A Bit of Chat and a Recipe

I had hoped to have pictures of my Christmas decorated living room to show you. I really do love the way it looks, but we have been so darned busy this last week that I didn't get Dick to take pictures. We were also gone Sunday and Sunday night and things have just been too hectic. I am hoping I will have them to show you next week.

I am still working on the baking for all of our children. I only have to send two boxes out this year as we went to our oldest, Nancy's this last weekend and took hers with us. We are having Christmas with Sue and Nikki so won't have to mail theirs.

Nancy's son, Chris, is getting married and all of his fiance's attendants gave her the most incredible wedding shower I have ever been to. The brides mother lives in a complex that has an extremely comfortable club house and that is where they had it. It was decorated so beautifully and I just can't believe all the wonderful presents she got. There were about 50 young women there and I must say, it was very successful. They served the food on the nicest square white plastic plates that I have ever seen. They looked so much like china. I just had to ask where they got them and was told it was at a place called "Party Place." Afterward, they just threw them all away, which made for a very easy cleanup but a very frustrated Grandma. I would have loved to go dumpster digging and gotten them all out to take home and wash. They were just so much nicer than eating on paper plates, no matter how substantial the paper plates are. This old Grandma just can't stand to waste anything (my generation, I think) and I kept thinking how nice they would be for our NYNY party. We have about 28 people over every New Years Eve to what we call our New York New Years Eve party. This is about out 9th year and the same ones come each year. The invitation is for life or until someone moves away, which hasn't happened yet. We barely have room in our living room for a sit down dinner. This year we are going to have to take our coffee table out so we can set up another card table, unless someone can't come for some reason. It is a pot luck, and every year we all bring the very same thing, so our menu doesn't change from year to year, but everything is just so good that we wouldn't want it to be any different. It is so much fun. It starts at 6:00 p.m. and lasts until 9:00 p.m. when we turn the TV on and watch the ball come down in Times Square, hence the name, NYNY Eve. Everyone goes home at 9:00. None of our gang wants to be up until midnight, so this is great for us.

We just had a new couple move into our ward, and they are such fun people. Their names are Jim and Sue Pike. Jim was the one that started the group "The Lettermen". I always loved listening to them and have most of their old albums. After the years spent on the road in the 60's and 70's, Jim suddenly lost his voice, so he sold the name to one of the guys in the group. After about ten years, his voice came back, so he started another group and called it "The Reunion." Sue teaches one of our Relief Society lessons and last week at the end of her lesson, she gave us all one of the Reunions CD's. This one is called "I Believe" and starts with that song. It is so neat and I have been playing it all week. We even took it with us to play on the way to Huntington Beach and Irvine. This music has been going around in my head ever since. They are all sort of religious type songs. They sit with us on our bench at church so we have become pretty well acquainted. They are doing a concert in Escondido in February at at the Performing Arts Center there and I think maybe we will go. They are doing one at the big Hotels here next month, but I doubt we will be attending because it is for a big benefit and Sue said it is really pricey.

I've pretty much run down but of course now you have to have another of my prize cookie recipes. This cookie is such a good one too and is quite different but very easy to make.

Darlene's Cereal Cookies:

1 cup margarine
1 cup oil
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup corn flakes
1 cup rice crispies

Mix in order given. Cream margarine and oil with sugars until fluffy, add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add salt and flour and mix. Crush by hand the corn flakes and rice crispies and add along with the oatmeal. Stir well and add 1 cup of nuts if you like. Mix and make into balls. Press with fork and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

And that, my friends is it for tonight.