Heavens to Betsey ! December has taken over my life ! !

The weather has been up and down, some cold, some warm, some snow, some sun. I have been overrun with the spirit of the Holydays this year.  I've decorated my house, my garage, my dog.  Anything that holds still long enough has a ribbon or a garland or an ornament on it. lol  I am throwing a party (tomorrow night, in fact). Today I will start the cooking for that...4 soups, assorted breads and relish trays, crackers, cream cheese plates with red pepper jelly on one half and jalapeno jelly on the other.  Chips and salsa.   I've instructed the guests to bring cookies and candies.  And a couple to bring more bread and crackers. Just in case. lol

  I've been cleaning the past couple of days. No point in getting too far ahead of myself in that department, or by the time of the party it won't look like anything was cleaned at all.  Yesterday my son came over and helped me take the teapot collection off the top if the cabinets so I could scrub the greasy dusty kitchen dirt off of them. Then he scrubbed the fronts of the cabinets. I finished up cleaning and organizing the shelves. Finding lots of stuff to throw away.  The worst of it was the bottom lazy susan ...in the corner where cabinets meet, I have 2 lazy susans, one on top and one on bottom.  The bottom one was really dirty. It's where most of the spices are, so it's used a lot. It's also right by the stove...you can imagine. I still have a long list of things to do...one of the reasons I'm up so early. Been up since 4 AM, got the Irishman off to work, and am finishing my coffee. Then I'll get busy. I'll make 2 of the soups today and the other 2 tomorrow morning.  I've been digging out my crystal relish plates.  I have most of the stuff I need I think.  As usual, it will be what it will be. I'll either get everything on my list done or I won't. The guest list has gotten a little out of hand, and I need to call my neighbors and make sure we can use the lot next door for parking, (They are coming too.) There could be anywhere from 20-40 people here, as the past couple of days, people have been asking if they can bring a friend, or can they bring their kids... and of course I say yes. It should be fun.  I'm charging my camera battery, so there should be pictures galore to share next week...once I recover.  lol  And, it looks like the weather is going to cooperate, with temps in the low 40's for Saturday. 

  I belong to a group that is a bunch of women of assorted ages that gets together once a month for a Goddess Circle.  We were getting together on the solstice, which is Sunday, and now they've changed it to today. That is going to throw a bit of a wrench in my plans... part of the reason I'm up so early. I would skip it, but I promised to take a woman with me this month and she's so excited I don't dare not go. lol  It'll be fine...I'm sure that long about 3 PM I'm gonna be ready for a break. lol   Everything will be fine...the house looks very festive and clean enough (almost). I have lots of candles to light and  there will be so many people here that no one will notice that I haven't cleaned the carpets.  I'm counting on those clean shiny sparkly tea pots directing everyone's attention up high, and away from the floor.  lol

  Is everyone ready for Xmas ?  I don't have too much to buy. I already have the Irishman's.  The boy doesn't want anything, so I'm going to get him a few 25 dollar gas cards, lol.    And as for me, I told the Irishman that all I really want is an Excalibur dehydrator for my birthday and Xmas present combined, and I want to find a deal on it.  So, I am in charge of that and will probably wait until after the 25th to even look. I did hint that he could buy me a new fish tank filter today when he stops at the pet store today. He just shook his head. lol  (Am I so weird? )  I have 2 filters on my big tank (which has too many fish in it), but one of them is an older smaller one and I would really like to have another Whispersoft. They are a pretty good filter. And I'm having a little trouble clearing up the water after this last tank cleaning.  sigh.... it's cloudy. I like it sparkling clear.

  Posted my 4th Mother Earth News blog two days ago.  It's so fun doing this....and this one has already had  122 shares.  YeeHaw. I'm still on cloud 9 over all this,  as you can tell.


  Things will quiet down here at Honeysuckle Hill after Saturday. I have a friend coming down from the state capitol and she's going to spend the night Saturday. That will be fun.  We'll have some time on Sunday to sip tea and catch up.  Hopefully she'll be able to come down a little early on Saturday too. That would be nice.

 The seed catalogs are starting to arrive.  The canning jars are starting to stack up again. At one point I was out of empty jars. We've been eating out of the pantry consistently.  It's still full.  lol  All the soups I am making are coming directly out of my food storage...canned, frozen and dehydrated. This party is really just a food show.  LOL  I'll be pulling pickled beets, pickled okra, pickled peppers, pickled green tomatoes and dilly green beans out of the pantry for the relish trays.  The daughter (15) of one of my friends asked me on Facebook if I would please make that yummy spice cake that I made for her mom's birthday for her since she's coming to my party.  It's the old fashioned oatmeal spice cake and it's fast, easy and cheap. of course I will !  Guess I have to fit that into today's stuff too.  It will only take a minute...and will be a nice change from Xmas cookies if anybody wants it. Just so she gets first dibs, she won't mind sharing.  lol  Looks like we're going to have an interesting range of ages of kids...I was going to make some Xmas stockings for them, but suddenly the number was too big for me to handle.  So, I guess I'll just buy some candy canes and let it go. 


  So, time to get busy. Merry Christmas to you all, in case I don't get back here before then.



Namaste.