Tuesday, January 5 – Jesse’s Day

As you may already know today is Jesse’s Birthday. He has received several calls with birthday wishes from the family. He and his brother talked for a while on Skype. Our sister-in-law, Margaret had a procedure done today and was not feeling too well, we are sending you cyber hugs and much love and hope you feel better soon.

I tried to make it special for Jesse and wanted to take him out somewhere nice for dinner. He didn’t want to do that.

He said he just wanted to host a happy hour at our place. I said okay and asked everyone to stop by at 3:30 for some lite snacks, and cocktails.

Now the weather was not to good today, it was 41 degrees when I walked this morning. It stayed cloudy all day and warmed up to 59 degrees. Not the best weather for outdoor happy hours. BUT

Much to my delight everyone came by and sat outside in the cool temps until about 5pm. We had a good time, laughing at a few jokes that were told and just visited with each other. Jesse received many cards and he thanks everyone!

I had made cupcakes for Jesse and served them with chips and salsa, cheese and crackers and veggies and dip.

You can see that everyone came prepared for the cool temps.

Afterwards we invited everyone to join us at Fat Daddy’s for dinner. Some already had their dinners waiting at home while a few joined us.

Carl and Linda

Elgin and Cathy

Ed and Marilyn

We had a good meal and good company.

Thanks everyone for helping Jesse and I celebrate his day!

Hugs to everyone!

January 5th – Jesse's Birthday

Today Jesse is 59 today. I have been very lucky spending time with this wonderful guy. He makes me smile and brighten my life.

He is really good with the grandchildren

Goofing off

Admiring himself

Happy Birthday Honey !!!!

Sunday, January 3 – A day at Home

I had mentioned I got a bread maker. That is what I have been doing for the past few days, making bread.

My 1st batch went in the circular file. It was not doing right and never rose or baked correctly.

All the instructions say you must be exact in your measurements, but there was just not enough liquid. After looking at some of the other recipes in the book I noticed they call for more liquid.

This recipe calls for 7/8 cup of water. I added a full cup and 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of water. It turned out much better, but the bread is very dense. This was a raisin bread recipe.

Both Joyce and Marilyn wanted me to make a raisin nut bread for them. I added additionally another teaspoon of water and they seemed better.

Marilyn made us some caramel popcorn (my favorite) that was to die for. I sat and ate the whole bag…THE WHOLE BAG - ONE SITTING - GONE!

For dinner last night I made us an Italian herb loaf with olive oil, parmesan cheese, parsley, garlic, onion flakes, and basil, it was yummy! This recipe calls for more liquid and I put in an extra teaspoon. It was much less dense then the raisin bread.

Next I am going to try honey wheat bread. I am having so much fun making bread, just not sure how to figure out the points for all this bread.

It was mostly cloudy today and it rained in the afternoon. We just sat around the rig. Jesse watched football and is very pleased that the Ravens are in the playoffs.