I think y’all will be happy to know that the laundry detergent I bought is Glutin Free and contains no GMOs.
Getting zinc would require leaving the house and I’m already jammified for the evening.
I really hope this isn’t the strep throat New Guy had last week. If it is, he will be ex-New Guy because I will end him.
Dotty Ahh, that’s right… far away from me then, even if the weather is similar! 
Catamount, so have new guy bring you the zinc!
Paperirk filled out and house reasonably clean, now to decide on dinner…
Excellent!
OK, but is it fat-free, lead-free, hormone-free, and gentle enough for baby’s skin??
Home, wondering where spousal unit is. He’s had a long day because he was at my office shortly after 7. I turned the crockpot up to high and I stopped on the way home for a loaf of bread, so supper will be yum!! When he gets here… which I hope won’t be too much longer.
When my Dad was alive, he made microwave fudge every year, it was his specialty. We haven’t made it in a couple of years, because we’re all trying to lose weight. I was looking for recipes for diabetic fudge the other day, but couldn’t find anything that didn’t call either for graham crackers or cream cheese/sour cream.
Dotty (or is it Gumdrops?) have you had your daughter checked by a doc? I vaguely recall a barking cough in a youngster can be the sign of something serious. Google tells me inhalers or steroids may be in order. (Yes, I’m nosy and bossy - a twofer!)
{{{Baker and Baker’s Mum}}}
Happy Birthday MamaBear!
We’re still on track for snow, sleet and freezing rain tomorrow, with significant accumulations possible. Good times. Hubby leaves tonight for CA, so I’ll be huddling with the childrens.
Was supposed to have the movers here today to help me finish moving furniture and work on the garage. Alas, my brain decided to migraine instead. I’ll be having the movers here on Friday instead.
I forgot cinnamon rolls on the great bake off list. I use my Nana’s (great-grandma’s) recipe. They are nummy. We usually have them Christmas morning. 
I am mad as a wet setting hen. That’s all I am gonna say about that. The stoopid, it burns.
OK, If you must know. I sent some PII to the director and he replied “this should be encrypted, you can get in trouble”. Duh, IT WAS ENCRYPTED. I replied “It was encrypted” and then called him and said “It was encrypted”. There is a little blue lock that shows it was encrypted and if he’d taken the time to see it he would have known. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it.
I have the holiday blues and just hate that I cannot spend a fortune and have absolutely decided not to decorate or buy any gifts. Am I a horrible person. I did buy the Fruitcake, some towels for the house, Louie a new bed and will send a couple hundred to my poor brother Jimmy that lives on a meager SS check. I hate the commercialization of Christmas.
Get off’in my lawn!
**Butters **- we don’t do gifts, except for the $10 goofy exchange with the family. I’ll give my daughter a check, but we don’t do gifts or decorating. You’re not horrible, you’re sensible!
Bah humbug!!
Apparently I type fast. This mixed with using a keyboard with old school style clicky Cherry MX Blue switches apparently makes the BF think I was shaking up a can of spray paint.
He’s got some nerve commenting on my typing while he’s still in bed!
Time has flown, and we’re down to just one weekend left for the Brigadoon Teashop before we pack it up.
Bah Humbug indeed. I grew up a poor child from the South. I remember I just had to have a doll one year-it was Chrissy. You could turn a dial and her hair would grow or shorten. I would have died had I not got that doll. I do remember it was expensive and my poor Mama somehow got that doll for me and I was the happiest little girl around. Now I think back that my Mama probably had other uses for the “Chrissy” money. All these years later I feel guilty for wanting and getting that doll.
I am crying just thinking about it. My poor parents did the best they could with what little they had to work with.
It means your child is turning into a dog. Or possibly a seal.
**Butters **- sometimes parents feel it’s more important to indulge a child and let the problems slip a little. There will always be bills but there won’t always be a little girl whose heart is set on a special doll. I’m sure your happiness that year was worth any sacrifice your mother had to make. It’s what parents do when they can. So don’t feel guilty - feel lucky you had such a mom!!
**FCD **finally made it home - he got dragged into a meeting. Poor baby. The beef stew was good, as was the fresh bakery bread I got on my way home. I think I’ll put some of the stew into a freezer bag and put the rest in the fridge for later this week.
I forgot about my spider plants - they got frozed!!! I brought them into the garage when I saw them today. This weekend, I’ll trim them back and hope they’re not totally dead. Can’t believe I forgot about them! grrrrrrrr
Is it Firday yet?
{{{Butters}}}
Your mom was probably happy to get the doll for you, and I’m sure it gave her a lot of joy to see you happy.
I remember Chrissy dolls though. Never had one, I had a Kissy doll that made kissy noises when you pushed her hands together.
We don’t do much for Christmas here. Sah-son is an atheist and couldn’t care less about Christmas, or any other holiday, or his birthday. He doesn’t like a lot of things (except hats). My mother is getting him stock for Christmas. I have no idea what to get him because he doesn’t need or want anything.
He’s been yelling at me lately for buying stuff.
Maybe one day, if he ever gets out of the house, and meets a nice girl and has kids of his own he’ll get back into the spirit of it.
I shop for the nieces and their kids because I enjoy giving them something.
I don’t bake, I don’t decorate, I just don’t care. It’s more fun when there are kids around.
Honestly, though, those last few years at my mother’s with the HFH making my life miserable, I’m just as happy not to be around any of them anymore.
We should take a drive through town one evening. There’s a big tree in the town square and all the lamp posts are decorated.
My mother called today. Nobody in our group is going to my cousin’s party. I called my cousin to tell her it depends on the weather. I thought she’d be upset but she was cool about it.
So I got to listen to my mother bitch about my niece. Just the other day I got to listen to my niece bitch about my mother - and I laughed. I shouldn’t laugh, but I do.
Dindin has been ingested and mom has been called. Good thing I called when I did cause next to oldest bro and sil were on the way to take her out to eat. She was tickled to know complete and total mostly imaginary strangers were wishin’ her a happy birthday.
I thought I was the only one who remembers that movie! Didja see the sequel?
Okay, two posters here asked by PM for the fruitcake recipe I mentioned. I thought, what the heck? I’ll give it to everyone.
2 cups raisins
2 cups currants
16 oz candied citron
8 ox candied orange peel
8 oz candied cherries*
16 oz chopped dates
8 oz candied pineapple
16 oz almonds**
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons mace
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
16 oz butter
4 cups light brown sugar
12 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
Rince the currants and rub in a towel to remove any stems. Toss all the fruits and nuts to mix them thoroughly. Mix salt, baking powder, spices, and sift haf of this over the fruit mixture. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs which have been well beaten. Mix the rest of the spices with flour and add to eggs and sugar. Add fruit to this and then pour over fruit and nut mixture. Mix well. Pour into well buttered pan*** until three-quarters full. Bake at 300 degrees until just firm and browned on top
- Red or green cherries, as preferred, I use half and half
**The original recipe calls for almonds, we now use pecans. I use pecan halfs. You can use nuts slightly broken, but don’t chop them up fine, you want to see big, chunky nuts in the fruitcake.
*** You can use any size of pan, from small to a 9x5 bread pan. The larger the pan, the longer it will take to bake, keep and eye on it.
A piece of greased brown paper, or parchment paper, in the bottom of the greased pan, helps the cooled fruitcake come out without sticking.
Any questions, ask away. And yes, this is a huge recipe. My mom and I make a batch like this and freeze different sizes, so we don’t have to bake every year. The recipe can be cut down but it won’t save you that much work, so why not go for broke?
PS, make sure the butter is softened when you go to use it.
butters, my doll was a Chatty Cathy.
My guess is that your mama was like mine and grew up during the depression. She once told me that the older kids in the family didn’t get toys. They would go to see Santa and get an orange and some candy and Granny would fix a chicken dinner. That and mass was the extent of their Christmas celebration. When the older kids went to work, they began buying for their younger brothers and sisters (Mom was fifth of 14).
No matter how tight the budget, she moved heaven and earth to make sure that each of us kids had a toy under the tree.
Well, Baker, you’ve just convinced me to make fruitcake again! Oh, sure, my kids will be horrified, but I’ll be happy! And surely, there must be someone at work who will appreciate it! Yes, it’s going to happen. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
So, my vacation week is going well so far. I ended up going in to work for a couple of hours anyway, as a favor to my boss. I didn’t mind, except I had to go in earlier than usual this time. I spent a good chunk of my day sleeping once I got home. Today was cold and rainy, so it was perfect sleeping weather.
And I’ve decided to get started on the nightmare known as Christmas shopping. I despise shopping anyway, and having to shop for others makes me hate it even more. I just don’t have that gift gene, and have no clue what to get for people. My daughter is moving into a new house this month, and we’ve established that she pretty much needs everything. That helps! My son just landed a new job, and will be needing to add to his work-clothes collection, so maybe I can work that angle with him. Eh, maybe this won’t be so bad!
I remember the Chatty Cathy’s too. A blast from the past. And yes **Red ** my parents were products of the Great Depression. We always got fruit and candy for Christmas. My mother worked at the local cotton mill and the company she worked for gave all the children of their employees a shoebox sized box of candy, fruit and nuts. I remember looking forward all year to that box. I would imagine that’s all some kids got. There was a mill village around that plant and there was a swimming pool for the mill village kids. I spent many a day at that pool. It was where I learned to swim. Oh, the memories and those truly were the “good old days”.
I came home tonight from irk and made breakfast for supper and even cleaned up after. Here’s hoping for a good night of sleep.