Another Day

Some mornings I get on a scale and feel just like that.....now I don't own a scale. Cutting back, cutting down, eating less, walking more . . . does it help? I don't think so. I think nature has a way of playing games with the body once you go past a certain age. It fools you into thinking you are 'normal' weight for your age and girth but the damnable mirror always tells on you. All I can say is I am very glad there is no three way mirror in my bathroom. As I tell my friends, I am waiting to hear those magic words, just once, before I go on to bigger and better pastures where bodies don't count and hear the words, "Oh Jean, you are so thin." . . . Well, not in this lifetime.

I had to copy the picture of the little red car. I actually sat in a rumble seat when I was a little child, then once again when I was in my teens. What fun it is to ride in a rumble seat. The picture brings back a memory or two and going out on a snowy cold night to find a Christmas tree was something I did with Pa. How grown up I felt when I got to help choose our Christmas tree. It was always a tall one and shaped well. Actually the tree was our Christmas present. Back in depression days money was very scarce so the tree symbolized the love and the excitement of Christmas. Gifts were food or maybe a pair of new socks if you were lucky. We didn't feel deprived, but excited and happy and enjoyed the tree right up to 'little Christmas' which was in January. Taking the ornaments off the tree was almost as exciting as putting them up in the first place. Each delicate ornament was wrapped carefully and put away in a box with separators ready for the next year. Lucky for us we always had a big snow storm for Christmas and our neighbor, several doors up the street, made Christmas candy as I remember for all of the neighbors and what I remember mostly is the hot candy being thrown into the snow bank to cool immediately. It was some kind of taffy and then with buttered hands they pulled and pulled into long ropes then cut it off in chunks to share. Ma made sugar cookies the size of a plate with thin edges and cake like circles topped with vanilla icing. They were called "Grandma's Sunshine cakes" and I still remember how they tasted. I haven't found the recipe yet, but if I do run across it I'll make up a batch and share them.

I hope you find your way into the kitchen today and bake up some cookies. I am plotting and planning a cookie bake soon but have to make a grocery stop to get some of the ingredients to make them special. I make a mean mince meat cookie and a molasses crinkle that always comes out good, at least the proof is in the empty plate and that always happens around this time of year. I'm just getting into a Christmas mood . . . are you? Catch the mood and laugh out loud today . . . why not?