Year: 2006

To add a little sweetness to your season from the sweetest person I know

A few days ago I admitted that I have a problem in the form of complete addiction to Gulley’s sugar cookies. It is not even a slight exaggeration to say that you can’t just stop at the first thirty you eat.

Erin asked if I thought Gulley would let me give out the recipe and since I love Erin because she is so sweet and says great things like “waiting for the other foot to drop”, I asked Gulley if she would be willing to share the recipe and this is the email that she sent me.

Big Mama –

Since me and your fans have at least one thing in common – we all adore you – I will share my sugar cookie recipe. You may want to warn them, though, that this is not a cookie for serious decorating. It is way too soft. A glaze works perfectly.

The Cookie:

4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Sift dry ingredients together

1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs.

Mix all together and shape dough in form of loaf & sprinkle flour on wax paper, wrap dough and refrigerate overnight. Roll out dough, cut with cutter and bake for 6 – 8 minutes at 350.

Glaze

2 tbsp butter mashed in
2 cups powdered sugar
dash of salt
2 or more tbsp milk.

Spread on top of cookies, then top with colored sugars.

So, as Gulley says please make note that this is not a cookie for serious, Martha Stewart style decorating, however it is a cookie for serious eating in the form of two to three dozen at one time.

A few other things that make me laugh about Gulley’s email are that she knows me well enough to write it in perfect cut and paste form for Big Mama and that she refers to my “fans”.

When we were in college we were friends with this big football player (not the running back mentioned in a previous post) and whenever he’d see us he’d yell across campus, “How many members today?” and we’d say “What, what are you talking about?” and he’d reply “How many members y’all got in your fan club today?” It never failed to make us completely crack up.

So Gulley, as the #1 member of your fan club, thank you for letting me share your recipe and thank you even more for baking my supply for me. That’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Attention Walmart Shoppers..someone’s not right in accessories

Gulley was in Bryan last week visiting Nena, so y’all know I was hoping that there would be some kind of story.

When they got to Nena’s house, Nena was wearing some light green velour pants paired with a sweater and a wide leather belt. Gulley said, “Well, Nena…look at you!”

And Nena said, “Well, I know. I’m a vision of loveliness.”

Later on, Uncle Glen came over and was complaining about how much he hates Walmart but “Mama wears me down and makes me take her to the Walmart”. He said the other day they were there for almost two hours, so to pass the time he started trying on sunglasses. Nena walked up and said “Quit trying on those sunglasses. People are going to think you’re not right in the head.”

And in all fairness to Uncle Glen, isn’t two hours in Walmart is enough to drive anyone a little bit out of their mind?
An update from Dallas and the antithesis of a high speed wireless connection

Yes, I am still in Dallas. It has been more fun than y’all can imagine spending two and a half days going over things that could have been summed up in an email. A short email.

But on the bright side, I got to eat dinner tonight with my dear friend Hite who took me to a fabulous restaurant called Hatties. He described it as “gourmet soul food” and let me tell y’all it was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. Fried green tomatoes, meatloaf and macaroni and cheese that was so unbelievably good that I wanted to lick the serving bowl. Heaven in a bowl is what it was. I will think about it for days with fond remembrance.

Oh yes, and the conversation was good too. Hite never fails to make me laugh and he told me a story tonight that left me with tears running down my cheeks. I’ll share it at some point, but he has pictures to send that will better illustrate. One of my favorite memories of Hite is the day of my college graduation when there was literally a tornado touching down in College Station and he looked at me and said “In spite of the wind, your hair is holding up beautifully”. It was a complete lie, but it made me feel better.

The other bright spot is that the hotel where I’m staying is the hotel where I stayed with Gulley, Jen and our other friends every New Year’s Eve when we were in college and A&M played in the Cotton Bowl. There are so many memories when I look around the hotel and think about what fools we were, but one of the best is the year that we were having a little social get together in our hotel room at 2 a.m. the night before the game and there was a knock on our door. We opened the door and there stood our star running back whose room was right next to ours. Apparently, we were keeping him awake with our festivities so he came on in and joined the party.

The next day, he fumbled the ball which essentially cost us the game. I’d like to think that we weren’t partially responsible, but I’m afraid we were. I have never admitted this publicly. In fact, as we sat eating our hot dogs in the stands that day, we vowed we would never tell anyone for fear of being outcasts.

Fool is the word y’all are looking for.

Anyway, later today I will be headed home to my people and for that I am thankful. I have my .25 cent Ziploc to safely tote my lipgloss on the plane. Honestly, the more I’ve thought about it, if someone wants to cause harm on a plane is a Ziploc snack bag going to stop them? My best guess is no.

The best part is that if my flight is on time and there are no delays, I’ll be home in time to tuck my girl into bed tonight.

And in other news, today is my Mama’s birthday. I won’t reveal her age because a lady never tells, but I wish her a wonderful day. Mom, I have a whole new understanding and appreciation of how many nights you went without sleep because “I couldn’t see” and other such issues. I am paying for my youth as an insomniac. I love you and hope you have a day filled with all good things.
If it happens before 6 a.m., it can’t be any good

Yesterday morning I had to do something that is, in my opinion, completely barbaric. I had to catch a flight to Dallas that left at 7:30 a.m. which means I had to leave my house at 6:15 which means that I was up before the crack of early at 5:00 a.m.

See, the “bank” where I work decided that nothing really puts employees in the Christmas spirit more than shipping them off away from friends and loved ones right in the middle of the holiday season. And just to make it more festive? Let’s allow them to see what early morning at the airport (otherwise known as hell) looks like.

So, the alarm goes off this morning and since P loves me and is the greatest person ever, he has already gotten up and turned the heat on for me so that at least I won’t freeze to death while getting dressed. I sleepwalk through the basic functions of personal hygiene, stopping only to admire the lovely red sleep creases etching themselves across my face. Then I wrestled with my suitcase in a vain attempt to get it to actually zip all the way closed. I’m a chronic overpacker. It’s what I do. I need options.

At 6:15 the cab company calls to let me know that my cab is arriving, so I walk out the back door since I had requested that the driver pull up on the side of my house. We try not to use our front door while Caroline is asleep because due to the fact that the house is almost 100 years old and the foundation constantly shifts, opening the front door produces a sound somewhere in the same decibel range as a building being demolitioned.

I didn’t see the cab until I noticed red brake lights coming from the front of the house, so I wheeled my suitcase around the house and got in the cab. I told the driver that I thought he was going to pull up on the side of the house and his response was the he couldn’t tell what the side of the house meant, so apparently he just went to the FRONT side. Turning on the side street that runs along the side of our house would have been too obvious a choice.

I know I’m grumpy but the moon was still out and everything. That’s how early it was.

I get to the airport, check in, and wait in a security line where I’m told that I can keep my lipgloss if I want to buy a .25 cent ziploc bag to put it in. Um, yeah there’s no profit margin in that is there?

I take off my shoes and my jacket and unload the entire contents of my computer bag. Business travel is just so glamorous. I am so grateful to the bank for giving me this opportunity.

Finally, I arrived at the hotel and checked in. While checking in at the bank reservation table to get my meeting itinerary, the lady smiles and tells me that there has been a change in schedule and the meetings won’t actually start until 1:30 p.m.

It’s 9:00 a.m.

The whole thing has filled me with so much holiday cheer that honestly, I’m thinking this trip must be my Christmas bonus.

How could it get any better?

Wait, I just realized the icing on the cake, high speed wifi at this particular hotel is a complete oxymoron.

Now it’s like Christmas and New Years all at the same time!
Somebody get that cow a pillow

Saturday night we went to a wedding. This was a big deal because it was the first real social event that Caroline has been invited to just as an attendee, not a flower girl. Our friends Cyndea and Shane got married and let me tell y’all that it was a beautiful wedding. She walked down the aisle to “Come Let us Adore Him” and there were Christmas lights everywhere. It was like a magic Christmas fairyland.

If I had it to do over again I’d have a Christmas wedding, but 9 years ago when I was young and newly engaged there is no way in the world I’d have waited 4 more months just so a quartet could play Christmas carols as guests were seated. No ma’am, get me to the church and hurry, even though it meant tying the knot when it was 149 degrees outside.

Caroline did a great job of being quiet during the ceremony thanks to the steady stream of Mike and Ike’s that I had stashed in my purse. Anytime she opened her mouth, I just popped in a Mike and Ike and it bought us 30 more seconds of silence. So a big thank you goes out to my friends Mike and Ike who were a tremendous help in bribing my child. Yes, I said bribing and not only do I not condemn bribing a child, I give it two thumbs up.

Don’t judge me, she’s 3 years old and I live in a constant state of Don’t Anger It.

After the outdoor wedding ceremony (why yes, it was very cold), we moved indoors for the reception. I was already wondering how I was going to convince Caroline to eat prime rib for dinner when I noticed that there was a buffet table set up for kids that consisted of chicken fingers and french fries. It was like someone had just given me a million dollars otherwise known as a dinner my child would actually eat. Kudos to the bride’s parents for supplying the country club version of a Happy Meal.

I got her settled at the table with her chicken fingers and fries while P went to go find the adult food. She was thirsty and when they brought her water, it was in a glass goblet. She looked at it and said “Oh Mama, I get to drink wine too. Let’s say cheers!” So we clinked our water glasses together, said “Cheers”, and she looked at me with a french fry in her hand and said, “This is the life.”

And so yes, she shares a large portion of my genetic makeup that does enjoy the finer things in life like beautiful weddings at fancy country clubs and eating chicken fingers without utensils while wiping your hands on your dress.

After her meal was cut short by the arrival of wedding cake (and let’s be honest, why would anyone continue to eat anything of substance once there is cake?) she hit the dance floor. Our poor friend Erin made the mistake of volunteering to dance with Caroline, not realizing that Caroline’s signature move is to make you run around and around and around in circles as if she is trying to achieve lift off. For awhile we all stood around, watched them dance and made bets as to who would give us a another look at the wedding cake first.

Pretty soon, she was joined on the dance floor by a group of little girls just about her size and they danced and twirled their little hearts out. Nothing makes a mama more proud than seeing her little one shake her booty as the band plays “Brick House”.

Finally, when she was obviously about to collapse from exhaustion, we loaded her up to head home. She wanted me to carry her to the car and she was almost asleep before I got her in her car seat. I buckled her in and whispered “We partied ’til the cows came home.”

P walked around the car and as he was starting it, this little tired voice said “Daddy, we partied until the cows went to bed.”

Yes, we did.
We saw his star in the east

A few years ago, P and I attended a church that brought in a speaker named Rick Larson also known as the Star Man. We went to the presentation and were completely blown away by the enormity and power of what he shared.

Rick Larson is an attorney and served as a professor at Texas A&M for many years, but his passion is known as the Star Project. You can read all about his research by clicking on this link.

“Scholars debate whether the Star of Bethlehem is a legend manufactured by the early church or a miracle which marked the advent of Christ”

That quote from The Bethlehem Star website is a summary of all the information that is contained within the site. And trust me when I say there is a lot of information. A LOT. But if any of y’all are interested in learning more about the Star the wise men followed, it is powerful stuff.

And if y’all want to read a post that really touched my heart today, you should head over to Blessed Beyond Measure and read this.