Ready for Christmas?

[Ridgerunner]

I have a Thanksgiving trip coming up so I had to sort out my Christmas baskets. My wife handles the gifts, I just give certain people things I think theyll enjoy. Obviously not everyone gets the same thing. For example, not everyone will enjoy the pickled beets but my brother-in-law will immensely. Hell probably enjoy staining the counter with the red juice and aggravating his wife as much as hell like the beets. You do have to put some thought into it to please some people.

I have plenty of this stuff left for me so most of this is to give away. No way will just the two of us eat this much.

From right to left, pickled beets, blackberry jam, mixed fruit jelly, blueberry jam, blackberry jelly, peach chutney, peach jam, pear jam, sweet pepper jam, sauerkraut, sage, oregano, and basil.

How you coming for Christmas?

 

[Carol Dee]

Truly a gift from the heart. The very best kind.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Ahh, looks so pretty, bet it tastes amazing too!!

One holiday at a time for me! I just got my Thanksgiving menu planned out, shopping lists made...I don't even have a turkey yet!! Hopefully I will after work today!

 

[dewdropsinwv]

HA! I'm not even ready for Thanksgiving! I still need to pick up the rest of our dinner, side dishes mostly, We got the bird in the fridge thawing out. We have done some shopping for gifts. Not sure what we have left to buy though. I know for sure it's not going to be much. Santa has scaled back in our house the past few years.... kids growing up, moving out or having their own kids.

 

[baymule]

For our Christmas, we have a white elephant party for the adults and bring presents for the kids. It simplifies things and cuts down on the expense of buying a bunch of stupid crap for people who don't need more stupid crap.

 

[journey11]

For our Christmas, we have a white elephant party for the adults and bring presents for the kids. It simplifies things and cuts down on the expense of buying a bunch of stupid crap for people who don't need more stupid crap.

I like that idea!

Wow, Ridgerunner, who wouldn't love to be on your gift list!

We're all ready and excited here. When you have young kids, I don't think you can start early enough really. We put our tree up yesterday and got it decorated.

This year I did jars of pear butter, apple butter and real homemade vanilla extract (it has brewed for several months, so it ought to be really good.) I still have soap and hard lotion bars to do. I am also going to make a pine/dirt smell soap bar for the deer hunters in the family. This will be my first try at soap, so here's hoping it turns out. I try to do something different each year. A couple of years ago I did homemade venison summer sausage and hot pepper butter. That was a hit.

 

[digitS']

You did good, Ridgerunner!

Christmas? I'm terrible. If I don't draw a complete blank on ideas for the holidays, whatever occurs to me just gets a blank stare . . . or worse.

I just realized today that I missed my brother's birthday. In September!!

Steve

 

[MontyJ]

All I want for Christmas is.....Ridgerunners mixed fruit jelly recipe.

 

[so lucky]

I am out of ideas for making gifts for the grand daughters. I've made monkeys, tutus, stick ponies, bunnies, other stuffed animals. I'm thinking of quillows, but that's not very exciting for a 5 year old to open. (Unless it's yellow, her fav color) Hand puppets? Fake fur vests? Bah!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a late freeze that knocked out a lot of my fruit. Still, everything there was something I grew except the pears. I bought those.

I had just a few apples and not many grapes due to that freeze. So I took the juice from those few grapes that didnt get eaten fresh and the apples, added juice from blackberries, blueberries, peaches, and a few of those bought pears. It was mainly stuff left over after I finished the main jams and jellies. I just threw it together until I had 5 cups of juice, used 7 cups of sugar, and used the regular sure-jell method: add sure-jell, bring it to a boil, stir in the sugar and boil for a minute, then water bath can it.

Merry Christmas Monty. That was an easy present. Since that was all you wanted is Dew off the hook for a present?