December 13, 2019 thought for the day: You should lie down with the lamb and rise with the lark. English Proverb

I stayed in today. Bob has to have a dessert to take to a Christmas dinner tomorrow night. I don’t want to go to the store again today. I have a cake mix here on hand so that’s what I will fix for him to take and make a simple icing. Actually, he doesn’t need it until tomorrow but I am getting some of the things I have had in storage back home tomorrow so that day is filled up.

I worked a little on the next newsletter and a little on the Poinsettia remembrance brochure for the Christmas bulletin at church. I have taken a bit of a jump on getting them done. I don’t want to wait until the last minute especially in this season.

The photo theme for December 12 was “green”. We don’t have a Christmas tree up except for my little Charlie Brown tree (our point of interest this year). But I stopped at McDonald’s on my way home from church. While I was waiting in line, I noticed this tree, as I had many times before and took a couple of shots. I added a filter to give it a bit more interest. I like the way I was able to use the add-on Topaz paint filter and the built in Photoshop hue and saturation filter. They are similar to tips and tricks used on a dark room enlarger. 

I got my Christmas calendars done, with the binding and the hole punch. The hole punch is a little sloppy on some but I don’t have time or money to do them over again.

I got the kitchen and powder room floors swept and washed, the refrigerator cleared, dish washer unloaded and loaded. I also ran the roomba through a battery charge. I had to stop it and clean it twice, it had picked up a lot of dog hair. Sweet Pea sheds a lot in the winter, most of the time actually, but who cares, she’s a comfort and a doll baby.

The word today is constant. Nothing is more certain than uncertainties. Fortune is full of fresh variety; Constant in nothing but inconstancy. Richard Barnfield.  Charity is that rational and constant affection which makes us sacrifice ourselves to the human race, as if we were united with it, so as to form one individual, partaking equally in its adversity and prosperity, Confucius. The soil of friendship is worn out with constant use. Habit may still attach us to each other, but we feel ourselves fettered by it. Old friends might be compared to old married people without the tie of children, William Hazlitt.  The iron ring is worn out by constant use, Ovid. No ornament of a house can compare with books; they are constant company in a room, even when you are not reading them, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there, Thucydides. The most evident token and apparent sign of true wisdom is a constant and unconstrained rejoicing,  Michel de Montaigne.

The photo theme for today is “sparkle”. Again, I don’t have a Christmas tree up and decorated, no Christmas wrapping paper or ornaments yet. So I had to search around. I ended up using an archived photo and added a couple of filters to the image. These themes are adding to my Christmas mood.

The title to this article just sounded too good to not share it. It also has a recipe attached. Have you ever heard of chocolate eggnog, well, here we go. We all know that hot cocoa is a must in the winter time. For some, coffee added to it is heavenly. According to the article hot cocoa added to eggnog makes a thicker and richer beverage. The author of this article was talking about using “fair trade” cocoa for reasons concerning how cocoa is processed. Then there is the choice of “natural” or “Dutch-processed”, which is the milder and darker of the two. For this recipe an immersion blender was used to do the mixing but if that isn’t available a mixer or egg beater can be used to make the whole drink think and smooth. Reading the directions for starting the recipe sounded like an artist putting together a master piece. The ingredients were 6 cups of milk, 2 cups of cream, 1 cup of cocoa powder, 3/4 cup of sugar, 3 teaspoons of vanilla, ½ teaspoon of salt. The cocoa powder and sugar were put in a bow then a tablespoon of milk was added. That mixture was stirred with a fork until the milk was “gone”. At that point add another tablespoon of milk and keep that up until all the lumps and powder are gone. The rest of the milk, vanilla and cream in a sauce were ready for the first mixture to added. As the salt was added the pot was beginning to simmer on a low fire until bubbles come up around the edge. After the fire is shut off the eggnog part of the drink is started. In a large container add 8 cups of the hot cocoa to 3 whole eggs, fresh ground nutmeg. Before adding the cocoa to the eggs beat them first then slowly add the hot cocoa. After the first few tablespoons of cocoa have been slowly added and mixed continuously so the eggs don’t “scramble”, the rest can be added faster. At this point the nutmeg can be added a little at a time to the taste you like.

That wonderful relaxing night for dinner has rolled around again.....pizza.

Joy