Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah.....someone's in the kitchen, I kno-o-o-ww.....

It's the week of Christmas.  Everyone will be scurrying around making themselves crazy with all the last minute shopping and baking and cooking and cleaning.

Me??  I'm trying to pace myself.  LOL

  On Friday, I cleaned me a little house.

  On Saturday, I baked me some cookies....an oatmeal with dried cranberries and walnuts and some sugar/butter cookies.  They turned out nicely, about 8 dozen cookies in all, I think.

  Today though, I'm getting ready to make  Alton Brown's toasted coconut macaroons.  The coconut is toasted and ready...

 The recipe looks easy enough and all I have to do is run to the store for a few things first.  Oh, and I did the dishes from this morning's breakfast.  AND  gave Roxie the Doxie a bath. Used a new botanicals pet shampoo that I picked up somewhere and it's got aloe and oatmeal, so hopefully it will help this infernal scratching from her dry skin. I'm going to start feeding her fish oil capsules as well. She didn't have a flea on her, which surprised me....

  So the Irishman is gone and won't be home til long after I've gone to MissB's.  He was gone for over 12 hours yesterday. sigh...today it's service commitments.  I'm thinking I might just get dressed and take a run up to the county seat in Carlinville. There's a grocery store up there that has good meat sales from time to time, and also has a quaint little square filled with cool shops. I still have to find something for Patrick's brother, who is coming to spend Christmas with us.  I haven't gotten anything for my husband either, as far as that goes. But I never shop until the last minute. Ever.  Not sure what that's about (sales, maybe?  LOL) but I have done this ever since I can remember.  My kids are getting a big basket of yummies with some gift cards tucked in around the edges, so that's no big deal.  My sister-in-laws and niece in Wisconsin all got gift cards that will go into the cutest little purse/card holders I got at Walgreens.

They have a snap closure...too cute.  The moms and pops are getting a Harry and David Christmas basket, which is winging it's way there as we speak.  Little baby Lily will be getting a soft toy from us...those things will all be going back up with the BIL so we don't have to ship them.

So really, I guess, It's pretty much all done, except for the Irishman and his brother.

  So--on to the party this coming Friday.  lol

  I am going to make some of the caramel snack mix and need to get the stuff for that today as well. It's Chex cereals, pretzels, bugles, peanuts (or mixed nuts), and cheerios.  You whip up a caramel coating and pour it over and then toss it in the oven to toast.  It's awesome and addictive, and makes nice nibbles. I'll pick up a box of candy canes too.  I might even make caramel corn...it's easy and inexpensive enough...

  Starting tomorrow I will be baking crackers and breads and on Thursday will start the soup making endeavors. The Irishman only works Monday and Tuesday this week and then has vacation he has to use up, so won't be back to work til the Tuesday after Christmas. I have big plans for that man.  LOL  We'll spend most of Wednesday and Thursday housecleaning, inside and out.

  One of the women I work with at MissB's  informed me at our little Christmas lunch on Friday that she is working for me on Christmas Day !! She's spending  Christmas Eve with her kids and I told her I'd stay late for her last week so she can have more time with her grandson.  What a nice present !  I was completely surprised by her gesture...I had accepted that I would be spending a chunk of both Eve and day away from home.  I guess all those suppers and cookies and jams that I have given her this year have paid off! lol

  I have a half a ham (probably 10-15 lbs) and a turkey breast (2, actually) in the freezer and that's what we're having for Xmas Day. I'll gussy it all up and fix some sweet potatoes and green beans (from the garden, of course).  I have a pumpkin pie in the freezer too and a peach, so there's that. The BIL gets really tickled pink about eating things we've grown...poor city boy....lol  It will be a Christmas meal fit for kings. Thinking I may just have to fix a plate and haul over to MissB's for my friend as well. It's the least I can do...

  Well, the tree cutters are working again today and making the doglets crazy. Although they are better...getting used to it I guess, as they've been here the better part of 5 days.  On Thursday I was coming home from the store and saw them fiddling around, so I slowed the car and leaned out the window, batting my eyelashes..."Hey boys...."  (in my best Mae West imitation)...I asked them what they were doing with the wood chips and they told me they have to drive all the way to the other side of town with them. I asked if they would like to leave a load of them at my place, just up the road.  (Let me back up a minute here...these guys are from southern Missouri, a town called Fair Play. In an absolutely non-derogatory manner, I am going to tell you that these boys are true hillbillies, in every sense of the word. They didn't have a mouthful of teeth between all 4 of them. They were chawing tabaccer and spittin' and when I pulled up, one of them said to me "Hey sis." in that southern midwestern drawl. These are my people, ya'all...my grandfather's family and my dad --all from southern Missouri.  Just sayin'...)  So anyway, by now, they are all crowded around my car.  They asked if they would get their truck stuck and I said no, I have a long driveway and a turnaround. Another one said--You know, it's a LOT of chips, sis. And I said yes, I know...I got some last time the trimming was done here, 5 years ago.  The younger one of the 4 then said tom me..."Ya got a tractor, sis?"  To which I replied No, but I've got a wheelbarrow and a really good shovel.  I thought he was gonna ask me to marry him....

  So, I am now the proud owner of a small mountain of free wood chips that will be used to line the walkways between my 6 garden beds, the path that goes around the side of my house, to fill in the areas of the  yard right in front of the porch where Bella and Roxie have been excavating. I'm going to throw down grass seed, put a light layer of straw and then chips over it and wait til spring.  I'll use it around my rock wall over on the side yard and it will become a helpful weed barrier where all the lilies and irises are planted. Plus it will tidy up that area. Whatever is left will go in bare areas around the chicken coop and compost bins and wherever else I can find that needs a little TLC and erosion control.

  Merry Christmas to me.  LOL  Someone told me "You know you're a country girl when you get THAT excited over a pile of wood chips."  "FREE wood chips", I pointed out.  It doesn't take much to make me happy these days.

  Alrighty. I need to get those cookies made.  They're not gonna make themselves....

Namaste.