dughlas

We're okay, lack of energy is the worst. We wear out very quickly. I spent Wednesday afternoon working on the Christmas yard under the tree, finished it the next morning. Yesterday we put Mum's Santas up on the shelf. She has 10 of them. That completed our holiday decorating.

I'll gather some of them.

That would be like displaying only Mona Lisa's chin, an incomplete work.

I disagree so ... I award Spike a kilted rebel.

You seemed pretty eager to grab on to that Nobel awarded by SC.

If you let me know which I'll see what I can do.

Glad to hear you're back to "normal". We're both feeling better too.

Lovely. Mum has had our tree decorated for awhile now but I haven't done the yard. That was next on my to do list but then ..., yesterday I got the tubs down from the attic so maybe today.

Thanks. In our younger days we would marathon bake the week after Thanksgiving. Five or six kinds a day, thousands of cookies. We still start that week but only 2 kinds a day, sometimes just one if it's more labor intensive like cutouts or Holiday Fruitdrops that makes a lot more cookies. We also only bake every other day and are usually done in a couple hours. Both mum's church and local community have Angel Trees so pick a name from each. This year we had a 10 yearold boy and another boy we think was mid-teens based on his clothing sizes.

Oh Nick, that's nothing. Years ago we would have baked more kinds, ~30 types as opposed to the 12 we did and multiple batches of each. We're talkin' thousands of cookies each season. A few years ago we were still baking 24/25 kinds but only single batches. We pared it down to 15 about 3 years ago, that's still between 600-800 cookies. And no, we don't all those. We give most out to friends and neighbors. In a normal year we make up about 20 different trays to share. We do the same thing with my homemade peanut brittle. I have most of that already bagged in food gift bags. Fortunately all the cookies were baked and away in tins and the brittle was bagged before we got sick. We haven't been near any of it other than to check that all is well. Once we're recovered we can safely make up the trays and deliver them by New Year still within the 12 Days of Christmas.

Page ... I started to feel better yesterday afternoon. Was well enough to wash both our bedding and remake the beds. Also, did two other loads of laundry without feeling utterly wiped out. Mum slept a solid 3.5 hrs in her recliner while I was doing that. She was really out, didn't hear the phone ring or the dryer buzz. After that she was feeling better too. I think we turned the corner.

Howdy Texy.

Sawasdee Khrup Terry. I really enjoy listening to both Libera, and Pentatonix too. You asked previously about types of cookies mum and I baked. I had to log off before answering in order to begin phone calls to dr's office. Here's a list: Orange Pecan, Butterscotch (the recipe is old, it comes from mum's great Aunt), Chocolate chip Pecan, Shortbread drop cookie, Shortbread nuggets (made with chocolate chips and chopped walnuts, a favorite of my sister), both Peanut butter & Almond butter Blossoms (peanut butter ones get a milk chocolate drop on top, almond get dark chocolate), Jumbles (another old recipethat came from my stepdad's mother, it's a simple butter cutout cookie), Chocolate Thumbprints (I shared this recipe here a couple years ago), Chocolate Crinkles, Sour Cream (a simple but tasty sour cream drop cookie that came from mum's mother), Snickerdoodles and lastly, Holiday Fruitdrops (this is another old one that comes from an unknown source, the paper it's printed on is beginning to crumble at the edges. Basically a cookie version of a light fruitcake, candied cherries, dried dates and nuts. I brush bourbon on some that I put aside for just us.) We'd intended to make Black Walnut and Molasses as well but fortunately put those on hold to take care of shopping and wrapping prezzies for two children we chosen from the "Angel Tree. Those were delivered before we became ill. Not so lucky with packages intended for family.

Barely.

Mum has the movie on dvd. We used to watch it each year until her player quit working.

I just listened to Sting perform this from a cd of old, as in medieval, Christmas carols and hymns.

Hope you're feeling better.

Oohhhh, calamari!

Greetings Albert. I am no better but no worse. Were it not for the overwhelming exhaustion I would be fine. All my other symptoms match those of a head cold. Mum is the same. I made us broccoli cheese soup for dinner last night to use up some fresh broccoli I had in the fridge. It was light kitchen work and took me about 30 minutes. When it was ready I wasn't certain I'd the energy to eat it. I did and it was worth the effort but just barely. We should do laundry, Fri/Saturday is typically when laundry gets done here, yesterday we looked at each other and said we needed to do that. Uhm, didn't happen. I pulled the bedding from bed this morning with good intentions. I have a second set of bedding just in case. Best wishes to you and Steve.

Napoleon escaped ...

Yeah, sure, you'd be the role model he would look down on.

Uhm, look closely what you got is a piece of leftover chocolate Hanukkah gelt that no one else wanted. Enjoy.

Thanks, we are. When the storm finally moved out we had 5-6 inches of rain.

Repeatedly denying it doesn't negate the truth Dre🫢 ... er, uhm ... Nick.