Jim decided to go to Stillwater for the day. He will probably come home this evening. He wanted to check out his house as he hasn’t been down there for a bit and he is bringing a load of stuff back with him. If it takes longer to gather everything up than he thinks it was going to he will spend the night and come home tomorrow.
I have had a productive day so far today. I got the pepper nut cookies made. I can’t remember who likes them in my family though. They are a hard, small cookie that are best dipped in coffee. They have pepper, lemon rind, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in them. My dad’s mother used to make them and my mother made gallon jars full of them every Christmas. Fun memories for me while I was making them today. I won’t eat any of them but they sure smell good.
Got the Christmas gifts wrapped. I still have more coming but am caught up for the moment. I realized I need to get two more presents so will have to give that some thought and get something ordered.
I will probably make another batch of fudge today as it is a beautiful day on the prairie. Fudge does better when it is a clear day. I need at least three batches to get enough for everyone to have some and have only made one batch so far.
Tomorrow I need to make either sugar cookies or peanut butter balls and another batch of fudge. I may get New Year’s Cookies made today yet, if not I will have to do them sometime this week. Thursday I will make what I didn’t make tomorrow and I will then be done with Christmas baking so I can get things shipped on Friday. I’m not making as much stuff this year as no one will be coming over to eat it. I won’t eat any of it and Jim only likes some of them.
Friday I hope to get the packages I need to ship off. We are ordering via Amazon for Jim’s sons and partners and having Amazon deliver directly to them. Shipping has gotten so expensive. I do want to ship some treats to my brother in MA and I have a package to ship to Nicole and Geoff since we won’t see them before Christmas.
I have passed the halfway point on the shawl I am making. I will work on it some more when I finish writing and take a break off my feet. Then I will get up and either make fudge or New Year’s Cookies. I’ll wait to decide what to fix for dinner when I know if Jim is coming home tonight or tomorrow.
Jim has to be in Stillwater on December 20 for a church thing. I think he has decided to go down a few days before that and get some more work done and then come back to KS on the 21st. I thought about going with him but we both decided we didn’t want a house sitter right now. It is becoming harder and harder for him to leave here and go back to Stillwater. He has found enough projects to do here that he stays busy without having the pressure he feels when he is in Stillwater.
What a beautiful day on the prairie today. I went out to pick up some packages that had been delivered and didn’t need a sweater on. It must be in the low 60’s. We haven’t had much winter so far this year. I wonder if we will get some in January or February. Some years we just don’t get much winter weather. That is fine with me. I do not like to be cold and I don’t like doing chores in the snow and ice.
On my to-do list for today is to put the Christmas trees up. I don’t do much decorating for Christmas but Jim wanted the trees up. If I’m going to the trouble to put them up, I might as well put them up early and enjoy them for a bit. I will take them down as soon as Christmas is over.
Jason got engaged yesterday. I’m so excited for him. I love his finance and so look forward to having her join our family. She has two beautiful children so I will get to add two new grandchildren to my family. Yay! This has been a year for love in my family – I was married in March, Nicole got married in June and Jason got engaged in December.
I realized today that I am fully back to my normal. I had extra energy this morning and have had a very productive day. I think it is one of the first really good days I have had since I had C-Diff. I can’t tell you how good that feels. It’s good to be back 100% to myself.
Grateful for healing in my body, grateful the peppernuts are made, and grateful for the new additions to my family.