I don’t have a sister. I have an annoying and overachieving brother, whom I’m actually rawther proud of, but no sisters. Except for one-Jerseychick. She’s a plain spoken Yankee who probably thinks too much and forgets sometimes that we in the South get nervous when people actually say what they mean instead of couching everything in the kindest possible way so no one will actually KNOW what they mean and can pretend that no offense was meant, even when no offense was meant to begin with.
I like plain spoken people. Those folk that wrap their words in quilt batting confuse me, because I’m not the best at reading what they mean. If you think I’m a dumb-ass, please tell me I’m a dumb-ass, instead of saying something like “oh, that is an interesting opinion you have, I hadn’t considered it that way (because it’s a dumb-ass opinion you moron). As long as you do it with a smile and offer me a cookie afterwards, I promise I won’t pout and never speak to you again.
JC and I met in college, some 25 years ago. It was not exactly love at first sight, but eventually we learned that we liked each other. She held my hand through a crisis or two, I relieved her of her X-Men comic collection when she ran away from the pol skipped town took a trip to Europe, she brought me a gallon of applesauce when #1 was born, oh our lives together are woven, sometimes tightly, sometimes loosely, but I’d do anything she needed and I’m comfortable knowing she’d do the same for me. Sister in Christ, and out of Christ…neither one of us was a Christian when we met but came to him in our own ways and now we have that bond as well. It’s kind of exciting knowing that we’ll be able to laugh and point at the ridiculous in eternity as well as at the mall.
I need to get a picture of the two of us together somehow. I don’t have any , because usually one or the other of us is holding the camera.
I am deeply fond of her kids. All three of them. They’re like 2 nieces and a nephew, and I’d totally kidnap them and keep them for myself except that she’d probably notice after a while and wonder why the house was staying so clean. I jest, she loves her kids and would certainly notice that suddenly there wasn’t as much laundry.
Well, she’s my sister, and while she’s not perfect, neither am I, and yet she still acts all excited when I make noises about visiting, and always has the coffee on for me! She’s as perfect as it gets in this world, in my eyes, I mean, other than that whole…y’know…Yankee thing, but she can’t help that.
Terry told #4 this story a while back:
“We had a freeze when I was a kid, powerful cold it was, hadn’t seen anything like it in Cordele before. Anyway, the heat went out at the school and they sent everyone home, except I stayed to help a teacher pack some stuff up or something. I went to the bathroom and there were all these little green puffs on the floor. I was puzzled, and picked one up, warming it in my hands. In a second it went “poot” and disappeared.”
“What was it, Dad?”
“Son, it was a frozen fart.”
I’ve lived in the South since I was nine. I am now 40-ish something something. we don’t have chestnuts here. We have canned water chestnuts, which I am led to understand aren’t the same thing. We have pecans, which aren’t similar even because we certainly don’t roast them and sell them in little cones unless you’re at Lanes and then they come coated in sugar and cinnamon. They’re evil at Lanes, because the little kiosk where they roast the nuts is right by the door and you smell them when you walk in. You have to buy them, you can’t help it. Anyway, I am not even sure what a chestnut is. Apparently you roast them on an open fire (don’t they explode? They sound ‘splody to me) and eat them with Jack Frost Nipping At Your Nose. thing is, we don’t have frost here either. not really. It gets kinda coldish, like 50-something, and everyone starts whining, but no Jack Frost etc. Ok there’s Yuletide Carols, but our church doesn’t have a choir. It does have a nicely talented congregation, and when the last verse of a song is reached, the piano stops and we break into parts and sing a capella…which I love.
So where does the whole Christmas Spirit thing happen? No snow, no sleigh rides…tho there’s plenty of mud-boggin’ because it rains alot and there’s plenty o’ mud. People put reindeer antlers on their dogs, and tie wreaths to the front of their Chevy trucks, and put up a tree in their house that was grown way up north (like Kentucky or some barely-Southern state like that), y’know, a tree that totally doesn’t grow here. We have a douglas fir in our house, smells nice too. People try to grow trees here. There was a brief trend of growing a type of cypress tree, they have a nice Christmas tree shape, but are notably flimsy, terrible if you have heavy-ish ornaments like we do. Now people just go to Lowes and get a Yankee grown fir.
Baking gets me in the mood. The freezer is nicely full of goodies, gradually decreasing as Terry brings home perfect boxes and I ship stuff off. In years past it’s been sweets, particularly biscotti and homemade candies. Almond toffee is my favorite, and these incredibly simple cream cheese mints. this year, since pretty much everyone is trying to cut back on the sweets, I made savories. The cheese crackers have been a favorite, and difficult to package and ship, because the boys would walk by and go “Oh! Cheese crackers!” and steal a handful. So I made twice as many as needed. It puts me in the mood, making stuff for people like that. And testing the recipe to make sure they turned out right.
Easy Cream Cheese Mints
1 pound powdered sugar
1 8oz package cream cheese (or neufchatel, but fat free doesn’t work for some reason), room temperature
1/4 teaspoon mint extract, I use peppermint or spearmint, whatever is on the shelf
In a food processor, cream everything together until it’s all mixed up and homogenous.
Roll into a log about 1 inch in diameter and cover with plastic wrap. Put in the fridge for at least an hour or up to a couple of days. Slice about 1/4 inch thick,and lay onto a cookie sheet. Put them up out of the way and let them sorta dry. After a couple of hours (up to 3 or 4), flip them over and let them dry again. package in baggies or a cute little box. The sugar keeps them from spoiling, how cool is that! You can also add a drop or two of food coloring if you want. I have even taken half a recipe, and added food coloring, then made 2 long skinny ropes, one colored and one white, and twisted them together before slicing, like peppermint candies, sort of. It’s a very forgiving recipe, and if you don’t like how it looks,you can smoosh it again and start over.
Filed under: Another Silly Meme
A picture of yourself that’s less than 10 years old
This Summer. That's Will, my oldest
