Deck the Halls

Actually, the only hall I have is upstairs, and it didn't get decorated. However, the main floor is highly decorated now. I have spent the last two days putting up decorations both outside and in. Everything except the tree. That chore takes an entire day in itself, as I have an artificial tree which has to be recreated, branch by branch every year before decorating. Maybe next weekend for that. Anyway, the house looks very much like Christmas now with candles, snowmen, snowflakes, winter pictures and Santas - all red and green and white. I will take some photos, but don't have time now, before Sunday School, to do that and get them up. OK, here are some photos. These went up quickly - amazing!

Starting on the right: the front door. The painting is by my niece Terry. It's an old one of hers (not one of her favorites), but I really like it. Trees and snow - works for me. Next is outside: my flag and a lighted snowman on the trellis. Red lanterns and bows on the shepards' hooks. Last photo is the little evergreen out by the sidewalk.

I have more photos, but just now when I tried to upload them, the computer gave me one of those error messages that says "internet explorer cannot find web page". I have no idea what that means, but I'm not going to press my luck. No more photos today.

I had a great Thanksgiving - a real feast. We started with hors d'oeuvres at Patty's house. Cheeses and crackers, salami and pepperoni, nuts, cauliflower with cocktail sauce (poor man's shrimp substitute), and many other raw veggies. That was at noon. About 4 PM we somehow found room for dinner. We had two kinds of sweet potato dishes, stuffing both in the bird and in a casserole, turkey (of course), gravy, cranberry relish (recipe to follow), snow peas in a cranberry sauce, salad, biscuits and finally pumpkin and apple pie. As if this weren't enough for the weekend, on Friday, Patty made turkey taquitos and guacamole and cheesecake, so we ate another shared wonderful meal. If one can't have family for Thanksgiving, good friends are the next best thing!

The three of us took two long walks on Thursday. One to work up an appetite for dinner and the other to settle the dinner so that we had room for dessert. Luckily the weather was delightful - sunny and rather warm for this time of year. Maryland is strange that way - the temperatures jump up and down almost daily in the fall. For example, yesterday we had sunshine all day and temps in the 60s. Today is colder and rainy. I'm not complaining. The longer winter holds off, the happier I am. However, Patty and I were both too busy since then to walk, although I did walk by myself yesterday evening. I have gained 2 pounds just from Thanksgiving dinner, so I really need those daily walks! Probably won't walk today, however. I don't care what the songs say, I don't find walking in the rain romantic, even if I were walking with a cute guy!

Since you asked, here's the recipe for my cranberry relish. First a bit of background. My mother always made an uncooked relish with cranberries and apples and maybe an orange. After Dad developed diabetes, she tried sweetening the relish with saccharine (the only sweetener available at that time). This wasn't very successful, because the cranberries are very tart and if you use too much saccharine, it turns bitter. I had this happen to mine - believe me - it was awful! Anyway, after Mom died, I decided to find a better way to make the relish so that Dad could eat it. This is the result:

12 oz. fresh cranberries, washed and sorted, discarding soft ones

1 can of crushed pineapple in juice (no added sugar) 16 oz can or slightly smaller one

2 0r 3 apples, peeled

2 packages of no-sugar orange jello

orange or cranberry juice, as needed

Drain pineapple. Cut apples into chunks. Put some cranberries and some apple into blender. Cover with juice. Process a low speed until chopped finely. Empty into bowl, draining off juice. Repeat until all is chopped. Using 2 cups of boiling water, dissolve both packages of jello. Add a bit less than 2 cups of juice - pineapple and other. Because crushed pineapple is very juicy even after straining, I don't add quite 2 cups of juice - maybe less a tablespoon or two. Stir, then add fruit. Pour into serving bowl. This looks very pretty in a glass bowl. Cover loosely and refrigerate. I usually make this the day before, as it takes a long time to thicken up. Enjoy!