Christmas Cookies/December Birthdays

After getting done with basketball early Saturday afternoon, I pretty much tried to rest off my cold/walking pneumonia over the rest of the weekend. So far it's been only a partial success. I was almost ready to call the doctor, but will hold on for the day and see if I can shake it....because rest is about all you can do. Anti-Biotics work to a small degree, but usually only mask the problem....meanwhile I feel pretty much "half-assed", but movable none-the-less. The next day or two should tell the tale...either way, I'm still better off than a year ago at this time, when I was a week away from my back epidural....which took the entire winter to "kick-in".


We as a rule are not a party-family{not that we weren't in our younger days} although the boys, especially Hal, certainly have their moments.....meaning we no longer have large house get togethers at our place{only family stuff on occasion}....we don't send out a long list of Christmas Cards, we usually do Christmas Eve at my sister's house. I go to Rick's over in Auburn on New Year's Day.....Christmas Day we stay at home, Patricia makes her usual Christmas Breakfast and we spend the day watching "A Christmas Story" off and on....pretty mundane stuff, but we like it that way.



One highlight over the Holidays begins shortly after Thanksgiving....that is when Patricia, who is an excellent cook
(She was even when I met her when she was only 20), begins her annual Christmas Cookie marathon. Over the next month or so she begins working on some 20 odd different varieties of bake goods. She usually adds a new one or two each year and retires another equal number from her batch. Usually by the middle of December she has the majority done. Despite teaching full time, and having to do the majority of work with daughter Anissa and her handicaps...Patricia always manages time to mix, cut, bake, and top, her 55 to 60 dozen or so cookies. This is no time to be starting a diet...all you can hope to do is cut your "gains", and come out of the Holidays with the same waist size.

Once again a big salute to my wife, who has put up with me for the past 32 years, come this Thursday December 18th.
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December Dates in the Family

In addition to being married 32 years this week, December seems to be THE month when it comes to birthday celebrations in the Houseworth household....must be something about the end of winter(March) and sex in the family history.

Here is a list of December Birthdays off the top of my head in the immediate family:

Dad(Stan Houseworth) would have been 91, last week, December 10th...he also passed away in December, Christmas Eve of 1972.

Brother Mike is 62 today.....December 15, 1946, was his birthday.

Oldest son Sam will be 27 this Wednesday December 17th...being born the day before our 5th anniversary.

Grandma Wilda Houseworth was born December 22, 1883, her oldest child Cecil on December 23, 1901, first cousins Gary, 1946, and his sister Linda, 1941, were also born in December, as well as a couple of other cousins. December has indeed been a "celebrated" month in the family over the past 125 years or so.
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Bottom dropping temperatures......on the weather front, it was 50 degrees and raining when I awoke at 6:45 this morning....by the time I dropped Anissa off at her Adult work place at 9AM, it was down to 26, with freezing rain.....things look to get only worse from here on out for the next couple days. No game tonight, back at it tomorrow at Antwerp, for a boys Jr High double header.

back later>>>>>>>>>>

Photos-A plate of Patricia's home made cookies, and the storage boxes containing a % of some of her work, and the "Ginger Bread Cookies"..not my favorite, but a lot of work to do each on individually.