Hello, and welcome to the Christmas season! I can’t believe that it has been a month since I wrote my last blog post! These last few weeks have just flown by, and now Christmas is just a week away.
This post is #400! It has taken almost 6 years to get this far, but I have persevered and have had 22,760 views to the blog in that time. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get to 23,000 by the end of 2016!
I love Christmas, but I am also often a sentimental puddle of mush during the season. My fondest memories of my dad are from Christmas. I miss him the most during this season. Actually, I miss my mom, dad, and brother the most during Christmas.
Christmas will be a little strange since there will be only 3 of us together. Our family of 10 going on 11 will be spread out from Chicago to Philadelphia to Orlando this year. However, I am very thankful that I had 9 of our 10-almost-11 here at Thanksgiving! This is what life is all about! We spend years training our kids to become independent adults, capable of surviving life without us! It is such a blessing to see our kids marry and become parents and begin new traditions with their own little families! I have two favorite passages of Scripture concerning children. One has also been my mother-in-law’s favorite…Isaiah 54:13–“All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.” The other is verse 4 of the little 3rd epistle of John–“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” If these are true of my children, then I feel that I was a successful mom, for this is what matters most!
Here are a few pictures that we had taken at Thanksgiving.
Now to this amazing pie recipe! Tomorrow evening we are having our special Lessons and Carols service at church. We always have a fellowship time after this service, and this year we are all supposed to bring side dishes and desserts. I had an extra bag of fresh cranberries that I needed to use, so I did a little searching for a cranberry pie. I found one on the Food Network web page that sounded really good! As usual, I made some changes by adding apples and using pecans instead of walnuts. It is not THM-friendly, but could easily be adapted. Delicious!!
- 2 c. fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1/2 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup Truvia baking blend)
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Topping:
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp. almond extract
Spray a 10-inch pie pan to prevent sticking. Spread the cranberries in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and sugar. Let sit while mixing the topping.
Cream the butter with the eggs and sugar. Add the flour and almond extract to the mixture until blended. This mixture will be thick. Spread the topping over the cranberries and nuts. Be sure to seal the edges. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
Serve warm with whipped topping or ice cream!
