On Our Last Day Of 2012

Taken after we arrived home earlier this evening from our '6pm is Midnight - Happy New Year!' celebration
with a few friends.

I want to share with you my deep appreciation for all of you who share my journey with me here and have been with me through this another challenging & often heartbreaking year with my mother's stroke & recovery, my beloved father.in.law's illnesses & passing, Hurricane Sandy, and, as always, my unpredictable health.  Thank you for letting this be a place I can turn to when I don't know where else to go.  I look forward to another year of sharing with you as this blog is one of my great joys in life!

The wheel of the year is about to turn again.  As we begin life anew once more, I wish for you joy & contentment, prosperity of heart, mind, spirit & comforts, good health and peaceful blessings in 2013!  Be safe if you're out & about tonight.  Happy New Year!

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Friday Favorites

New favorite slippers in a new color! (Have them in red).

Winter sunsets.

My kitties, especially when they're extra cute!

Amaryllis!

Seed & gardening catalogs!

My final "Friday Favorites" of 2012!  Here's to many more in 2013!

What were some of your favorite things in 2012??

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

A favorite local spot downtown for last minute Christmas shopping.

Stopped for a moment on our way home.

Our mantle.

We also did a few errands, had a few drinks with friends, opened early presents, I baked a batch of my cranberry almond cookies & made pene ala vodka for dinner and we took a ride around the neighborhood to see Christmas lights.  We've also watched A Christmas Story and It's A Wonderful Life!  (I'm sure I'm forgetting something or other, but that's it in a nutshell!)

How have you spent your Christmas Eve?

The First Days Of Winter

Happy Eve before Christmas Eve!

I spent much of yesterday, the first full day of Winter, nursing an awful migraine and drinking copious cuppa's of tea while going between our bed & my favorite chair in the living room (where I can gaze upon all of the Christmas decorations).

 But the day wasn't a loss: I posted my 24th Adventures In Gardening column on The#gardenchatBlog! (Next Saturday is my first anniversary of writing my column for the blog!)  I also caught the first glorious moon-rise & sunset of Winter.

This morning, after watching CBS News Sunday, a longtime Sunday morning tradition, we got out for a long walk at one of our favorite local parks.  I was resistant at first, wanting to stay snuggled in as the kitties were under the tree this morning.

Feeling the cold air and hearing nothing but the wind, our feet on the ground and at times the river sloshing against the banks was exactly what I needed! Especially with this darn migraine still lingering.

So many people were out in the river clamming!  I've seen low tide here before, but never so many out in it, wading around, clamming.

We did some last minute Christmas shopping in town afterwards and then Hubbs made a delish dinner of homemade chicken cordon bleu and then fixed my inflatable Snoopy & his doghouse so he can fight the Red Barron once again!  (Often it truly is the simple things that bring us the most joy!)  We were going to see The Hobbit at the theatre downtown, but we were too tired from our walk & dinner!  Maybe tomorrow or the day after Christmas?  Now it's time to settle down for the night to either read or journal before bed, though I know sleep may not come easily since tomorrow is Christmas Eve!  (I'm finally excited for Christmas time!)

How have you spent these days of Winter?  For those celebrating, are you ready for Christmas?

Peaceful Blessings...  

Happy Solstice!

Welcome Winter!

Autumn didn't leave us without a fight. The weather turned ugly last night and isn't yet much improved. Over night we were drenched with rain and winds that reached 50mph for several hours, unfortunately leaving some in the dark again, before tapering off as the day has quickly gone by. I am usually sad to see Autumn go, but, this year I'm ready to leave this one behind and move on!

On this, our shortest day of the year, I'm gladly snuggled up in my favorite chair enjoying the soft twinkle of the Christmas lights, watching Doctor Who on BBC America with Hubbs, enjoying the peacefulness of it all. How are you passing this day?

Blessings to you this evening and all Winter!

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Wordless Wednesday: The Simple Beauty Of Winter

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A Purrfect Wordless Wednesday

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The Joy Of Home: Decking The Halls

We spent the first part of this dreary afternoon at the doctor's office & pharmacy because yours truly has another nasty sinus infection. After we got home, Hubbs got started on making the 20lbs of chicken wings we're donating to one of the local VFW's we go to often for football Sunday tomorrow and I decided to get cracking on getting the Christmas tree up.

 'Course it took me the rest of the afternoon and a better part of this evening to get from the top photo to the bottom, because I was moving in slow-mo, but I'm just happy it's up and lit! Christmas lights, especially multicolored lights, are my favorite part of this season!

Since our first Christmas here in 2005, our tree has always been in front of the living room windows, which hasn't been an easy feat since re-arranging the furniture a couple of years back. This year I do not want to feel cluttered. (In previous years, it felt cozy. This year it would be too much).

This is an odd time right now, here in NJ (post Hurricane Sandy) and personally as well; it's been hard for me to get into the swing of things this season. The thought of trying to squeeze the tree in at the end of the couch (so it could be in the window) and having to move the rocker & coat rack again to do so did not appeal to me in the least. So, I went with an entirely new location for the tree this year, along side the entertainment center and the rocker & coat rack remain in their usual places.

I couldn't be happier with it!

You can't tell from these photos, but along with some holly garland, I added multicolored lights & red ones too, because the pre-lit frosted white lights are just too bright at night! I only have those lit during the day through sunset. Then at night, the multi's take center stage!

Now to finish decorating it...

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Adventures In Gardening on #gardenchat

For the latest edition of my gardening memoir column, Adventures In Gardening, on The#gardenchatBlog, click here.

In My Garden Today: A Favorite Season Has Begun!

And that season friends is Amaryllis season.

Pictured here is an 'Apple Blossom' Amaryllis getting ready to bloom. More Amaryllis shares to come!

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Off The Shelf: Bed & Breakfast by Lois Battle

Bed and Breakfast by Lois Battle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the December group read for my Southern Lit Lovers group on Goodreads and my nomination for the month which means I'm leading the chat!

I've had this book on my living room shelf for years, tried it a couple of times & never finished, but I kept it with my Christmas books because, honestly, I adore the cover!

Am I glad I held onto it! I so enjoyed this novel! At times it reminded me of other Southern family novels I've read, but that didn't take away from it. I didn't want to put it down and didn't want it to end once I got there. And ever since visiting the Charleston & Folly Beach areas of South Carolina briefly early this year, I have a better appreciation for & now enjoy novels set in SC as a whole.

I also liked the fact this wasn't the usual type Christmas novel I end up reading at this time of year; it's a Southern family novel that happens to take place around Christmas. Such a great read! I have it down as 4 of 5 stars but may up that to 5 of 5 stars.  We'll see!

If you love Southern novels like Mary Alice Monroe's The Beach House, I believe you would enjoy Lois Battle's Bed & Breakfast!

View all my reviews

Happy Accidents In The Kitchen: Cranberry Almond Rounds

For my Cranberry Almond Rounds, you'll need:
1 cup melted butter (which is equal to 15 tblspns) I use unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar *or* 1/2 that amount in regular sugar & 4 sweetener packets
2/3 cup ground sliced almonds *or* 1/3 cup of the almonds & 1/3 cup of dried cranberries
1 & 2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

My step by step appears below in the slideshow. If it moves too quickly for you, just click on it to be taken directly to the web album where you can view each photo individually.

You're wondering about the "Happy Accidents In The Kitchen" part?  Well, it all started when I made myself a Bloody Mary (or two!) *before* making these from scratch!

Before today, they were just Almond Rounds.  In fact, I posted my bff's recipe for them here for last year's cookie party, but, without photos, which is why I wanted to do them again this year!

Well, I messed up today's first batch something awful!  Only mixed in half a cup of melted butter when I should have done a full cup, tried adding the remaining half after I mixed the wet & dry together...  Ick.  (Note to self, anything from scratch should be made *before* breaking out any alcohol!!!)

So I decided to make a second batch (otherwise my photo's would have stopped at mixing the wet & dry together).  At that point I only had a 1/3 of a cup of almonds left (not the 2/3 cup the recipe originally called for) so I improvised and added a 1/3 cup of dried cranberries because I'm a fan of dried cranberries & almonds together in just about anything!  (I use Fresh Gourmet dried & sweet Cranberries for salads because they have much less sugar than other brands I've tried, taste great and can be used for cooking & baking as well as salads).  I didn't mess up the butter in the second batch like I did with the first and this time they came out De-Lish!  Even more so than the original because of the dried cranberries.

They are lovely with tea or coffee.

Enjoy & Happy Holidays!

In My Garden Today: Wordless Wednesday

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