Merry Christmas!!!

Santa has been here and soon we will be getting up to go to mass at dawn. Then off to spend the day with family!

Travel Safely and have a Blessed day!!

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QotD: Treats for Santa

What treats do the kids in your family leave out for Santa?  What treats did you leave for him as a child?

I don't think we left anything special, beyond cookies, and I think we let Santa get his own milk from the fridge.

  We have carrots on hand now a days for the horses, so besides leaving Santa a snack and some milk in a special mug, we will also leave some carrots for the reindeer and we will remember to sprinkle magic reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter) out this year.

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QotD: Education, Occupation

What was your major or field of study in college? Did you wind up working in that field or using that degree? If not, what field have you wound up in? 
Submitted by sneuf. 

I have two AS and a BS, all in horse/equestrian/equine science. I have my own horses (a mare and a pony gelding) and two boarders on property, I take care of all four. But really it isnt a job in my field. I am officially a SAHM and thats what I really want to be. the horsey stuff is extra.

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The home sweet home of food

We tend to make spaghetti with jarred sauce at our house. I like the chunky vegetable sauces. And I dont make those myself. Last night we didn't have any jar sauce, but I had all teh ingredients to make the sauce my Mom has always made growing up.  The simple sauce that she learned to make from Big Grandma, my dad's paternal grandmother, whose mother was Italian (her father was French, and she apparently had a temper to beat all)

It isn't hard to make, brown some butter toss in garlic and chopped onion to saute, smash the garlic once its soft [add cooked ground beef if you want, and diced tomato if you like, (or any other extras that sound good)] add  two cans of tomato paste and equal amounts of water, then toss in spices, rosemary, parsley, oregano and basil, (I grind them with the mortar and pestle) bring to a bubbling then turn down to simmer.

No big deal to make. I forgot how much I like it, it is the Home Sweet Home of food for me.  Every Italian dish ever made at our house from Big Grandma's recipes started the same way, brown butter and saute garlic. Ah yummy. I'm going to have the leftovers for brunch.

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QotD: My Holiday Wishlist

What's on your holiday wishlist?

*sigh* a working car, I wrecked mine on the slick unplowed county road we live on last friday. We just bought it used in September. And I was quite happy with it. It could be fixed if we had any money at all. :( I'm feeling a little sorry for myself right now. Thankfully only the car was hurt, and I know some great people who are willing to pitch in to get the kids to school.

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Autumn is really gone...

It all held on so long here this year.

We had that crazy heat wave, many trees did not turn in early October like usual. This year rather than a rush to be naked, the trees seemed to take time letting each leaf turn to full glory before finally letting it go,  they lingered languidly. There was no cold snap to push a hasty color change, and there was no crazy rain or wind storm to rip the leaves from their moorings prematurely.  The trees changed slowly, the color blending together, and the leaves clinging to the trees until the last possible moments. For weeks the clear yellows, bright scarlets, and rusty oranges mingled with the mauve burgundies  and   tawny caramels.  I think every autumn is spectacular, I love the crisp air, and the leaves turning into a riot of colors and falling into the windy dance of autumn. This year was extra special, the long drawn out color that held on until Thanksgiving. Even now there are a few bushes in town, that are clinging to a few scarce leaves.

Winter is here. The air is no longer crisp, it is biting cold, and more often than not the ground is frozen and so are the water troughs. We have already had a small snow,  it was wet cold and beautiful. And we have had an ice storm, it was cold windy and scary.  Plus we are expecting a little snow today, an inch or two. I feel it this year. The Christmas Spirit. I feel it in the air, it is almost tangible. I don't have any idea what presents I'm getting anyone, nor do I have the money to get them yet, but it doesn't matter. I feel the spirit in the air.

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Taking the trash out is the husband's job.

Growing up there are certain jobs that fell to my Dad. My Mother never did them. Taking the trash out,  putting gas in the car and mowing the lawn, are the few I think of as really being the husbands job.

I put gas in my own car, If I waited for my husband to do it, I'd be waiting on the side of the road. He laughed the first time I suggesting he gas up the car while he was home so I would not have to do it the next day. (yep, I deserved that laugh, and the following line, he drive it you fill it)

If the lawn gets really really unruly, I will mow the front, that faces the road so the house doesn't look abandoned, but mowing aggravates my allergies something fierce. So I try to beg off and not have to do any mowing at all.

The garbage. I will remove it from the house and toss it in the mini dumpster, but really, I don't like to do it, trash bags and cling wrap have the uncanny ability to outwit me and make me completely crazy. My husband has not been home on trash day for 3 weeks, and he always looks in the full trash can after a stretch like that and says why did you take this out? To which my answer accompanied with a guilty face is, "I remembered at 5 til 6 when I heard the truck outside and I know I cant get down the drive that fast."

This week I thought about taking out the drive on Sunday night, but that was as I fell asleep on the couch. So at 6am I awoke, not having heard the truck and thought I'd just roll it around front and down the hill(rather than down the long slick driveway)

Big Error in Judgment.  I should have gone down the drive I had time.  At the top of the hill that is the front corner of the yard I realized the crunchy icy grass underfoot was also slick. I said out loud to no one in particular "Oh great dead man's hill" Then I took one small careful stupid step.BIGGER ERROR IN JUDGMENT.  I heard an icky sounding pop as my left leg careened out from under me, and the mini dumpster whacked me in the back of the head shoving me down the hill. (I know I said it, and invited trouble, how stupid was I?)  My first thought was OOOOWWWWWW!! followed by "if I missed the truck and broke myself for no reason I am going to be sooo angry." Followed by, the realization that I could not just sit on the ground and wait for the garbage men to come scrape me up, I had to pick up the trash and go in to get the kids ready for school.  I catiously got up gimped around and pulled the trash to the end of the drive. and hobbled pathetically up the drive. I was almost to eh door when the truck pulled up for the trash.

I do believe I sprained or pulled something, and I am treating it as such, with the exception of staying off it entirely.  It is better today but not great.

It will heal I will live, but I will not take the trash out anymore.

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