The Wise Men are 17” tall and after being packed away for two years a little worse for wear.  But it did prove that you could, with a little adjusting, make this set in a larger scale.  So I will pick up the crochet hook,  find some doll hair to fill in the beards better, and hopefully some type of metalic yarn to create a larger set.  The stable however will be wood or bought.

Oh boy another project to go along with the construction of the three minature houses and the furniture to fill them.  I have to get busy or I’ll run out of time!!! 

The following recipe came from Mrs. Dof.  She had found it in the back of a historical fiction novel she read for her Children’s Lit. class and updated it.  She baked it for her ‘end of class party’.  We thought it looked too good not to try!

Jay and I made it on Friday night and as you can see we have all ready sampled it.  The taste is great, moist, dense, and not overly sweet.  The only change I will make when I bake it again is to cut the ground cloves to 1/2 t .  This is a personal preference only.  I would like to suggest an alternative to the powder sugar topping below this recipe.

Mrs. Rayfield’s Apple Spice cake
found in the back of the historical fiction book
BAT 6
by Virginia Euwer Wolf
recipe adapted by Diane Wiman

1 3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup margarine or shortening or butter (or a combination)
2 eggs “not from a bantie” which I took to mean size medium or large
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1 cup cold coffee
2 tsp. baking soda dissolved in the coffee
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2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
—————————————————
2 cups (peeled and chopped fine) sour Apples (I used Granny Smith)
1 cup Raisins
1 cup chopped Walnuts
——————————————————————
Pre-heat oven to 350o Grease 9 x 13 pan
——————————————————————
In Medium bowl
Sift together flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg.  Stir in oats.
Set aside
—————————————————————
In Large bowl
Cream together margarine and sugar (with mixer set on medium) until light and Fluffy
Add Eggs and beat well.
———————————————-
Alternating, Add Dry ingredients and the Coffee/soda mixture
Beat well after each addition
———————————————————————-
With a strong arm and a sturdy spoon
Stir in Apples, Raisins, and Nuts
—————————————————-
Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake 35 to 45 minutes until testerpick comes out clean
Cool pan on wire rack.  After about 10 minutes, sprinkle powdered sugar on top.
Allow to cool at least an hour before cutting.

A recipe that Jay’s mother used to top a spice cake follows:  (Jay said it was back in the ‘olden days’)
      Vanilla Sauce
Combine in a saucepan
  1C sugar
  2T cornstarch
  2C water
Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
Add
  1/4 C butter
  2t vanilla
Serve warm over cake!

Thanks Diane for sharing!

On a lighter thought—this what you would see if you sat down to post in Momma’s Corner.  You can easily get into the Holiday mood!

Looking up you can see the stairway lighted with mini lights, garland, velvet flowers, and ribbons up to the loft!  When I first saw this home I knew how I would decorate that stairway.

Now the tree is done.  It took a couple of days to get it completed but it looks good now.  For the past few years the bottom row of branches have been wired into their slots because the plastic is starting to break.  Funny how we find ways to hang on to something that isn’t quite broken yet!  But in February I will be 70 and I think I deserve a new tree!  So out this one goes after New Years.

I have one gift to finish and the house cleaning to start.  Still haven’t gotten the week’s worth of newspapers read yet.  But hey they won’t walk away so I’ll get them done yet! 

A big congratulations to Shane (my clowning partner QT) and to Mrs. DoF for completing and handing in their respective papers for their college courses.  I’m sure the marks will be fine!

Cut along the line leaving the handle firmly attached.  This allows ease in picking them up and storage can be accomplished by running a rope through the handles and hanging them up in the basement or garage.

Place a cup of sand in the bottom of the jug and add a votive candle. This give stability to the jug and the candle.

So by saving your plastic milk jugs, buying a small bag of sand, and obtaining votive candles (approx. 10 cents each) you too can ‘shine your little lights’ during the holidays.

For the last few weeks this how I have felt.  It seems that creating ‘heirlooms’ as Mrs. DoF describes it can be a tiring and time consuming project.  But it is almost complete, just one more.  That will be completed while waiting during Jay’s appointments with Phil tomorrow and Dr. Ross on Thursday.  They are the last appointments for 2004.  It has been quite a year.

(The figurine is actually painted plaster of Mrs. Santa from back more years then I care to remember.  Santa bit the dust a few years back but by the level of expertise it was no big loss!) 

So now it is time to go out and do a little grocery shopping and then come home and read the newspapers.  Starting with a week ago this last Sunday through today reading the highlights out loud to Jay.  Maybe after seeing Dr. Ross he will be ready to read his own news soon. 

So I expect that you also are wildly trying to remember those last minute purchases, cards to mail, and entertaining to plan.  You and I will probably look a little like this in a few days.

At least I know I’m going to cuddle up in the old rocker with my ‘golden years suck’ pillow and just relax a bit!

The needlepoint that my friend Pam made for me so long ago I can’t remember the date.  I have promised myself to reframe it for the past three years but haven’t done it yet!

This plate my friend Donna made for me in 1973.  For 31 years I have pulled it out for holding Christmas cookies!  Even if I don’t have cookies it is out somewhere in the house!

One of my prize posessions is this Nativity set Jimmy Murphy made me In 1982.  He was my oldest son’s good friend and a neighbor of ours.  He was in late teens/early 20’s. 

As you can see he did a beautiful job.  The shepherds—

Joseph and Mary—-

The wise men—

So this is just a small example of the memories that I enjoy year after year as I prepare for the family festivities.  The tree will be holding old items from years past that I can’t seem to throw out.  I will never have a theme tree and that suits me fine!

This is a closer shot of the large lightbulbs out front.

Then of course here are Doe and Buck in all their shining glory plus that ‘damn’ sled!!!

Even the old truck is dressed for the season.  This brings a smiles to alot of faces on the road!

The Christmas flag hangs at the side door (our main entrance) as a finishing touch!

This is our celebration after dark.  It is starting to infuse me with the holiday spirit—hope it does you too!

“What the Devil is this?  Dashing through the mud?  What’s the matter, did she take ‘til spring to get that damn sled together?  Man this old broad has gone ‘loony tunes’ or something!”

“Now Doe that was just plain rude!”

“For cripes sake Buck, look at your feet!  You’ll never stay on a roof with that gooey mess on them!”

“Doe, it is going to be fine.  When the snow comes it will rinse right off!”

“You mean if the snow comes.  These last couple of Christmas seasons have been a little sparse on the white stuff!”

“Doe, your Christmas spirit seems to have disappeared this year.  What made you so pessimistic?”

“Buck, you try listening to carols since Halloween, wading through the hundreds of catalogs that are falling out of the mailbox unto the ground, and hearing two fawns fight over which is better—Xbox or PS2—plus which one they are going to get for Christmas.  Lord, they don’t even have fingers to play them!”

“Well just hang in there Doe it will all be over in about two and a half weeks.  By the way does that muddy grass taste any better than that kitchen floor?”

“Actually yes, Buck, you know that old girl is a piss poor house keeper!”

“So Buck why are we standing here?”
“Well Doe, she said she had a problem”.
“And we don’t?  In case you didn’t notice we are standing in the middle of a kitchen”,
“I noticed Doe but we aren’t ready to go out in the snow.”
“What do you mean not ready Buck?  We are standing on our own four feet”.
“Well show a bit of patience Doe We will get outside soon enough.”
” Yeah right, did you ever try grazing linoleum?  Zero carbs taste better than this.”
“Doe, I said she had a problem.”
” What problem is that Buck?”
” Well in her words, she can’t get the damn sleigh together!”