Reindeer on the Roof and Elves in the Kitchen

 

Ah, here we go. Christmas. Lovely holiday with lots of love, laughter, joy, good food, and it seems to put most people in a great mood. I love this time of year even though once it is over, it's time to take a deep breath and get back to normalcy. 

My daughter Dawn hosted a lovely dinner and gathering, plus a celebratory time for my birthday. It was awesome. Out of this world, awesome. We all sat around talking. Some were outside, smoking cigars and chatting, including Terry and John. Most of the women were inside playing with the baby and watching Zyrah play with her new Target checkout center. Amazing toy that is!

This cool toy comes with a checkout counter, filled with food items that actually have the Target brand on them. Once you purchase those, you put them in your Target shopping cart or in your tiny Target bag as you see on the floor in this photo. 

The set comes with a built in scanner, cash register, and a hand scanner. The scanner and hand scanner light up and make a beeping scanner sound. Freaking adorable!

Zyrah would reach for the hand scanner for some items and use the scanner in front of her for others. She played with it all afternoon or until the adults were off doing other things and she had no customers to scan any longer. 

Novalee spent time on laps, stretching herself upward and outward. It was scary at times because she is so strong and almost bolted forward several times. It was difficult to hold the four-month-old child. I held her for a bit and she was moving and wiggling and stretching. She is a mover and a shaker!

Zyrah grabbed a piece of cheese to nibble on her break from her cashier job. 

Zyrah helped Novalee open a gift. 

Dinner was served. I was hungry! The aromas wafting through the air all day were unbearable after a while. The house smelled so good! Turkey, smoked brisket, rolls, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, two large containers of stuffing. Dawn had made one and Marina made a gluten free version. Both were excellent. 

The gravy was homemade by Marina. It was turkey and always good when she makes it. We had cranberry sauce, corn, and all sorts of goodies laying around the counters. There was so much I didn't see it all. I walked around the path everyone was moving in, and snagged what sounded good. 

I didn't get pictures this time of the delicious meal we ate because ... well, because I was stuffing it in my face. Trust me though, it was yummy!

After dinner we chose to play a couple of games. This is where things got interesting. Dawn had a bucket of cotton balls, representing snowballs. She told us it was a popular game on TikTok now, so I thought I would try. It looked fun and I was right. 

The men gathered at the table too and all of us had a turn. This snowball game had us all laughing. Dawn added some bows to the game as well as the cotton balls because the game did not come with many "snowballs." 

A spatula is the tool used to collect the lightweight items and throw them into the bucket that you cannot touch or are not supposed to touch. It is so natural to reach out for that bucket!

The game is so awkward that it brings on bouts of laughter as you watch someone throw many bows and cotton balls onto the floor or miss a huge pile of them due to the lightweight items. It ended up during Marina's turn with a few on the floor. 

The game was fun and we definitely laughed at each other and ourselves, which is the most important. 

Next up? We played a game where you twirled a candy cane around your finger. Now this took some concentration and a bit of talent, plus smaller fingers than most of the guys have. Terry had a difficult time with it because the man is six foot tall and has larger fingers than I do. This made it almost impossible to keep the candy cane flying around his finger fast enough to ensure it remained on his finger. 

Granddaughter Jess and I battled it out a couple of times. I lost both times. I would start laughing or talking and off it went, flying across the table. Hilarious game to play. I was busy twirling and did not get photos. 

Shortly after the games, the girls began to load my sugar free coconut cream pie up with candles. Marina took it easy on me and only had a line of candles around the outside edge instead of catching the house on fire with 67 candles. 

I thought I had all of my hair out of the way, but my right side ended up getting singed a bit. Oops. Song done and we dug in. The coconut cream pie was as delicious as always. Marina can bake and cook to the extreme side of things!

So dang good and she put lots of whipped cream on top! That's important for a growing mom to have. 

***

Speaking of baking, the family had me open gifts after indulging in pie. Oh, my it was so good! Sugar free made me happy as well. Off to the living room I went to open a bunch of bags. First up, Brandy had come by to give me a gift and then left. She has been sick so she did not want to attend the party and get others ill. Thankfully, she wore a mask. I am just getting over being sick so it's a great thing!

Brandy gifted me a nice set of cookie cutters that also stamp the design in the center of the cookie. They are, of course, all pet designs too, so I can also make puppy cookies too! I love them. 

Along with cookie cutters, she gave me a set of baking mats. These mats cling to the counter to roll out dough of all types. Baking mats also clean up quickly and remain sticky. I love them!

I opened a gift bag from Jess that included a set of rose and peach shower gel and lotion, which I have to say is the bomb. Two pair of comfy socks. The real fuzzy, soft socks. Love those! Plus some sugar free candy, which I always appreciate! She also threw in a couple of items I had never seen before but absolutely love them. 

There is a hot spinach dip mix in a small cast iron skillet. Love spinach dip! The second of the unique items was a bread mix (we all know how we feel about bread) with a garlic oil and a seasoning package. All three of these came on a small wooden cutting board. I could not have been happier. The bread was making my mouth water! I will be making these items on New Year's Day when Mallory comes over. So much bread will be dipped into the spinach dip!

Terry was a bit disappointed to see a small cast iron skillet holding the spinach dip. Disappointed or frightened, one or the other. There is a bit of teasing about me and cast iron skillets because of a prior relationship I was in. A quick story of why is in order I believe. 

My very first relationship consisted of myself (of course), and a man named Victor. Yes, Vicki and Victor. The jokes followed when we introduced ourselves. Vic has since passed away due to his drinking and drug use. Yes, I know. Big mistake to be with someone like this. 

He began to show signs of violence. He hit me all the time, pushed me down stairs, and the rest I won't go into but you get the gist of the story. Anyway, he came at me one time, his temper had flared and his fist doubled. I had enough of his abuse and was not going to take any more. I was leaning against our kitchen island as he came around the corner in a rage. As he began to scream at me because of some lint on his warm up outfit, I reached behind me and grabbed a handle of some type. I wasn't certain what it was. 

In my fear, every ounce of strength I had came into me full force. I swung whatever I had in my hand as hard as I could. It hit Vic alongside his head and cracked his skin open on his forehead. His knees buckled and down he went. That was when I realized a cast iron skillet was in my hand. Ouch. 

Feeling I had just killed the man, I grabbed our two year old daughter and left the house. I was on my way back to Eugene where I was hoping I would be welcome. All I can say is what I learned in that case. Cast iron ladies. It keeps mean men in check and you can cook up a great steak dinner afterward. Cast iron. There is no substitute. 

We can joke about the cast iron incident now but I never recommend violence. Yes, this was to protect myself though. I'm not sure if that gives me the right to hit anyone either, but it is what it is as they say. 

I also received baking items and other nice things from everyone else. Professional baking pans, one with a lid, and more mats. Outside of the baking realm there was a nice warm pair of pajamas. More socks. I love these socks! Since my ankle injury my foot swells by the end of the day. All other socks I wear tend to leave a ring around my ankle where the sock hits as the foot swells. These socks don't. Loving it!

My beautiful, shiny new aluminum baking pans. My first attempt at making pinwheel cookies came out a bit better by using these pans. 

While these chocolate coconut pinwheels don't look the best, I made these for Terry. His mother used to make them for him and he loved them. There is the vanilla dough and the chocolate and coconut. They are pretty good even though they do not look professional under any description of the word!

Besides socks there were more baking tools such as a bottle kit to decorate cookies and other baked goods. The bottles are used in place of the decorator bags with tips or with a cut end. It may sound strange but I've always had an adversity with touching wood of all things. Touching wood gives me the same feeling as if I had run my fingernails down a chalkboard. Don't ask why because I have no clue. Dawn took care of that unique issue by gifting me a beautiful rolling pin made of metal. Plastic ends stop the misery of having to touch wood when using my other wooden rolling pin. 

This isn't just a metal rolling pin however. There are measurements across the pin, letting me roll dough out to a certain length and width. On each end are discs of different colors. This is not just to make it pretty, but it gives me the awesome ability to roll the dough out to a certain height like you would find in a recipe when it calls for rolling dough out to 3/4 inch thick. The rings have measurements on them like 3/4 inch or 1/2 inch, etc., and when the matching discs are applied on each end, your dough will be rolled to that thickness. It's a beautiful thing!

I apologize for the picture darkness. Not sure why they came out so dark actually. Anyway, you can see the discs and the measurements. Perfect. 

The rolling pin was joined by three lovely aprons that actually touched my heart when I saw them. Tears were rolling. They are such keepsakes actually, even though the girls kept telling me to use them. I will, but grudgingly. I would hate to think they would ever be worn out and in the condition to throw them away. I'll have to cut the top portion away from the rest and then toss it if it ever comes to that. 

A few years ago, Jess made this for me. I have it hanging in my kitchen. This is the base of why the aprons came along. 

After catching myself from losing it completely while seeing the first apron, my daughter Dawn said, "Yeah, well keep the tissue for the next one." And then another beautiful apron to keep the tears flowing. These meant a lot in terms of the precious children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren we have in this family. Then another apron thrown in to top it all off, but this one made me laugh:

I loved each and every one of these! Now to bake ...

The cookie press is another tool that I can't wait to use. Marina threw that into her package to me. The cookie cutters and everything are really going to make baking fun!

The cookie press comes with a tub of discs to create cookies of all designs! Let the baking begin or as the apron says, "Bakers gonna bake!"

***

I'm going to end this post here. Terry and I are enjoying our holidays with family. Each year just keeps getting better it seems. We hope all of you are enjoying your holidays and having the time of your life. Love to all of you and may your home and life be filled with abundance. Don't forget to shine that light!

Until our next post, remember to follow us. We've fallen and we can't get up!

@psychicpoet0188