How to make Christmas dinner less stressful for the cook? Easy, get your son-in-law to cook the turkey in his new Big Green Egg. Then, you get your son to do a magnificent job of carving it.



My son David on the left, and son-in-law Mike on the right.




The finished product. 20 lbs of turkey + 16 people = very few leftovers!

Christmas lights

Last night was a full moon, and I had grand plans of taking a picture of the house all lit up with the moon in the sky. Well, the moon is there, behind the trees on the left. I spent quite a bit of time playing with the various setting on the camera, and swatting mosquitoes! The The tree won't look like this for long! I figured I'd better take a picture of it while I can.

Christmas Cactus

My Christmas Cactus are in full bloom, just in time for Christmas. Some of these plants came from Steve's Uncle Bill, who died about 12 years ago. He was a master gardener, and we were fortunate to inherit a few of his plants.

camara play

I have been spending some time playing with my new camara. Yesterday I went outside as the sun was starting to set, and took these pictures.

This is facing east, at sunset. Sometimes the lake just glows from the reflection of the setting sun.

This one is facing north, towards our neighbors.

Monday, I reported for jury duty in our county court, for what could have been a 1 week trial term. It turned out that one of my neighbors was there too, so we had a nice visit while we waited, and waited....Finally one of the judges came out, and swore everyone in, and said he would listen to hardship requests to be released from serving. Several people got up to speak with him, then he disappeared. Eventually the clerk came in and said that one of the cases had just been settled, and now we would only need two juries, instead of three, and that the judge would be back in with the attornys to start the selection process. About 1/2 hour later, the clerk came back again, and said "Well, tis the season!" Everything had been settled, and we were all free to go, and no one could be called for at least a year. You should have seen us all headed for the door! I felt like I had been given a gift of time!

Eye candy: Knockout Rose from my garden.

Employee Christmas party

Over the weekend, Steve and I hosted our annual Christmas party for our employees. It was a LOT of work, but a lot of fun too. We had a Mexican Fiesta theme, and I ordered tamales and a Tres Leches cake. Other than that, I made all the food, with some last minute help from my two teenage nieces.

This is Steve and I, just before the party started.

I have been getting together with at least a couple of these women for 25 years! Kathy (on left, holding star) and I met while I was expecting David,and I met Pat(on right, in white shirt) a couple of years after that. We used to get all the kids together, they played and we stitched. We met Cil (in center) and her daughter Susan (in blue) a few years later. At one point we started getting together near Christmas time, and exchanging ornaments that we have made. We ate too much, of course. I made Chocolate covered cheesecake squares,which were soooo good. The leftovers definately can NOT stay in this house!

Here are the ornaments everyone brought. I made the cardinal, which Susan received,and I received the red & green snowflake, made by Pat.

Jennifer's wedding

Steve and I recently attended the wedding of one of Jacki's childhood friends.

Earlier that day, I got my Christmas present early, a new Nikon digital slr camera! So I had to try it out. Here are some pictures.

Jacki and Jennifer. Steve used to call her "Jen with the big smile" and you can see why!

I have no idea who this little boy is, but he was having a wonderful time dancing!

A group of us got together at the local Barnies, for some stitching and chatting. Starting at lower left and going clockwise: Pat, Deb, Dee, Sue, Kathy, Vicky, and Lynn.We live scattered over 2 counties, but try to get together about once a month. We all have stitching in common, except for Sue, who "comes for the company" We love her anyway.

This is what I worked on. Lizzie Kate's Baskets. I am almost done with the Fall Basket, lower left. The Winter Basket is next,and has very pretty poinsettias in it. The "plan" is to frame this as one piece, with a mat cut to frame each basket, sort of like a window frame.