I did it! I posted every day in November. I'm happy that December is on the way. We finished decorating the house and I'm looking forward to diving into my advent calendar. This one has chocolate and a little verse behind each door.

If you're looking for an on-line advent calendar, there's a nice selection at this blog post. There are spiritual ones, one geared towards children and lots more. I've bookmarked my favorite to check each day.

Here's the start of my new hat. I kind of like it. The yarn is soft and pretty; not really my colors, but it matches my coat. I bought the coat on the internet and I love everything about it except the color. The website showed a vibrant blue and when it came it was powder blue; not my favorite. It's very close to the color at the very inner edge of the rim of the hat, when it promised to be more like the second to last color in the hat. I almost sent it back, but the other color choices were even duller. Plus, I loved everything else about the coat, especially the warmth.

I sent off the Boston Terrier Christmas tree this afternoon. The ending price was $107.50! I'm happy that it made that much for the Bostons in need.

 

I've been skimping on the photos the last few days. Now that things have settled back down to normal, I can post pictures again. Today I began decorating for the season. It's fun and makes the house look festive. To me, the season is all about "light" and  humans' craving for the sunshine to return. I love to put candles in the windows and shine lights on the wreaths decorating my house.
 

This morning, the pond was frozen over for the first time, except for the little area where the bubbler is. Its job is to keep the water from freezing solid so it's good to see that it's working. I've been enjoying watching the birds on our new feeders. It really doesn't take them long to find them.

I haven't finished my Einstein Coat yet. I have one more sleeve and the collar to go. I am going to break my own rules and start another project before I've finished my previous one, because I really need a new hat for winter. I have a new coat and my old hat will not match, so I bought some pretty matching yarn and I have a pattern picked out so I'm going to start that today. After I finish, I'll finish the EC. I promise.

Yesterday we went to see Tangled, a very sweet, funny movie. Plus it was in 3D, which is very fun too. It's a cartoon, and I think they lend themselves particularly well to 3D.

Today, we bought some wreaths for our doors, two new birdfeeders and some seed. I'm hoping the bears are asleep by now and we'll take the feeders down by April when the bears wake up. We still have to decorate by placing candles in the windows, but I think I might save that for tomorrow. We'll see.

It's quarter of four in the afternoon and I'm still in my PJ's. I'm going to get dressed now, honest. Yesterday was a lot of work, but everything came out tasting delicious.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Things are pretty calm here. The stuffing is made, the dessert is baking and the turkey is going into the oven at 11:00. I have so much to be thankful for that a list would just be boring. I try to remind myself that I'm very fortunate and I try to be grateful. So Happy Thanksgiving!

My auction is up to $76.00! I'm very excited.

I think we're pretty well prepared for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to this. It's always fun and very festive.

Here are your buttons. Hope you like 'em. I still need to glue on the backs, but other than that they're done.

My auction to benefit Boston Terrier rescue has started! Here's the link:


Boston Terrier Themed Mini Christmas Tree

I am typing this entry on my new iPad. It's pretty cool!

Confession

I usually do not make my bed. It doesn't bother me that I'm downstairs now and upstairs my bed is in disarray.It seems silly to do something you're just going to undo later tonight and then have to redo tomorrow. Why? What is the point?

But, I recently purchased a new down comforter and bedspread, so yesterday, we did make the bed. So I think that I will make the bed later this morning, because it looks nice and it's good to get into a bed where the sheets aren't all pulled over one way and the blankets are pulled the opposite way. I guess that is the point.

Bobby loves to lie by the fire in his bed. He looks so cozy. He is such a Boston Terrier. It only took a few days to see the extreme similarities between him and Java. I love this dog.

The yard people came yesterday and did our leaves. The grass looks like a beautiful green carpet. Not that I love a lawn, because I don't, but I do like the new shoots of the new grass just uncovered.

Sunday is my birthday and I asked for an iPad. I hope the birthday fairy comes through.

I have officially given up on that particular cookie recipe. I think I will have more success in a buttery shortbread kind of recipe. I'm going to keep looking.

Somewhere in there, there is a pond. All the leaves fell off the trees last night and when I say all, I mean only some. There are actually more leaves on the trees still, waiting to come down.

In a mouse hunt update, we have caught 11 now.

And I mixed up Mamanette (from Belgium) and Papa (from Holland). My mother let me know last night. I might try making the cookies once more today. Hopefully this time they will come out right.

This is tonight's dinner in the crock-pot. It's lamb curry and it smells divine. The recipe called for cubed lamb meat, and the grocery store didn't have any, so I used ground lamb and made it into meatballs. This is just one of the things I did today.

Another thing I did today was make a button for Martha's Einstein coat. She finished yesterday so I have got to get cracking on those buttons. I only have one tool so I bought 4 more to be able to make them in one day instead of it taking 5 days. I also made some more beads for the little tree, this time in Christmas colors.

Here's an update on the Dutch Butter Cookie continuing saga. I made them twice yesterday. The first time I halved the butter to 1 1/2 cups and it was still too much. So I made them again using 3/4 cup of butter and I thought it was still a little much. I'm thinking of trying again with 1/2 cup butter. I also want to reduce the temperature and the cooking time, as all three batches came out brown and I don't remember Mamanette's cookies being brown; they were yellow with brown chewy edges. I don't feel like making them again today so maybe tomorrow.

Fail

I made the cookies and the recipe is wrong. It called for three cups of butter (6 sticks). That was way too much. The cookies came out of the oven with a half-inch of liquid butter floating on the top. This photo is after I refrigerated it to get it to congeal. I'm thinking that I should halve the butter and only add 3 sticks, not 3 cups, because I think that this is the right recipe, as the cookie part that I dug out of the liquid butter had the consistency I remember.  So I will try again, this time with less butter.

I've been thinking about Mamanette recently. She was a woman who was like a second grandmother to me. (I say second, because my father's mother died when I was three, so I only had one grandmother for most of my childhood). Mamanette's real name was Jeannette and she and her husband, Papa, cleaned my father's and grandfather's office. Mamanette would also come to our house every Thursday and help my mom. Sometimes Mamanette and Papa would take us for the weekend while my parents went to the bar convention or other similar weekend function.

Mamanette was born in 1902 in Holland and came to this country pretty early. I don't know her whole story, but she met Papa, who was from Belgium, married him and their son Junior was born here. Mamanette was an exceedingly strict person. Her house was immaculate and she had the neatest, most beautiful handwriting. When we went to her house, she would not let us touch the walls, as they were made of tile and would show any little fingerprint. I remember the sound of a chime clock and that she had a Steiff bear that she would only occasionally let us play with. I bet that thing is worth a fortune today.

She made us eat runny scrambled eggs and she would mash carrots in with potatoes, but she also turned us on to "papercook" with cream cheese. I don't even know what papercook is, but I think it was some kind of date nut bread. To this day I love sweet breads with cream cheese on it.

I googled her the other day and found out she died in 2001. She had moved to California to live with her daughter in law as her son had predeceased her. We lost touch with her after my wedding in 1988.

I also remember she used to make the most decadent butter cookies. They were made of mostly butter and they were so bad for you but were so so so good. I want to find the recipe. I've been googling Dutch butter cookies and looking at the recipes and this one is the closest, I think. I'm baking them now. I'll let you know how they are.

Today we brought Java out for a walk in the stroller, and then let her walk home. It's really helping the muscles in her legs build back up.

Today Mrs. Gaimari came home from the rehabilitation facility where she was staying after having a knee replacement. She's happy to be home finally.

Tonight is a knitting circle with Christine Lavin and then a concert with Christine Lavin and Don White. I'm looking forward to both events.

This is a picture of the Christmas tree I'm going to auction off in a week or so. The proceeds will go to Friends of Homeless Animals, who I do volunteer work for. This picture shows all the ornaments I made, so I think I need to make a few more - maybe in red and green - to fill it out as the back of the tree is bare. I bought myself another tree so maybe I'll make one for me, too.

The past few mornings, our favorite little place for breakfast has been closed for repairs, so we have been trying new and different places. Today we stopped at the grain store and bought some farm eggs. I'm petrified of finding a chicken inside. I hope they do it right and candle them. I think if that happened to me, I'd be off eggs for life. At least someone else would have to do the cracking.

Yesterday I swear I saw a bald eagle. It was flying over the corn field in Hollis, not too far from the Nashua river. I think it's fitting as today is Veteran's day and the eagle of course is a symbol of this country. Many people on Facebook are thanking veterans for their service and I join them. I think of my Grandfather who fought in WWII and my uncle who served in the army in the early 60's.

Java is continuing to get better. No signs of a relapse. She drops down to the next lower dose of prenisone on Saturday and I cannot wait. Perhaps she won't be so thirsty or so wont to pee in the house.