The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Happy Back-to-School Day!!!

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved going back to school: picking out my favorite outfit to wear, seeing my friends again, toting a brand-new lunchbox with a PBJ and a Hostess Ho Ho, wearing new leather shoes, meeting my new teachers, and seeing which boys had grown taller and more handsome over the summer.

Now that I'm a mother, the first day of school has morphed into my all-time favorite holiday of the year! The above video accurately reflects the states of mind in our house as I excitedly prepared the kids for school and they looked at me glumly and asked why they had to return to that horrid place.

Here in Dallas, yesterday was the first day of school, and I've enjoyed seeing all the Facebook photos of my friends' kids all dressed up, brandishing their backpacks and ready to face a new year of classes. It's fun to see how all our kids are growing and changing, getting a little bit older and a little bit more jaded every year. Even though my own kids complained, I of course took their obligatory pictures in our front yard as well. It's a family tradition! I remember my mom took our pictures on our first days of school so many years ago, and it's fun now to look back at them and see the feathered hair, big jewelry and "cool" outfits we sported so many years ago.

The temperature here in Dallas this August is still well over 100 degrees every day (we're now enduring the second-hottest summer in recorded history), but band kids and high school football players have been marching and practicing for weeks already in the heat. And even though the thermometer doesn't say it's fall, it's nonetheless time to head back to school.

Although I may groan at the cost of binders and notebooks, I consider the small fortune I've spent on school supplies a fair price to pay for 6.92 hours of peaceful bliss every school day for the next nine months. With all my kids now safely at school, I can finally hear myself think for the first time in three months. You know those new kindergarten moms crying on the first day of school? I was practically crying tears of joy as I did my happy dance!

So while Back-to-School Day may not be an official holiday, to me it's the best one of all. Best wishes to all the parents, kids and teachers as they embark on another journey of learning.

And then start the party!!!

Easy as Pie

Happy Independence Day!

One of the happiest holidays in the United States of America is the Fourth of July, and it's one of my favorites because of its cheerful color scheme and because I hardly have to do anything! Unlike Christmas, I don't have to "shop till I drop," and it's one of the few holidays where the kids don't get candy! (Thank goodness!)

For Independence Day, I made a pretty cookie pizza with strawberries and blueberries. It was so cute, and tasty too! You can find the easy recipe at Pillsbury.com.

This Fourth of July, I finally got my husband to install a flag holder, and I was pleased to hang our Stars and Stripes out front.



We made pretty little cupcakes for all the kids we had over before we all drove to watch the nearest fireworks a couple of miles away.



We all had a wonderful time watching the airshow with old World War II-era warplanes; the fireworks in sparkling sprays of silver, blue and red; and the children playing on their scooters and running on the grass with glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces, the boys brandishing little glowing swords.

This week, my teenage daughter learned how to make another American tradition: lattice-topped blueberry pie! It really was as easy as pie, and it was absolutely delicious! I'm so happy she's learning some great skills for the future! I mean, algebra and social studies are great, but you can't eat them!



For the filling, my daughter used this easy recipe at All Recipes.com. For the crust, she used this simple but scrumptious recipe handed down from my Granny Howard:

For one crust, sift together: 1 C flour and 1/2 tsp. salt. Then cut in 1/3 Cup Crisco. Stir this into a ball with 2-4 T. cold water. For a top and bottom crust, double the recipe.

Believe me when I say this pie just looks and tastes like summer. Yum!

I hope you are having a great summer too and enjoy the festive times of these long, warm evenings. Three cheers for the red, white and ... blueberry!

Valentine's Day Cookies

Did you have a nice Valentine's Day?

My daughter and I celebrated the holiday by making homemade sugar cookies using our best family recipe. Sugar cookies are fun to make because you can cut them out in almost any design. Cookie cutters are available these days to mark just about any occasion, and I admit I have dozens of cookie cutters stored by theme so I'm ready for just about anything!

Giving homemade cookies is a special, personal way to show you care about someone. They are much more thoughtful and tasty than storebought, and who doesn't like homemade cookies? And they're even better with frosting!

Why don't you try baking up a batch for those special people tonight?

A White Christmas

"In the meadow we can build a snowman, then pretend that he is Parson Brown."
-- Felix Bernard,

"Winter Wonderland," 1934

No, that's not Parson Brown above. He's actually not even snow. (He's plastic.) But he is surrounded by real snow. It snowed here Christmas Eve!

After all those years of yearning for a white Christmas, we finally got one here in north Texas. In fact, it was the first white Christmas here since 1926! We awoke Christmas morning to a beautiful white wonderland as pretty as a picture postcard.

The snow covered the flowerbeds like fluffy white down.



It even covered the rabbits on the front porch. They think you won't see them if they hold perfectly still.



After opening their presents Christmas morning, the boys had some wild fun throwing snowballs and sliding down our little hill.

But sooner or later, cold noses and frosty fingers mean it's time to come inside.



Would anyone like some hot chocolate?

Giving Thanks

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? We did. Here is a photo of my plate piled with food. It looked so pretty before I dug into it.

This year we stayed home and hosted my husband's parents. They helped make some of the food, and it all turned out really yummy. We had all the traditional fare: roasted turkey with giblet gravy, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing with more gravy, rolls with butter, and black olives.

And of course we had to end with homemade pumpkin pies! They are the best. I make them with my granny's pie crust recipe and Libby's pumpkin recipe for the filling.




The weather here on Thanksgiving was beautiful, as it usually is on Thanksgiving in Texas. It was mild and just perfect for playing outside. Another Texas Thanksgiving tradition is watching the Dallas Cowboys play on TV. I am not into football and don't mind working in the kitchen on Thanksgiving.

In fact, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It only takes one day of work, the food is great, and then you have delicious leftovers for several days! Cooking a turkey is a lot of effort, so it's not something we do every day. But once a year, it's fun to pull out all the stops and make a grand, old-fashioned meal. (OK, I know the pilgrims didn't really have canned french-fried potatoes and cream of mushroom soup to make their casseroles, but the thought is there.)

And one more thing about Thanksgiving: It reminds us all to remember the people we hold most dear ... our loved ones and our friends.

So thanks to all of you for reading my blog, and don't forget to say "thank you" to all those who are kind to us every day ... your child's teachers, your mail carrier, the school crossing guard, your relatives, your neighbors, your Scout leaders, your friends and all those others who make life a wonderful gift.

Thank you.