Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Garfield is one of my favorite cartoon characters. I read his comic strip every day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Blessed Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at our church and then the whole family came over Christmas day.  I love it when our whole family can be together!

Remember my last blog on the green pickle?  I hid it well in the tree and warned everyone not to throw anything off the tree this year! Our daughter found the pickle.  And since this was only our second year of doing this new tradition in our family,  I had a prize for the finder.  It was a jar of Claussen pickles!  Well guess what? Our daughter does not like pickles!  Only one out of our four children who doesn't like pickles.  (Didn't think about that when I came up with what I thought was a funny prize).  But our grandson loves pickles, so she let him have them.  She is looking forward to a year of good luck!

Fellow bloggers, "The Foley Fam - Unedited" and "Perception is Everything" are having a Linky Party!  Go check them out and join the party!  Who doesn't like to Party!!

2012 has come and gone!  Way too fast by the way.  What they say is true.  As you grow older the years seem to fly by faster. But I'm not old, I am just in my second childhood!  I can't retire completely as I would go nuts!  I have to keep busy!  I think that is what helps to keep me young.

    

This year I want to grow more as a person.

 As one gets older one tends to get crankier.  I want to avoid that if at all possible.  

I pray that God helps me grow closer to him.  

I would like to get more organized.

 

 

I am busy working on new things for my website.  I hope to have it updated by the end of this month.  

 

 

As Always,

 Marilyn

Green Pickle

It is almost Christmas!  And it is almost the birthday of Jesus!

Have you heard of the Green Pickle Ornament?  Until last year, I had never heard about it.  Pauline, my new daughter-in-law this year, told me about it.  She gave us one last year.  Thus a new Christmas tradition started last Christmas in our home.

I wanted to learn more about this Green Pickle.  I had heard it was a Polish tradition.  I liked that as I am of Polish descent.  But in my research, I learned it is really a German tradition.  That is okay as my husband is of German descent.  But, wait a minute!  I also found it is an American tradition.  It is said that the Green Pickle ornament had it's beginning in the deep south of the U.S. of A!

So I put "Green Pickle" in the Google search engine (don't you just love Google?  Where would we be if we couldn't use Google?). Here are two things I found.

John Lower was a German who was born in Bavaria in 1842.  He emigrated to the United States with his family.  He fought in the American Civil War and was captured and sent to a prison in Andersonville, Georgia.  He fell ill given the poor conditions of the prison.  Starving, he begged a guard for just one pickle before he died.  The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for John.  The Lower family lore says that the pickle, by the grace of God, gave John the mental and physical strength to live on.  After being reunited with his family he began the tradition of hiding a pickle on the Christmas tree.  The first person who found the pickle on Christmas morning would be blessed with a year of good fortune and a special gift, just as John Lower had experienced!

Now I found another theory. The people in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which is the self-proclaimed "Christmas Pickle Capital" of the world, hold a festival and have a Grand Dillmeister.  Their story claims Medieval origins and traces two Spanish boys who were on their way home from boarding school.  When they stopped to stay at an Inn, the mean Inn keeper stuffed them into a pickle barrel.  When St. Nicholas passed by, he touched the barrel with his staff and set them free.

Now I am originally from Michigan, born and raised.  But, I have to say that I tend to think that the German story of the Green Pickle seems more believable to me.  Just saying.

So now this year I will hide the pickle really good in our Christmas tree.  All four of our children and families will be here for Christmas. And this year, there will be a special gift for the one who finds the Green Pickle.  And there are new rules this year.  No throwing items off the tree while trying to find the Green Pickle!  One son got a little carried away last year when he couldn't find the pickle.  But it was all in good fun!

Do you hide a Green Pickle in your tree?  If you do, I would love to hear about it.  Please leave me a comment below.

I wish you all a Very Blessed Christmas!!!

                    MERRY  CHRISTMAS!!!!

As Always,  

Marilyn

Party Mix

Now I know you know what Party Mix is.  You can buy it in the grocery stores and convenience stores by the bag.

But my Party Mix is different than what you can buy in the store.  The recipe is from my mother and is around 60 years old.  I grew up on this Party Mix.  I looked forward to my Mom making it around Christmas every year.  I love this Party Mix!

Here are the ingredients you will need to make my Party Mix.

1 box of 10 oz. Cheerios.
1 box of 12 oz. Rice Chex.
1 bag of 16 oz. pretzels.
1 32 oz. container of cocktail peanuts.
5 sticks of oleo.
1/2 tsp. of celery salt.
3 tsp. of garlic powder.
2 Tbsp. of Worchestire sauce.

I use a big deep roasting pan (it is to the left of the bag of pretzels above).  Pour the rice chex, cheerios, peanuts into the roasting pan.  I add the pretzels, but I break them up into smaller pieces.  Stir all the dry ingredients with a long wooden spoon.

Melt the 5 sticks of oleo (you can use butter if you want) in a saucepan over medium heat.  Once the oleo is melted, add the celery salt, garlic powder and Worchestire sauce and stir.  Take this mixture and pour it over the dry ingredients in the roaster.  Stir until all the dry ingredients are completely covered with the oleo mixture.  Bake it for one hour at 250 degrees.  Stir the mixture every 15 minutes while baking.  When the Party Mix is done, remove it from the oven and set it on the cupboard to cool.  Stir it about every 10 minutes for about 30 minutes until it is fairly cool.

 

Here is the completed Party Mix.  After it cools, I store it in tupperware like containers.  I also put some in Christmas containers to give away as gifts for Christmas.

 

It is hard to believe that Christmas is almost here!  Once again we will celebrate the birthday of Jesus!  I also look forward to singing my favorite Christmas song, Silent Night.  Do you have a favorite Christmas song?

 

As Always,

Marilyn