December 29, 2006
Posted by cassie-b at 10:56 AM
| Comments (16)
According to Pennsylvania Dutch and French tradition, Santa Claus has a brother named Bells Nichols.
He visits every home on New Year's Eve after the children are asleep, and if a plate is set out for him, he fills it with cakes and cookies.
I will be working a couple of those days, but if all goes well, I can do it from home. YES!
And this is the only snow I think I'll be seeing in the near future.
Are you afraid of the dark? If so, then December 21, 2003, is not the day for you.
This year December 21 is the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice, the shortest day—and longest night—of the year.
This is a day I look forward to every year.
It means that we'll have longer days each day till summer.
Wow - are we popular.
We have gotten 18 new sets of address labels from different well-wishers this month. They all want us to have happy holidays.
And they would also like us to send a bit of a donation – anywhere from $5 to $50 or more.
Popularity can be expensive.
Is anyone else as popular as we are? 
Don mailed our out-of-town packages yesterday, and the rest of the gifts are wrapped and under the tree.
We’re still waiting for a delivery from the mailman for something we ordered in September, and they promised would be shipped by December 12th , and I have two small gifts to purchase.
Peter Boyle, who starred in many movies (including "Young Frankenstein") and "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died at age 71
With the exception of a wreath, we don’t decorate our house outdoors for the Christmas season. We have a lit tree in our window. And it looks great from outside.
There are several houses near us that people travel long distances to see.
We have taken a few children to see them, and they are simply amazed.
The one house has such a high electric bill each Christmas season that they have a donation box at the front of their yard.
And you have to wait for people to move on if you want to get close.
That's a lot of work!
I used to walk my dog (on the sidewalk) past an elderly lady's house, and she always hollered out that I'd better not let that dog do anything in her yard.
Not wanting to cause a scene, I would just hurry by.
But when my Mother went with me, she'd holler back that we were on public property!
It seems that there will always be people like that - both the old lady and my Mother.
About this time every year, I make pumpkin pies. They seem to me to be festive, and delicious.
We always have pumpkin pie around Thanksgiving, but I like to extend the season by a couple of months.
My favorite (and very easy) recipe is listed in the extended entry of this post.
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
1 9-inch pie shell
MIX sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell.
Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for about 45 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
It happened a while ago, but I still remember it well.
I was crossing a street in downtown Charleston, SC, and found a $50 dollar bill. And there was no one nearby to return it to.
I stood there for a while in the middle of this small street waving the money, looking for someone to claim it, and no one did.
What to do?
