Last Post in 2007

Today is the last day in 2007 and a brand new year begins tomorrow. I generally start the new year half optimistic and half pessimistic -- optimistic because I make a lot of plans that I hope will work out and pessimistic because previous experience tells me most of them probably won't. In a lot of ways, 2007 was a good year for me. I made some friends, accomplished a few goals, and had some pretty enjoyable days. On the other hand, there were some challenges and times when I was downright discouraged. I guess most people can say the same thing. No one has a "perfect" year. Still, on December 31, we like to hope that one is just around the corner. We make lists of everything we will do and want to do, trying to ignore the fact that there are very few check marks on our lists from last year. My list of resolutions gets shorter every year because I know that the more I resolve to do, the less I tend to get done. Last year, I had just six items on my list. I accomplished two and-one-half. The one-half is because I was supposed to learn two new piano pieces. I learned one completely and "sort-of" learned two more. I did read fifteen books that I had never read before and lost those last annoying pounds this summer. I didn't learn to paint well, finish reading that interminable book on the Constitution, or finish writing my novel. This year, I still have similar goals in mind, but a little different, too. What are they?

1. Eat healthy
2. Complete several new pieces of artwork -- portraits, landscapes and a still life
3. Read at least 20 books I have never read before ( I found this to be real incentive to research different authors and find new books this year)
4. Practice the piano and learn at least two new pieces ( I'm going to give this one another try!)
5. Figure out what my painting style is and make at least one decent painting.

Will I do everything on that list? I doubt it. I should probably go ahead and delete "eat healthy" right now. :) But I do want to set goals for these things and try.

I always wonder a little when a new year begins. What is 2008 going to be like? Will it be a happy year or one full of trials? Will our plans for moving back to our hometown at the end of next year work out? Who will be elected president? I don't know the answers to any of these things, but God does. He has everyday planned and is in control of every circumstance.

Psalm 31: 14 But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." 15 My times are in Your hand

Christmas at our house

We started out by cooking all day Monday, Christmas Eve. My mom made our favorite strawberry punch and we got out the Christmas tablecloth and serving platters.
I made this fudge from scratch late Sunday night. It's better if it has time to really set. The recipe is Alton Brown's from the Food Network. The recipe itself is easy, it just takes forever to cook up to the right temperature and cool down to the right temperature.
On Monday, while my mom was working on different things for Christmas dinner, I made these cookies and got my apple pie started. The cookies are a Martha Stewart recipe, oatmeal-toffee-chocolate chip-dried cherry. They turned out really good. I froze some of the extra dough to make some more for this weekend. The pie was difficult. The crust turned out crumbly, but the filling pretty good. I think I may try a pie crust recipe with shortening as well as butter next time to see if that makes any difference.

Christmas Day, we woke up pretty early and went downstairs to open presents. I got a lot of new clothes, The Complete Jane Austen, a beautiful version of Pilgrim's Progress, a really nice blue-purple leather pocket book, a coat, and a drafting table to do my artwork on. One really funny moment was when I opened my sister's present to me. Of all the books in all the stores in this town, she had bought me the exact same book I bought her, The Complete Sherlock Holmes. We bought my mom a set of Christmas dishes. They are a set of white dishes with a silver band, but have saucers with silver holly to go with them. We got my dad a DVD set of one of his favorite old TV shows.

I spent the afternoon putting my desk together. When I opened the box, I discovered it was in about a million pieces, but I worked on it for about two hours and managed to put it together. We ate a great dinner of prime rib, stuffed potatoes, and salad and then went to help my sister put her new writing desk together. It was a really nice day. Now I have to print off lots of new reference photos so I can work at my new desk!!!

I think somebody liked her present..........

And we were worried she would never use it! :)

O Holy Night

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born!

O night, O holy night, O night divine!
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here came the wise men from Orient land.

The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our Friend!

He knows our need—to our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!
Truly He taught us to love one another;His law is love and His Gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother And in His Name all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy Name!

Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

words by Adolphe Adam

source: www.cyberhymnal.org

Christmas Meme

Here's a fun Christmas meme:



Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Gift bags can be really cute, but they aren't as much fun to open!

Real tree or artificial? We've done both. We had an artificial tree for about ten years, but this year we got a real one and I like it a lot. It smells so good!

When do you put up the tree? About a week after Thanksgiving

When do you take the tree down? Usually around New Year's

Favorite holiday theme? Victorian Christmas! I love pink, lacy ornaments

Favorite gift received as a child? My Samantha American Girl doll. I wanted her for years and my parents surprised me with her for Christmas when I was eight.

Do you have a nativity scene? Yes! I picked it out when I was about five and we still put it up every year.

Hardest person to buy for? Definitely my mom

Easiest person to buy for? My sister is pretty easy to shop for

Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm....I've gotten some clothes I didn't care for before, but I don't think that falls under "worst present ever"

Mail or email cards? Mail cards! Sometimes I send emails, too, but always mail cards!

Favorite Christmas movie? It's A Wonderful Life (this is waiting for me at the library right now!) and A Christmas Carol

When do you start shopping for Christmas? First week of December. It just doesn't feel like I'm shopping for Christmas any earlier.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Never

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Everything? :) No, my favorite is those chocolate oranges that you whack on the table and they fall apart into segments like a real orange. I get a dark chocolate one in my stocking every year.

White lights or colored on the tree? Colored lights.

Favorite Christmas song? Now that's just too hard. Top Five: O Holy Night, Mary Did You Know?, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Silver Bells, Sleighride

Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Complicated. Now, we stay home. Used to, we traveled 600 miles to our hometown. When we still lived there, we split the day in half between my mom's family and my dad's family

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen.....Rudolph!

Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel. I can never find a star I really like.

Open the presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? My sister and I open our presents to each other on Christmas Eve. Everything else is for Christmas!!!!

Most annoying thing about this time of year? traffic. TRAFFIC. TRAFFIC!!!!

What I love most about Christmas? I love the decorations, the lights, the music, but most of all I love the celebration that Jesus Christ was born. "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord"

Let me know if you play along, I'd love to see your answers so consider yourself "tagged" if you're reading this!

Last shopping day?

Today we went out to find our last few presents. It turned out to be harder than we imagined. When we started out, the traffic wasn't too bad and we only needed a few things. We stopped by Kohls first. I need a new pair of shoes and my mom wanted to look at the clothes. Neither of us could find what we wanted. Then, we went to Barnes and Noble. My mom tried to go in and choose a book for me, but in the end she asked me to go in and pick it out myself because she couldn't remember which books I already have. I picked The Complete Novels of Jane Austen. It is so neat -- an oversized copy, with original illustrations. By now, even driving around the parking lot was terrible, with everyone backing out of spaces at the same time and trying to drive down lanes. Next, we went to a store to try to find my dad his favorite cologne. They didn't have it, but my mom did find a pocket book she liked. When we left there, the traffic was even worse. It took so long to get home. Now tomorrow we will have to go to the mall to try to find shoes and cologne.

We are also going to make our Christmas menu tonight so we can get all our grocery shopping done tomorrow. On Christmas Eve, we have a little party with strawberry punch and snacks. For Christmas Day, we are going to have a prime rib roast and just a few things to go with it. There is only the four of us, so if we made lot of side dishes and desserts they would just go to waste. For Christmas Eve, I am going to make cookies of some kind (I'm thinking about oatmeal with toffee and dried cherries), fudge, and white chocolate-cherry candy. For Christmas dinner, I want to make an apple pie. If only I can get the crust right!! Anyway, that's how we'll probably spend tomorrow -- sitting at traffic lights and shopping in grocery stores. Maybe I'll get around to putting my gingerbread house together before Christmas is over! :)

Gingerbread progress

Today, I baked all the pieces for my gingerbread house. I meant to get this finished yesterday, but I went out shopping all afternoon with my mom. By the time I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was roll out dough. This morning, I set out my dough to let it soften some. Since I made it Monday, it had chilled until it was too hard to work with. Then I began rolling it out. It was actually the easiest dough I have ever used! It didn't stick, it didn't break, and it didn't have to be floured constantly! I could even pick it up and turn it different ways like the chefs do. :) I guess chilling the dough thoroughly is key to being able to roll it out easily. It took a while to roll out all my pieces, simply because there were several and I could only fit two on each pan, but the rolling out process, for the first time in my life, was a breeze. All of my pieces turned out well, too. Only one of my walls didn't feel quite right to me after I baked it. I hadn't rolled it out quite evenly, so one side was fat and the other was thin. I made a duplicate of it with the left over dough to try to prevent assembly problems. I did keep forgetting to check on the dough in the oven (note to self: from now on, set the timer five minutes early), so a few pieces got brown around the edges -- not good in the gingerbread world. Hopefully, they won't become brittle and crumble on me. I did manage to bake off two absolutely perfect pieces -- no cracks, no bubbles, and all perfectly even-- which are pictured above. Considering they are only two out of about ten pieces that I baked today and the fifty or so pieces I've baked in the last three years, that's quite an accomplishment. :)