Just over a week until Christmas

Last evening, my friend Laurie, a wonderful artist,  who lives down the hall from me, (from http://laurie-whentheboughbreaks.blogspot.com/), and I sneaked downstairs (I say sneaked, because I was in my housecoat and didn't want anyone to see me) to take some photographs of the Lobby which had been decorated so prettily by the supers of our building, mostly by Ruth, her hubby Ron did the heavy work.  Every year they go out of their way to make the entranceway so cheerful for us and our visitors, but then they are very dedicated and work very hard all year round so it's not surprising that they put a little extra effort in at Christmas time.  Thought you might like to see how welcoming our apartment building is....................

Yesterday I went for lunch with a new friend, Dawn.  Very nice and most interesting lady.  We ate at a reasonably new restaurant called "Embers" and I must say, the lunch was delightful.

Talking about friends, another lovely lady I know, Gloria, who lives in my apartment building, offered to make some cookies for me.  I have given up doing anything finicky like that because of my arthritic fingers (my excuse, LOL) so she whipped me up a batch, love her heart.  Thanks so much dear friend.  They really are good.  There are called "The Breakfast Club Cookie" (my darling daughter-in-law gave me the recipe when I was visiting this summer, and she's a good little baker) and here's the recipe just in case you want to make them for yourself.  Gloria said that the mix was a little dry, so perhaps add another egg and the almonds perhaps should be chopped up a little...............

THE BREAKFAST CLUB COOKIE

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup large flake rolled oats
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 ½ tbsp. liquid honey
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup whole almonds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
2 tbsp. flax seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberriesPreheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt until evenly blended. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and honey until smooth and creamy using an electric hand mixer on high speed, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Add flour mixture and beat on medium low speed until just blended, about 15 seconds.
Gently fold in almonds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, raisins and cranberries.
Use a 1.5 oz. ice cream scoop to drop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 3 inches apart. Flatten each cookie using the bottom of a glass and bake until lightly golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. These stay soft and chewy for days in an airtight container.

Later today a group of ladies from the Library and myself are picking up Chinese food and going to visit a colleague who recently has had surgery.  She's doing very well and we thought it would be a nice treat for her.  I haven't had Chinese food for ages so I'm really looking forward to it.  Talking about the Library ladies, I just took them a little something for Christmas. When I worked there, each department used to get a gift basket from the Board of Directors/Management and we all looked forward to them so much but the last year or so it has been downsized to a gift card for about $8 per person for a local coffee joint.  Personally, I would rather have had the gift basket so, I made one up for my department and took it over..................

I'm looking forward so much to one of my out-of-town sons coming to visit.  He should be here on the weekend and plans on staying for around ten days, at least until after Christmas.  We are going to have so much fun with my son who lives here and his girlfriend.  I would so love to be with my little grandson and his mum and dad, but I will be with them in spirit and will chat with them on the phone.  Nothing says Christmas like a little child opening a gift, the expressions, the oohs and aahs, so precious.

Here are a couple more of my little decorations, just to fill in some space, LOL

And my lovely white Christmas cactus coming along just fine.

'Til the next time, have a wonderful week and don't get too frazzled with all the shopping, baking, partying, etc.  Remember the real reason for Christmas and take time to reflect on that.  Without that, it would be just another day.

It's about time

I have been so very busy with moving from one apartment to another (just across the hall) that I haven't had time to sit down and "blog" and I still haven't finished with organizing things at this end, but I thought I should "touch base" with you and let you know how things are going so far.  I'm waiting on the delivery of my new couch and will then post pictures.  I have really done a job on my accommodations, cut down on possessions and the new furniture I have purchased has been much smaller than my old.  It's a good feeling to purge - I don't know why I was keeping all this stuff because none of my sons want my "junk".

Anyway, whilst I was still in the process of moving "across the hall", I would leave both apartment doors open to make it easier to cart things back and forth.  I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new bed, which turned up on time, and I proceeded to attach the headboard and get it all set up and then make the bed up with all new linens, etc.  Imagine my horror when I went into the living room to get the new sheets and pillows only to find that the sheets, still in the original packaging, had been stolen.  Can you believe that?  Sometime in the previous couple of hours, someone had walked in and taken them.  Well, I was pretty ticked off by that and had to go out and purchase a whole new set of linen, so - so much for the bargain I got the first time around when I found lovely double sized white sheets with a satin stripe throughout on sale.  Having to purchase two sets of sheets, new comforter set and a mattress cover cost me a small fortune and then yesterday, I bought another set of sheets 'cos you can't just have one set!!  Boy, do I go on and on, but that's not the end of the story.  Eventually, at the end of the day, I gratefully snuggled in my new bed and dropped off to sleep, only to wake in the middle of the night wondering where the new key I had cut (to give to my son) was - I didn't recall seeing it all evening where I had placed it ready to take to him.  Of course, I had to get up and check and that was missing also, so I can only assume that whomever stole my sheets also took the key.  Now of course I can't go back to sleep thinking that someone is going the sneak into my apartment and steal my cookies, which made me almost want to toss mine, LOL  Of course I had the lock replaced that morning, but what nerve people have.  Here's a picture of my new bed.  I'll say TTFN and will post again when I have more pictures of the work in progress.  Hugs to all.

Simply Sunday

Nothing much to write about today.  It's been a quiet Sunday so far - read a bit (I'm in the middle of Tess Gerritsen's "Harvest" and enjoying every word), and am now waiting for a friend to come and pick me up to go to the movies with a few other friends.  I think we are going to see "The Bridesmaids" and I have heard that it is stupid and vulgar, so I guess I will just have to make up my own mind.

Tomorrow I have to go and get my bloodwork done to make sure that my haemoglobin levels are up (they were down to 66 and I had to get two units of blood a couple of weeks ago) and then on Tuesday I have to go and see another doctor regarding my lupus (part of investigating why the haemoglobin levels are down).  It will be great to feel healthy, I can't wait.  On Thursday I will be heading out of town, on the Greyhound bus, to see my darling grandson (and his mummy and daddy of course) - he will be two years old when I am down there, so grandma will have to spoil him, not that I would need an excuse.



It's a beautiful day here and I have been out twice enjoying a walk - I actually fed the geese and their babies - too bad I didn't take my camera and get some pics - I never think to do that.  Laurie is the smart one, she takes her camera out with her.  Talking about Laurie, she brought me a couple of her lemon scones again yesterday, they are delicious, what a great cook she is...........

Well, we did go and see "The Bridesmaids" and on the whole it was a funny movie but it did contain too much swearing (can't believe that young ladies of today talk like that) and was a little gross in parts, but we did have a laugh and met for coffee afterwards and discussed it, amongst other things.  Nice to spend time with friends.  Goodnight and God bless.