Merry Christmas

Wishing you all the best of days!!!! Merry Christmas!

*
*~*
*~*~*
*~*~*~*
\_/
~~~~~~

Thanks be to God!!!

Once Upon a Recipe

Ever since I had my first bowl of New England clam chowder when we were stationed at Ft. Ord, California in 1971, I have taken great pleasure in making it. It is a tradition in this family to have clam chowder on Christmas Eve. We gather and pray, enjoy the meal and then we share our gifts. Even when we travel to visit the kids on Christmas Eve clam chowder is served. So I offer you the Keller version of...

NEW ENGLAND CLAM CHOWDER

5 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
2 cans of minced clams
2 teaspoons of salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cube margarine
1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 cups whipping/heavy cream

Peel potatoes and dice into small cubes. Finely chop onion. Place in a large pot with clam juice from minced clams. Ad just enough water to cover potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add minced clams, salt, pepper, mild and cream. Make roux from melted margarine and flour. Blend hot mild from the chowder pot to roux to thin the roux's consistency and then while stirring over medium heat, add roux to chowder. Continue to stir chowder until heated through. DO NOT BRING TO A BOIL. The chowder should thicken.

Serve with salad and warm buttered French or Sour Dough bread. Chowder may be served with grated cheese if desired. Serves 6 (I usually double the recipe and make two large pots when we are all together.)

~~~~~

I understand how busy we all are and so if you have no time to share a recipe at this time please leave a comment about your favorite Christmas meal. May God Bless you all!!! And the Merriest of Christmases to you all!

*
*~*
*~*~*
*~*~*~*
\_/
~~~~~~

Thanks be to God!!!

Inspired?

It's not often that I feel that a comment I left for someone is inspired by the Holy Spirit. And perhaps it is my vanity that is allowing me to think that now. I was responding to MightyMom's post at My Wonderful Life on Rearranging. But when I finished commenting I realized I had been taught another lesson in Thanksgiving. So now I offer this to you with sincere humility.


I remember one Christmas when my Jimmy daily took all the gifts from under the tree and replaced them in a different way. I tried to stop this but soon realized this was his way of "celebrating" until the day when he could open his gifts. In some way, that's what we do in our lives. When we pray daily we are really asking God to help us place our gifts, use them and to celebrate them until we can realize that ultimate gift of heaven.

*
*~*
*~*~*
*~*~*~*
\_/
~~~~~~~
Thanks be to God
for the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit
and to MightyMom for the
inspiration!

I have edited this from the original by adding a few words and checked the grammar, but it is essentially the same comment.

Thanksgiving

A very short reflection from Advent and Christmas, Wisdom From G. K. Chesterton.

Giving Thanks

The great saint may be said to mix all his thought with thanks. All goods look better when they look like gifts.

Saint Francis of Assisi

IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES GIVE THANKS

[G]ive thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

PRAYER

Lord, it is not always easy for us to give you thanks. Teach us, we pray. Teach us to thank you when we would rather grumble. Teach us to see all that we have as gifts from you. Forgive our ungratefulness. May our first and last thoughts be thoughts mixed with thanks.

ADVENT ACTION

Pick a number between ten and twenty. As you go through your day, identify reasons to give thanks to God until you reach your number. If you reach your number early in the day try for a larger number.

*~*~*~*~*

We are still to give thanks for all we are given. This is a season in which we do NEED to reflect upon all which we have been blessed. My goodness just think of it. I have a job. My family is all well and healthy. I have a roof to cover my head and warm clothes to cover my body.

Then, too, I must ask. What am I doing to show my gratitude? Is it just enough to be grateful or must I do something to show that gratitude. You see, I believe that because I have been so graciously blessed I have an obligation to share what I have with others...not just during this Holy Season, but all year. Maybe this is a time for me to add a charity in gratitude for these blessing. A gift II can carry with me and offer all year. What can you/I do to continue or begin to extend gifts to others because of the blessing you/I have received?

*
*~*
*~*~*
*~*~*~*
\_/
~~~~~~~

Thanks be to God!!!!!

Tis the Season...

With all the emails I get each day, I am amazed at the number that really are a waste of time. But at Christmas each year, it seems people try to offer their very best for the season. This is another offering gifted me this time by Jenny.

I will be make a conscious effort to wish everyone
A Merry Christmas this year...
My way of saying that I am celebrating
The Birth of Jesus Christ.

So I am asking,
If you agree with me,
To please do the same.
And if you share this with others
Maybe we can prevent
one more American Tradition
From being lost in a sea of
"Political Correctness?
Anonymous

And Thanks be to God!!!

Bad Haiku Friday

Wedding is over
Birthday celebration done
Relax it's Christmas!!!

And so now I will add a recipe that really isn't as simple to make as it would appear. Don't let that discourage you! All Chefs still have to keep making a cake until they get it right! Thanks you again to Kay!

Try this recipe for your Christmas Holiday season:


HAPPINESS CAKE

1 cup good thoughts
1 cup kind deeds
1 c consideration for others
2 cups sacrifice
2 cups well-beaten faults
3 cups forgiveness

Mix thoroughly, add tear of joy, sorrow and sympathy.
flavor with love and kindly service
Fold in 4 cups prayer and faith
blend well.
Fold into Daily life

Bake well with warmth of human kindness
Serve with a smile anytime

It will satisfy the hunger of starved souls.

* *~* *~*~* *~*~*~*
\_/
~~~~~
Thanks be to God!!

Christmas Cookie Rules Encore

So, you know I had the pictures for two days on my computer only to awake this morning to none. (Must have been a birthday gift and now that it's over they're gone). Well, I'm going to try to give you the pictures along with the verse again.

Christmas Cookie Rules

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.

2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.

3. If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calories free, (rule #1) yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.

4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.

5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.

6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have three and green ones have five - one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!

7. Cookies eaten while watching "Miracle on 34th Street " have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage...

9. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. We all know how calories like to CLING!

10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It's a rule!

So, go out and enjoy those Christmas Cookies - we only get them this time of year!

~~~~~~~

Please let me know if the pictures are part of the post when you all read it...and then pass it on!!!! Have a grand day, all!!! And THANK YOU for visiting!!!!

*
*~*
*~*~*
*~*~*~*
\_/
~~~~~

Thanks be to God!!

Christmas Cookie Rules...

My dear friend, Kay, sent this along...JUST HAVE TO SHARE!!!!!

Christmas Cookie Rules...

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.

2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.

3. If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend's first cookie is calories free, (rule #1) yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.

4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.

5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.

6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have three and green ones have five - one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!

7. Cookies eaten while watching "Miracle on 34th Street " have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage...

9. Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. We all know how calories like to CLING!

10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It's a rule!

So, go out and enjoy those Christmas Cookies - we only get them this time of year!

Thanks be to God!!!!!

Birthday Reflection

In the City of Denver, sixty-three years ago today, was born a baby who would grow to become wife, mother and nurse to the family, Keller. As a child I can remember being excited knowing that my birthday was just before that of Baby Jesus. Today I reflect on that time and say, "Thanks be to God" for the privilege of celebrating the day chosen for me before the beginning of time as the day I would begin my journey home to the Father. I also say, "Thanks be to God," for David, my oldest son, with whom I am privileged to share this day. David was born on my 24th birthday and such a joy it is to celebrate this day with him, though he is several hundred miles away!!!

And so it is that I offer this genuinely thankful reflection from Advent and Christmas, Wisdom from G. K. Chesterton.

***

GRATEFUL

The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly know to whom.

Children are grateful when Santa Clause puts in their stoic kings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Clause when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers.

Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth? ORTHODOXY

GRATITUDE FOR SHEER EXISTENCE

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
when you vie to them, they gaiter it up;
when you open your hand, they are fill with
good things

When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to the dust.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.

Psalm 104:24, 27-30

PRAYER

Lord, perhaps we are not happier right now because we live life without gratitude. We fret frenetically about what we do not have, thus poisoning our appreciation for what we do not have. If we were more attentive to the miracles of legs, hands, eyes, ears, and breath--more alert to our very life--perhaps then we could begin to fathom the gifts of sweets and slippers and give proper thanks. Thank you God for everything. [Amen! Amen!!]

ADVENT ACTION

If you keep a journal, list the chief four or five thing for which you are grateful today. Now imagine that this day were the only day you wee granted to live; what would you most appreciate? Demonstrate your gratitude through some creative act offered to God. Sculpt, draw, or paint a picture; write a poem or story; dance or sing a song. As you allow this act of worship to flower, remember, it is not the quality of the finished product that counts, but your expression of love from a sincere heart. God receives our gifts as we would from our own wide-eyed children. If appropriate, display your work somewhere prominently in your home where you can reflect on it as a grateful offering to God.

*
*~*
*~*~*
*~*~*~*
\_/

~~~~~

So today on this day, 63 years after it began, I say,

Thanks be to God!!!
and
Wishing all a day of Gratitude!!

Once Upon a Recipe

Today seems like the perfect day to share a "Once Upon a Time" Recipe. Why? Well, I have no wedding pictures yet (my camera bit the dust just as we arrived in Georgia) and it's a rainy day outside and I'm thinkin' hum...baked macaroni and cheese.

This is one of those recipes a family acquires but is never sure where it came from because it's been used for years. I started making this when we lived in Burlingame, California (just south of San Francisco) nearly 35 years ago. I have no idea how I got the recipe, I just know a week seldom went by without making it. Now it's the "Mother-In-Law" recipe. You know "The One Your Husband Asks You To Make Because His Mother Made It This Way" Recipe? So without further ado, here it is.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

1 stick of margarine/butter
4 cups macaroni, uncooked
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups grated Colby cheese/favorite cheese
5 cups milk
1 package smoky links

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 9" x 13" baking dish melt margarine/butter in the oven. Add macaroni with salt and pepper to the baking dish and coat with margarine. Evenly distribute macaroni mix and top evenly with grated cheese (I sometimes use more that 2 cups). Cover mixture with milk. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and top with smoky links. Return to oven and bake another 15 minutes. Cool about 10 minutes before serving.

I usually serve it with french cut green beans, and the kids always like to put ketchup on it and the "links."

~~~~~~~

Please join the fun. Share your family recipe and memories surrounding it. Make your comments here and then go to Mr. Linky so we can visit and share your recipe. Who knows your recipe might start a new holiday tradition at someone else's holiday gathering.

*
*~*
*~*~*
*~*~*~*
\_/
~~~~~

Thanks be to God!