I've made Ann T's cream cheese danish a couple of times, it's easy to substitute an artificial sweetener in the cream cheese filling for my diabetic father I always make her Cream Cheese Brandied Cherry Balls for Amanda and lots of fudge, but the thing that everyone likes the best is the maple butter twist, kind of like a cinnamon roll, but twisted into a wreath. Everyone loves it. Sometimes I drizzle it with maple glaze or a white glaze and decorate with cherries. Sometimes not, depending on my mood but everyone loves them. Maple Butter Twists INGREDIENTS 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast 1/4 cup warm water (110° to 115°) 1/2 cup warm milk (110° to 115°) 1/4 cup butter, melted 2 eggs, beaten 3 tablespoons sugar 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 3-1/4 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour FILLING: 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup maple syrup 1/4 cup butter, softened 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring DIRECTIONS In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the milk, butter, eggs, sugar, salt and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Roll each portion into a 14-in. x 8-in. rectangle. Combine filling ingredients; spread over each rectangle to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Place seam side down on greased baking sheets. With a sharp knife, cut each roll in half lengthwise; carefully turn cut sides up. Loosely twist strips around each other, keeping cut sides up. Shape into a ring and pinch ends together. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until browned. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 2 coffee cakes. I put the dough into my bread machine, my big one will handle a double batch. Shaping is done by hand, and I put each one on a pretty plate. I usually get those plates at the dollar store with a Christmas theme but sometimes I get something really special and the recipient can keep that plate. Annie

I'd like to give a shot of common sense to everyone. To the ones who have to stay in the lane to try to get just one more car length before cutting over and making everyone panic stop. The ones who think a flu shot will keep them from getting sick. The ones who think they're saving money by putting things on credit cards with minimal monthly payments. The ones who think they're doing themselves good by moving every few years, refinancing to lower their payments rather than the amount paid and the coupon queens who think they're saving money by buying things they won't use and only bought it because they had a coupon. And the ones that think paying an annual fee to walk in the door of the Grab-n-Grunt is saving them money. I could go on, but I'd sure like to share that rare commodity called "common sense".

In our families we only get gifts for the kids, the adults do not exchange gifts other than things like homemade fudge or home canned jam or the kids will make something like Christmas ornaments for every one. Elery's family used to have a "white elephant" exchange, where everyone bought prank gifts or something recycled, but even then, what do you do with that stuff? Store it away to re-gift next year, I suppose. Too bad they stopped, I have one of those motion activated singing fish somewhere, sang Jingle Bells and flopped his tail, I always put it up at the office because it drove my secretary batty, LOL. I always make sure that if I give a gift that requires batteries, I get the batteries too, otherwise the kids make me crazy removing the batteries from flashlights and lanterns. (grin) Elery's birthday is just after Christmas, so I use that as an excuse to buy larger items like chain saws, chains for the tractor tires, last year it was an iPad. We don't buy a lot of gifts for each other, usually we'll agree that we want to have a bigger item and we buy that as our "gift" to each other. This year I think he's "hinting" about an Air Fryer though..... Annie

I second a gift of real ginger chews from the "Ginger People" as a stocking stuffer for all your ginger lovers out there. I got my husband a huge bag one year for Christmas. Probably too late for ordering now, but if you ever see them in a store, great products. That's the actual name of the company, Ginger People. I had to run out to find some sympathy cards and the only place they sell them in my town is either the mart marts which I was not going near, or the chain pharmacies, since we no longer have locally owned ones in business. Just as a side note, Rite Aid had a marvelous selection of gifts and Christmas decorations. Nicer than any of the big boxes in town. Some nice toys and books and activity books, specialty magazines, ornaments, etc. We really dialed down Christmas shopping this year due to financial austerity, but if you are looking for some last minute stocking stuffers, that was a surprisingly nice place to go. Lots of interesting toiletry products too. My husband has very little sense of smell so I don't get him fancy nice scented things, but they had some cool body washes and scented soaps and aftershaves. Natural products. My one suggestion of a last minute gift that I always loved getting as a kid were the candy Lifesaver "books" of assorted flavors of rolls. They now have activity pages too. I just loved the glamor of having so many types of Lifesaver candy. It combined my two loves, books and candy!