Hope....

That is what I see this season as-hope. I am trying to leave things in God's hands as I wait, hopeful, that things will change in my husband's heart and things will go back to the ways they were. But then something will happen that makes it all go back downhill again-but not lately. So I remain hopeful..in the spirit of the season that I hold so dear, that things will return to their rightful destiny for our little family. I will be joining my husband's family next Sunday as people all around the world celebrate, but without my husband. I don't know what I will say before I go, or when, but I do know that the boys and I are going. I might not go bearing gifts, but only with an extremely grateful heart that I can be with these people who have taught me the meaning of family and what it means to give to one another and support one another. And I will praise God all the way there and all the way back, that next year, my husband will be by my side, joining me and the family in all the season was meant to be...

Wonder....

I wonder what this season holds for me. I have some important decisions to make concerning the Christmas season. I would love to join in on all of the blogs listing their favorite things this time of year, but I can't. I am still in limbo waiting on the Lord for his guidance and direction on my husband's decision to follow a certain churches beliefs on holidays.
 It used to be that I felt like I had all of this joy inside of me-kinda like an eight foot Christmas tree with 1500 lights on it. That is the amount I would usually use, give or take a couple thousand! Now I just feel like someone has pulled the plug on my joyous heart.
 My ringtone, when I had a cell phone, was "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" sung by the one and only Judy Garland herself-AND was used all year long.
I hung stockings and filled them with candy coins and stuff I knew my boys would love. Race cars and little pretend shaving sets. Gum balls and chocolates.
My boys seem to be taking this better than I. They know Santa isn't real-my husband never grew up with that, but I did. I grew up with Santa and Halloween and all the other "pagan based" holidays and I'm not in some cult or worse. It was fun while it lasted and made for a joy filled, memory-making childhood. I mean, how much of oneself can you give up without losing all you are? Can you really re-write what makes you happy?
Have nothing to look forward to? Just accept things to keep peace and go along with it when it's not in your heart? What an unhappy, untruthful farce of a life....

Now that I have my reality out there on the table, in my heart, these are the things I love during this time of year-
                         Watching snow falling                        Kenny G's Christmas CD       

    Hot Chocolate with tons of marshmallows                 The Christmas Story read on Christmas Eve 

   Throwing Beautiful Dinner Parties for Family & Friends       Watching my boys play in the snow

Christmas Trees being adopted on top of vehicles                A blazing fireplace

  Christmas trees decorated-professionally or by the hands of children and families

Baking things for people enjoy                      Decorating every room in the house           Candles (lit)

Live Violin playing "Silent Night" (it brings tears to my eyes!)             Fleece Gloves        A Long Wool Coat

Cream Colored Cable Knit Sweater (preferably borrowed from someone male)    Cities/towns decorated

Houses decorated with wreaths, candles in  windows, lights and red poinsettias     Christmas Carols/Music

Businesses that have one little tree out in front decorated with lights (random act of beauty!)

A shoveled off pond             Fleece Anything              Super Soft Lap Blankets        Anything Glittery

 My Mom-In-Law's Christmas Earring Collection    Snow Covered Roads that haven't been driven on yet

Niece and Nephew's Christmas Programs         Ice Skating            Walks in Snowy Woods     Hiking Boots

Egg Nog      Christmas Cookies (eating AND making!)      Hallmark and Lifetime Seasonal Movies

Christmas Villages       The Overwhelming Joy of Buying for Others (and trying NOT to tell them!)

Creative Present Hiding       Wrapping Presents         Making Christmas Cards       Christmas Day Calls

Huge Icicles that hang from roof to ground (on houses with too little insulation) that look like waterfalls

Red Rosy Cheeks (kissed while still cold)     The Idea of Santa     Angel Tree Toppers     Felt Ornaments

Old December Issues of Victoria Magazine           Beautiful Special Occasions Dresses for Little Girls

Getting Someone that one thing they REALLY wanted                   Ribbon Candy           Snowmen

Drifts higher than a house (only saw one back in 1978!)                    School Closings/Snow Days

Playing Card Games while the wind howls outside                      Bells on Store Entrances 

"Feeding The Chickens" (putting salt on the sidewalk)              Nutroll from Corey Brothers Bakery

Rozkys            The Nutcracker Suite         Garland           Decorated Mailboxes            Pine Boughs     

Flavored Candy Canes        A Snowflake Up Close          Flannel Nightwear          Slouch Socks

My Dollhouse (a Greenleaf Pierce done in Victorian Christmas 1904)         Memories of Christmas Past

My skating skirt, wool coat, Jody Doll and Diorama, (and other favorite past Christmas Gifts) 

Staying up 'till past midnight assembling/wrapping gifts for the boys       Animated Snow Screensavers  

Snow Globes      Christmas Tablescapes         Train Sets that run around the Christmas Tree base

Watching Bubble Lights     Yearly purchasing ornaments for the boys that corresponded with their interests to given them when they had trees of their own (name and date on bottom)

Super Huge Gigantic Cow Femur for DC (our German Shepherd) smaller one for Laddie Boy

 Special Steak Dinner on Old Country Roses China just for Hubby and me on Christmas Eve

Not ONE Store Open on Christmas Day (used to be)  

Well, if you're still with me, that's all I can think of for right now. It's not just giving up what I thought was a celebration of Jesus' Birthday, it's all it was and meant to me, too-which was showing Him to others more than any other time of the year....it just seemed easier when everone else was thinking along the same line.
 

Wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!

With a lot of help from my Husband, his family and friends, I had a wonderful time setting up the tables for our two Thanksgiving celebrations! I will post pics as soon as they are downloaded from Mom-In-Law's camera. She has this really cool 14 point something mega pixel camera (which is 10 more plus mega pixels than the one I have!) and it takes really cool close ups of things. I was able to get amazing details of the table we did today. It was so pretty! Hope all of you had a wonderful holiday, too. I also found out just how much support the family is giving me with all of this church's teachings to my Husband.
It is strange how I can recall childhood memories of Thanksgiving-my Grandma had a huge table with a thousand leaves and extremely heavy. She would set out the tablecloth and pretty dishes and we would be relegated to the "Children's Table" HA! I resolved NOT to let ANY child sit at some card table set off to the side with the "safe" plates and plastic cups! NOOOOOO! My husband and I set up beautiful tables with stemware and napkins from Dollar Tree so the young ones can learn table manners and etiquette. I mean, how are they to know if someone doesn't teach them or give them the tools to learn and practice with? So they break one-it's back to the dollar store for a replacement!
Well, more some other time. It is getting later and I want to look over some of the other Tablescapes for ideas for next year!

My Heart Is Heavy This Cold Fall Evening....

My heart is heavy and I don't know what to do but just try and deal with all of this ordeal a day, hour, minute, or even second, at a time. My husband has decided to look into the Bible for answers to some of his questions. We are not exactly coming to the same conclusions on what the Truth really is. I'm sure there are others out there going through the same thing and I sure could use some support. One of the HUGE areas of contention is about holidays. I already know that Christmas is originally based on pagan traditions and practices. I understand, but my heart doesn't want to accept that I can't even have family over and decorate a beautiful tablescape to showcase my cooking efforts. If I can't entertain or decorate the house for even the season, even if I don't use Santa, and I can't bring the people I love together for a meal, what's the point? I feel like I have nothing to be excited about. No joy or happiness to look forward to. Not that material things made me that happy, but all things beautiful did, whether it was God made or man made.
Now I have friends that have never celebrated Christmas, being Amish.  (Actually, I stand corrected from my Amish friend and I quote, "We have always celebrated Christmas with pretty Tablecloths and flowers and gifts. Really the only thing we didn't have is the secular type stuff... Trees, lites, santa, big decorations... that type of thing. We have always been big on family and caroling and food.") Sorry, Bert...
I don't know...I just feel this blue funk coming over me that I can't seem to shake. It'll just be a dreaded winter to try and make it through with none of my usual inspiration to get me through. Is there anyone else out there in the same situation? I keep praying the Lord will take away the likings I have for what I thought was a beautiful, the most beautiful, season of the year. I don't want to be a house divided and I don't want this to be a huge division between my husband and I, but bloggers, I'm pleading-for prayers, advice, support. If this is the ways of the Word, then I know my heart will change. But until then, this is just awful.......

Deviled Eggs, Anyone?

I remember having deviled eggs for all special occasions when I was little. They were simply boiled eggs with the yolk taken out and mashed with Miracle Whip and spooned back into the halved white. Sometimes with Paprika sprinkled on top, sometimes not. Anyone with me here? I remember them at Easter Sunday dinner and then I have carried them over to other holidays also. I will be making them for Thanksgiving this year.

I also have found some Cranberry relish that I like from Kroger. It has walnuts and orange peel in it and any leftover makes a really great filling for cookies. I bet it would even taste good mixed in shortbread cookie dough!

I am also going to make some snacking mixes-I have found some Chex mix flavors I would like to try and some spiced nuts and mixes with cereals, nuts, candy, dried fruits, pretzels, granola, etc. mixed in and drizzled with either white chocolate, caramel, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, etc.

What new recipes do you depend on or are trying new this year?

Recipes To Share!

I named this blog after the words I have written on my kitchen wall-"Come, sit down, and enjoy what I have prepared for you"

It conveys what I want people who benefit from my love of cooking to feel-loved, special, worthy of my time to make something they will, hopefully, enjoy!

They are my Guinea Pigs and know it! My most recent taste test was for America's Test Kitchen's Carrot Cake made with organic carrots from my garden-too yummy! Just the right amount of spice and the Cream Cheese Frosting was...the icing on the cake! I will post the recipe soon.

I love America's Test Kitchen recipes because they have already done a lot of trial and error and explain why recipes work and don't work.

This blog was also started to share tried and true recipes I love and would like others to experience. All recipes have been altered by me to accommodate my family's preferences! Please refer to the publication(s) for the original versions. Just look for the title-those I have left the same unless otherwise noted.

For this Thanksgiving Holiday, I am going to share a recipe from Taste of Home called Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars. They are really good and even those who don't like cream cheese will like these. I love that the recipe can easily be doubled without having to double the crust layer-I made it in a 15"x17" pan for a crowd. I cut them into squares and piped some whipped cream with a pastry bag-you could also just use the whipped cream in a can. These come out so completely flat-my two boys even noticed! Super great alternative to pumpkin pie for a large crowd! Here is the version using a large pan, like my 15"x17" jellyroll pan-ENJOY!

Ingredients

1 (16 oz.) box pound cake mix (usually found with the cake mixes)

5 large eggs

2 tbsps. butter, melted

4 tsps. pumpkin pie spice, divided

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened

2 (14 oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk

2 (15 oz.) cans pumpkin

3/4 tsp. salt

 

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine cake mix, 1 egg, butter and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice in large bowl until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press into bottom of 15 x 10-inch jellyroll pan.

Beat cream cheese in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk; beat in remaining 4 eggs, pumpkin, remaining 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice and salt; mix well. Pour over crust. 

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until set. Cool. Chill. Cut into bars or squares.