Where Honesty Begins . . .

Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.

- Walter Anderson

Spicy Almond Treat

A week before Christmas and you are desperate for last-minute gifts for neighbors and friends. This is a fast and easy way to provide a sweet thought for those people and not break the bank or push you over the edge into holiday insanity!

Spicy Almond Treat
4 cups whole unblanched almonds
1 egg white
1 teaspoon water
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool for approximately 30 minutes.

Beat egg white and water in a large bowl until frothy. Stir in granulated sugar, brown sugar, spices, pepper, and salt. Stir in cooled nuts. Spread nuts in a single layer on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Turn down oven to 325 degrees and bake nuts about 20 minutes or until nuts appear dry, stirring once halfway through baking. Let cool and break into pieces.

Ideas . . .

You can fill small, pretty jars with the nuts for a nice hostess gift.

Great to have on your buffet table for holiday parties.

A better treat for the children when they get tired of all the gooey, sugary treats.

Prayer Request!

I just found out an elderly friend isn't expected to last out the week. If you have a prayer for Mr. C., today, I know his family would appreciate it. He has been suffering with cancer and other illnesses for almost three years now. A priest has been to the house and helped him prepare for this final journey on earth. I know is wife is happy for this but what a sad and poignant event for the Christmas season.

Brownie Temptation times Thirty!

Wish I'd come across this site before I finished my baking. It makes me want to drag all the baking stuff out and go at it again! The link actually gives recipes for 30 different kinds of brownies. I'm thinking it would be fun to have a brownie party for a Christmas party some year. Two of the listed recipes caught my attention - one with a mint layer covered by a chocolate icing and a similar one only using an orange layer.

http://www.bhg.com/recipes/desserts/cookies/chocolate-brownie-recipes/?sssdmh=dm17.569503&esrc=nw12d2011_06_11&email=4011674711

Sort of an Autumn Morning in California . . .

Early this morning, the rising sun played some pretty light on the surrounding trees. I started taking some pictures when I noticed the bird in the one tree and then the rainbow. Not sure if the rainbow means the rain is over because it is still raining! Not often I can find so many Fall colors in the same area. A huge contrast to our very green orange tree with all it's brightly colored fruit. That's California for you.

Educating thoughts for a Sunday . . .

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't."
-- Anatole France

"Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say."
-- Samuel Johnson

"Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better."
-- Andre Gide

Christmas is NEXT week . . . already?

A few more plates of cookies to deliver and I'm officially prepared for the material side of Christmas. Time to turn my heart more fully towards the actual day of Christmas. Amazing how many years of Christmases there have been in the world and how each year has seen neglect and attacks on this most holy of days. A world that was saved by Jesus is not showing itself to be a very grateful one and that is a sad thread that permeates the feast day.

I guess it has come down to each of us spreading our lights as far as we can within our own corner of the world and hoping peace, kindness, and charity will multiply from there. We can't lose heart because then we lose sight of the final reward for our belief.

The people who don't believe in any kind of higher being are certainly out in full force this season. I don't understand them. Yes, it is a free world and we can believe in God or not. That is our gift of free will. Why do they, however, want to force their non-belief on us in any and every way they can during Christmas? Seems to me they protest too much! Perhaps, they do feel a disconnect among the majority who find solace and joy and hope that by trying to banishing our free will to worship, will find comfort for themselves.

I often think about what it would be like to not believe in God and it opens such a vast darkness in my mind that would keep me from really trying to be the best human being I can be. I mean, if there is no reward for our struggles on earth, why struggle. If any kindness is a selfish act, why be kind? If being good for the sake of godliness isn't necessary, why bother? If you read the Ten Commandments they offer a simple list of do's and don't's that, as people in a social society, should observe just on the common sense level. I guess the first couple of commandments keep a lot of people from reading further.

Christmas is a time to rejoice, share, care, and pray for those who aren't letting themselves be a reality in the season because they don't want to go higher than themselves in prayer and belief.