The Holidays are almost here!

The holidays are almost here! Can you believe it? Seems like time really just slips away. So much to look forward too with the upcoming holidays. Traditionally this time of year is usually the busiest for us. Not just because of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, but because we have tons of family birthdays during this time too. So we get together often as a family and we do a lot of "celebrating".
This year will be a little more difficult since we won't be home for all the holidays and birthdays. But we are making a visit home, so we are trying to "cram" as much into that visit as we can. But we are really looking forward to the visit home.

Around here the days are getting shorter and the darkness is getting longer. And we've had a lot of rain lately. All the leaves are falling off the trees and things are starting to look rather "bare". We've been told that the "shortest" day will be December 21st.......so the longer hours of darkness will continually get longer and longer until then. I can see how it can get a little tiresome with the darkness and then all the rain we've been getting lately. But the thing to look forward too is the beginning part of next year when it starts going back to regular daylight hours, then spring/summer when we have long hours of daylight. lol

The baby pheasants we were seeing around the area a month or so ago are getting big now. In fact they are not the cute little baby pheasants that I thought they were a month or two ago. At this point they are annoying! lol They stand in the middle of the road and they won't move. You honk the horn and they just kind of walk ahead like there is no one behind them and they are in no hurry. And if you've ever heard a pheasant........you know what I mean when I say they sound like a a fan or something is broken. It's just this noise that will make you think something in the house is broken and making a bad noise. But it's not........just the pheasants.

I still continue to try and bake things from time to time, learning the oven here and how it will work with my old recipes. I think I just about have it mastered. Yesterday was my true test, making my Grandma Johnson's red velvet cake. It turned out fab! My Grandma Johnson made the best red velvet cake ever! And I was fortunate enough to get her recipe. I remember the first time I made it, you could bounce if off the floor! I had no idea what I had done wrong and she wasn't around for me to ask. Somehow, over the years I mastered it. Apparently dissolving a teaspoon of baking soda in a tablespoon of vinegar is far more crucial to her recipe than just adding the baking soda all by it's self. That and the fact you aren't suppose to "beat" it in, but rather "fold" it in. Go figure. But she was great at it and when I realized that her recipe wasn't' necessarily an optional guideline for me to follow to my liking, I was able to make it just like hers.

Jeff and I are going to try and make it to Glamis Castle soon. We are waiting until after November 14th, because that's when they are all decorated for Christmas. I think that would be nice to visit the castle when it's dressed up for the holidays. So when we visit.......I'll be sure to post pictures!

Hope everyone is looking forward to the holidays!