I'm sorry to hear all that Azzalea. I hope things are getting better. We had a beautiful day here. I slept in until 8 (although Gary was up early as usual), then I made brownies (which I decorated with pink and yellow easter eggs (designed in decorator frosting) and jelly beans plus mixed up my corn casserole to take for dinner at my sister in law's house. Then we walked to Easter Services at a small church just a block from home. We enjoyed the church and the services tremendously and plan to go back this coming Sunday. I don't know why we've never stopped in there before, during the 10 months we've lived here. There are two of these little churches near us. This one only one block and the other only two blocks from our home. After that, it was time to take the dogs on a nice long walk (did I mention it was a warm sunny day) and then pack up to go for dinner, which was at 3 pm. Although most of the yards here in town are still under several inches of snow, we did walk by one yard where crocus were blooming up by the front door. What a pretty sign of spring! We stopped at Walmart on the way, wanting to pick up an Easter Lily for Gary's mom, but the few they had left were pretty sad looking so we ended up with a pot of tulips instead. Just one pretty red tulip was opened and there were a dozen buds so they will last her a while, then she can plant them in the yard. We stopped by her house for a few minutes and then went on to his sister's for dinner. Spent a couple of enjoyable hours there, then stopped back at his mom's again to check on the sump pump in the basement. The hose had come unhooked so the pump was working but no water flowing and there was a foot of water standing down there. This is an old house with a primitive basement and it's like that every spring, so nothing new there. Gary was able to wade in and get it going ok. After that, we drove around for a while 'out in the bush' as Gary calls it. Just enjoying seeing the snow and the ice on Lake Superior melt. There's not much growing out there yet, but we saw a few deer and the birch and aspen trees are lovely (even bare) with all that pretty white bark. Then it was home for another walk with the puppies and a couple of hours of tv before bedtime. All in all a lovely day!

The last few years, because I was sewing quilts until the last minute, I didn't send out any cards! This year, I already got 95% of the cards sent out. Even if I still try to squeeze in some last minute home made gifts, the cards are done and out the door! This year, we are going to the in laws' house for Christmas, so I don't have to do any out of the ordinary house cleaning or decorating. I have yet to wrap any gifts. My parents will have a party this weekend, for those who have to be somewhere else on Christmas. Have to get those gifts wrapped, so I can take them over to the house. Then there are the gifts for relatives who live far away. I am having some gifts sent directly from the online store to the recipient, with gift wrapping. I type a message and it will appear in the card. That is a huge time saver, and perfect for relatives that don't appreciate hand made stuff. I got my hubby some puncture resistant garden gloves that can withstand thorns, for brush clearing at our house. I got a pair for myself, so we can work together. But I also want to get him a CD--Dave Brubeck made a recording in the early 90's--he wrote the music from the Snoopy cartoons that are on TV this time of year. I'm ordered that just now, while I am still online, because hubby has some vacation days coming up, and it'll be hard to get it out of the mailbox and into hiding before he discovers the package. LOL We usually walk to the mailbox together! I am also fixing the zipper on an ancient down parka that hubby wears in the garage during the cold months. The zipper broke and he was wearing it anyway. That has been a real labor of love, since the poor thing is so beaten up I decided that it would be a shame to pay real cash money for the tailor to fix it. I had to hand baste, in order to get all the layers back again, and the zipper where I wanted it. I got so tired one night that I had to stop. It was late, and I was up in front of the sewing machine. I had just sewed a huge fold into the front. I have that ripped out and now I just have to run it through the machine a few more times. But I also will go to the sit & stitch at the LQS today. I need some time to sit with my buddies, and work on my hand applique project--four whig rose blocks sashed with flying geese. That one will look nice on our bed. I am half done with one whig rose block. Gotta run! MaryLiz

Pretty much finished decorating. I still have a little to do in the kitchen. I've had an ongoing project with remodeling the bathroom, master bedroom and walk-in closet. Everything is almost done.....need some shelves put in a decorative unit in the bathroom, hang some art work that hasn't come yet and am waiting for plantation shutters to be installed. Today I had the window treatments installed in the bedroom, the dust ruffle put on the bed and am waiting for a table skirt to be delivered. I have 16 people coming tomorrow night for cocktails so that keeps me moving. Should be all done decorating tonight and then after tomorrow night I will get busy with mailing gifts and cards. I didn't put up my table top tree which is bigger than I would like. Instead I bought a real 3 - 4 ft tree and decorated that last night. It smells good in here. Also decided not to put up the garland on the stairs this year. Looks fine without it. I use to put up five trees but am becoming a real Scrooge. Too much work!

Maire Cate, I lied! It was The Kitchn, NOT the Test Kitchen recipe! I've used so many recipes for turkey from the Test Kitchen (am a subscriber to the site now and to Cooks Illustrated for years prior) that I automatically wrote test kitchen, sorry!! The recipe I used is linked below, it is both easier and tastier than the test kitchen methods I have used (brining, roasting on a bed of veggies, roasting for just a few hours, etc.) The Kitchn method is absolutely the easiest one I have ever used, and one of the best, if not the best. I had a fresh turkey of almost 15 pounds for ten meat eaters. It was rinsed inside and out, giblets and neck removed from cavity (the former in a bag, thankfully), and dried, then sprinkled all over with salt and coarse ground pepper. No stuffing was put in the turkey. The oven was preheated to 450. I poured two cups of Swanson's chicken broth in the bottom of a roasting pan with deep ridges on the bottom and set the turkey in breast up. I untied the legs per instructions. The bird went in the oven on the next to lowest rack setting and temp immediately turned down to 350 degrees. After an hour I basted it with the juices and tented the breast, which was already a beautiful golden brown. You are supposed to take the turkey out and close the oven door when basting, so I did that and basted it two more times about an hour apart. The turkey was ready after 16 min. per pound, I was timing it but there was also a pop up timer in the bird as well, and I used a meat thermometer to make sure it was done. I took the bird out and it rested for nearly an hour while the sides heated up and we had our first course. My SIL's husband (she is my brother's widow) carved and the meat--- every bit of it---- was moist and flavorful and delicious! Best of all, the pan drippings made fabulous gravy, which I made by combining unsalted butter and flour in a large, straight-sided skillet into a roux that I browned a bit instead of leaving white. I used it to thicken the pan juices (which already included broth) by adding the broth to the skillet. I had about three cups of broth/drippings, which contained rendered fat, so I made more roux than I would have for liquid without fats. After thickening the gravy I added about four ounces of half and half and two of those small containers of Knorr concentrated, home style chicken broth. They are about 2" x 1.5" and come in a four pack. This method has to be tweaked on site for the amount of fat in the drippings but makes absolutely delicious gravy. The meal WAS wildly successful, thank heavens, and we did not have a lot of turkey leftover as our young men (ages 13, 16, 22, and 25) ate like there was no tomorrow :-). But there will be enough leftovers for HK to make a turkey pie or two for the coming week, unless we eat it all in open faced sandwiches with that fabulous gravy before the day is out! Here is a link that might be useful: The Kitchn recipe for easy and delicious turkey