Merry Christmas!
Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. It's a time to decorate for the festive celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ! Imagine what a wonderful gift He gave us by saving us from hell and giving us a joyous life in Heaven with Him; that is priceless! And I'll share a fashion tip, Designer Oscar de la Renta passed in 2014, he was a believer..., so who is designing the robes? Yep, they will be fabulous, LOL! Seriously, it is a time of the year to relax, spend time with family, friends, or just hang out. Whatever you do, have fun and praise Him!
Hopefully, we will have a cold Christmas in Florida...fat chance of that, huh!
I always tell my friends that when they visit that the best time of the year to visit Florida is October; it's perfect between October and March. I do believe Florida is a beautiful state, I even enjoy the rainy days, but this is the best time to garden. My lemon tree is not producing much, but the mandarin tree of showing off. Disney is beautiful and its like stepping into Christmas land. Watching holiday movies, my favorites are "It's a Wonderful Life," "Miracle on 34th Street," "A Christmas Carol." and "The Holiday." Life is good right, oh and don't forget..."The Grinch."
Smokey loves Christmas!
Smoke starts to do back flips when I start putting of the tree. He thinks it is the best "cat tower" ever. He loves it with or without ornament. But each year it has a real cat ornament that sleeps in the tree. Wow! That cat!
God Gives Us Grace for the Little Things...
Afternoon Lunch on the Patio
We spend so much time "watching time," working to meet a deadline, and working to complete a list of "Things To Do." I certainly work that way, often being cognizant of what's due and when. Even in retirement, it's my goal to accomplish certain things by a specific time. Normally that time would be a show due date.
But God is good cause today I had the pleasure of having lunch on my patio. So, let me set the scene. I'm looking through a magazine to get ideas to update the decor of the house. I see a delicious Italian pasta salad..."Wow, I'll make that for lunch." I'm missing a number of ingredients. No problem, I'll substitute various things. Substitute the green onions in place of red. Shrimp rather than salami, and use goat cheese for mozzarella. Then I added a little of this and that. I made sweet tea, like the true Southerner I am and set the table on the patio, real napkins no doubt. The salad was the best pasta salad I had ever made, OMG! It was heavenly sitting there listening to the sprinkler water the lawn and the two dogs, and two cats were sound asleep...it was just me with my magazine and my salad. And I thought 'Lord, thanks...its just the little things that make life rich'!
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Worked on the salad again and finally
completed the recipe with more ingredients:
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Penny's Pepper & Shrimp Pasta Salad
1 cup of cooked Bow Tie pasta
1/8 cup of green bell pepper
1/8 cup of red bell pepper (optional)
1/8 cup of yellow pepper (optional)
1 tomato diced in small pieces
1/8 cup of red onion
Green onion chopped (or Julianne) to taste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 1/2 of cooked shrimp any size
1/4 cup of Olive Garden Italian dressing or Zesty Italian
1 egg boiled and chopped sprinkle on top (optional)
4 to 5 Kalamata olives for an extra kick
Crumbled goat cheese on top (optional but a must have)
Mixed everything together in bowl, except the egg and goat cheese. Add and mix in salad dressing. Top with egg (for more protein) and goat cheese.
