Grandpa

This is the kinda story that sends shivers down my spine . . . still. 


A few years ago for Christmas I gave CD's of some favorite songs. When my two Aunts looked at the playlist they stopped and stared at me. "You like I'll Fly Away!?," they asked. I said I had just gotten into Alison Krauss' version earlier that year and loved it. 


They explained that their father, my Grandpa, ended every Sunday service with that song. My Grandpa was a Baptist Minister and died two weeks before I was born. I was not aware of hearing this song . . . post partum. They and my Mom all loved the song and had always said that I looked like young pictures of Grandpa. It was intriguing.

My oldest sister had been watching all of this and nicely slipped her gift to me asking to open it next. As I pulled back the wrapping, I could see a hand-made mosaic with an old picture of my Grandfather in the center about the age of 20 or so playing a fiddle. This was super-imposed on a background of sheet music to "I'll Fly Away." We were all stunned.


Now fast forward to the recent family gathering we had last week for the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving. I relayed the story above to my brothers from out of town. They too were amazed and those that could shared tender stories of Grandpa for the next 15 minutes or so. My brothers then left for a 5 hour drive to their next destination.


About 15 minutes after they left they gave us a call. They had stopped at a Starbucks for some coffee for the road. When they walked in playing on the stereo was . . . "I'll Fly Away."


May your Holiday Season also be filled with much wonder and delight.
Andy

Getting back on Task!

Flood Fighters did a great job helping us and getting our basement dried out.

They stopped by this morning and everything was dry, so they packed up their fans......

.....and I am back on task, with Christmas preparations! (Katie helps by napping on just the roll of paper I need!)

~Michele

Black Friday

It was a "black" Friday here, when I found the basement full of water and black mud coming up this drain, at 1:00 am. Of course, Andy was out of town, and Katie wasn't much help.

Lots of phone calls, lots of cords.......

....lots of help, lots of fans......

.....we are drying out!

~Michele

Happy Thanksgiving!

Years ago a dear friend surprised me with this wreath that she made. She crossed stitched each of the little pillows ... the really amazing part is that she was recovering from back surgery, therefore all the stitching was done while laying flat on her back!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Michele and Andy

Stockings!

If it isn't obvious, Michele is incredibly creative and has a knack for decorating. In fact, she's been wanting to decorate for Christmas since BEFORE Halloween! Yeh, that's right; it was just too early for me. 

BUT, now, we're in full swing. She made most of the stockings in these shots out of worsted wool (I love wool!) and collected a few more. We thought it made the most sense to group the collection together. We like it. 

Note the main, larger two in the upper half of the arrangement. Beautiful hand-made stockings by Michele. And, yes, if she had her way they'd all be stuffed with presents . . . for her!  ;->

Hope your holidays are off to a great start!

Andy

First Snow

I'm always happy to see the first snow!

~Michele

Gingerbread Scones

With the Holidays approaching, I always start thinking of gingerbread. This is one of my favorite scone recipes.

Gingerbread Scones

1 C white flour*

1 C whole wheat flour

2 T brown sugar*

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 t ginger

1/4 t cloves

1/4 t baking soda

1/4 C cold butter

3/4 C raisins

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 T maple syrup

1/2 C buttermilk

1/4 C molasses

Combine dry ingredients (first 9) in a large mixing bowl. Using a pasty blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in raisins.

In a small bowl, stir together the egg, maple syrup, buttermilk and molasses; add all at once to flour mixture. Using a fork, stir until ingredients are combined. Gently knead dough a few times and divide evenly into a greased pan.

I use a mini-scone pan. Sprinkle with coarse sugar and bake at 375 for 10 - 15 minutes. Watch carefully and remove when scones start to pull away from pan or toothpick inserted comes out clean.

*I often change the flours to whatever I have on hand. I prefer not to use a lot of white flour, so often use a mixture of barley, wheat and spelt flours. Also, you an use a bit more brown sugar and skip the maple syrup.

Serve warm with butter and honey or freeze for when you need a breakfast or snack in a hurry.

~Michele