Hodgepodge: Manicotti, Must-Haves, and Moms

Wishing a merry Christmas to Joyce, the creator and loyal hostess of the Wednesday Hodgepodge. Can you believe this is the penultimate Wednesday of the year? (I love the word "penultimate." It sounds so much more posh than second-to-the-last, don't you agree?)

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open Hodgepodge. Thanks for being the workhorse of this "sleigh," Joyce! (Sometimes your humor "slays" me!)

Now, let's giddy-up into the Q & A, shall we?

1. Are you cooking Christmas dinner? How many will be round your table this year? What are we having?

Yes, but dinner is not the big production at Christmas that it is at Thanksgiving. We keep it simple with just our six-pack family, and by that I mean there are six of us, not that we're beer guzzlers. I will probably serve manicotti with meat sauce, garlic bread, and salad because it's easy as can be on a day I'm as tired as can be. I would like to think I'll make up some bruschetta, but that's only if I get a second wind. Mrs. Claus hasn't gotten a second wind on December 25th since ...um, never.
She tries to gear up for her anniversary which is only three days after the biggest energy-draining day of her life every year. And this year Santa and the Mrs are celebrating their "silver" anniversary in just one week's time, and they haven't planned where to from here yet! First things first, I suppose.

2. What is one must-have Christmas cookie in your house?

Thumbprints filled with strawberry preserves. We also call them Polish tea cookies because, well, we're Polish (some of us by marriage and some by birth). Ours aren't usually as pretty as this because we heap up the preserves. Take a look at yesterday's post to see all the varieties going on at our place.

3. Santa likes a glass of milk with his cookies. Do you? What kind of milk is on tap at your house--skim? almond? soy? full fat (Gasp!)

I love cookies with milk. If I could, I'd always drink whole milk. I would say that 98% of the time we drink 2%, so when I add up those percentages, I can fool myself into thinking I'm drinking a full 100% milk. (This is one example of many that substantiates my hubby's claim that I don't have one logical bone in my body. He is right when he says I have "a warped concept of math.")

But the question was about milk, right? Sheesh, I'm easily sidetracked.

4. Time magazine recently named their 'Person of the Year' for 2011. This is the person the editors believe had the greatest impact, for better or worse, in the past year. This year they chose 'The Protester'. Your thoughts? Who would you name Person of the Year for 2011?

The Protester, huh? Well, the squeaky wheels always HAVE gotten the oil, haven't they? I so wish the Person of the Year would be known for doing what is right and good, noble and heroic, or ordinary and common and ubiquitous like the stay-at-home mom of toddlers who devotes herself to a thankless, messy, mostly helpless crew of tiny thumbsuckers. When I was that mom, I wondered what it would feel like to actually get recognized for all I do. Call me selfish, but there was no paycheck, rarely a thank-you (although I loved my "ee-doo, Mommy" times) and there were no promotions. I appreciated my mom and the other older women who said, "You're doing a great job. God notices, even if you feel no one else does." I was thankful for the rare pastor who would acknowledge a few times a year--not just on Mother's Day-- the work of moms, and have us stand up to be prayed for. My heart is especially full of gratitude and respect for the single moms out there who do the work of two parents.



5. December 21st is National Flashlight Day... when was the last time you needed a flashlight and did you know right where to find one?

Who comes up with these bizarre "National Such-and-Such Days" anyway? About a month ago I needed a flashlight to hand my hubby who was replacing the garbage disposal. Yes, I knew right where that light was. (Yay me.) It's in the cabinet next to the fridge.

6. candy canes...yum or yuck?

Yum. I particularly like to keep a long candy cane in my purse after Christmas and break off a small piece at a time, over the course of a week or more, as a breath mint. Of course sometimes that means having to break off some purse grit to get to a fresh part. You know what I'm talking about.

7. What Christmas carol lyric means the most to you?

"God and sinners reconciled!"

8. Insert your own random thought here.

A new 'do always feels so good!