An Incredible Coincidence!

Several years ago, back when my niece Katy was perhaps 16 years old (she’s in her 30s now, so that gives you an idea of just how far back this story takes place), she and her mother were trying to come up with ideas for Christmas presents. 

Katy decided that she wanted to give me an antique cookbook because I like antique books and she & I had begun to share recipes with each other. An antique cookbook just seemed like the perfect combination of interests.

So, Noel took the idea with her to work and asked one of her clients to look for one since they were driving up to Fairbanks that week. As luck would have it, the client found one from 1941 and brought it back to Palmer for Katy to wrap up and give to me on Christmas day.

As I was opening the gift, they both told the story of how they got the book. It’s a pretty cool story, so I was happily listening while leafing through the book looking at all the different recipes. While doing so, I just happened to come across an old bookmark that somebody had used to mark their favorite recipe – and it gave me quite the jolt of surprise!

“Katy, where did you say you got this book from?” I asked her, with an amazed look on my face.

“From Fairbanks,” she replied “Why? What’s wrong?”

“Look at this!” I said, showing her what I had found.

Turns out, it was two raffle tickets from 1976 that apparently MY MOTHER had bought for a chance to win a horse that she planned to give to Kelly!!!

How the heck did THAT end up in this random cookbook that somehow managed to find its way into MY hands?!?

Later on, I asked Mother if she’d ever seen the book before, but she doesn’t remember it. She does remember buying the raffle tickets, however. Needless to say, she did not win the horse.

Happy Thankgiving!

I had a fabulous holiday weekend – how about you?

Thursday: we slept in a little bit, since neither one of us had pressing things to do that morning. Eventually we wandered out into the living room and got our days started. Bryan made us some oatmeal for breakfast, then I made my Brussel Sprout Salad while he got the wood box filled up again. We go through a lot of firewood: Mother loves her heat almost as much as my kittens do.

About 12:30 we got the car all packed up with the three of us and all our gear and then headed on up the mountain to my niece’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner with the family. She had quite the spread laid out, with two large turkeys and ALL the fixings. Each family member brought yet more food, from salads to deserts to appetizers, so we were well fed. Katy’s new house has a balcony overlooking the living area, so we took advantage of that to take our Group Photo.

From left to right: Tabitha, Autumn, Heather, Kaylee, Reed Hank, Darren, Corbin, Kelly, Annalise (the baby), Laurel, Danny, Mother, Tara, Maurice (the Great Pyrenees ) Lisa, Ruth, Bryan, Noel, Willow (the Corgi), Katy, and Maddie (a Lab-Corgi mix)

After eating dinner at my niece’s house, Bryan and I then drove into Anchorage to eat yet another dinner at his cousin’s house! Chris and Terri had a much smaller dinner party (only 9 people) but we still had a good time. They have twins, Madison and Maverick, who are just the cutest little 6-year-olds. Their older son Robert (15) was there as well, but he spent most of his time in the back room on the computer, listening to his music.

Friday: was our regular flex day so neither one of us had to work that day either. We spent the day doing chores around the house and just generally relaxing. Bryan installed the new water machine to our kitchen sink while I cleaned our section of the house and played with the kittens. I made a few cards while I was at it using a new-to-me technique of cutting a bunch of skinny strips of paper and gluing them down onto the paper with the die cuts. As you can see, I used both the die cut and the negative left over. Both cards are pretty cool, I think.

Saturday: Heather and Tabi came over that afternoon to do an art project with me. I had seen a picture online of some Christmas Tree Ornaments made out of old Scrabble Tiles and figured it couldn’t be that difficult to make. We had fun with it, each of us making at least 5 or 6 ornaments. Tabitha invited us all out to ice cream afterwards, so we got to prolong our fun and have good home-made ice cream too!

Sunday: Mother and I drove into Wasilla to do some Christmas shopping that afternoon. She had picked out several flyers from that morning’s newspaper listing all the sales going on, so we took advantage of them and got most of our gifts taken care of. It was a fun outing: Mother enjoyed just sitting in the passenger seat and watching the views out the window.

Christmas Tree Ornaments

My sister-in-law Heather and my niece Tabitha came over this weekend to help me make some Christmas Tree ornaments. I had seen a picture on facebook of some that were made out of old Scrabble tiles and thought they were really cool – so gathered up all the supplies and had a party!

I provided the ribbons, tiles, flowers, and buttons – Heather provided the glue gun, the beads, and the company - Viktor and Naldo provided the entertainment. We had such a good time (once we got a few kinks worked out on how exactly to put them together) we all ended up making 7-8 a piece!

Tabitha had so much fun, she didn’t want the night to end. She came up with the great good idea of going out for Ice Cream afterwards, so we celebrated our fun Craft Day with yummy homemade ice cream from The Big Dipper, conveniently located just down the street from my house.

Nelchina

Our weekend get-away in November took us to Nelchina, about 95 miles north of Palmer. The weather had turned very cold by then, so the drive was just gorgeous. We had some difficulty finding the place, but once we actually got there, we discovered that we really liked it. We will be going back again come summertime, no doubt about it!

The apartment was built right beside our host’s garage and had the BEST view of the nearby lake. It was comfortable, warm, and well stocked with the basics. We had plenty of room for our usual activities – although, I do admit that I felt a bit guilty about not going outside to go for a walk around the lake. But hey, it was COLD!

The only way it could have been better was if they had allowed me to bring my kittens.

Sweet Potato Lasagna

I have been attempting to try a new recipe each week, if only to jazz up our dinners (we tend to cook the same things each night) so last week, we made THIS for dinner! Oh my gosh, was it ever good! We will definitely be making this again.

It’s tricky, however: you have to slice the sweet potatoes so thin. Bryan has really good knives, thankfully, but a professional slicer really would be better.

The pan we used was just barely big enough – I’m afraid we made a tiny mess in the oven. But, like I said – it was REALLY good!

Delta Junction

We are continuing with our tradition of going on a Weekend Get-Away once a month. October took us all the way out to Delta Junction to a Bed & Breakfast that was tucked back in a residential area.

The place was very nice, with lots of trees surrounding the property so you felt like you were without neighbors. We had a very comfortable bed, a nice big bathroom, a very well stocked kitchen, and plenty of room for me to work on my cards while Bryan worked on his computer stuff. We watched the entire first season of Star Trek: Discovery.

Our hosts lived right beside us and delivered the most scrumptious breakfasts each day: scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, home-made blueberry compote, and fresh milk to drink on the first day, and biscuits & gravy and waffles, home-made raspberry compote, and mimosas to drink on the second day.

If you ever find yourself out in the Delta area, I can highly recommend this place! The owners were military (of course) and had spent the past 4 years living in Italy so had decorated their place with some really nice art pieces.

Siblings

My brother Reed and his family came over a few weeks ago, just to hang out together. I had my crafting table set up to make cards and the girls brought their painting.

I admit I was a bit apprehensive about them painting in our living room. But their mother assured me that she had a drop cloth and that the girls had never made a mess before, and they paint all the time in their house. Of course, they arrived without the drop cloth and an accident with the paint water did occur – but it was cleaned up quickly and thoroughly, so no harm was done.

About halfway thought our afternoon together my sister Noel showed up with her crocheting, so Reed made room for her on the couch and we all had a good time chatting with each other.

Stewart's Niche

My sister and I worked with the City of Palmer to get a niche for Stewart. We got a 12x12 box with an engraved marker listing his name & birth/death dates, along with a picture of him.

The wall is at the Palmer Pioneer Cemetery just across from the airport. It’s a very nice spot, with a bench where you can sit to talk to him.

We had a family gathering a few weeks back to place some of his ashes into the niche. Noel read a poem and Tabi gave him a picture she had drawn.

It was a very nice “service” and I think he would be happy with his spot. He has a grand view of Pioneer Mountain, one of his favorites.

Fishing The Kenai

Back in July I wrote about winning a drawing for a Fishing Trip on the Kenai River. Well, finally – after a lot more difficulty than there should have been – we actually got to go on the trip.

The trip itself was a good one: I mean, who can complain when you’re floating down a peaceful river with a pole in the water? The fishing sucked, however. The fish just were not there. We spent a good 6 hours and only had two bites: one trout (Bryan caught that one) and one salmon (I caught that one). We had to throw the trout back (it was a small one anyway) but the salmon is in our freezer now!

But I’m not complaining – it was fun to see Bryan doing what he loves to do. The two other people on the boat were very nice, too, and our guide was very good at his job.

My Friend Ellen

When I went to Key West recently for a friend’s wedding, I got to stay at Ellen’s house! Ellen and I met a few years ago when we both went on the Earthwatch Expedition in Arizona to study the Forest owls. We’ve been emailing back & forth ever since.

She went above & beyond friendship, in my opinion! She picked me up at the airport. She chauffeured me around the island for all the wedding events. She took me to visit the Wildlife Refuge where she volunteers most of her time. She took me all over the island so I could see how beautiful it was. Most importantly, she gave me a room in her house and let me stay there for an entire week.

Honestly, I am so very thankful for all she did for me!