'Tis the Season...

 

....for gifts. Yesterday The Mister and I resurrected an old holiday tradition dating way back before the pandemic made shopping no fun. We pick a store and we take turns going in for 30 minutes to buy each other gifts with a dollar limit of around $50. Back in the day it used to be Target but this year we went to our tiny new Marshall's. I came out with this bag of goodies for him. He came out with a similar one for me. For the past few years neither of us had anything to unwrap Christmas morning and I didn't want to do that again.

Those aren't the only gifts in the house. It seems that we've been keeping the mailman very busy. My sister sent me this. It's diamond art that she spent the summer working on. Isn't that the cutest snowman? The best thing is that I can keep it out all winter because I'm pretty sure it's celebrating Valentine's Day as well. I love it. 

Sandflies very generously sent me a package of holiday coffee. The bags are so pretty you almost hate to use them up. There's nothing better to wake up to on Christmas morning than the smell of this spiced coffee. 

We got a giant box yesterday from our son's in-laws. It's a tower of chocolate. Is there a better kind of tower?

I also got this lovely card from Karen in Wisconsin who included a recipe and a note explaining this was a family favorite from 1985. It's a recipe for a pecan cake and weirdly enough, The Mister has been talking about wanting something made with pecans for a few days now. I'll have to give this a try. 

Karen, I have a recipe just like that one. It's my family favorite and I've been making it since 1984 which is documented by the newspaper's date. I kept the whole section so I wouldn't lose it. There's a lot of recipes out there for banana bread but I love the story that went along with it. It's about how her mom left out the vanilla when she handed down the recipe causing the daughter to question her own baking skills for years. I love a good story with a recipe and I can tell you this is some good banana bread. I just made three loaves of it and one is already gone. 

And...a big thank you for all the birthday and well wishes. My cold didn't appear after all but a migraine did probably from the cold night air while I was out horse watching. It was short lived, thank goodness and I am right as rain right now. I also want to thank everyone who sent me book titles about pandas and turtles. This is the first one to show up and it's a lovely little book with the most amazing illustrations. I know the Grand is going to love it.