Last One!

          The last one.

          The last letter blog of the year.

          Next time I'll give you letter facts for 2019. I bet you're excited about that!

         

          Christmas Eve, we had a special service at our little church. We sang Christmas songs and Pastor narrated with the origin of them as well as the origin of Christmas itself.

          Afterward, we had a cookie exchange and visited for a while. 

          "Peg, what kind of cookies did you make?" you wanna know.

          Normally I'd've been all over the cookie making thing but this year I ran out of time. I opted to spend my time making gnomes instead of baking. Besides, I knew there'd be plenty of cookies even if I didn't make any.

          I was only able to get four gnomes or elves done and regret only that I didn't have time to make one for each and every lovely lady in my congregation.

          Christmas morning started with this sunrise courtesy of our Lord.

          Despite my curmudgeonly attitude about decorating for the holiday, my Christmas wall has grown.

          "What a beautiful snowflake!" you say.

          I know, right. This little cutie patootie made it for me. This is Addie, the daughter of Duane, the crew boss who built our new and improved (but still characterless) bridge. 

          My beautiful and talented friend Joanie made me this candleholder for Christmas. I grinned from ear to ear when I saw how beautiful it is. My little ray 'o sunshine was spreading sunshine when she gave a few of these as gifts. Isn't it a clever way to use a wineglass? I just love it!

          Speaking of love, my Miss Rosie painted bells for me. Don't 'cha just love them! I do! 

          Being a maker and giver-awayer of things homemade, I really love it when someone puts thought into and takes the time to make something just for me. Time is more precious than money.

          Speaking of precious, just look at this beautiful family — even the little guy with the cheesy grin. Andrew just turned seven this year and owns my heart. 

          Oh! That reminds me! Speaking of the owner of hearts...

          Check out this family. My baby brother John with his beautiful wife Eunice and the owner of John's heart, Jacob. 

          "Those are the only two Christmas pictures I got this year — but that's okay! I'm not bitter!" says me with a side of sarcasm.

          One more Christmas story to tell you.

          My older and very handsome brother David answered my Merry Christmas morning love note with a note of his own. "Santa didn't send the twenty-year-old girl I asked for. LOL. Maybe next year."

          That certainly did make me smile. "What in the world would you do with a twenty-year-old!" I wanted to know.

          "I'd look," he tells me with a wink and a nod.

          Later in the evening, when all hopes of getting a twenty-year-old are dashed to smithereens, he writes me again. "It's late and no twenty-year-old to walk on my back." I guess he thought of another use for her. "My luck Santa would send a 400-pound sumo wrestler girl."

          I got such a kick out of this whole thing that I thought I'd share the fun with my older and much-adored sister Patti. "He has Dad's sense of humor."

          I hadn't thought of that, but she's right, and it was nice to remember my father again.

          I spent Thursday and Friday making more gnomes. When I first made this pattern, I discovered pretty quick that I wasn't going to be able to cut the little round nose out of the beard as you traditionally would. Unless you have a glass saw, when you break such a deep circle you'll break the corners off your beard as well. At least I know I would. And when you have such a small piece of stained glass and foil it, it can get lost amongst all the other solder. Rather than go that route I decided to make the nose a separate piece and glue it on top. Since I wasn't soldering them, I didn't need to foil them, saving me time. It would give it a 3-D effect and solve all my other problems as well.

          There I was, working away making these little cuties when it hits me — BAM! — all of a sudden, just like that! Why not foil the noses anyway? The more I explored this idea the better I liked it. It would help the noses stand out from the beard and give the piece an overall more uniform look. I like it!

          Why not a gray beard? my mind wanders as I work. Why not a blue beard! Why not a glass gob instead of cutting a piece of glass? I pulled a green glass gob from a jar and set it on a noseless gnome just to see if the size was about right — and I thought it was cute. Why not a green nose?

          Peg, just because you like it doesn't mean anyone else will, Myself says to Me. Let's not get carried away here.

          I talked myself right out of using the gobs for noses — this time. With these six, I'm done making gnomes for the foreseeable future. I still owe Miss Rosie a witch's boot that I didn't get made at Halloween. Now I've got ten months until she'll display it so there's no rush on that one. I didn't get her Christmas gift finished either. I'm making her a wreath which she knows cause she picked it. I gave her a choice between a Santa and a wreath so she hasn't actually seen it and that'll be the surprise. I'm hoping that even though Christmas has come and gone, she'll hang it for a few days anyway.

          Speaking of Miss Rosie, she's a bad good friend.

          "Peg!" you exclaim in shock and surprise.

          I know, right! I'm not one to sugarcoat things. Miss Rosie is so dear to my heart and I love her so but I'm trying to shed a few pounds and what does she do! She gives me a plate of cookies!

          "You do the same thing to me," she pointed out and she's right.

          Cookies, I tell ya! Cookies!

          And my oh my! Were they ever good cookies too! Some of the Kipp family all-time favorites come out at Christmas time and Miss Rosie always remembers Mike and me with a plate of our very own.

          This Christmas Rosie made one of her daughter Jenn's favorite cookies and it's the first time I've ever had it.

          "Can I have the recipe?" I asked.

          "Sure," Miss Rosie said. She pulled out an old, old — ancient address book. At least that's what I thought it was. Lovingly she caressed the cover. "My mother gave me this when I got married," Miss Rosie said. She opened the cover and it did indeed look like an address book with tabs except it had blank pages. "She wrote a recipe on the first page in each category," she said as she flipped through the tabs. "Her fudge is in here..."

          "No. Not the fudge. I want the recipe that was Jenn's favorite.

          "I know."

          I'm such an idiot sometimes. She was just telling me that her famous fudge was the recipe her mother had given her on her wedding day and not the recipe she was looking for.  

          Rosie picked through the edges of loose recipes filed in a pocket until she found the one she was looking for. "Here it is," she said and pulled out a piece of cardboard.

          I love that she still has the original from the box of Golden Grahams. I wonder how old this is? I held it up and snapped a picture of it.

          Rosie laughed. "That sure is a lot easier than writing it out."

          I see that they're called Indoor S'mores. It's a good thing I didn't know that before I tried 'em or I might not've tried 'em at all. I don't like S'mores.

          A quick Google search tells me this recipe is still available and has been updated on the Betty Crocker web site but not when they first appeared.

          Recipes are not only recipes for something good to eat, they're memories too. Today I got to remember my beautiful cousin Stacey because I made her recipe for Mac and Cheese. Stacey, you're right. It is better if you make it in the crock of your slow cooker. 

          You know something. Soap really works to ward off leg cramps at night — but not if the bar's on your husband's side of the bed! I woke in the middle of the night with a cramp starting in my calf. I rolled onto my back and stretched my leg and my toes started to pull under. A second cramp was working in the same leg! Two cramps! Where was my soap! My bet was on it being on Mike's side. Mike and my leg cramps were both on the right side. It was all I could do to keep the cramp at bay so I couldn't go looking for the soap with that foot. I maneuvered around a little so I could search for it with my left foot and I'll be fluffersnuffed if I didn't start getting a cramp in that leg as well! It was too much for me and I jumped out of bed. I withstood the pain as I walked the cramps out.

          That hurts so bad, I thought as I hobbled into the bathroom to let my water down. And a thought, an image, pops into my head. Our Lord hanging on the cross. I once heard a program, a very graphic program on what happens in your body while you're being crucified and it's not pretty. One of those things is your muscles cramp.

          Cramp. Cramp cramp cramp. That doesn't sound like such a bad thing. But experience one and it's a different story! Oh, Lord. How did You ever stand it? And I knew the answer. It was for us. For you and for me.

          My muscles were still very tender as I made my way back to bed. One wrong move and they'd start cramping all over again, ya know what I mean? I fished around the bottom of the bed and found the bar of soap — on Mike's side! — positioned it where I could easily reach it, and crawled back in bed. I laid my leg, my foot, on top of it and I swear I could feel the cramps draining away, right down into that bar of soap. It felt so good!

          Is it all psychosomatic? I think it works therefore it works?

          You know what?

          I don't even care.

          Mike and I were playing cards early one morning as the sun was coming up and I looked out the door and saw Mr. Mister sitting on top of the feral cat box, looking down. It almost looks like he's looking down at the rising sun, I thought and snapped this picture. 

          With that, let's call this one done.