At Home in Wyoming

Mmmmm, Hot Chocolate!

 I

The following blog is a 'Blast from the Past'...I have been busy this month cleaning out closets and painting the guest bedroom.  It is warm today in Cody, but my mother said that they had snow back east...so for those of you that are snowed in, how about some hot chocolate?

So...from the archives in October, 2009:

I just heard that the 'high' for tonight is going to be 19 degrees, which will be a virtual heat wave compared to the cold that we have had over the past few days.  I kept watching the weather channel yesterday...and it didn't budge much past 12 degrees during the day.  I think we had between two to four inches of snow.  Big, thick and heavy wet snow.

My husband was working out in the cold and the snow on Friday, and when he got home he said that he had been thinking all day about having a cup of hot chocolate.  I rummaged around the pantry for a sleeve of instant hot chocolate, and came up empty handed BUT I did have some Hershey's cocoa and decided to make hot chocolate the old fashioned way...the way my mother used to make it over 50 years ago.

You know, I had forgotten what real hot chocolate tasted like, and smelled like.  I had gotten used to the quick and easy stuff that tastes like warmed over chocolate milk...but it really only takes a few minutes to make the real stuff, the good stuff...which is made that much better with a dollop of marshmallow and some whipped cream.  

The recipe is:  1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa, a dash of salt (my sister says not to forget the salt because it brings out the flavor of the chocolate), 1/3 cup of hot water, 4 cups of milk and 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract.

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in saucepan; stir in water.   Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils; boil and stir 2 minutes.  Stir in milk and heat but DO NOT BOIL.  Remove from heat and add the vanilla.

This will make 6 servings.  There is also a microwave recipe on the box for single servings.

Hopefully it won't be this cold that much longer, and we can enjoy Fall.  But until then I plan to settle in with a good book and some real hot chocolate!  DLB

 

Taking Back Christmas

Not all Christmas trees have to be green!  Sometimes in December I spray paint bush or tree branches white, and hang some dollar store snowflakes on them.  The best part about snowflake trees is that they don't have to disappear once Christmas is over...they can stay up through January, which is good because the house looks so drab without all the Christmas lights and decorations.

I attend a church that is called a Bible church...basically the doctrine is Baptist.  BUT I was raised a Methodist, and still somewhat follow the Protestant liturgical calendar as a way to order my days and as a tool in my Christian walk.

(You can take the woman out of the Methodist church, but not the Methodist methods out of the woman).

I have been thinking a lot about the 12 days of Christmas, which starts on Christmas Day and ends on Epiphany ( the celebration of the gift of the Magi...or the Three Wise Men) on January 6th.  It seems a bigger deal in the European cultures and the Catholic church, but not so much the Protestant western churches.

Why?  Because our church calendar morphed into the commercial calendar...that says once the Christmas shopping season is over, Christmas is over.

So what's up with that?

During the advent, we prepare our hearts and home for Christmas.  We spend a lot of time getting ready.  But when Christmas Day arrives, it is over so quickly...you are left feeling a little exhausted and a little deflated...which is exactly what rampant and unchecked commercialism will do to you. 

So this year I observed the full 12 days of Christmas.  I took the tree down, but left everything else up.  I still listened to Christmas carols, read Christmas readings (both spiritual and secular) and really pondered what the birth of that child in the manger means to my life, today. 

And for the first time, I felt that I fully experienced Christmas.

Whether you follow the Protestant liturgical calendar or not, consider separating the commercial from the observation of Christmas.  I have tried doing that before Christmas...and in our culture with our traditions it is dang near impossible. 

But if you take the time to fully observe the 12 days of Christmas, STARTING with Christmas day, you will find that the commercial fades away, and the joy will kick in. 

And that, folks, is how you take back Christmas!

 

 

I Report, You Decide

This is the dance floor at Cassie's...a steakhouse, restaurant, bar and dance hall in Cody.  It used to be a whorehouse, and Cassie was the madam of the brothel.

I had an elderly woman (and by elderly I mean near 100...and that was over 20 years ago) tell me that the worst thing that ever happened to the town of Cody was when they closed the whorehouse.  She said that it gave the men something to do!

I just report, you decide!   

But I do know this...the best steaks in town can be had at Cassie's...DLB

356 And Counting...

A western Christmas tree, made out of sagebrush.  Kinda pretty, isn't it?  Just the thing to grace one of the cabins at Old Trail Town...

Have you bought your datebook for 2012 yet?  If you are super organized, you probably bought it in November...and because you are so organized this post will be useless to you.

BUT...if you are poorly organized, absent minded or just plain a mess, you were probably standing in line at Walmart buying one today.  Like me!  If that is the case, I am going to give you some advice that will have you loving me next December.

Flip to December 2012, and jot down what worked and didn't work for you over the holidays, before you forget.  For instance, my sister found that going through her spice cabinets and pantry in November saved her time...she was able to stock up on her holiday baking needs before the rush, and didn't waste time running back and forth to the store. 

BUT her boys gobbled up all her cut out cookies before Christmas (as teenage boys are prone to do), and she ran out of cookies Christmas Eve. She ended up missing Christmas Eve service to roll dough, because Christmas wouldn't have been Christmas without the cut out cookies for one of her sons.  

NOW we now why our mother baked her cookies in quanity in November, and bedded them down in the deep freeze.  Next year she is going to try that...and join a Christmas Club at the bank.

OK, now you get the picture.  What worked, what didn't...and what you will change next year.

While you are at it...what were you out of that you need to buy next year?  Did some of your Christmas lights burn out?  Did you deplete your wrapping paper stash, or need more hooks to hang bulbs?  Whatever it is, jot it down. 

As you are out and about this month, you will find that stuff for 75% off...I know it is hard to have the stomach to buy more red wreath ribbons in January, but come December 2012 you will be happy that you did.

So that's it, that's my advice.  Take it or leave it, but remember...

It is just 356 days till Christmas!

 

 

New Years Eve Snow

At daybreak this morning the bedroom seemed unusually light, so I peeked out this window to see 4 inches of new fallen snow.  Dang!  I was getting used to the 50 degree temperatures.

Yes, I have a Christmas tree next to my bed.  Don't ask me to explain it.

Well, I can explain it actually...I am addicted to Christmas lights!

Here is another glimpse of the snow...

I like to listen to the cars go by in the snow.  It reminds me of spending the night at my grandmother's house...my father's mother.  The guest room that my sister and I stayed in faced the road, which was quite busy.  At Christmas most of the cars had chains on the tires.  I loved the musical sounds of the chains on the road.

Whatever happened to chains, anyway?  Are tires that much better now?

Anyway, it is funny the power that sounds, smell and taste have to pull back old memories. 

Wherever you are tonight, and whatever your weather, I wish you a safe and Happy New Year!

A Creepy Blast From The Past

Every time I go to Old Trail Town, I always look for the 'hearse wagon'.  It is just so deliciously creepy and Victorian looking.  I always try to peek inside but I can't see anything...

Anyway, I thought you might like to see what a hearse looked like out west...before the big, fat black cadillac hearses came alone.

Next time I promise a more cheerful photograph!   DLB

Score At The Junk Store

Major score at the junk shop last week...these cute little holly dessert plates and cups...all for the bargain basement price of 4 bucks. 

This photograph is so dark that you can't see the little holly berries, so I am going to try to lighten it up for you.

There, now you can see the little holly berries on the cup and plate.

Sweet, aren't they?   DLB

Relax

The day after Christmas...nothing more to bake, to buy, to mail, to trim, to deck...enjoy it folks!  Just think, in just 365 days, we are going to have to do it all over again!

Hope your Christmas was Merry!   DLB

Old Things Done New Ways

The last couple of years I have gotten into table top sized trees for Christmas.  Mostly because I am lazy...but also because I bought a 1940's tree stand at a garage sale, and it only holds small trees...and fake trees. 

Otherwise I would electrocute myself.  These things haven't been in vogue since Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady.  My husband says it is a fire hazard, but we haven't gone up in flames.  Yet.

The thing about table top trees is that they are so easy to decorate.  You don't have to reach down or up too far, and if you put a little village under the tree, like I do...you don't have to get down flat on your belly to see it.

The disadvantage is that husbands will invariably stick their empty coffee cups under the tree, like mine did in this picture.  (Sigh...).

Sometimes I miss those big old trees we used to chop down in the mountains.  They smelled so good and were just so pretty.  But people get older, children grow, things change.  There is no sense sticking to tradition if you are too pooped to get out of bed Christmas morning...all because you tried to do what you did when you were 20, and are now 56.

(Who, me?).

Anyway, if you are finding it harder and harder to keep up with tradition, rethink some of the ways that you do things this Christmas.  Try doing old things in a new way.

You may find that all you had to lose for extra energy... were just a couple of branches!    DLB

Slowing It Down

I love doing puzzles over the holidays.  My son got me hooked on them a few years ago...not the big thousand piece ones that he likes, I don't have the patience. 

I like the little one hundred piece puzzles that the dollar store sells around Christmas.  Like the holiday one above that I have been working on this week.

It has glitter on the snow.

(There is nothing that I don't like about glitter!)

Working on a puzzle is relaxing.  You are doing something, but not doing much.  You can think about things, or follow one of those sappy Christmas movies on TV.

(There is nothing that I don't like about sappy Christmas movies!)

We are in the final sprint folks...Christmas is just a little over a week away!  If you are feeling the stress, try a puzzle, a sappy Christmas movie, or whatever works for you. 

Just try to slow it down enough to enjoy this very special time of the year!   DLB

 

 

Tick Tock

Perched on the top of our living room mantel sits a crescent moon Santa...watching the seconds tick down until midnight, Christmas Eve.

I wanted to post today, but I have nothing to say.  So I thought I would hang a picture and be done with it.

But just so I don't leave you with nothing for tuning in, I am going to share something that Father Tim in the fictional town of Mitford said:

"Knitting, he thought, was a comfort to the soul.  It was regular, it was repetitious.  And in the end, it amounted to something."  (At Home In Mitford by Jan Karon)

I will leave you with this thought...are we doing anything today that in the end 'amounts to something'?   DLB