HAPPY HOLIDAYS'

If some of my previous blogs have brought a little humor, reflection, nostalgia, and inspiration into your life then I am truly happy that I have used this venue in a good way.  It's been awhile in between blogs and I really don't have a good excuse for the lapse of time. I think it is just called laziness and a lack of a good topic. But, folks it is the holiday season and what better time to reflect on the past.

When I was younger and we were living at my Grandparents' house Christmas was always celebrated there. I also knew that I would ALWAYS receive underwear from my Grandmother!  For a very talented and creative person she certainly lacked imagination in the gift giving department. We could, however,  always depend on the traditional Christmas dinner: roast beef, yorkshire pudding etc and that was a good thing. Then my four boy cousins and I would go outside and play in the snow. My little Sister was too young to join in the fun. Growing up in the forties and fifties was a no brainer, school, church, the Y, Junior League, Eastern Star etc. All innocent and fun things. I look back now and realize we survived very well without cell phones, computers and all the gadgets that are available now. We learned cursive writing and took pride in our penmanship. We communicated with our friends verbally. I don't remember life being complex at all. Family and friends were and are still important and life seemed so much more simpler and serene. Of course, we weren't Parents then so we didn't worry about our offspring. All that worrying came along with our offspring. But, how grateful we are for them. Along with the worry comes the pride and joys of being a parent.

This year has flown by much too quickly. I reached what I consider a milestone this year; seventy-five! Wow! Leland is now seventy-nine and in June will be eighty. I guess we are considered elderly now but that's okay.

We got the most fabulous news on Thanksgiving Day. Our "baby", Laura got engaged to Joe Galloway and we are so delighted he will become a member of our family and we of his. Life goes on! They will start their own traditions and I hope that Laura will record for her family the history of the Wood and Larson families. She never met either of her Grandfathers but I hope through pictures and the written word she will get a sense of what wonderful men they were. I am not sad writing this - I take that back as I am now teary but in a good way.

There will be no recipe today because I struggled to make a turtle cake today to take to a function tonight and it was exhausting to make, the oven is a mess from overflowing stuff and I realize that baking is no longer fun.

But I can tell you that I just finished reading "THE ESCAPE" BY DAVID BALDACCI  and LOVED IT!

Next time there will be a recipe when I get over the post traumatic stress from todays' creation and the oven gets clean!

Love to all! Arlene