THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Oh, joy to the world, it's a special edition of The Friday Funnies, just because it's (nearly) Christmas.

That time of year when the consumption of alcoholic drinks soars, that time of year when Uncle Ned and Dad nearly come to blows over the groaning table, that time of year when a lot of mothers and wives deem divorce not to be such a bad idea.

Oh you know I'm kidding.

A little bit.

But let's take a look at what my co-conspirators have come up with for this special Friday.

Okay, friends, that's the best we can do.

For now, anyway.

Let's remember, at this blessed time of year, that Christmas is on Sunday so a three-day weekend has been declared.

I think.

Never mind how many days it is, just contrive to have a fabulous time.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(Oh I might have known)

TICK-TOCK

 Time is running short.

I'm heading back in the kitchen today.

The stores are full of Christmas shoppers.

Candles are being lit.

As we saw yesterday, trees are falling and even if no one but the cat was there to hear it, that tree definitely did fall.

So let's get on it procrastinators.

Time is running short.

A LONG DARK NIGHT

 Winter Solstice has arrived!

That means the longest night of darkness in the year.

But there's good news too.

From here on, each day will be light a little bit longer.

Well, at least for the next six months.

Of course if you live south of the Equator the situation is exactly reversed so brace yourselves.

Did you recognize what yesterday was?

12-20-2022.

Try saying that out loud.

Meanwhile, on the Christmas watch . . .

"Hey, it was dark! Very dark! I just stumbled into it!"

SHE HATES THIS!

 SWMBO will come after me for posting this one because she hates the television commercial which is running constantly which echoes this scene.

But it's funny in The Christmas Story movie, isn't it?

Anyway, here goes.

SO THERE!

 

UH-OH

 

JUST A THOUGHT

 

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Oooooohhhhh, it's getting closer.

It's only 9 days away now.

There's a tingling in the air.

(Really! The overnight lows here have been in the teens!!!)

There's a jingling in the ether.

(At least for those who haven't had their radios smashed yet!)

It's beginning to look a lot like . . . .

Well, you know.

So let's put some of that holiday cheer on the old blog, whaddaya say?

Oh, you must remember José For-Lease-iano!

Well, whatever.

Watch out for falling trees, smashed ornaments, candy crushed into the carpet and other joys of the season and have yourselves a very, merry weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Your in-laws will think you're crazy but who cares.

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

THE HOLIDAY EXCESSES

 'tis the season to be jolly!

And to eat and drink like folly.

You may have noticed an upsurge in posts here about Christmas goodies.

It's a season, possibly starting with Thanksgiving and running until after the New Year has been drunk rung in.

Everywhere there are talk and photos and t.v. programs about food and drink of the most extravagant kind.

It may be my favorite time of the year!

So I am indebted to the Mirthful Monk today for providing me with a perfect meme for the occasion.

Enjoy yourselves, everyone, for who knows what the morrow shall bring!

MY STATE

 Whenever I post something about our cooler weather or snow I get the same reaction from folks far and wide along the lines of "I didn't know it ever snowed in Arizona" or "I thought Arizona was hot and dry".

Today I'm offering a short educational post.

Most people who've never been here or have only been to places like Phoenix or Tucson in the summertime have only one impression of the climate here.

It's true.

Much of the southern part of the state is in the Great Sonoran Desert where the mighty Saguaro Cactus thrives.

But as the tv commercials yell "But wait! There's more!"

In northeastern Arizona, one finds Monument Valley as the Hollywood director John Huston did a few years ago.

He used that scenic wonderland to make Western movies that turned John Wayne into a movie star.

Also near that part of the state is a big hole in the ground which gave my state it's nickname: the Grand Canyon State.

But I know you've all seen pictures of it so I won't bother to show it to you again.

Oh, oops, I guess I couldn't sneak that omission by the Canyon's press agent.

But now let me show you some other aspects of Arizona which are NOT copper-colored.

For example the Mogollon Rim, which covers many miles across the mid-section of the state.

See all those green trees?

Over to the east from there, near the border with New Mexico, are the White Mountains, a cool vacationland for Phoenix residents seeking to escape the summer heat and maybe do a little fly fishing.

There's a town over there called Snowflake.

And speaking of snow let me take you to the Flagstaff area and the San Francisco Peaks and Mount Humphreys, which tops out at nearly 13,000 feet.

So you see?

There's a wide diversity in Arizona.

Of terrain, of flora and fauna, and of climate.

I'm not getting paid for this but I'd recommend a subscription to Arizona Highways magazine if you'd like to see and learn more about my adopted state.

Actually I've lived here more than half of my life and that's a lot of years.

And hot or cold, I still love it here.

MO' SNOW

 Surprise!  We got more snow during the night.

And for those of you wondering what I was going to make with the puff pastry I finally acquired, here's the first project.

The fancy title is from the French (of course),  Raspberry Pain au Chocolat.

The English translation makes them Raspberry Chocolate Croissants.

I prefer to call mine Puff Pastry Logs with a little Raspberry and Chocolate Hazelnut (Nutella).

I had trouble rolling out the puff pastry, with adding the paltry amount of filling, with marking the sealed edges and with cutting slits in the top of each piece.

But they baked well and I figured out a way to sprinkle them with powdered sugar without it getting all over the counter, the floor and me.

And when I got the rare bite with some of the previously mentioned paltry filling, they weren't bad.

Living and learning, here at the Taylor Family (experimental) Bakery.

A WHITE (pre)-CHRISTMAS

 As usual, the Weather Gods were trying to put The Fear into us about a huge winter storm heading our way.

It had already dumped a bunch of snow on the Sierras in northern California and supposedly was bearing down on us here in normally balmy Arizona.

(BTW, by "balmy", I'm talkin' about the weather, not our political climate.)

So Flagstaff, to the north of us, got about 6 inches and here in Prescott Valley we got maybe an inch or so.

Hardly a snowcopalypse but enough to make for some nice photos.

AN OLD HAND TAKES OVER

 The Taylor Family Bakery was humming again today but with a difference.

The Master was back.

The Holiday Season that comes around toward the end of the year seems to bring out the Gingerbread Lady complex in my mate.

And today she was knee arm deep in cookie dough.

Proof:

Drop Sugar Cookies. WITH SPRINKLES!

And she didn't drop a one, except the one she dropped in my puppy-dog-expectant outstretched hand.

But that's not all.

She also made a batch of her famous Five C. cookies.

Now if you're familiar with Arizona I know you're thinking "Hmmm, 5 C's? That must be copper, cattle, cotton, citrus and climate."

But no!

These five c's stand for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies!

Stop yelling at me, I didn't name them.

And they're delicious and addictive.

Just to let you know that I'm still in the game, once SWMBO left the kitchen, I moved in and produced a couple of loaves of her favorite English muffin bread, which she had told me she was nearly out of.

And tomorrow?

Ah, tomorrow is another day, my friends.

What's cooking baking at your house?

PERIL AND TRAVAIL FOR THE JOLLY BAKER

 I know, I know.

Some people just go way over the top with their Christmas decorations.

And that picture in my header isn't even the most over-decorated house one can find.

But surprisingly to me, SWMBO got the Christmas decorating impulse earlier than ever this year and our minimal decorations are already up.

And we added a few things this year, including colored lights around the outside of the front window.

Like some of our neighbors, I've left them on all night for the past couple of nights but I'm thinking I'll cut down on that.

Let Santa find his own way.

But I could have used his hyper-knowledge recently.

I have found an interesting hobby in my declining and reclining years: baking!

And I recently discovered the wonders of using frozen, ready-to-bake puff pastry sheets.

I used up the supply in our freezer but I was ready for more so I ordered some from our big superstore a mile or so away.

Alas when I picked up the groceries, the puff pastry dough was not included.

They were out of it!

Well.

A couple of days later I went to another branch of that store, an even bigger one, and they didn't have it either!

It occurred to me that I could try some other recipes for Christmas goodies that didn't rely on puff pastry.

Or I could make some myself at home from scratch.

SWMBO nervously suggested that task might be above my pay grade.

She asked me about my search for the store-bought product and then told me I'd been looking in the wrong place.

"Not in the cold counters," she said, "in the frozen food cases!"

"Oh", said I.

This morning I went to yet another store and searched the "right" area.

I found the correct shelf, with a label marked "puff pastry" but there was still nothing to be found.

I was getting a little tense but, like a dog gnawing on a bone, I was not to be deterred.

I continued on to yet a fourth store, this one a bit smaller and closer than all the others to our new abode, but they had recently completed a remodeling and were urging customers to try them out.

So I went there and SHAZAM!

A counter showed me a plethora of boxes of the long-sought product.

Two boxes came home with me.

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

But now I'm too tired to bake anything.