on the blog 2 days ago and a fresh apple cake with praline frosting is baking as we speak. Randy went last night and bought snow chains for the car and we are hoping to get snowed in for a few extra days so we can just sit and relax by the fire and munch on cakes, dips and pray for a blizzard to hit while we are up there. Next week, since we will probably be needing to thaw out, we will drive an hour south to Newport Beach and soak up rays of sunshine to remind us of the heat we left behind in Texas. Is this a great place or what? We are feeling a little guilty of all the free time we have here since no family lives here and we aren’t babysitting on Fri or Sat nights, nor are we watching grandkids play soccer on Saturday mornings at 8 a.m. WHAT AM I SAYING????? Have I gone over to the dark side already, in less than a year? Oh my, of course we DO certainly miss watching hour after hour of Sponge Bob and dining on Chick Fila on Saturday nights, chasing grandkids around the playground while we sit and finish off the chicken nuggets they never touched and reading one more “chapter” book before the little darlings will agree to turn out the lights, BUT…..I have to confess that Randy and I have really enjoyed the weekends of new adventures and new places to explore. Christmas is almost here, which will find us on the first available seats Southwest has to take us back to Sponge Bob, a naked little two year old running around because he won’t wear his training pants over 10 min, a 7 year old that chases you around with his little “precious” hamster and family that will act so glad to see us, whether they are or not. The holidays are upon us, but for this weekend, we are out for another new adventure with new friends who hopefully still be friends after spending the whole 3 day weekend with Peter and Penelope Pumpkin. Got to run and take out my apple cake. Say a prayer of thanks for the Veterans this weekend, who have given so much of their lives, time away from their families and much much more, for all of us. God bless the Vets and their families, we thank you for your sacrifice for us and for our Nation.

This has got to be one of the most memorable days in many years. We are back in Texas for Randy’s mom’s funeral and to celebrate her life. We will be having lots of dinners with family and close friends. Hence the grocery store stop this morning. I dropped off my daughter at work to keep her car to do some grocery shopping, not realizing at the time that this day would be such a most memorabie day. Knowing that tomorrow would have me running back and forth to the airport 3 different times to pick up family, I thought I would go ahead and do the shopping for food today to get a jump start. As I walked in to the WallMart store, which in itself, took my breath away, that there was one within a mile of my daughters house….(let me just pause for a minute and reflect on that, one mile away, that is just so beautiful), I headed straight to the frozen food section, just to hold a bag of frozen Sister Schubert rolls in my hands before tackling the shopping lists. There, in the frozen bread section, my eyes fell on shelves of Sausage rolls, cinnamon rolls, yeast dinner rolls, whole wheat or white, it was just such a Hallmark moment. I had to pull out my phone and take a picture of all the rolls that were sitting there just waiting for me. After I took that in, I headed straight for the frozen veggie isle, and there they were, the cutest little sacks of frozen breaded okra, just looking so sourthern….I quickly opened the door to the veggies and just couldn’t decide how many to take, but then I realized that maybe I should leave them right there until I was through with the lists, that way, they would still be frozen for the trip home to fix for dinner tonight. I want to be sure that they are at their peak when I take them out of the package and lower each little pod into the hot frying pan. As I slowly make my way up and down the grocery isles, I remember where I am, I am in Dr. Pepper Land, oh my gosh, what was I waiting for……I pushed the little grocery cart as fast as I could, closer, closer…..there they were….life’s little treasure..Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Peppers….i bought all they had….it was at this moment that in the midst of what the next couple of days will hold, which will be sadness at saying goodbye to Hazel, but knowing that she and Howard are finally together again, in the presence of our Lord, we would be together as a family, joined by memories of the years that we had with Hazel, lots of memories shared with her around the table, talking and enjoying holidays and hearing her tell us that “oh my, this is just too much food” that we will once again be reminded that it is the little things in our lives that we remember most, the Diet Dr Peppers, the fried okra with chicken and dumplins, the banana pudding that she loved to make, these are a few of the things that will be a treasure in our hearts about her as we sit around the table this weekend and enjoy, once again, the best of all times, being with family.

Wow,what a glorious day, it rained all day with temps in the 50’s. Energized me to clean out closets to make room for fall/winter clothes. Moving furniture the night before and now getting to wear jeans with sweater and jacket made for a most wonderful day. Randy even called to say the weather had got him in the mood for enchiladas so off we went tonight for Mexican food. A friend and I went for lunch today and ended up sitting there all afternoon. As the rain continued to fall, we would go get another bowl of soup and just continue our talking. This was the first “feel” of fall since moving to California. I was beginning to wonder if there would be days when there would be no sun, just clouds and rain and cool temperatures that would propel me to just bake all day. Today was the first of many “fall” days, I am hoping, to arrive all this month. The pantry is stocked with cream cheese, butter, bags of powdered sugar, plenty of cinnamon, chopped dates, pecans and enormous size bags of chocolate chips. Tonight I will go to sleep with thoughts of waking up, looking through recipes to choose which ones will start off my “fall food freenzie”. Something tells me that one of the first things in the oven will be blueberry apple cinnamon rolls! Sister Schubert, move over, Sister Trudy is in the kitchen.

This has just been a very blessed day. We began our day with church, which just was such a wonderful way to celerate this glorious day. In spite of several decisions which we will be having to make regarding my parents, it was a grand reminder of how faithful God is to our burdens and meets us at our point of need. This beautiful Fall day is full of just little reminders of how we can find joy in the midst of pain, because of our Lord and Savior. We are having a new couple over tonight for dinner. They moved here from Colorado, but were in Ft. Worth several years before that and have family in Plano, where we moved from in January. They live 5 blocks down from us and her husbands name is Randy. So we already have so much in common it will be interesting to see how much more we have to talk about.
We decided to keep it simple tonight. Thus, homemade vegetable soup is in the oven and fresh bread will be awaiting them. Mushroom Tarts to much on and finish with homemade chocolate pudding with whipped cream.
It is so nice to know that you don’t have to have a gourmet meal spread out over the table to have friends over. A simple meal is fine, when you realize that it is not the meal they are coming for. It is the excitement of gathering around the table with new friends and talking about your lives and families that were both left behind when our husbands jobs brought us to California.

It is so thrilling to realize that no matter the part of the country, the table seems to be he gathering place. When you are around the table, boundaries are removed as each person shares stories about their past and hopes for the future. This will be a great evening. Breaking bread with new friends and ending the evening knowing that 5 blocks down, we have some new friends who will answer when we yelll “git on over here and let’s have some grits and greens, we’re “fix-in to put them on the table.” Ah……that will be music to our ears when they respond, “ya’ll ready for us to come on down?” We most certainly are!

Oh my goodness, what can I say that would allow you to picture where we went this weekend. These precious friends invited us to their cabin at Doyle Springs up in the Sequoia Natl Forest for 3 days and what a 3 days it was. We feasted on food that caused a slight (well 3 lbs to be exact) gain in weight. Not only were we able to sleep at night with windows open, listening to the waterfalls under their cabin at night, but we were introduced to the most amazing pancakes we have ever had. They are called Heavenly Hots and trust me on this, they are heavenly…the lightest and most tasty morsel topped wtih blackberries, raspberries and butter AND………..Dee made homemade maple syrup..Randy has now told me that he will expect this every Saturday morning. You can probably guess my reply to Randy. But…..we snacked on cheese toast that consisted of mayo, parmesan cheese and broiled to perfection on crustless bread.
We dined on Flank steak, zucchini topped with onions, tomatoes and cheese, cheesy twice baked potatoes and more. We ate homemade breakfast tacos that were simply scrumptious. Just when I thought I couldn’t take another bite, Dee would sit another taco in front of us. We would always find a little room for more. Some of their granchildren were up there and surprised us with homemade blackberry cobbler, that the girls had gone out and picked themselves. Plus they brought over a jar of elderberry jam that they had gathered the berries and made. This family makes Martha Stewart look bad. On the way home, they took us to one of their favorite places to eat dinner where I even tasted, are you ready for this, “pickled tongue”,and it actually still looks like a tongue; It made me glad I talk alot and fast, that way no one can catch my tongue to pickle it. oh my, I am just not ready for that, so went on to other foods, such as Veal smothered in cream gravy. We stopped at their favorite stop in Bakersville, which was Dewar’s Ice cream and got a pink & white…strawberry ice cream with strawberries and vanilla with hot fudge..we had just left the restuarant saying that we were so full and couldn’t eat another bite, when Jeff says, “let’s make one more stop for ice cream” which Randy quickly responds, “we just got through saying we couldn’t eat another bite, but here we sit eatting not only one plain dip, but two dips with toppings” Well, it just goes to show you that “there is always room for more” as long as it’s either mexican food or ice cream. As soon as I ask Dee if she minds me sharing the Heavenly Hots recipe, will post that on the site. They were the winner for “best food for the weekend” as far as I am concerned, well, maybe it was the flank steak, or no, maybe the breakfast tacos..hum…..it seems like all the food she prepared was the winner. Thanks Dee and Jeff for your hospitatlity and a most memorable weekend.