That's A Wrap

The last Christmas gifts arrived today, and are now wrapped and safely nestled under the tree. 

And with that, we're about as ready for Christmas as we're going to get...well, gift wise, I mean.  I've still got some cooking to do.  Even though Cody and Brennan won't be coming until Christmas Day, I'm going to make my traditional Christmas Eve snacks -- minus the cookies, of course. I've got some left in the deep freeze from last year that I'm going to pull out, but most of my snacks will be savory this time around, what with the insulin resistance and all.   

My cousin Beverly used to make these things called crabbies, which everyone loved, but she stopped due to crab meat being so dadgum high.  Well, a few weeks ago, I got in touch with her granddaughter Shelbi and asked her did she have the recipe.  She didn't, but googled and found me one, so I'm going to make those this year.  I didn't get the $15 tub of fresh crab from the meat section, though.  I'm going with the canned stuff.  

I'm also going to make pigs in a blanket with cocktail smokies, which I used to make all the time, but haven't had in ages.  Other than that, just sausage balls and a cream cheese ball and something called Bartley Snacks, which is a recipe that was given to me by the wife of one of my old shipmates when I was in the Navy.  It's super easy: 

1 lb hamburger meat

1 lb ground sausage

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp Italian seasoning

Brown it all in a skillet, drain the grease, then add 1 lb Velveeta and blend until melted.  The original recipe says to serve it on party rye bread, but that's hard to find around here, so we just eat it with Club crackers -- or with a fork.  

I'm not sure what time the kids will get here, but the plan is to set all that back out Christmas Day for us to snack on while Cody is cooking my gumbo.  Plus, I'll make Monkey Bread for breakfast -- which I cheat and buy the frozen kind now.  I got it last year, and it's pretty good. 

While we're on the subject of Christmas, my younger brother got his ornament and sent me a photo.  

He said, "It's absolutely wonderful!"  Now, I'm just waiting to hear from my older brother...The tracking number says it was delivered, but since I wrapped his, they may be waiting until Christmas to open it. 

On a similar note,  I finally made myself pull the plastic off of my faithful representation of the first edition of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol.  The print is very tiny, and I wonder if this is the actual size the original first editions were printed.  A lot of the reviews were not positive about the illustrations, but these are what the first edition illustrations actually looked like.  

If you've never watched The Man Who Invented Christmas, I highly recommend it.  I recommend it so much, I bought the movie.  It's all about how Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, and in doing so, basically brought celebrating Christmas back from relative obscurity.  It had been outlawed by Jolly Olly and the Puritans after the English Civil War -- you know, the one where Charles I lost his head, and never really regained the same popularity as it had before.  

And yes, I do realize how absolutely dorky it is that I know all of that off the top of my head.  But what can I say?  I am who I am, and I gotta be me. 

Anyway, while I was flipping through the book, all I could think about was how much my dad would have loved it.  That was his favorite Christmas story -- besides the Bible story, that is. 

In other news, the latest hat is progressing, albeit a bit slowly.  

I keep getting distracted by stuff I need to do.  Like, for instance, this cat of mine. She came in this afternoon with a big old slice on her chest.  It's only through the skin and not down into her muscles, so I'm keeping it as clean as I can with diluted betadine, and will watch for infection.  If it looks like it's not healing cleanly, I'll take her in to the vet, but for now, I'm just going to keep an eye on her, and try to keep her in the house. 

By the way, I think Suzie would be pleased at how that yarn is knitting up. 

And finally, since I didn't blog yesterday, you get two new Advent figures today, a camel and a wise man. 

When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.  Matthew 2:10