I've got me a freezer full of food, that's for sure.
Last night after I posted, I put up five containers of gumbo. I save my old mayonnaise jars to freeze it in, and I find they're the perfect size for two to three servings.
When I was done with that, I vacuum sealed three dozen chocolate chip cookies and two dozen snickerdoodles. I still had more to go, but decide to save them for today, and sat down to watch the Call The Midwife Christmas special on PBS.
I got up this morning and finished putting up all I was going to, and ended up with some 10 dozen cookies, and maybe three pounds of fudge, plus a couple dozen sausage balls. Not to worry, I still have plenty of cookies and candy to eat.
I also kept out some of my roll out cookies for me to decorate. I whipped this one out in a hurry, and will probably do the rest later this week.
I'm telling you, it's not as easy as they make it look on the cooking shows, but then, I'd bet they have better icing than I did. Still, it was fun doing it.
In other news, yesterday morning I went into town and hit the clearance sales, which I don't normally do. I typically avoid stores on December 26th as rabidly as I avoid them on Black Friday, but alas, I was out of cat food, deer corn, and almost out of bird seed, so into the lion's den I went.
It was just as much of a madhouse as I expected, but I managed to pick up a few things on sale, like these bows.
Yes, next year, our packages will have bows on them, and maybe even ribbons as well. Depends on how fancy I want to get.
You want to hear something funny? I was trying to think of a place to store these bows so they won't get squished between now and next Christmas. Some place out of the way...where they'll be safe.... I finally put them into the bottom of the nightstand in Cody's room. Knowing I'd be tearing my hair out trying to find them, or will have completely forgotten even buying them by next year, I put a reminder in my phone for November 1st to get the bows out of the night stand. Seriously.
You may laugh. I don't mind.
I also picked up this little enameled metal mug.
Some people put those kind of picks on packages, too, so I may pick up some more if they have any left when I go in Friday for my regular shopping day.
The only other clearance items I bought were a couple of boxes of Christmas cards, which I will not show you as most of you are probably going to receive one here in about 11 more months...and despite already having enough candy to give an elephant diabeetus, I bought even more. They finally got some more Hershey's cherry cordial kisses in stock, so I got a few bags of those, since they're my favorite.
It's funny, but these last few years, they've had either the cherry cordial kisses, or the mint truffle kisses, but never both at the same time.
Heh, I was in the store, and they had a whole big stack of chocolate covered cherries. Cases and cases of them. I got a couple of boxes, but I saw one lady pick up a whole case and put it into her buggy! I got a good -- covert -- chuckle out of that.
I spent most of the rest of the day doing mundane things like cleaning up the kitchen, but I also sat down and watched the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol. A lot of people say that is their favorite version, but for me it's not even in the top 5. My favorite is the Patrick Stewart version, followed closely by the Muppet Christmas Carol, Scrooge with Albert Finney, the Alistair Sim version, and the one with Reginald Owen. Then there is the cartoon version I posted about the other day. They all rank ahead of the Scott version in my opinion.
Before I forget again, here is your Holiday Homestead Share for today
#27 -- Winter Warmer
There is nothing like a cheery fire in the wood stove to warm the cockles of your heart. Alas, there will be no more fires here until I get some more wood. I'm not completely out, but I want to hold some back just in case there is another power outage in 35' weather. Like the one we had in 2020. That thing was a lifesaver, I'm telling you. The wood stove, not the power outage. Well, maybe not a lifesaver, but it sure made things much more bearable. That was probably the only week of my life I was actually glad to go to work. I was warm, had lights, and could charge my phone.
That last day, when I was on the way home and saw the electricity people just up the road...I was so glad to see them I literally started crying. Tears of joy. And when they finally got my power back on, the first thing I did was to take a hot shower, even though it was the middle of the night.
Speaking of, I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know my redneck solution worked. This one, I mean.
I turned the water fully on Sunday afternoon, and it flowed freely! Woo Hoo! No frozen pipes here! Rednecks for the win!
And finally, despite my good intentions, and weeks of practicing, this is the only Christmas song I got recorded for you.
I still don't like the way they sound when recorded on my phone. It sounds like I'm pounding the heck out of those keys, but I'm not. I wonder if it has something to do with it being recorded digitally, and how it would sound on some sort of analog recording system.
I was going to record more, but my keys have gotten somewhat loose and rattly. I don't know if you can tell from that video, but I sure can hear it. By the way, I've done some research and this seems to be a pretty common problem with electronic pianos, and is pretty easily fixed, well, by someone who knows what he's doing. It's somewhat akin to needing a piano tuner every few years. After the holidays, I'll look around and see if I can find someone who can take care of it.
If not, I've found YouTube videos on how to do it, but don't really want to go there unless I absolutely have to.
Since I bought that phone stand thing, I may try to record more of my regular practices. You'll just have to put up with the rattly keys for a bit.
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