Happy New Year!

Happy Goats!

Peanut Butter Cookies

After a week of the most tempting sugar laden Christmas cookies, candies, cakes and pies, I thought I'd try a sugar and flour free cookie recipe to share with my health conscious company.

Peanut Butter Cookies

A rule of thumb is that if a product doesn't have many ingredients then it is less likely to be bad for you. Here's a cookie with only three ingredients.

1 cup Truvia (Nature's calorie free sweetener)The container says 3/4 tsp Truvia = 2 tsp sugar. This recipe originally called for 1 cup sugar. I liked the cookies better baked with 1 cup Truvia than with just 1/2 cup.

1 cup no sugar added peanut butter

1 egg

How's that for easy to remember ingredients? You can double the recipe and use the whole 16 oz. jar of peanut butter.

I use Truvia because it has the weight and texture of sugar.

I use Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter, creamy. Chunky would probably be good too. This peanut butter only has two ingredients: peanuts and salt.

No comment on the egg.
Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grease cookie sheets (I use Pam Olive Oil)

In a medium bowl mix the three ingredients until well mixed.

Roll the dough into one inch balls. I have a hard time keeping them that small.

Place the balls 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

Flatten each ball slightly.

Spray Pam on a small cookie cutter (I got mine out of a holiday Play-Doh set), dip it in Truvia (or not) and press into the center of each cookie.

Bake about 9 minutes or until the edges are set and bottoms are slightly browned. I found it is easy to overcook these cookies.

On a cookie sheet ready to bake.

Out of the oven cooling.

Only thing left to do is wash the dishes and eat the cookies.

Mari & Shawn are here!

More Christmas, more presents,
more laughter, more fun.

This is the beginning
of more days of fun.

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On the Second Day of Christmas...

Good things come in twos:

Two grandmas

Two parents

Two sisters

Two daughters

Two aunts

Two uncles

Two nephews

Two nieces

Two jobs

Two libraries

Two bosses

Two paychecks

Two arms

Two legs

Two eyes

Two ears

Two in a couple

Two in a marriage

Two testaments in the Bible

There's love in each pair

Pair of shoes

Pair of socks

Pair of gloves

Pair of glasses

Mary and Joseph

Angels and shepherds

Sheep and a manger

Matthew and Luke

Hope and Peace

Joy and Love

Advent and Christmas

Twelve days of Christmas end at Epiphany

Ash Wednesday and Lent

Easter and Pentecost

Ordinary time and Christ the King Sunday

We're back to Advent and Christmas, start over again

I'm sure there is more. What have I left out?

Boxing Day

Today isn't the official holiday, it isn't even a holiday at all in Oklahoma, but since it is a holiday somewhere, I'm going to celebrate.

I don't have any servants so there was no one to give gifts to. Tomorrow is the official holiday, it would be nice of me to leave a gift in my mailbox for the lady who delivers my mail. Beyond that, I pretty much serve myself.

My sister-in-law, my daughter and I took presents to aging relatives in Frederick. We found Norma Lee asleep. She wasn't feeling well this morning. The staff at her nursing home said she and several other residents stayed up well past midnight. Norma Lee got jittery and shaky so the doctor gave her a Valium at 10:15 a.m. and out she went. We were there at 3:00 p.m. and she was still too groggy to keep her eyes open.

We went to our next destination, Jean and Toby's. They were awake and chipper, both looking quite well and in good moods. We hadn't them our gifts. Toby looked at hers while Jean kept his held tightly in his hands. The presents were really secondary, it was our visit that brought them the most joy. Daryl, Roy and Mo arrived to fix Jean and Toby's back door which was a good segue for our departure.

Back at the nursing home we were able to raise Norma Lee from her sleep. She was still a little disoriented but at least she knew we were there and was able to visit and enjoy the company. We showered her with gifts and got her a much needed diet Coke as a bonus.

Owen and I walked the halls smiling and saying hello to other residents and then sat and watched the gold fish in the large aquarium at the entrance. We talked to several interesting characters there.

When it was supper time for Norma Lee, we left and went to Sonic for some sustenance before the drive home.

At home we found Gran rested and watching "The Sound of Music." We looked through Gran's old jewelry, some of which belonged to Grandam Dolly and Grandma Jewell. We got out old quilts and looked at crocheted baby blankets that Gran has made for future great-grand children.

I hope you had a fulfilling Boxing Day too.

Merry Christmas

What does it take to make Christmas merry? What does it take to make any day merry?

A time that is "supposed" to be happy, often isn't. Why?

After our Christmas program I saw a friend standing alone at the back of the church, wiping tears from her eyes. I went and talked to her. Both of her parents died this year and she always came to the Christmas program with her mom to watch her kids be angels and shepherds. But this Christmas she has no mom, she has no dad. Her sadness is heartbreaking.

The holidays (late November to early January) are also times of bizarre expectations. The parties and get-togethers, every gift given and received, the Christmas cards, each food item on the table, all of the decorations, everything is supposed to be perfect and provide happiness unknown at any other time of the year. It's enough to drive anyone mad.

What has happened to the "merry" in Merry Christmas?

What does any of this really have to do with Christmas anyway? The celebration is to remember and rejoice in the fact that God came to earth in human form. That's Christmas, the fulfillment of ancient prophesies. A baby born in a manger, with angels singing and shepherds worshiping. There were no parties, no fancy foods, no presents (the Wise men did not find Jesus until he was about two-years-old), no decorations, just a homeless couple and their new baby in a stable.

Even so, I love the trappings of Christmas. We hung stockings at work and dropped presents into each others stockings (secret Santa with no pressure). I sent a section of my Christmas cards so they arrived at their destination before Christmas. I mailed presents to out-of-towners in time that they could be opened on Christmas. No decorations save the poinsettias around the trees outside. I made cranberry salad for Christmas dinner and wrapped a lot of gifts. I got great presents this year and the ones I bought for others were received with true feelings of joy and gratitude.

But there is something better than any of that, my nephew and his wife, who were told they would never get pregnant, are! Their baby is due July 11. It's a Christmas miracle. Everything else pales by comparison.

Here's my heartfelt, albeit simplistic understanding of Christmas as Christ's mass, that is his sacrifice for us that began when he gave up his throne in heaven to be born and live on earth in a human body so that we might be saved. It is so simple but can get so complex and requires a measure of faith to believe.

Let Jesus dwell in your heart and keep your eyes open for the miracles of God around you and you will surely find the merry in your Christmas and the happy in your new year.

.