"Reflections On Married Life..."

My husband, Eddie's season is over now until Spring... With professional gardening being a seasonal occupation, I'm hoping to keep him busy with a few projects around the house this winter.

As for me... Life and, yes death goes on no matter what the day.  So, I'll be at work today dealing with the reality of death and dying even on Christmas Eve.  Although I'll be off for Christmas Day, I do have to go into work on Wednesday, so this year, Eddie and I decided to pack as much fun as we could into Christmas day itself.

Our plans for Christmas so far, include breakfast out on Christmas morning... IHOP will be open and its one of my favorite places.  Then, we're going to see Quentin Tarantino's new historical biopic, "Django Unchained."  Hopefully Mr. Tarantino won't disappoint because at 180 minutes, "Django" will be one of the longest films I've ever seen in a theater.

Later we'll be coming home to a Lasagna for Christmas dinner along with my brother who'll be joining us again this year.  In addition to the Lasagna and some other special dishes, we'll of course be having many traditional holiday sweets including Raisin Cake and Pumpkin Pie and of course cookies.

Here are a few pictures from earlier this week when Eddie and I made Christmas cookies for our family, friends and my colleagues at work.  Although Eddie helped, he was also the photographer, so it's only me in the photos.  Eddie really like to take photos, so for Christmas I got him a really nice camera and all the accessories so that he can explore his creativity in that medium.

Interesting fact: When I was in my twenties, I was a professional pastry chef.

Eddie marvels at what I can do with a pastry bag.

These are Jam Thumbprints (although to be sanitary, I make the indentation with a spoon).

And here are the first of more than 20 dozen cookies going into the oven.

After they're baked, a sprinkling of chopped almonds.

This is my favorite photo of the ones Ed took that day... our cat Joni was "guarding" the kitchen.

An easy finishing touch, a drizzle of chocolate and a dusting of chopped almonds.

Many of my colleagues at work didn't know that I'd been a pastry chef and at first they were convinced that I'd bought the cookies.

Along with their toys from Grampa Eddie and Grandpa Christopher, we also sent some cookies to my son and his family out in Utah.  I mailed them on the 20th so hopefully they'll arrive today!

So, this is married life... its no different for us than it is for anyone else. It's better when you're married.

"Fear Eats the Soul"