Yay!!!! Cindeea and Marcia both back, hip, hip hurray! (((Hugs))) from SE Fla! And MsMarion, I owe you a big debt of gratitude! I read your post last night. Hauled out the recipe box and started reading from back to front. (My "box" being filed in chronological vs. any rational filing method.) It was a trip down memory lane. There were recipes from people I've totally forgotten, (college friends, coworkers over the years), some of my mom's recipes that I'd obviously copied in a hurry, with the additional notation in a different color, triple underlined with an exclamation point...probably when I made something that failed, called Mom, and and she told me what was missing. There were notes from canning: "Takes ALL DAY!" My favorite was "Yielded 24 quarts, but 7 were JUST JUICE!!!!!" I found the one and only recipe from my paternal Grandmother for Shrimp Salad. I'm calling Aunt Pearl tomorrow to see if she has Grandma's recipe box. And the surprise ending came at the end of my travels through the chronological recipe box. A girlfriend I've known for many years invited me to a Christmas Party on Saturday. She specially requested that I make my Chocolate Bourban Cake again, because everyone loved it. Her last party was three years ago. I responded back that I would look for the recipe, but only remembered that I made it because someone had left a pint of Jack Daniels at our annual Thanksgiving doo, but I'd be happy to bring another dessert. Aiming to please Judy, I looked through my most likely cookbooks, googled the recipe and nothing looked like the cake I remembered making. The last recipe in the box was (drumroll) The Chocolate Bourban Cake Recipe!!! And by gosh it looks like there is still 1/2 cup of that original pint of Jack Daniels in my little liquour cabinet. I'm tickled positively pink. Here's Grandma's Shrimp Salad, verbatim from the recipe card... 1 pkg spiral spagetti celery, chopped - green olives, sliced shrimp 6 eggs Dressing - 1 cup mayo, 1 cup catsup (Brooks Tangy best) It sounds horrible, doesn't it? If memory serves, (pretty sure it does) that salad was wonderful. Ya'all know to hardboil and chop those eggs, right? Grandma used canned shrimp. Isn't it grand that we don't have to use canned shrimp? Cindee, I'm gonna make those cookies, thanks so much for sharing! If anyone's interested in the Chocolate Bourban Cake recipe, I'm happy to share. Ingredients list isn't long but the method is. My only sad moment was seeing Mom's recipe for Rhubarb Custard Pie. Yum! We had a patch of Rhubarb... Thank you, thank you msmarion. Are you going to make it easy on us, or do we have to google the marshmello recipe?

We've decided to do brisket like Carrie is doing. Its better cooked a day or so ahead of time, so I can do it in advance. I'll be cooking it the Kosher way instead of BBQ or smoking it. I'll do some kind of chicken for those in the family who don't like brisket. (Can you imagine Texans not liking brisket???) I'll probably do chicken in some TexMex fashion, cuz that's just the kind of people we are! :) Hopefully I'll figure out something that can be made ahead of time. We'll have a chocolate bread pudding for dessert. The sides (except for salad) will be farmed out. We decided to save the mashtini bar for a less "formal" family get together, like a game night or someone's birthday. Thanks for the suggestions to get my brain to function. Now I'll have time to set a really nice table and get the house clean and still relax about getting the meal on the table!

I don't think of myself as a collector, except for art, but after reading the responses here, I guess I am somewhat. I have collections of: * Art: I majored in art & design in college and love them both with a passion! I don't collect for an investment, and it doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to make me happy to look at. My art is displayed everywhere in our home . . . even in the bathrooms and laundry room! * Cottageware pieces from England and Occupied Japan. I inherited a small collection from my grandmother. She kept it in our kitchen's bay window at our summerhouse when I was a kid. It brings back such happy memories and I've been able to add a number of special pieces to it over the years. I keep it displayed in a glass-fronted cab in my kitchen and use it often. * Crosses: I have 60 now and each is very special to me. I'm pretty picky about the ones I buy these days. They have to be very unique. I have a nice display of some of them in our hall. The rest are throughout the house and gardens. DH says that it looks like we have a serious vampire problem in the district (LOL), but he enjoys them, too. My prize cross is actually one of my few crucifixes. It's French repousse, made for royalty or someone very high up in the Church (parts are covered in scarlet velvet) in the 1700's and it's exquisite * Dishes . . . thanks to all the enablers here on this forum (LOL)!!! * Newspapers from very significant dates/events * Santos: I live in New Mexico and fell hard for these beautiful saint and angel statues when I moved here 27 yeas ago. I display them throughout our home. * Bird statues, especially toucans. I don't collect any cute ones, just mainly realistic ones. I don't group them anywhere, although I do have a number of them in our master bathroom, which is done with a Coastal Mexican feel. * Christmas books: mainly children's but I do have some others as well. I have several antique ones from the 1800's, "The Complete Works by Charles Dickens" from 1868 and another by Washington Irving (Old Christmas) that are especially nice. Eleven months of the year, they're stored in a trunk. During the Christmas Season, I display them in a bookcase in our dining room, with a few in our living room. * I also have smallish collections of snow people and Santas, although I don't add to either any more. I ran out of storage room and enthusiasm with those. I display what I have mainly above the cabs in our laundry room at Christmastime. So there it is . . . I guess I have a few collections, but still don't consider myself a real collector, because I'm not out there on the constant hunt for anything anymore. I've run out of room, so anything I buy/keep these days has to be VERY special and unique. Lynn

My three are all full fledge adults. Doesn't change what they get. #1 an ornament--DH makes them now. #2 a crafty thing we can all do as we eat brunch before opening gifts, lego kits are most common. #3 candy- #4 something something; this year an assortment of spatulas DH's company made and the customer pulled out and left a palate. #5 whatever I collect over the year that I find they might find fun, different for each. It's a lot less stress to have a formula/tradition I have found. Happy St. Nicholas Day btw--many of what used to get put in their shoes now shows up in the Christmas stockings.