As we sail into the new year

Just wanted to say hello and apologize  for my absence. I am recovering after my fall and have also been out of town for the Christmas holidays. Tom and I were in Austin with our youngest daughter and family. I haven’t been taking very many pictures. Although...

This is a colorful image on some notecards my little granddaughter Hannah designed for me. A sailboat bobbing along with whales and sharks below and sea gulls above (complete with legs and feet). Hannah is seven years old and so enjoys painting. 

I am hoping all of you had very happy and festive holiday !

The Lights of Christmas

Hello friends. I am back from North Carolina, although I will not show you a picture of myself. It appears I have been in a fight....with the bandage on my face and all of the bruising. Heck my neighbors probably think I have really had a face lift HA! That is not going to happen. Tom and I did ride around town a bit tonight...yes on the way to the ice cream parlor.  tried to take some pictures along the way of the Christmas lights...They are not very good.....but here goes.

This pretty old house had lights up the drive and their trees wrapped in white lights.Tree wrapping is very popular here. There are services that do it for you for a tidy sum.

This one had a mixture of trees wrapped in white and green.

These large Live Oak tress were amazing with red trunks and red and green balls hanging from the limbs,

and this house had so many red lights that there was a red glow over the whole block.

The gates to this estate are always very welcoming, although I feel sure they are locked.

This house had rather simple decorations...but be nice, that's my door!

Ouch!

I have been in North Carolina visiting my daughter. Had a wonderful time until I had a run in with her stairs and ended up at the hospital. No broken bones and the stitches will be taken out on Tuesday.

I will return...Janey

HoHoHo

It is such a busy time of year! I promised myself that I would simplify, simplify, simplify.. but I think I have failed. We have a large artificial tree that we were not going to put up since we aren't hosting Christmas....but guess what...here it it!

We both love the holidays....and the thought of no tree seemed dismal. I usually do a lot of baking, but held to my promise here. .. I did attend a luncheon yesterday and I knew the ladies would bringing little favors to exchange, so this is what I took....not a lot of baking required for these:

You start out with a bag of little square baked pretzels.

Next unwrap a  Hershey's Kisses(I needed two bags for the number I was to make).That was the labor intensive part...I put Tom to work. Of course I had to watch and make sure he wasn't eating every other one.

I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper and loaded it with pretzels, putting a Candy Kiss on top of each square. Put into a preheated oven (200 degrees F, or 93.3 C) for only about 4 mins. Test one to see if the chocolate is soft. Remove from oven and top each one with another pretzel...pushing down gently or else the chocolate squishes out the side. Put into the fridge to chill for about 15 mins.

I put about 14 salty and sweet pretzel sandwiches in each little cello bag and fastened with a small rubber band.

All done up in matching bags with cute tags, they made a nice treat to put on the luncheon table.