My Christmas Novel Pick This Year

   Although I have read fiction books written by male authors I tend to read primarily female authors. When I bought this year's fiction Christmas book I assumed the author was a woman. The author's name is T. Davis Bunn. That is how the name appears on the book jacket. T. Davis Bunn is a prolific male author. Who knew? Having written under the pen name Thomas Locke, I am guessing the T. may be for Thomas.... and not say... Tamara, Tracy, Tina or Teresa...... :-)  I believe he is now writing simply under, Davis Bunn. He has apparently written a number of historical fiction and legal thriller books. I am not so over the top for a "thriller" but I do enjoy legally plotted fiction and historical fiction. While this book takes place in current time, it revolves around the ending of World War II in, England. Those of you that know me know WWII from the British, particularly English, side is a topic of great interest to me.

   My pick this year for favorite Christmas fiction story is not a novella but a full length novel. I highly recommend this treasure and waiting for Christmas to read it is not necessary. The story revolves around a current Christmas and a Christmas gone by decades ago while hope, joy, giving of ourselves to others and love are at the heart of this story. The true meaning of Christmas is portrayed in this well written story but it could be enjoyed anytime. My pick this year is Tidings of Comfort & Joy, by T. Davis Bunn.

   Charles Dickens once said, "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." Giving gifts, appreciating and fellowshipping with and loving family and friends, looking back on good memories and blessings, having hope and great expectations for the future, singing songs of joy, even eating and enjoying the abundance we so easily take for granted are all a part of Christmas, and the Christmas season. While we may not experience those wonderful things in such a way throughout the year, we can experience the constant, unconditional and endless love of God and the Savior He sent that first “Christmas” morning. We can walk in the excitement, anticipation, hope, joy and love we celebrate at Christmas everyday of the year. That great, unmatchable Gift God gave us in His Son was intended to restore to mankind everything we lost in, Adam ~ once and for all that would receive His Gift. The promises and Covenant God gave man are shown at length throughout the Old Testament where the promises are made and the New Testament where they are established. If we choose to accept this gift from God we can enjoy forgiveness and right standing with God, eternal life with Him forever, and a life here on earth full of satisfaction, abundance of health, peace, protection, provision and prosperity in all areas of our life.  When the Christmas "season" comes we will truly have something to sing about, something to proclaim!

   If you have not accepted the gift of Jesus I would be happy to talk to you about it, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email through the "Drop me a line" gadget toward the top and on the right of this blog. Accepting this Gift of Jesus will give much more meaning to Christmas for you, and will give you the peace and purpose you long for.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

Birthdays, Memories and Jesus!

   I have several grandchildren and the other day one of my grandsons called to say he hoped we were getting together for Christmas because it just would not be the same without me. How do you say HOTWIRE? Last summer I spent time with my daughter and her family. I was able to spend quality time with each of the children. At the end of my stay there my son~in~law thought it might be nice to go to the beach. Such good memories! I spent a day at the beach with this grandson. He, his sisters and I created a magical sand castle.

Our castle in the making. 

His birthday was a few weeks later. He, his mom, dad and sisters went on a Disney cruise with plenty of Caribbean sandy beach ports of call. I felt inspired to design and create this birthday card for him.

I loved creating a card that featured him framed as a piece of God's special artwork.

His birthday was the day on the cruise they were at Grand Caymen.

I love dolphins. I still have my Scholastic book on them from the Scholastic Book Club I bought in 1st or 2nd grade.

This is on my Bucket List.

He said the turtles at Grand Caymen Turtle Farm were his favorite thing. Some of them were as big as 500 pounds.

And there I was thinking the Queen of England was the only one with two grand birthday cakes with celebrations to follow.  See below at dinner.

As for the saints who are on the earth,

“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

Psalm 16:3

I made this for him when he was much younger. Given the way he celebrated his birthday perhaps an updated rendition of this card would have been more appropriate.

One of my favorite books.

   Just like birthdays of friends and family, we celebrate a very special birthday at Christmas. Christmas is when we celebrate the birthday of, Jesus. That is why it is such a wonderful time of the year. Yes, I am humming it. I am excited. Just like our earthy family and friends birthdays we are excited, we plan for this big birthday, we celebrate, have great food, a time of fellowship, have parties, give gifts, send cards, sing, and make precious and priceless memories.

   Jesus is the best gift ever and always will be. He is so precious to me and His love and being Lord of my life can never have a price tag on it, He paid it all for me. He paid it for everyone that will receive the precious gift of His love. I think of this everyday of the year, but this time of the year we celebrate it! How will you celebrate God's precious gift this year? What memories are you making with your family and friends? I would love to hear all about them. I enjoy the email I receive from readers.

Christmas Novella's

   Remember I mentioned in an earlier post that I would make the Aldi's Pumpkin Ravioli again only the next time would be for breakfast and with something other than cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them? Last Saturday morning I did just that. Breakfast was Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee and Pumpkin Ravioli with what I will call, Buttery Maple Sage Sauce. It was delicious! I had Apple Cider and just forgot it was in the fridge. It wasn't missed, but served cold would have added a nice dimension to the layers of flavor and textures that did show up for the party. I did however take the mums I had in water on the window sill that broke off while repotting them last week and place them on the table. :-)

   I do think it is a stretch to apply the "Recipe" label to this post but to tell you I put 1/2 stick of real butter, 1/4 cup of real maple syrup and 1/2 ~ 3/4 teaspoon of rubbed sage into a saucepan, melted the butter and simmered all ingredients together on medium low until foamy and began to thicken, would be the recipe for the sauce I put together to gently toss the Pumpkin Ravioli in before plating. So there it is for it's smashing debut ~ my new offering for Thanksgiving breakfast's in future. The real reason for this post however is that little corner of a book you see behind the cream and sugar; the book you will see below.

   Friday evening, as usual, I read when I went to bed. The Christmas Shoppe by Melanie Carlson was the book I was reading at the time. By the time I read to the point I had only twelve pages left to finish the book I was so sleepy my eyes were closing longer than they were staying open, and I just could not focus. I wanted to finish the book awake and alert so I left the ending for Saturday morning. When I woke up it was start the coffee, get dressed, wash face and the rest of that morning routine, pour the coffee in my mug and settle in for the enjoyment of finishing a good story.

   

This is one of two books I have won from contests Melody Carlson has run in conjunction with her Christmas novella's.

Seems silly I know, but I loved using the coordinating bookmark she sent with the book. 

   In The Christmas Shoppe we meet a number of people right in the beginning that all live in a small town called, Parrish Springs. Having lived in a small town for many years I could easily relate to those characters. There is one woman, Mathilda Honeycutt, an old and eccentric almost hippy type of woman. She is mysterious and calm, despite the fact most of the town is in an uproar over a building she purchases right downtown. She turns this building into..... you got it, The Christmas Shoppe. Through it all Melody does a great job of portraying how being courageous enough, or in some cases broken enough, to take a good and real look at things hurtful in the past we can begin to do things like forgive. In doing that we can be the patient, peaceful and victorious Christians we were meant to be. I really liked this book and do recommend it. Although everything in the the book pointed toward it, it did not have the intensity of that "Christmas" feeling the others have had because bar a few pages at the end, it takes place around Thanksgiving. I would like to have had some of the mystery surrounding Mathilda Honeycutt be removed by reading some more about who she was and what motivated her to do what she did. Be that as it may, it was a good book and I really enjoyed it. I think the elusiveness of Mathilda had its place as did the building up to Christmas. The message of love is most certainly portrayed in these pages.

An Irish Christmas is the first of Melody Carlson's Christmas novella's I read.

   This book is about decisions made, secrets kept, and seeing both sides of a situation. Melody makes no attempt to make this a mystery, she drops gentle clues all along about how a time spent 20 years ago is going to show up in the here and now. Albeit a novella, the characters are well developed, the plot is well woven and you get to travel from the eccentric time of World War II to  President Kennedy's assassination and its impact, from a town in California to a beautiful place in, Ireland. Through that time and bi~continental travel you find the true meaning of, Christmas ~ restoration. This book spoke to me on levels I may never share publicly, but suffice it to say I highly recommend this book.

Christmas at Harrington's was the first of the two I won from one of Melody Carlson's contests.

I enjoyed the using the bookmark that corresponded with this one as well.

   Christmas at Harrington's is a book about new beginnings and the patience, trust in God and humility it takes to get to the point that you can and want to put your past behind you, forgive and move forward to living life to its fullest. This is the other Christmas novella I won from a contest Melody Carlson ran in 2010. This book taught me to look past circumstances and that love needs to always be my first response, to be spirit led, not head lead. Great read, and you don't have to wait for Christmas to read it, its message is absolutely timeless.

   I become so discouraged when I see how long Halloween things are blasted all over the retail environment, particularity in comparison to how soon before and how quickly Thanksgiving gets set out and then vanishes. I would just love to go into a Black Friday discussion here and give my views on how it has stolen the celebration of Thanksgiving weekend............ oh and yes the Grey Thursday that officially began last year that has taken a chunk out of the actual one day of the year set aside to be thankful and enjoy family, but I imagine that will be addressed in few weeks right here on Honeycomb ~ stay tuned. Okay, rambling. What I was trying to get to was that I do start reading the wonderful Christmas stories every year about this time. They do not take away from Thanksgiving, they enhance the whole of that holiday.  Once we get to Thanksgiving and I have read a few good Christmas stories, I am so ready to start the wonder of Christmas. If you don't read Christmas novella's or maybe don't read much at all, I recommend these quick little reads that are so inspiring.  Try one, you have nothing to lose and they truly are quick reads. While there are books she has co~authored and one by another author entirely, here is the best list of Melody Carlson's Christmas books and novella's I could find.

   There are so many other authors out there putting out wonderful Christmas books. Two of my all time favorites are Finding Father Christmas and its sequel, Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn. Do you read Christmas fiction this time of year? I would love to hear which author's you like and about the stories you have enjoyed.

Be Blessed This Year!

   For those of us that have made Jesus the Lord of our life; we stand to inherit all of the promises of the Word if we will just receive them. For those that do not have Jesus in their life, there is absolutely no reason for you to remain poor in your spirit because if you will receive Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven is also yours. Having said that I want to wish everyone, everywhere a Blessed 2013 that is full of peace and prosperity in every area of your life!

    Christmas is such a time of excitement and wonder. That night when the angels praised God saying “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”, they were announcing the greatest gift ever given. We like to give gifts at Christmas to celebrate that amazing gift. But, soon after the gifts are opened, the food is eaten and eventually the trees and decorations come down and are all properly tucked away for next year we get geared up for the new year and the resolutions made, Valentine’s Day is all over the retail world even before New Year’s Day, vacation plans for the year are discussed, our Life Plan’s are revisited for tweaking and we transfer events to our Day Planner’s and off we go into another year. The wonder of that day is exchanged for the rote of another year. I would like to suggest here that we take the message of that day and make it our priority for the year. Write that into your Life Plan and daily into your Day Planner. Spend time with the Lord and walk in a really close and intimate relationship with Him everyday. Christmas should not be a holiday, everyday should be Christmas. Talk about Jesus like you do your children, or your dog, or your next vacation. Share Him as easily as you do those things. Give the gift that keeps on giving, Jesus.

   There is a quote of questionable origin, but I really like it. I am a “Word” girl and believe in the power of the tongue but this quote has its merit. The quote is, “Preach the Gospel, use words if necessary.” I do think words are always a powerful tool to be used, but people tend to watch what you do more than they listen to what you say. That being the case I think the best way to start to give Jesus to the world is to show love to others. In the last recorded thing we have that Jesus prayed before He was betrayed He asked God that not only His disciples walk in love and unity, but that all future believers would do the same. Can I just say Jesus was not talking about denominational quasi tolerance for each other or some of the fake fellowship that can be seen in a church? No, He was talking about the kind of oneness in the body of Christ that would be passed down through all generations, the kind of oneness that would manifest God on earth, bringing glory to God in that others through the visible love of God would believe on Jesus and make Him Lord and Savior. Here is what Jesus prayed.

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me."  John 17:20-23 (NLT) 

   The song “Go Tell it on the Mountain” has been on my heart this Christmas season. It has never been on of my favorites and I honestly do not even think of it even at Christmas. Be that as it may, God has put that tune and that song in my heart for weeks now. “Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain, our Jesus Christ is born!”

    Let’s start to be a blessing by walking in the love and perfect unity Jesus asked the Father for us to walk in so that we can give the gift of Jesus to others ~ everyday.

 Where is your mountain? Where can you tell others about Jesus?

Cookies, cards, family and friendship.

Thank you, Kim. You are a good friend and a generous one!

Those items in the picture above are gifts my dear friend Kim gave me for my birthday in September 2009. I feel awful because I am just now posting them. They are all from her heart. The Nestabilities are the only ones I own and I love them. The pad comes with them and the stamps are so beautiful, she knew I would love those. I have never seen All Creatures Great and; Small, until she sent the DVD's to me. What wonderful tales of veterinary medicine and animals in York! The card. Kim has made some very amazing cards over the years. This is my favorite. I is the most beautiful card. My favorite colors, vellum and baking too! I have it displayed in my spare bedroom with other cards she has sent me. Thank you, Kim! 


I believe the last time I made a card was July, 2009. That is SO sad! I am redefining my life right now; I am taking it back and making it what I want it to be. Card making may not be the defining point of my life, nor sadly enough it may not be a huge part of my life, but it is most definitely one of the pleasures of life as far as I am concerned. It is therapy at its finest as it provides stress relief, an outlet to create and time of quite and meditation ~ even if I have a DVD popped in. I made a this card that same weekend we tried this church. That is huge. Sad, yeah I know. It was the first card I have made I think since Kim sent me the Nestabilities, I used one of them. They are wonderful! How easy to make that circle now. Did I say, Thank you, Kim??? My daughter had a VERY trying week that week, and that was the easy part. My son~in~law and grandson experienced big time yuck that week. Card and cookie time! It is so hard as a Nana to be so far away when nastiness strikes. So, what does a Nana do? Pray. Pray and pray. Then when you have done that she stands firm on the promises she just prayed over those that need it and then she makes a card, bakes some cookies, and heads to the post office.

Loads of Love!!!!!

And how better to say that than with pink M & M's?

     I can not end this post without saying how happy I am for the Green Bay Packers win this year at SuperBowl XVL! Any of you that followed my blog back when I was faithful to write in it know they are my team.  My husband and one son~in~law are Chicago Bears fans. Another son~in~law is a Washington Redskins fan, and one of my grandson’s is a Minnesota Vikings fan. Christmas this year brought plenty of evidence of that. NFL.com made out quite well with my family this year as you will see in the picture below, and that was not all of it. The amazing thing was that as devoted as we are to our respective teams; the Christmas Spirit was also abundantly evident in how we all gave each other that which meant something to the recipient even though it was a little against our own preferred favorite team. Green Bay did win the SuperBowl and I was proud of them and delighted, but not anywhere as much as I was this past Christmas of my family, when giving from the heart is always more of a win! The blessed life.

Christmas Spirit!

Skor Cheesecake

In my post about Chocolate Christmas Mice, I promised to tell you what it was that I did with the leftover Oreo chocolate cookie. The answer lies within this box.

A few weeks before Christmas, we drew names at work for exchanging Christmas gifts. I drew a gentleman named, Lonnie. Lonnie is the comedian at the office. For instance, last week he was going through our huge green recycle container. I came around the corner with a co~worker and there he was. He is a man of about 5'6" and full of ornery energy. He looked at us over what is essentially a huge plastic green trash can on wheels and without missing a beat simply said... looking us directly in the eyes and with a straight face, "Didn't get breakfast." Lonnie loves to eat. He loves to eat good food and sweets are at the top of his list. If there is one candy that could be deemed his favorite (and there are many) it could be the Skor bar as easily as any other decedent chocolate confection. So when I drew his name for the gift exchange, I knew just what to do. Go buy a dozen (or so) Skor bars!

Here is what I did with those Skor bars.


Butter Toffee Cheesecake with Ganache

Preheat oven to 350°

Crust:
1/2 cup real butter melted (one stick)
2-1/4 cup Oreo cookie crumbs
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Filling:
12 Skor Candy Bars (and one more for nibbling)
4 8 oz. blocks cream cheese softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Ganache:
1 cup heavy cream
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (you can substitute dark chocolate for one quarter of chocolate chips)

• Set Cream Cheese out in large mixer bowl and allow to achieve room temperature and become soft.
• Butter a 9” spring form pan with real butter.
• Chop 12 Skor bars in two batches of six bars each and keep them separate.
• Twist and separate Oreo cookies. Scrape white middle off. Make crumbs out of cookies. I roll them with a rolling pin in a sturdy Ziploc bag. You can see how having one side of an Oreo cookie left over from the Christmas Mice would be useful here, so make them a day or two before the cheesecake if you are making them.

Crust:

• Melt butter.
• Stir in Oreo crumbs and sugar.
• Press into bottom and sides of buttered 9” spring form pan.
• Evenly scatter one batch of the six chopped Skor bars onto crust

Filling:

• Mix softened cream cheese in mixer until very smooth.
• Mix in sugar first and until smooth, then mix eggs one at a time beating thoroughly.
• Pour filling into crust.
• Bake at 350° degrees for 40 minutes.
• Turn oven down to 300° degrees and bake 30 minutes longer. This is a good time to rotate your cake around in the oven if your oven seems to bake hotter at one side or the other. Do not rotate at any other time.
• Let sit and set in oven for one hour.
• When cake is cool refrigerate over night, or at least 8 hours.

Finishing up:
Pop ring of spring form pan off. Leaving cake on the bottom of spring form pan, set cake on a piece of foil or your choice of waterproof device. In this next step you will be pouring your ganache topping over and you will be letting it run down the sides. It just doesn't get much better. :-)

Ganache:

• Heat heavy cream in an heavy sauce pan.
• Stir in chocolate on low heat until smooth, beating with a spoon to keep from scorching and to aid in chocolate melting.
• Pour over cheesecake (should drip off sides) spreading out to get the coverage and look you want.
• Top with 6 more chopped Skor Bars.... YAY!!!! Yumm.
• Chill for one hour.
• Now slide your cake onto whatever you will be serving it from.
• Leave at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Lonnie is a giving man and shares everything. He has co~workers over during the summer for barbeque's... that sort of man. He had been awarded the Employee of the Year award at our Christmas lunch just two weeks prior to the day I gave him his cheesecake. So, I attached a note to his box saying that he had been such a good lad all year that he did not have to share with the other children. I think he did have a piece while at work, and I heard he gave a few sample bites (not slices), but the cake basically went home that evening, never to be seen again. I also heard he asked someone if they knew what bakery Teresa bought the cheesecake at. Lonnie likes good food. That felt nice.

Here is a little art work of the fun I had putting this Christmas gift together.

Chopping.....

the rest of the chopping.

Some assembly required.

Mixing.

Getting there.

The beauty of disposable foil.

The finished cheesecake. Box and wrap it quick to avoid further temptation. By this time I had already eaten a Skor bar and licked ganache like I did not know better.

Done! Put the box in the car for morning since it is too big for the refrigerator and it is plenty cold enough outside.

Of Mice and Chocolate.

One day, a while back at my office, we had an interesting event. The woman across the hall from me is going to be married in a few weeks. She is young and beautiful and always has a sachet about her unhurried walk, and an overall reserved gentleness about herself. She is quiet, friendly and always composed. Lovely young lady. And then the interesting event of that particular day happened. We had hit our late morning lull of quiet, bar the tapping of computer keys. Amazing that. Just prior to the mass lunch time exodus, we have the most delightful forty~five minutes of peace and quiet. It seems for about forty-five minutes before the lunch time exodus, everyone becomes focused and quite productive. I personally love it because the coffee clutching and cackling subsides for a precious three quarters of an hour. Peaceful. Peaceful and thought inspiring.

And then the interesting event of that day happened. Quiet... tap,tap,tapp tapp. Quiet ... tap rapid tap, tap, tap, tap. SCREAM!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GO...okay she did not say gosh but anyway... OH MY GOSH!!!!!!! SOMETHING JUST RAN OVER MY FOOT!!!!!!!! EEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!! And may I just say the all caps here in no way truly capture the shrill and decibel level those words hit. Our demure young lady was beside herself! I personally would have been beside myself AND up on the desk.

All productivity comes to an anxious halt and people came bolting out of their office doors to see what could possibly be the matter. This reserved and quiet woman looked as if she might go into cardiac arrest with her red face and gasping mouth. She was shaky and it goes without saying beyond upset. A mouse had run across her foot! I had to agree with her.... what horror!

So the event gets even curiouser. As the rest of us began to assess where might be the best spot to place a mouse trap, we discovered the most interesting thing. Behind a somewhat large planter in the corner there were gold bits of foil crumbled in a semi neat pile of about an inch high and perhaps four inches in diameter. We immediately recognized these to be the gold foil wrapping of holiday Hershey kisses. We looked at the bowl on the far corner (diagonally on the other far side of her office) of her desk only to find three Hershey Kisses partially eaten, leaving suspiciously small teeth marks. Other than that the bowl was empty. This woman had been accusing her friend (and supervisor) that is down the hall and on a diet, of eating the missing Kisses. This woman had denied it all along. It was mice. Were they dropping them from the desk and scurrying over with them in tow to enjoy behind the planter? I had visions of Ratatouille going through my head. You remember? When they were foraging for food at Gusteau's restaurant. At any rate I was certain we were dealing with more than one mouse. I rather figured it was more like a little army of them.

Like this maybe.

I had been meaning to put these pictures on my blog at Christmas but never got around to it. Upon returning to my office, though wary of where I stepped, I had to chuckle to myself as I remembered these cute little treats I made at Christmas for my grand daughter's school Christmas party. Perhaps you noticed these precious little mice are made out of....... Hershey Kisses! :-) I saw these on Kim's blog a couple of years ago, just never had a reason to make them. They were a big hit at the school party. It is so easy to seem like such a great Nana. I love that. Anyway, the woman that had been accused of eating the Hershey's Kisses thought I might want to make these adorable little mice for our co~workers wedding reception, only alter the colors used. I thought it might be fun. The fussy bride to be however said I "should never make them again." Geez........

Here is how you can (and I) can make them using Hershey Kisses, sliced almonds Maraschino cherries, Oreo cookies, some icing gel and chocolate chips.

When I made them I ended up having only one mouse pad per cookie. In my next post I will show you where the extra chocolate Oreo cookie from each Oreo went.