LOL. I get that! I Mark was trying to help me get the feast out tonight, and 3 adult kids and their spouses/s.o. walked through the door, did a round of hugging, then crammed into the kitchen to hang out near us. Hey, I love being loved enough for them to want to be around us, but eventually the road block to the table became bad enough I finally had to gently ask them all to take the Glogg and Syllabub into the living room before I spilled something hot on someone. Then they all wanted to help! Love that tooo....but uhm...kids...just maybe get out of the space. That worked out fine. Before I could bus a single plate, they all jumped up and started putting food away and washing dishes. Sweet kids. But, PHEW, please do not congregate between me and the table!

Bandwidth is definitely an issue. As I said, people are spread fairly thin. But when it is, in our case, 80-0, and then when we had an emergency none of these people could be bothered to even pick up a phone or after providing food for 25, 80 times over, were uninterested in even helping to organize a meal, it hurt so much that there just was no point in resuming a social relationship with them. Done. I believe that it really is okay to take a break from hosting even if one does love a good dinner party. Just offer to meet for coffee or at a restaurant dutch. You can't have the long conversations or play games in these public forums, but that is fine. Let up on yourself and see what happens. Hopefully people were accepting your invitations from a place of true friendship, and will be happy with the arrangement, just glad to see you. If not, then at least you know and can make plans for how you want to handle things in the future.

Thanks everyone. I will try to get another photo tomorrow. Before I could do it, Mark had it moved and covered with a 5 gallon bucket. He loves it. But he tends to be my most ardent fan club member so one should not take his opinion seriously. 🤣

I would definitely be okay with a 2024 bingo card that does not appear to have been written by the Cards Against Humanity team!

I will try to take a picture in a few minutes. It is on a 3" thick, cherry wood slab. Very, very heavy. I need to move it to my island now that I have it cleared of all the cookie dough stuck to it. But, I am afraid to move it alone. Mark ran to the store, so I feel like I should wait for his help. Ya those roses! 😂😂😂 The brunekager cookies are cooling and waiting for me to put them away as well.

It is not how I pictured it in my head. I can not frost nor pipe at all. Just no talent for it. The little moose cookies spread soooo much when they baked. They are gingerbread, and the dough was chilled overnight, and still they spread so they are too big. It looks terrible, but after 3.5 hrs of being hunched over at the counter fussing, and fussing, and fussing to try to make it look better, I am done in. It is what it is. The green roses in the picture are in a vase behind the cake, not part of the cake. Despite my aching back, I need to go bake the last batch of cookies.

Maybe we could paddle towards each other! ⛵️⛵️⛵️🏝

See. I consider that a very reciprocal thing. You are doing what you can, appreciate them. I would host you and share your edible plants, but sadly, I don't think you can bring plants to the USA for dinner! 😁

It is no longer a thing. We used to host soooo much, especially when we were still Christians. We had a bible study class that met here every Sunday night from September -May off two straight years, and as the hosts, there was an expectation by the church that we would provide snacks and beverages every single time. And we did it gracefully and cheerfully for two years. Then ds and I were in a car accident, badly injured. Mark told the church that we needed to take a year off. The 25 people (3 singles, and 11 couples all adults) dropped us like hot potatoes. We were never invited anywhere, and when the church was trying to organize some meals, not one of them volunteered. When we left the religion, we tried to make friends through secular pursuits. Again, we hosted A LOT, but never received any invitations. We didn't host with an expectation, but we what we did discover is that most people socialize only if someone else organizes it and pulls it off at all times. Most would rather give up socializing than offer to be involved with organization and execution of get togethers. meeting at restaurants dutch treat wasn't popular due to expense. That is fine. I get it. Everyone leads a very hectic life. However, we were just getting burned out doing it. We stopped socializing and that group of friends dropped away. I have no idea if any of them still see each other or not. It would be sad if they don't, however, I don't have it in me to do the hostess gig anymore. Now that we have three "adopted" couples making our adult kids a total of four bio kids, two amazing kids by marriage, and six by choice I have enough on my plate. My family get togethers are now large enough and complicated enough that I am good. Everyone chips in to help when they arrive, some coming early for the purpose of being my personal elves, and we have a happy time. The two gals who are like my sisters have stood the test of time, and we very routinely talk on the phone, meet for coffee or lunch, to walk a trail together at the park. Sometimes we hit the quilt store together. So ya. In my experience, it just is not a thing.

Wow! That is maddening. Irresponsible of the city, really irresponsible. Sigh. Bureaucrats: "We are in a drought! Everybody conserve water." Same bureaucrats: Wasting water by the tens of thousands of gallons.

I have to start making the Honninghjerter this morning from the 5 week fermented honey dough. I'm nervous about it. So I may have a response to this, for good or for bad, later today. This is some seriously weird cookie dough, but the potential for greatness is there.

Heart, this warms my heart! You are doing so great with the kids. Making memories. Awesome sauce!

That sounds like the best way to spend the holiday.

That movie is great. How I your summer going, Rosie?

We are not having anything dangerous in my part of Michigan. Just weird. It may affect agriculture and Great Lakes water levels in 2024. Snowfall is less than usual, by a fair amount for December. If that trend continues throughout the winter, we won't have the snow pack we need by spring thaw. It could lead to drought, but it is too early to make predictions. It will be 49° on Christmas Day, 54° the next day which is very abnormal. This follows one of the driest Novembers in the last 130 years on the heals of a bit of a snow drought in 2022, the Canadian wildfires in May/June which brought a lot of smoke and ash, and an abnormally dry summer. So we aren't locally experiencing any kind of scary, threatening weather conditions now, but those of us who really follow and support Michigan growers are feeling some uneasiness and hoping this changes very soon. I have been considering new ways of irrigating my summer garden using less water to get the job done. I may put drip hoses in my raised beds under white gossamer fabric to prevent evaporation, and run them exclusively at night on a timer which could lower the amount of water needed by quite a bit. We are on a well so usage is normally not a problem. However, if the future is a drier one, wells do stress in those scenarios. I hope everyone is safe. I worry a lot about our Aussie friends since it is wildfire season there.

We had a bit of a feast. Roast vegetables, grilled lamb chops, homemade bread, and berries. We then went outside and had a bonfire for a while. We used a partially burnt log from last year as our "Yule log". But, we were feeling kind of cold, and Lewis the dog was wanting in, so we are back on the couch watching the Will Ferrell EuroVision movie. I am normally not a fan of Will Ferrell, but this movie is kind of hilarious. Mark has mead (I am not a fan), but he will only have a tiny bit. I have the family room lit with 15 battery led candles and one wax pillar candle. Feels very Hygge in here at the moment.

This week???? Way to many freaking recipes! That is what I am reading. When the holidays are over, I do not want to see a recipe for at least six months. I want to be alone with my gardening books.

I get that! The first time our three musketeers headed into national forest with a couple of friends to do the hike in, dispersed camping, I just decided if they came back and all were in one piece, I could live with that and don't give me the details. What I did hear was that there were a LOT of annoying squirrels and raccoons. Okay. I can handle those stories! 😂 I am personally a big fan of giving them experiences instead of parties. All 3 of our boys graduated college within a year of each other. So to celebrate, we hit the road for one last road trip with the trio. It was truly wonderful, and I am so glad we went. Now with jobs and grad school, it is just about impossible to get all three together at once to say nothing of together with their sister, her husband, and our three grandkids. I vote for whatever the honoree wants, but sure do lean towards experience/memories over party.

This sounds like such a fantastic step forward! I think you are handling things so well. Making happy memories is worth more to your relationship with the kids than presents under a tree.

You are the quilting queen! I did 9 quilts from Nov. 4 - Dec. 17 last year for Christmas gifts. I felt completely done with quilting, and haven't made a quilt since. Not even my Halloween quilt that I truly wanted to get done. Couldn't make myself get started. But, I do feel the hankering again, so might tackle something after the first of the year. Right now I am tired of my kitchen, and I face a big cooking weekend upcoming. I wish I could get away with a year of no cooking/baking afterward! But I don't think that is going to work out so well.

I wish I had taken the time to type up all of recipes of their favorite main dishes and assemble cookbooks for them. I have spent a lot od time texting, emailing, and talking on the phone after the, "Mom, how do you make x,y,z?" messages. I could have saved myself a LOT time.

This isn't crafty per se, but I am going to vent here about it since it is kind of close. I decorated wide mouth canning jars for Christmas, ribbon/bows, cinnamon sticks, that kind of thing. Then I started making gourmet hot cocoa mix for all the adult kids and honorary kids. I got a half gallon (two quarts) mixed up and realized that I had switched around the glass containers of French milk solids and corn starch. The recipe is a ratio of 1.5 cups French milk solids to 2 tbsp of corn starch only because of the switch, I had the reverse!!! On top of that, I had it all mixed before I realized it. There is no way to separate it. The cocoa is Navitas, not cheap! None od this is usable as a gift. It will probably make cocoa cement in a cup. Sigh. French milk solids are not cheap either. Now I have to go to the specialty bulk food store and buy more French Milk solids. I thought I would have this done today. Each kid is getting a quart jar of dried apples, a quart jar of cocoa mix, a flannel scarf (I posted some of the prints above), and a wooden ornament that Mark has been making on his laser. The two newly married couples are getting customized 1st Christmas ornaments, one son is getting a cool DnD character, one is getting "Make Pluto Great Again" with image of pluto, and the two authors are getting these old fashioned typewriters that have a page coming out that says, "I write, therefore I am." I was going to take pictures of it all before I made up the gift bags. Now I am on hold. The store closes at 4 pm EST, and it is 3:37 so I cannot get the French Milk solids today. Sigh. I need someone to come examine my brain. I should have noticed that the French milk solids are somewhat yellow compared to the cornstarch right away. Nope. Didn't even register.

Your plan sounds great! I think making memories and having experiences with kids is more important than the stuff. Making yummy cookies, having a memorable meal, it works. You are doing great, Heart!

The secret service screwed up then too. They allowed an in screened group of people to stand within 15 ft of the rope line which is how Hinkley got so close. Hinkley fired six times in 1.7 seconds. It was the 2nd volley that got the president. Parr grabbed him and dove towards the open door of the car, but they also weren't near enough to directly shove him in. They did manage it in 3.5-4 seconds according to the official report. They were closer to the car than Biden was at the time of this incident. So they messed up a little, but frankly, not nearly as bad as the detail did with Reagan. Hinckley was not a sharp shooter by any stretch. It is doubtful that Reagan would have been hit IF they had done their job and cleared the unscreened group away from the rope line like they should have done. The greater eff up was definitely the Reagan detail.

That is hard. She is reaping what she has as sown for lack of planning for many years. The least she should do now is find a not entirely horrible nursing home within a two hour drive of her home, and get grandma on the list. Otherwise, what good is she to grandma if she ends up trashing her own health and can't take care of her anyway? But of course, she won't listen to you. Fairyland, rainbows, and unicorns seem to take up residence rent free in the heads of folks who refuse to consider alternatives. There just doesn't seem to be a way to fight that. What I kept telling my mom about my dad is that healthcare workers go home at the end of their shifts, they don't do it 24/7/365. On top of that, there is staff. Paramedics have partners, and can call for additional help. RN's have LPN's and CNA's to assist with so many physical care issues. Healthcare facilities have well engineered bathrooms, beds, you name it for their patients. Homes do not, and older homes often cannot be redesigned to make it easier to take care of a bed ridden elder. I told her, "There is a reason that the dry erase board on the wall, near his bed, has three names on it. His RN, his LPN, his CNA. And how many times have they called for an additional CNA? When the ambulance came, two paramedics AND a police officer moved him." But she wouldn't listen. It was awful. I don't know how to make non planners, plan. I just don't. It is truly mean spirited that she is not going to do anything for those grandchildren while simultaneously giving to her local grandkids. I wonder if you should talk to your kids about not accepting grandma's gifts this Christmas since there will be hurt feelings about this. We did that once with mother in law. She was going to spend $100 each on our kids, and $10 each on her South Carolina grandkids "Because they only come see me twice a year". They were little kids. Her son and daughter in law.both worked full time. They used ALL their annual vacation coming to see her. So we told the kids there would be no gifts from grandma that year, and told her she was not welcome to give to them until she stopped playing favorites. She changed her tune the next year. My mother in law has these moments when she makes my head spin! She can be so sweet many other times, and then gets a mean notion in her head and is just ugly. I swear she has a whole Dr. Jeckyl, Mr. Hyde issue.