We Must Keep It Christmas!

Yesterday we were busy making lemonade out of lemons!

First off, when my hubby backed our vehicle out of the garage, he noticed a trail of oil in the snow.  A local mechanic diagnosed the problem as a leaky transmission seal, and from that point on the rest of our day was a circus.  To make a long story short, we had to take our 2009 "Big Dripper" back to where we bought it some sixty miles away from home, and we left it with the dealership to be fixed.  The nice part was that they gave us a snazzy black 2010 loaner vehicle (same brand/style as ours) to use until next week, only because my hubby was tactfully persuasive and made it clear we weren't going to go back home in some kind of clunker.  So, rather than getting all hot and bothered about the unexpected wrench thrown in our day, we cranked up the volume on the radio, trollied down the road listening and singing (both off-key) along to country Christmas songs, stopped in a specialty shop to browse their glittering holiday inventory, went to Walmart for some groceries, brought home a cardboard pizza for supper, and made it into one heckuva fun day! 



The Real Reason for This Season

 One small town we drove through had this sweet nativity scene set up in their central park, and I asked my patient hubby to please drive around a block so I could snap the picture.  It bothers me so much the way America's leaders are allowing our precious Christmas to be morphed into a mere Winter Holiday so as not to offend other believers.  What people fail to remember is that they wouldn't want to immigrate to this wonderful country if it wasn't for the Christian Founding Fathers who set down the freedoms and rights in the first place. 


This weekend I'm going to write out Christmas cards and letters.  Now that I'm retired, I find myself enjoying Christmas in itsy-bitsy increments.  I do a little of something each day.  What a refreshing feeling that is, considering there were years when I'd have all the gifts, wrapping paper, scissors and rolls of Scotch Tape strewn on the living room floor on Christmas Eve frantically wrapping just before heading out to our parents' for supper and the gift exchanges.  It makes me exhausted just thinking about that insane rush-rush kind of life.  Thank heavens those years are all behind me.

Last evening while I was looking for holiday recipes, I found this recipe on the Better Homes & Gardens website for Crunchy Cracker Snack mix.....
4 cups bite-size cheese crackers
5 cups wheat stick crackers
3 cups pretzel twists
2 cups mixed nuts
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
One 0.7-ounce envelope Italian-flavor dry salad dressing mix.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Place cheese crackers and wheat crackers in a large roasting pan.  Bake about 5 minutes or until warm.
Add pretzel twists and nuts to the crackers.  Pour melted butter or margarine over mixture.  Sprinkle with salad dressing mix.  Stir well to coat.  Bake for 20 minutes more, stirring once.  Spread mixture on foil to cool.  Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Doesn't that sound yummy?