Merry Christmas and Happy New Year To All

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my wonderful subscribers.   The pneumonia finally left and went on its way about a week and a half ago just in time for my husband Daniel to give me his cold with sniffles and cough.  As if I wasn't already coughing enough for both of us.  The cough has continued to linger even today.  I don't cough as often as I was so it too is slowly going away.  My energy levels are now close to normal which is good with the Christmas cooking that I am doing today.  We celebrate Christmas Eve with my in-laws and Christmas Day with my brother, sister and her family so I cook food for both family celebrations.

Today I have already made a sage cornbread dressing the way that my mother showed me how to make when I was a teenager.  This is one recipe that I have never measured.  I always do it by taste which is how my mother did it.  I don't like dressing in the turkey so I have always made mine separate.  For Christmas, my sister-in-law is cooking the turkey and I have a ham waiting to go into the oven as soon as I am finished baking the 3 pumpkin pies that are in the oven right now.  Later I will make a fruit salad with Cool Whip and Eagle Brand Milk and Cherry Pie Filling.  I also made a cheese ball for my brother-in-law and Baked Beans for my neice and sister.  This year that will be the extent of my cooking.  I missed out on all of that Thanksgiving because I was sick with pneumonia.

On another note, you know that our son and daughter-in-law got married by a Justice of the Peace on May 12.  Well, they still wanted to have a big wedding for family and friends to see them say their wedding vows.  The wedding happened on Saturday, December 18 at 6:00 p.m.  We had a turnout of about 45-50 people.  Jeremy's best friends from Boulder, Colorado came in for the wedding.  Melonie's dad, who at first didn't think he would be able to be here for the wedding, moved back to Hot Springs last week so he was here to give her away.  Last month when she didn't think that her dad was going to make it to the wedding, she asked my husband Daniel to give her away.  He said yes.  He had no problem stepping down when her dad could do the honors.  When the music started playing, I looked around and Daniel was nowhere to be found.  I thought to myself that he was going to miss the bride walking down the isle.  He didn't.  Unknown to me, Melonie had asked "both of her dads" to walk her down the isle.  Daniel said no at first because he didn't want to step on anybody's toes.  Melonie told him that she had asked for permission to have both of them walk her down the isle.  I know that touched Daniel deeply even though he hasn't said that it did.  I thought it was very sweet of Melonie to include Daniel.  It was a beautiful bride and wedding.  I was blessed to be well enough to go to it.

I didn't intend to leave my blog unattended for so long but the pneumonia and then recovering from it took longer than I expected.  Then I got busy with the wedding.  I gave gift cards to some of the people on my Christmas shopping list this year because I simply ran out of time to shop or wasn't well enough to shop.  I almost always have the majority of my Christmas shopping down before Thanksgiving.  It just didn't happen this year.  I am going to go check on my pumpkin pies now.  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a glorious New Year of 2011.
Patricia