What's your preference?

Just curious....do you prefer shopping at stores where you can feel, touch, smell, and return!  Or, do you prefer ordering online, where you can sit in your chair, eating popcorn, drinking wine, in your pj's?  Of course, people wear their pj's everywhere now, so I guess that part doesn't matter!

Cindy Bee

Thanskgiving on the Rocks or Epic Persimmon Pudding fail!

My Sister was going to start a blog called "Why I Drink Wine." 

 I think it's a great idea. 

 I could do guest posts now and then!  

On Wednesday evening my plan was to make persimmon pudding, apple pie, and do some blogging and blog hopping.  

But this happened instead...

 Which took over an hour to clean up, and I'm still finding glass.

This is what a baking pan full of cooked persimmon pudding looks like, when it is set on the stove top, and explodes. Yes, it literally exploded.  The stove top was probably hot.  I actually just moved the pudding from the left burner to the right one when it went BOOM! Luckily, I did not get hurt.  But the persimmon pudding was ruined, and the second batch that was started, had to be started over, since glass flew everywhere.  And I do mean EVERYWHERE!

And this ain't no box mix people.  Recipe here.

 I was not happy.  As a matter of fact, when Mom called to tease me about it, I told her it's too early to be teasing me.  She heard about it through my sister, who heard about it through me.  News travels fast in this family.

And actually, Mom and Dad bought the persimmon pulp for me a couple of weeks ago.  And they bought extra this year because Dad wanted me to make him one all for himself!

Mom then offered to come over and help me clean it up.  I declined, but thanked her.

In times like this it's best I be alone!

I tend to talk a lot, to myself, during times like this, and I probably wouldn't want anyone to hear me!  Oh come on, don't pretend you don't do that now and again!

 And the reason I use my stove top for a counter top is because I have been living (for too long) in a room with one foot of counter space.  My advice is two fold.
1)  Do not  use your stove top for a counter top
2) Do not agree to move into one room in a basement while your husband builds a house.  Because your one room will probably only have one foot of counter top.

 I did get the persimmon pudding re-made, in two smaller pans, that are not glass.  I decided if there was enough left, I'd give one to Dad.  (I also made a spare blackberry pie, that I left in the car, just in case there wasn't enough dessert.)  

 At this point it was late.  So I sat down to watch repeats of Friends while I sipped on some Bailey's Irish Creme, on the rocks mind you!

Thanksgiving Day we went to my Sister and her husband's house.  We got there early because my Shug brings wood and he always starts a fire in their fireplace. 

My niece came downstairs, because "her Mother said so," and she started snacking on some mac and cheese.....

ewwwww

Yep, it's a hair!  I know.  What would Martha say?  What will Mother say!

I will probably get in trouble for even posting this picture!

I did not eat any mac and cheese, nor did I make it, but for those that did eat some, and if you read my blog....

what you didn't know, didn't kill you right?

So, I say...."Hand me that bottle of wine kid!"  

And I had wine....not on the rocks.

Now do not get the wrong idea.  I was not getting drunk on either occasion.

Have you ever seen the Ellen video when Gladys says, "I love the Lord but I drink a little!"

Yup....you can call me Gladys if'n you want!

This is my Sister's MIL, and our Mom.

and Dad, My Shug, Emily, and My Brother relaxing before dinner.

  While my Sister's Shug cut the turkey.

 

Now here I am with no pictures of the beautiful table setting.  And it was beautiful. 

We all ate, and then,

we played the kleenex box game!

I keep threatening to take Pinterest away from my sister.

You take a kleenex box,

put ping pong balls inside it,

belt it to your backside,

then you jump around and bend backwards and do whatever jig you can do to get the ping pong balls to fall out of the kleenex box.  

Yes, I'm serious.

And yes, this was AFTER we ate Thanksgiving dinner.

What in thee hell....

Who comes up with this stuff?

 And I seriously just had a conversation with my crochet group the other day about why I don't jump around anymore.

 I said, "I'd poke my eye out!"

 And "K" said, "She'd knock herself out!"  LOLOL!

(notice I did not put pics of myself on here!)

This pixie of a kid won.  Of course, she could have done a back bend if she wanted to.

I'd suffocate myself doing a back bend, but that'd be after I broke my back, or passed out!

 Now crafts are a different story!

I brought the stuff to make some Christmas decorations. 

 My sister found one of the craft ideas, and I found another one.

 And I think those that participated enjoyed it.  No jumping required!

 Cute huh?

 

 We then all gathered for dessert....

 and to wish Lorri a Happy Birthday!!!!

 During which time Mom and Andrew struck up a conversation about what Mom wanted for Christmas.  Now, Andrew is 29 and Mom is 80.  Andrew drew her name.  I happened to be standing nearby and heard him ask her if  she wanted to go sky diving with him for a Christmas present!  And she was seriously giving it some thought! I know!

What in thee hell again!

I said, "No, please, you will break something." When others asked what we were talking about, the conversation then turned to that Bush guy that did it at 95.  Whatev!  He probably had Dr.'s standing by!!!

I came home and hung up my Christmas tree,

 put my salt shaker next to my sugar shaker from a couple of years ago....

 put my pumpkin away that I made a couple of weeks ago,

 and called it a night!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day....on the rocks!

Cindy Bee

Style Show in Nashville, IN

I have some family shopping trip fun to post about, but first I have already downloaded these style show pics that Mom, my Cousin Vickie, and I went to a couple of weeks ago.  Remember when My Shug and I went to Nashville, IN (Brown County).  I think I mentioned something about Mulberry Cottage having a style show.  Well, us three decided to go.  We took off on Friday afternoon and stopped at the Brown County winery first.  We already planned to have wine, cheese and crackers by the fire in the lodge room, at the Abe Martin Lodge, after the style show.

We checked in to the Abe Martin Lodge, which is in the Brown county state park.
Then we went to this golf course, which is about a mile down the road.  In the club house of the golf course was the style show.  

And they have condos on this golf course.....which look pretty nice!

Silly me did not get pictures of all of the clothes for sale inside the lodge.  If you own a dress shop, this was one heck of a way to make a bunch of money.  The doors opened two hours before the style show.  And they had racks and racks of clothes for sale.  You could shop before the style show, and the deal was Buy one, get the second one half price!
Everyone got a goodie bag when they walked in and inside were snacks and bottled water.  They were also an admission charge.  $5.00 for tickets in advance, and $10.00 at the door.  I'm guessing there were 250 people there!
Here are some of the clothes......

I don't know if you've seen all of the "slips" with lace and ruffles for sale, but this store has a lot of them.  Seems to be the new thing in clothes right now.

The narrator of the style show showed us how to use them.  You can wear them under sweaters and sweatshirts to turn them into dresses or dressy long sweaters.  I've been layering clothes ever since peri-menopause (ummm.... hot flashes) started!    So I loved these clothes.

And the one thing I loved more than anything is they have clothes for every age....

and every size....

from small, medium, large, and extra large......

to 1X, 2X, and 3X.

As I explained to my sister this weekend shopping, I am not a petite girl!

We were told to add different colors of slips to the sweaters.....See this one for an example.

or stay with the same color and use a lot of different texture.

Check out the back of this sweater.

Oh, and I couldn't be more exited.  Fringe is IN!

After the style show, we shopped a little bit more.  Then we went downtown Nashville to the Mulberry Cottage. 

It was after 8:00 pm, and all of the stores close around 5:00 or 6:00 pm in Nasvhille, but on this evening, the Mulberry cottage stayed open for us to shop longer.  They also had food for us...chicken salad croissants, meatballs, little cheesecakes....you get the idea.

I liked this vest on Mom but she wasn't sure.  The red sweater she has on is really thick.  It would have been cute with something thin underneath.  Vickie ended up buying it with some layers of black ruffles and it looks great.

After shopping a while, we went back to the lodge and had our wine and cheese and crackers, just as planned!

The next day we decided to do some shopping in Nashville.  If you missed my post on Nashville, Indiana, click here.
I was still in the "style" mode and bought a hat.  It has an adorbs flower in the back.

We shopped the better part of the day, then headed home.

 

It was a great weekend.

Cindy Bee

PS.  Fun story.  Mom was trying on a poncho at a store and decided she wanted it.  It was a small botique'.  When she checked out, she saw another poncho on a mannequin behind the counter.  She asked the sales lady/owner how much that one was, as she would like to trade it for the one she was purchasing.  She liked it better.  The lady said, "well, it has a snag or a hole in it somewhere, so I can give it to you....."  Mom was waiting for her to say, "For how much...." and the lady stopped.  She was giving the poncho to Mom!  So Mom got two ponchos for the price of one.  They are really cute too.  Mom is known for having good luck, so this goes right along with her luck.