Halfway there

We are halfway to Christmas and the pressure is on.  Yesterday, Rob wanted to watch another Christmas movie and I was like, can we just watch something where somebody blows up?  Not that there aren't plenty of Christmas movies where somebody blows up, but he got the idea and found us other stuff to watch.  

This week, I want to show off Rob's villages.  He built this stand last year and it has worked out really well.  After it was built, we watched something on TV and saw one very similar that was being used to stack kids toys.  I thought "climbing risk, I hope theirs is as sturdy as Rob's."  

Rob's villages offer something for everyone and yes, he still moves the people around as things happen in the village.  My husband is crazy for a good diorama.  

And, there's Retroville.  Set in the 50's, this one is a favorite.  We can pretend it was a simpler time.  And, yes, the people go places and go shopping and have dinner and/or a movie.  

I am about 2' of hand sewn binding from being done with the baby quilt.  I am looking forward to having that finished and shipped this week.  Yesterday, I took time to make a big batch of tomato jam.  I started with 5# of Roma tomatoes and ended up with 13 quarter-pint jars of jam.  The rest was water that boiled away.  When I made the first batch, we decided this was what we wanted to use as our 'friends and neighbors' gift this year instead of cookies.  Yes, it took 5 hours to cook this down, but now I'm done and am not spending two additional weekends with a frosting bag in my hand.  

I also used the lemons I harvested last week to make lemon curd and start a batch of limoncello by soaking the peels in vodka.  

I harvested the oranges yesterday and hope to make orange curd out of them.  I've been saving my egg yolks.  

And, we filled the greenhouses yesterday so we'd be ready for the first freeze.  It's a good thing it didn't freeze last night tho, because I was too tired to finish, so there are still a couple pots out in the yard.  

Okay, that's it for me.  You're probably tired of looking at pictures anyway.  But, I saw this and it gave me a chuckle, so I thought I'd share.  

Everybody have a great week!  Right now, I'm enjoying cooking.  We're watching the series Julia and at the same time, I'm watching The French Chef from the beginning.  What a delight Julia Child was.  She makes mistakes and laughs like a kid about them.  She stuck a spatula into the beaters of a mixer the other day and the mixer head jumped up and the bowl shifted and there was some splatter and the spatula was jerked out of her hand and she turned it all off and looked at the camera and said something like "don't do that."  I also got to see her 1962 version of a Kitchenaid mixer.  If you're cooking now, I hope you're able to set aside time to enjoy it.  Cooking should be fun and not drudgery.

Be well and hug someone you love just because you want to.

Lane