Finished! This is the "Mommy, is Grandma making this quilt for me because she knows how much I love flowers?" quilt. I really intended it to be just a 'utility' quilt for around here in the summer, but how can a grandma resist a request like that? It occurred to me the other day as I was trying to fold the many quilts she already owns, and she insisted she likes them jumbled, that she doesn't even like being covered up when she sleeps! For a couple of years I scrounged pink flower fat quarters intending to make a pink and white Dresden Plate quilt. One day last summer I just got tired of moving the stash from one place to the next, so I cut triangles, sewed them back together in no order, and bordered it in a soft pink. Utility quilt. It is girly pretty, though. And I still have scraps.

Today, Patient Husband and I saw a phenomenally good movie. Run, don't walk to the theater to see The King's Speech! Oh my goodness. All is calm, all is bright. This is the picture of the beach and lighthouse this morning. The church has the best real estate in town, and after Mass this morning we stopped so I could take a picture of the ice-encased lighthouse, snowy quiet beach, and the blue sky just starting to peek through the clouds. It really was beautiful, and a sight the summer people just don't appreciate. But we do. We had a quiet day today, just Patient Husband and me. You'd never have known it was the holiday. We had our time with our kids the weekend before, so this weekend was very quiet. After a nap, we went to some friends' house to help eat the leftovers from their Christmas after their kids left. We love their company, so the evening was good. Last night, Christmas Eve, my siblings, their children, our children, and I spent the evening with my mom. That's us. You know Elizabeth and wiggly Adelaide: my daughter, Lisa, my mom, and me. Yummy in your tummy! Now Christmas is over, it's time to start thinking of gooey goodies for the New Year's celebration. That, too, is very quiet for Patient Husband and me. We decided long ago not to pay the prices of going out on New Year's Eve — the weather is usually snowy and horrid — and, believe it or not, the New Year arrives even without our supervision. But I must tell you about this wonderful recipe I ripped from a magazine just before Christmas. I made it, and it's a wonderful (shhh... healthy!) delicious snack that could easily be a meal. Take three different kinds of olives: I used a pimento-stuffed green olive, a black olive, and a burgundy olive. Next time I'll be more adventurous. Drain them. The recipe calls for one cup of each, but I just used the whole jar. It was close enough. Toss the olives with: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence (a mixture of rosemary, cracked fennel, thyme, savory, basil, tarragon, dill weed, oregano, lavender, chervil, and marjoram), 8 cloves garlic (I used two tablespoons jarred minced garlic), and one pint grape or cherry tomatoes (I used two pints). Bake at 350 degrees.

Posted fifty-nine years ago, this is what I looked like. She's pretty darned cute in that apron she got from Aunt Erin for Christmas! Isn't that the cutest apron you've ever seen? Isn't she the cutest little girl? She took to it like I take to aprons, too. She wore it all day Saturday and Sunday. Everyone kept saying, "This is what I look like in an apron now! Top to bottom." All she needs is the ladle in her hand. I guess it could be worse than to look like this sweetie. We had our family Christmas last weekend, so we corralled the kids for a picture, but poor Charlie was feeling very poorly—isn't someone always sick (or pregnant) over Christmas? Around here it seems so. Usually it's me after being exposed to 450 children at school, more than half of them coughing and sneezing. Charlie was battling a bad fever and just couldn't get his little self off the couch or someone's lap. It was sad to have him miss the fun of playing with Elizabeth and Adelaide, but he just couldn't move. His little sister Cecilia was in top form for the both of them, though. Sweethearts all. We had a good weekend. I hope all of you have a good one this Christmas weekend coming up. This is my recipe file. It's one of those challenges in life. When I need something, I sit on the couch or at the dining table and start going through it. The problem is, I know if it's in here somewhere. I know if it's a torn-out magazine page or a newspaper clipping or a notecard or something scribbled on a napkin. I know what I'm looking for, and if I tried to organize this, or, as Patient Husband suggested, put them on the computer, then I wouldn't know what I'm looking for. I did once: when the kids each got married, I typed out a cookbook for them to take with them to their new life. I included all of the things they liked and the things they'll wish they'd asked for when I'm dead. It would have been so easy to print one out for myself, but I didn't. I wouldn't know what I'm looking for. Friend Marilyn tried to make the peppermint patties from a previous post. Is there anything that says "Christmas baking" like butter? At Christmas you have to be a purist on this. Nothing says lovin' like something baked with butter! It smells wonderful while it's baking, and with the very first taste it shows you cared enough to use the best. I made a small batch of cookies Sunday.