We all, have so much to be thankful for, and sometimes, we take things for granted. I would love to here from you in my comments
sections on my blog and also on my other linked blog and hub pages.
Please Let us know how you feel on these subjects:
What Are You Thankful For?
What Are You Doing To Help Pay It Forward?
How Has This Blog Inspired You?
Here is the Link to That Blog
Be
Thankful
Everyone knows that it just isn't "Christmas Dinner" without the stuffing(dressing), but you can spruce up your dinner with more than just the food!
Let's Set The Stage:
It's Christmas day, and if you have children, they are likely in the mode of "adrenaline and sugar rush", with treats from their stockings filling their bellies, and toys askew everywhere. The man of the house(father or other), "the almighty knowledgeable one", is once again trying to put together the toys......."WITHOUT" reading the instructions. :)
You (Mother or other), are busy tidying up, and some of you are worrying about the "In-Laws"(or OutLaws) approval, on "Your abilities to actually cook a fabulous Christmas Dinner" (which of course every woman knows will never be as good as Mom's).......but that is for the most part, probably, just because you didn't have to cook it! HA!
So, I decided, to take a little of the worry away for those that are still unsure of their cooking abilities, and throw some of my tried and true recipes your way. So here is to your success!
Check Out what's all available in this blog:
The table set with all the extras:
AWW!!! Now that "The Apple Dumpling Gang" has been fed!
Now, that you have successfully cooked your little hearts out, everything is delicious and all have happy tummies. For fun, we will assume the cleanup is already done :), and now it is time for you to relax in a nice bubble bath, candles galore with glass of wine in hand, "soft, sultry music playing"- (ok, maybe, that is to drown out the hoops and glee sounds of your delightful little ones, having a second round of competition,- on who can make the most noise with their new toys!)! Oops-- didn't mean to burst your bubbles! Ha! Just pretend I didn't say that.
Hopefully, if you have children, they are headed to bed early, since of course, they were probably up at 5am :). The kids have had their stories read, and are in slumberland-- or at least we hope! Now, it is time for you, to "treat yourself and your partner" to an evening for each other, after a job well done. So, why not put on that "little black dress" (or sexy lingerie), nylons and all, and don't forget the "high heel shoes"-- it gets "them" everytime! :)
Turn up the music, shoot that "devilish come-hither glance" that we know we all have! Take off his tie, that is if he is wearing one, wrap it around him and pull him close and dance! "Grab Your Honey and Shake It Up!"
It doesn't matter if you have been together, 2 years, 20 or more, you can always afford to sing and dance in the; Kitchen, Living Room, or--teehee-- "The Bedroom". Spruce up your love life, -be adventurous with each other, do a "flirtatious" dance for your significant other-- don't be shy, after all, they know you and love you anyway! Break out the massage oils and treat each other to a full body massage. I have a book that is awesome, however, a little annoying at times, It is called "The Art of Erotic Massage". The book actually teaches you wonderful massage techniques but encourages you to hold back on the "sex". HMMM!! HA! Well each to their own. Merry Christmas to you all and I hope that this has been a fun, informative, helpful, and enjoyable blog for you.
Bye for now!
Your "Canadian Country Chick" - Debb
Pot Pourri Simmer--- A nice scent on a budget!
1 Quart (4 cups) Water
3 Tablespoons Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons Cloves
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Ginger
Combine and simmer on stove or potpourri suitable dish, stir occasionally. Add Water when necessary. This will make you think it is Christmas anyday!
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1/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup butter or margarine
4 cups very dry bread crumbs or cubes
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tsp crumbled herbs (to taste) of thyme, marjoram, rosemary
poultry seasoning (to taste)
Stock(broth) { I roast another small turkey or chicken with 2 1/2 inches of water in the roaster, either the day before, or earlier--you can freeze and thaw--to create the broth}. You can also use store bought broth if easier.
Cook (saute) onions and celery in butter until soft. Mix together the bread crumbs, spices and seasonings in a bowl. Stir in some of the crumbs and a little broth and cook on medium tossing often until golden and warmed through. Mix lightly into remaining crumbs and seasonings. Let cool. Than happy Stuffing The Bird! :) Remember not to overstuff the cavity of the Turkey.
Yields: 4 & 1/2 cups of stuffing. For larger Turkeys just increase your recipe amounts accordingly.
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Ingredients:
Directions:
Place yeast in bottom of breadmaker pot, then add flour sugar an salt. Place 3/4 cup milk in microwave safe measuring cup, add the 1/4 cup of water, and butter. Slightly warm in microwave-- I
put mine in the microwave for one minute. Then pour in on top of dry ingredients and add egg. Set your machine to just knead, don't cook. When done kneading, shut
machine off and let rest until you see the dough start to rise. Spread a little oil or shortening on hands and shape into rolls. Cover with clean cloth. Let rise in a warm area for 30 minutes.
Place in pan and bake in preheated oven at 375 until golden.
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Directions:
Peel potatoes so that no spots are left anywhere, boil until done. Strain, mash with potato masher and add butter right away to melt as you mash. Add juice from onions. Mix at low to medium speed adding just enough milk to whip smooth. Add in seasonings. Let cool slightly--Place 2/3 of your potatoes in a lightly greased roasting dish. Then spoon remainder of potato mixture into cake decorating, large, icing (piping) bag, place the large star nozzle on end (or one of your choosing). Squeeze out Star Potato Florets all over the top. Melt another bit of butter and drizzle or mist over top of potatoes. Sprinkle with parsley. Bake in oven at 325 until warmed through and slightly golden on top.
Variation: Sprinkle a little of your favourite shredded cheese over top.
Tip: Because some potatoes have more moisture in them than others, if you find that your mixture won't pipe well, you can grate cheese finely (type of your choosing) and add to mixture. This is
another way to also play with the flavours.
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Directions:
Combine apples, sugar(with flour mixed in) and cinnamon, in a bowl. Turn mixture in bowl until apples are coated. Turn mixture into pastry lined 9" pie plate. Dot the shortening, in little amounts, over top the mixture. Cover with top pastry dough and flute the edges. Bake at 400' for 30-40 minutes or until done.
Tip: when baking pies, if you find that the edges are browning too fast or too much place tin foil loosely over the edges by cutting out a circle edge. Or you can also buy a commercially
available cover for pie crust edges.
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This is in regards to: Saying "Christmas Versus XMas"
With permission, I copied the following and totally agree with it so I am passing it on... Debb
Enough already. This time of year, under the guise of 'political correctness' more and more people are wishing others 'happy holidays.' The thinking being that the recipient of the well
wishes might not be Christian and therefore might somehow be offended or feel alienated by hearing, "Merry Christmas." Consider these three factors when choosing your greeting:
Christmas is a religious event. Were it not for the Christian faith there simply wouldn't be a Christmas. We have other days of the year devoted to celebrating the birth of our nation and to
honor our mothers and fathers. Christmas however, was not created as merely a day-off (that's called Labour Day).
How do you suppose a Jewish person would feel if rather than saying, "Happy Hanukkah", a non Jewish person just said "Happy Holiday"? Do you suppose a Muslim fasting during the period of Ramadan would appreciate a non Muslim calling it a 'holiday'? The word holiday in the English language no longer conveys the original meaning of holy-day. Instead it's become a colloquialism for a vacation (British vacationers are commonly referred to as 'holiday-makers').
For those people who do practice Christianity, simply wishing them a "Happy Holiday" is to avoid calling the event by its proper name and to demonstrate our intentional or inadvertent
disregard for one of their most sacred religious events of the year. To me this is the height of political incorrectness.
If our purpose is to send a non religious greeting to our clients then perhaps we'd be better off sending cards on Groundhog Day. In the meantime, here's wishing you a Merry Christmas!
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Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Your Canadian Country Chick!
Debb
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Do Your Christmas Shopping Here!
http://astore.amazon.ca/antiquesandal-20
Check out my new Online Store for all your shopping needs this Christmas and all year long! The latest Gamer Top Buys such as Wii, and Xbox360, PDAS, MP3,
Books, Electronics, and so much more!
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This Christmas! Be Thankful! Pay It
Forward!
Chapter 1 " Be Thankful
"
Little did I know when I started out today, that, that statement, should have been followed by a question mark, Not an exclamation! Thank goodness I still have a sense of humour.
As I am doing this hub as a part continuation of " My Story ", my first blog, which you can also check out through my links to the right. You may enjoy reading what has brought me to this point.
The date, December 10th, 2009
I started out on my travels today, to accomplish getting tortured with the usual, familiar jabbings of the once again " blood tests " that needed to be done. I was already, fasting, and caffeine deprived ( that's just cruel! ) . My spouse was grinning as he sipped 'his' hot, steaming coffee----Therefore, of course, I had to pass some sly remarks in his general direction, with a devious grin on my face as I made my exit out the door, stepping quietly so as not to wake our four year old.....Tip Toe............................................................................... Wait - a - minute!! ..........................................He has HIS coffee, why should he have peace and quiet too? Ha ......Nah!!... Even I couldn't do that!
As previously mentioned in my first hub, we had already found ourselves in pretty dire circumstances. We had just recently lost our source of employment, our way of life, and I had lost my home that I had been so proud of... , I lost my truck, I lost my tractor...I am a strange gal-- but I really loved that truck and tractor....Ah well... Enough of the pity party.
As my step-daughter laughingly states to anyone that needs to hear it...." Suck it up Princess .. and put your Big Girl Panties On!!!--- Yes, indeed, she has a way of making her point-- ahh .. to be twenty something again!
So, here we are 2 weeks away from Christmas and No money, 5 kids, thankfully we still had his home, however, we only had 2 baseboard heaters heating the house. Which was ok until a few days ago when it turned colder. We had just had our wood stolen that my spouse had cut the year before ....the man that took the wood even raked the spot where it was piled. :) And NO!...I didn't make him give it back..........as he was hurting too!.
So, my spouse scrambled to cut more wood as fast as he could ( because winter was coming and we knew we were going to lose the tractor)..we had prayed that things would turn around. So, amazingly, as we were contemplating what we were going to do about getting our flu for our woodstove....and yes...ok...feeling a little sorry for ourselves again... it was as if our prayers were answered......because there were 3 people within about 12 hours who stopped and inquired about buying our shed ( we had been trying to sell it for weeks). The asking price ??--- The exact amount that we needed, to buy our stove pipe.............. :)
So, back to why my trip to go for bloodtests became the latest--- " Things couldn't get any worse??????" ...... Or could they???
Angels were watching over me today!
As I was driving along in the car that had been lent to us by my inlaws, I hear the screeching of metal and lose control of the car. There was a couple of vehicles behind me on the four laner and one of them was passing the car immediately behind me. The tire had broken off and jammed up into the driver's side door, smoke was billowing and yet somehow,....again, ... my prayers were answered. I was able to stear the vehicle off of the road.... and no one was hurt ! Then the nicest gentleman came along, I believe that he was driving a yellow truck, possibly government road worker near Oromocto, New Brunswick. I believe he said his name was Duplissey--- I will check on that .....he allowed me to make calls and took me to a tow company, and then on to Canadian Tire in Oromocto.....where there staff was awesome -----but unfortunately, too much damage had been done to the car, so -- back to square one --no vehicle again. On the brighter side, the lovely staff at the Oromocto Hospital did allow me to have my bloodwork drawn at their hospital instead of Fredericton where I was suppose to go. Sp, at least, my coffee deprived morning wasn't for nothing.
I am very Thankful--- that No one was hurt!
Our four older children, 2 in college and 2 working, understand that we aren't able to celebrate Christmas the traditional way as far as gift giving this year, but they also appreciate that this Christmas, we will be able to spend more time with them, than we ever could, when we lived in and ran the Special Care Home. I miss the residents, we had alot of fun! I had the opportunity to treat them as family, and get to know their families. I believe that whatever God's purpose was for me there, has been served, and now I am simply moving on, to open new doors to the future. I am proud of how hard we worked, and I know that we could not have done anymore than what we did. So that, is how I comfort myself over that loss.
My point in sharing this and much more with you is: that, if you are
ever struggling in any area of your life,......have faith......we don't always have the answers, we always seem to have questions, doubts, and fears, ............but the sun will rise
tomorrow....be thankful for the little things......shelter, a warm home, a bed to sleep in, food to eat, healthy children, happy family, friends and loved ones! So Play games, eat wonderful
turkey dinners, laugh alot, sing and be merry. Don't get me wrong... I love giving gifts ... I love taking time to let those people that are important in my life, know that I treasure them. If
you are financially able, perhaps when you give your gifts this year, to your loved one's, you will give a gift this Christmas to someone in your community that is less fortunate. It is amazing
what can be accomplished if we all do a little something and " Pay It Forward".
I believe strongly in the Power of Positive Thinking, and Learning Something New Each and Everyday! I am a big fan of the Dr.Phil show, and of course, a big fan of Robin's. You can find some Self Help books from Dr.Phil below on my hub page. I hope that this holiday season, that you stay positive and happy.
I hope that you stay tuned...to " My Story" as I take you back through my years and hopefully I can help you enjoy the True meaning of Christmas.
From my family to
yours......We Wish You A Wonderful Christmas!
Here is a link to a very fun and useful hub of mine! I will be completing my blog on this today as well. Enjoy! :)
http://hubpages.com/_3bfq750tlj3hf/hub/a-Scrumptious-Christmas-Dinner-with-Romance
Here is some responses to the question that I asked others through my hubpage. I hope it
inspires us all to:
" Pay It Forward".
What are you doing this Christmas-- To "PAY IT FORWARD" ?
As many of us know, the movie "Pay It Forward" has created an absolute, wonderful following of good will to others,in many ways
around the world. If you haven't seen the movie yet...I would highly recommend that you do. This question will make much more sense to you then.
In the spirit of Christmas, I would like to have this forum inspire us
all.
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73
habee wrote:
I'm providing Christmas to a single mother with two young children. She can't find a job. When my daughter delivered the gifts to her the other day, the mother cried tears of joy. She was so afraid that her little girls would not have anything for Christmas this year.
That is wonderful. This is truly what Christmas is all about. I love hearing what people are doing that is special for others. What you did for them, will give that woman hope that things will get better, and that people really do care.
Posted 3 hours ago
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93
I get so much pleasure from helping homeless addicts on Christmas Day.
Working with the needle exchange and handing out sandwiches and juice, clean needles and a candy cane.
Mostly just being able to say Merry Christmas, knowing no one else has. It's then most of them smile, and to me, that's Christmas and what it should be.
Pay it forward indeed. Greatest gift of all, is giving.
KimberlyPosted 10 hours ago
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------link
http://hubpages.com/_3bfq750tlj3hf/hub/My-Story-Chapter-1-Be-Thankful
http://hubpages.com/_3bfq750tlj3hf/hub/antiques-and-all-4sale
http://hubpages.com/_3bfq750tlj3hf/hub/a-Scrumptious-Christmas-Dinner-with-Romance
Be Thankful
Calling All Angels.....Video.....I Dedicate This In Memory of Three Wonderful People That My
Community Lost This Past Month and To All Of You That Have Lost A Loved One.
Tracy Keenan Arthurs Snow, Nathan Clingo, and Steven Chapman! Forever Remembered, Always Loved !
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