I'm related to these people

Part of my family got together during the holidays. My brother J and his immediate family, my parents, J's mother-in-law, and J's son-in-law are all in the photo. H and her husband T live in Seattle, so group photo ops like this are rare. 

A whisper in the night saves the day

My dog Mimi woke me up the night after Christmas. I checked my phone to see what time it was: 2:40 a.m. I saw a note on my phone that said someone had signed into my Apple account from a new device. I got up out of bed fast!

I never did find out what Mimi cried about that woke me up. But I spent the next hour changing all the passwords on all my online accounts. Unfortunately, I made a mistake on remembering the passwords and almost locked myself out of this blog account, but I got back in. Whew!

Thank God He nudged my dog to wake me before the hacker had a chance to mess things up in a big way. 

Christmas time is near

I wasn't sure a Christmas tree was going to happen for me this year. I threw away my old one when I hastily left for the U.S. two years ago for cancer treatment. I'd have to travel two hours round trip to the countryside to get a real tree, and my energy is still too low for that kind of outing. I was gone to Thailand for 10 days smack dab in the middle of December, so that slowed my holiday progress. I got to attend a Christmas party there with delightful friends, but the tropics don't really put me in the mood for Christmas. But finally, I got back to my own place, and IKEA came to my rescue! I got a tree, some decorations to add to what I already had, and even found real live Christmas wrapping paper here for the very first time ever. Starbucks coffee mugs contributed to the Christmas decor a bit. And I still have my Texas ornament that I got back in the 80s. I have plans with friends on Christmas Day, services to attend on Christmas Eve, and the weather is even going to get cooler. It's shaping up to be a good holiday after all as we all prepare to celebrate one of the greatest miracles in history, the arrival of Immanuel, God with us!

Merry Christmas from me, myself and Mimi

Wishing you all a blessed and merry Christmas. 

Thank You God for sending Jesus to save us from our sins and restore us to fellowship with You! Thank You for bringing Mimi and me safely to Texas for this chapter of our lives.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

I'm home for Christmas this year, and was left in charge of decorating. So I got new stockings for the three humans in the house (couldn't find any cute dog stockings or else I would have gotten some). We have camouflage for my dad, red sparkly ruche stocking for my mom, and a satin-frill topped high-heel boot for me. 

My decorating style can be summed up in two words: Hobby Lobby.

Low-sugar, gluten-free Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

2 eggs (I used organic eggs)

1/3 cup Stevia for Baking blend

1/4 cup softened butter (I used organic stick butter)

1/4 cup shortening

2 cups Bisquick Gluten Free mix

Ground cinnamon

Steps:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.

2. In large bowl, mix together eggs, Stevia blend, butter and shortening.

3. Add Bisquick and mix until dough forms

4. Drop biscuits on cookie sheet that has been sprayed with Pam.

5. Sprinkle the top of each cookie with cinnamon.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Notes:

• This makes a cake-like cookie that is slightly sweet, but not too sweet. Tastes yummy with a cup of bitter black coffee!
• If you have never used gluten-free flour before, the unusual texture of rice flour vs. wheat flour may catch you off-guard at first. I like it though. 
• Usually snickerdoodles have a crisp texture, and have sugar sprinkled on top. These are a little different than the traditional snickerdoodle.
• My goal was to make something tasty that was (1) gluten free, (2) sugar free, and (3) used as many organic ingredients as possible. I realized after making the cookies that the Stevia Baking blend actually DOES have some sugar in it, but it is far less than I would normally use. I doubt shortening is a healthy ingredient, but I had no alternatives for that one.
• Stevia is natural … no artificial chemical sweeteners for me. (Fact: I gave up Diet Cokes on August 1, 2013.) These cookies have all natural ingredients.

Benefits of eating low-sugar, gluten-free foods:

• Reduces pain and inflammation for those suffering from arthritis, fibromyalgia, heartburn, or intestinal ailments like Celiac disease. I was in constant pain until September 17, 2013 when I stopped eating wheat and sugar products. The pain went away overnight.
• Besides all the things you already know about sugar, did you know that it feeds cancer cells? 

In China, I had no access to Gluten-free Bisquick or Stevia for Baking. For me to eat gluten free and sugar free, it meant a diet of meat and vegetables. That kind of diet helped me lose weight and reduce my pain tremendously.

However, since I'm in the U.S. for Christmas this year, and have access to a few more specialty ingredients, I thought I might make a batch of cookies -- ones that are not too bad for me -- to help me get in the Christmas spirit. I don't plan to make or eat them often, but it's certainly nice to have at least one recipe to turn to when the cookie mood strikes!

(By the way, I had no intention of being the organic, gluten-free kind of person, and was more of the type to make fun of those who were. I'm now of the opinion that there is really something to it.)

Mistletoe and Magic

I didn't plan to be home for the holidays, but since I am, I plan to soak in all the holiday spirit I possibly can. I took my mom to a local annual event called "Mistletoe and Magic," where local booths are set up to sell clothing, gifts, furniture and food.

We didn't buy a thing, but we enjoyed strolling around. My mom was quite taken with this therapy dog. My mom is a huge dog lover.

Soon we were crowded out of the dog area (by other dog lovers).

Here's my mom!

The guy in the kilt is apparently the dog's master. I think the kilt went with the theme of the event, because the man spoke like an east Texan, not a Scot.

When the other folks left, we went back for another visit with the doggy. 

My mom wanted to take it home. Is two dogs in the house not enough? (Mimi wasn't home yet, but was to arrive the next day.)

Here's my mom in front of one of the beautiful Christmas trees. She can walk, but long bouts of walking cause back pain so I pushed her through the event. (She broke her back two years ago, and pain still persists. But she still gets out!)

We asked a stranger to take our photo together in front of the tree. I knew I should have asked her to make more than one photo…to make sure we had our eyes open. But we just got one photo together.

Here's another tree scene. I like how the deer head is covered in cream-colored canvas.

 Deer garland.

It was a mighty cold and dreary day. A cute little coffee cart was set up in the parking lot.

On the way back home, we drove through some old neighborhoods to see the changing colors of the leaves. It was a nice little outing!

Mi Familia

I just returned to Asia around midnight last night. I'll try in the near future to post some of the photos from my trip. Today I will start by posting photos of family that I saw during this most recent trip. Above are my parents.

Above is my oldest brother CW, his wife and their 20-year-old son, the youngest of five kids.

And then there is my other older brother JW, his wife and their 16-year-old son, the youngest of three kids.

This is my mom's younger sister LW who lives about an hour away.

And here is me in my parents' backyard on Christmas Day. More photos coming soon!

Annual Christmas Party

I had my annual Christmas party tonight, and invited my usual group of young friends.

Above is just a sampling of the photos I took at the party. 

Three girls at the party (new friends of mine, huddled together on the sofa in the top photo) had absolutely no idea what Christmas was about, no idea whatsoever. I tried to tell them, and they had blank looks on their faces. Did not compute. We all gotta start somewhere.

I could not ask for a better group of friends. They are polite, thoughtful, intelligent and fun. I can't imagine why they hang out with me since I'm quite a bit older than they are. All I can figure is that they moved to the big city to get good jobs (most of the guys are engineers), but apart from their work they don't really belong anywhere in society. I provide frequent gatherings where they can be a part of something. There are another half-dozen or so who sometimes attend our gatherings who couldn't attend the party today. I am blessed by these young friends.

Our next gathering may be in January when I teach them how to bake cookies (their request). Most people in this country don't have ovens and are thus unable to bake anything whatsoever. Should be fun!