More about our birds. . . How we came to have the parakeet is a story in itself. Mother was out in the garden hanging up the laundry one sunny day and out of nowhere a blue & white parakeet flew right down and landed on Mother's shoulder. She nibbled lovingly on Mother's ear and mother said, "Well hello there" and the bird said, "Ooooh. Hello!" And Mother said, "So, who are you?" The bird replied, "Pretty Bird!" So, she kept her name. She never flew away after finding a nice home, having no desire to try living out in the big free world ever again. We never did find out from whence she came. I would like to add about the Mexican Love Bird. . . . . .that after cursing out the preacher and telling him to "Go to Hell!", and saying things like "Well, -uck a duck!", our love bird never said any of the really foul swear words ever again. Mother said it must have just been a cleansing thing for her, but I have always wondered just what Mother did to make her "repent" and come clean.??? And as for our parakeet, Pretty Bird? After her jello bath, she began saying, "Oooooh, Pretty Bird. Pretty Bird is a dirty bird!" We kids got so much fun out of her. She loved Orange Jell-O, not just for bathing but for eating it as well. She especially loved it when mother made it into a salad by adding grated carrots and chopped walnuts. Yum yum! She would walk across the table and sample everything. If she found something she particularly didn't like, she would make a mess of it and have a fit! So afterward she had to kept up during meals. She would fuss and squawk at us from her cage, demanding to be loosed at once! As you said, covering her cage was helpful in quieting her down. She would then say, "Good night Pretty Bird!" which would then of course, set us all into a round of giggles. ~Annie

Justgottabe, the ornaments are wonderful. They would be simply beautiful on their own, but the meaning behind them makes them extraordinary. Priceless treasures. I don't have a lot of the ornaments my mom, grandmother and to some degree my sister and I made when I was young, and the beaded felt tree skirts haven't held up as well, but I treasure what we do have. I am still knitting -- might still be knitting after Christmas, but as long as I have these hats done beofre the boys go back to school, I will be satisfied and I know the boys will be fine with that. They got the matching scarves last year and know these are coming (I can't bring myself to pull out wool and start knitting when it's over 85 degrees outside -- and that wasn't that long ago). I did make a pair of baby alpaca cowls and make do some mitts to go with one. Started a crocheted hat too. We have all the kitchen goodies packed up and will mail 3 packages this weekend or Monday and then distribute the rest next week. Made 16 tins of peanut brittle on top of the ther goodies and will make stroopwaffels Sunday or Monday (have to wait for a front to pass through and the weather to improve for the caramel to behave). Jen -- ETA that I think your scarves look great and they will love them. The yarn for the guy is a great choice. I know what a hard time I had finding something I liked for my sons.

Twenty-five to thirty years ago, in SoCal, TJ's would definitely save one money over Ralph, Vons, etc. on certain items. By far the best prices on frozen fish (and better quality -- but I am not comparing to buying fresh at the docks, mind!), dried fruit/nuts, wines, cheese, chicken sausage (a rarity then), jarred condiments, cookies and chocolates and crackers. I adored the Crystal Geyser brand pink lemonade and key lime drinks (never seen anywhere else but no longer made, sadly -- I would even pack several bottles in my luggage when returning from a visit after I moved to the Midwest). At that time their baked goods were good but not awesome and a more limited selection, but increasing steadily. There were many things that I would put in the junk category, like the European cookies and chocolate, that they carried that just weren't available in mainstream stores and were also less expensive than the standard US brands. Those were my indulgences! I had to drive about 10 miles to get to one, so it was always a planned trip to stock up. I was so excited when TJ's opened here about 8 years after we had left SoCal. But, the price differential really is not so great anymore -- in fact the big local chains are highly competitive -- many of the once unique items can be found in many stores. Many of my favorite items were gone (I learned that the west coast and east coast stores have some differences) and I find the fruits/veggies actually more costly so I don't buy there. I drop in every 3 months or less now, or maybe a quick stop if I go past and am craving their tart d'Alsace. We do have a tradition of buying a selection of their frozen appetizers/munchies for our Christmas tree decorating.... mini quiches, mini samosas, that sort of thing, and usually find them quite tasty. Yep, Aldi far from upscale here either, and I buy my haricots verts and organic greens there (same product, different package) for less than at TJs.

Years ago I did a family reunion cookout for 100. I did BBQ chicken. I bought whole chickens and broke them down into 10 pieces, leg, thigh, wing minus the tip, breast split 1/4's. I marinated the chicken in a salt and sugar brine with some garlic overnight then baked it in a 350 oven until cooked, cooled and froze it. Two days before the party the chicken was moved the the fridge to thaw. We set a 4' by 8' cooking pit about 12" deep, filled it with charcoal and topped it with a stainless steel screen. The chicken was reheated in two batches on the pit grill. We basted it with a thin BBQ sauce using a food mop. We made the sauce from scratch using ketchup, melted butter, garlic, liquid smoke, paprika, balsamic vinegar, worcestershire, hot sauce, dry mustard and black pepper. Don't ask me for a recipe for this, we winged it. I was lucky to remember to write down the ingredients. My cousins helped make the sauce and I believe there was a copious amount of spiritual fermenti involved. LOL The point is if you plan ahead, BBQ chicken for a crowd can be fairly easy. in our case, the pit itself was an attraction which kept me from being isolated from the party.