I wouldn't be me if ...

‘Tis the season for good cheer, catching up with family and friends, and endless commercials for new cars adorned with a giant red bow. It’s also, in my opinion, the season for indulging in special sweets that recall memories of childhood. You know, those cookies or cakes baked once a year that became ineluctably paired with the jolly elf, holiday decorations, and wishes.

I’ve shared many recipes for such treats over the years and I wouldn’t be me if I let this season go by without another offering. However, rather than dip into my family’s recipe vault, I’m sharing a long time favourite from my friend Judi. She always talks about these soft, delicious, spice cookies at this time of year, a firm family favourite in her house. By the time I got around to asking for the recipe and baking a batch, I could only wonder why I waited so long! 

Legend has it these cookies keep for weeks. I cannot confirm because they don’t last more than a week in this house.

For a brief history behind the name of these cookies, check out this link.

Joe Frogger Cookies

(adapted from Judi Phillips' recipe)

Makes about 2 dozen.

3½ cups flour

2 teaspoons sea salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger.

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon allspice

1 packed cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup molasses

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons dark rum

1/3 cup hot water

Adjust oven shelves to top and bottom thirds and preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.

In a large bowl, beat together brown sugar, white sugar and butter until smooth. Mix baking soda into the cup of molasses and add to the butter mixture along with rum and hot water and blend. The mixture will curdle, that's okay. With the mixer at low speed, blend in the flour mixture until well-combined. Dough will be soft.

Drop by liberal tablespoon-fulls onto parchment-lined cookie sheet, spacing two inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes, switching the top and bottom cookie sheets halfway through. Cookies will be slightly plumped and appear dry on top. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely .

Store at room temperature in a covered container. 

These cookies freeze well. 

From my home to yours, may the blessings of the season fill your hearts with joy.

A blizzard … Krista Rhodes has seen a few in her lifetime. 

Snowed in for days … once, when she was a kid. 

Trapped in a house with Dr. Dreamboat … never saw that one coming. Not only cute, he’s also funny and kind and strong and how can she resist? 

Eric Monroe has it all mapped out – drive cross-country to a new job with a brief stop to celebrate a buddy’s engagement. A giant detour with a beautiful, witty, no-nonsense woman makes the journey more fun than he ever thought possible. And bonus – he’s moving to her town.

Except she’s got something she has to do. Maybe. And he can’t ask her to change her plans. Can he?  

Buy now!

Luanna Stewart has been creating adventures for her imaginary friends since childhood. She spends her days writing contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, and historical romance. When not torturing her characters, she’s in her kitchen baking something delicious. She lives in Nova Scotia with her patient husband and five hens.

Website ~ Bookbub ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads

Could I have just one more. . .

by Diana McCollum

As many of you have said, I wouldn't change anything I've experienced in my life because all the  good and bad have made me the person I am today.

My one regret, I wish that I could have just one more day with my mom before she went into the lost her memory completely. The last 2 weeks at the memory care home she wasn't present, she was confused and upset all the time.  The last two months of her life she was slipping into full fledged dementia, Alzheimers and needed 24 hr care. If I could have that day with mom, I would tell her I was sorry I didn't realize she had been ill for so long. It took a hospital stay and the doctor telling me mom's scan showed Alzheimers and she needed 24 hr care.

Since mom lived with us, the changes were subtle. Just mom being mom. Looking back I can see she was falling into dementia for the past few years.

Hindsight is always a few minutes too late, isn't it?

The past couple of years before she died I sometimes got frustrated with her, she lived with us. I tried not to show it, but once in a while I couldn't help it. She had a couple months when she bought mop and glow for the floors every time we went to a store. Forgetting things like the garbage disposal she turned on then walked away from. Things like that, not normal. If I had only known then that she was already suffering from Alzheimers I would have been more patient, more understanding.

An example of my frustration: Mom and I were looking for a parking spot at the grocery store about a year ago. An obese woman was slowly crossing in front of us. Mom says, "honk the horn, maybe she'll walk faster!".  I said, "Mom! She can't walk any faster." I could literally feel my blood pressure rise. My frustration came from mom having no empathy for the woman who was obviously distressed. And Mom used a walker and walked very slow herself.

Grief has been one of my closest friends since December, when mom passed.

Mother's Day loomed in the future and I found myself becoming more anxious. My sister, Sarah and I decided a good way to deal with this first Mother's Day with no 'Mother', was to spread love and joy to others.

So we surprised some family members with 'Mothers' day cards and gifts.

As Lynn said in her post, share the love. In doing our new Mother's Day tradition we made our daughters, nieces, friends, and daughter-in-laws happy. None of them were expecting anything from us, but their joy brought us happiness and joy too, on what would have been a sad day.

My motto is now spread the love. Smile at the grouchy looking person in the grocery line, maybe that will make their day.

If you could have one more day to talk to someone who passed, who would it be?

Changing up Tradition

How is it, some people can rattle off a blog in five minutes and it takes me a month to figure out what I’m going to say?  This morning, while pondering that very subject, I finished wrapping all the Christmas presents.  This is the first time in many years that the gift shopping was done early. Usually my husband and I don’t even start shopping until a week before, partly because of how the pay period fell and partly because we didn’t want to have to store the gifts so long. I get very antsy about wanting to give the kids their gifts after I buy them, haha.   

So, anyway, this year we’re changing up our tradition because of the kid’s work schedules and the two significant others of our kids (not spouses, just bf/gf).Usually on Christmas Eve we go to church (or attempt to…it’s so freakin’ crowded you can find a parking spot within two blocks much less a place to sit inside) then we go to dinner, then come home, watch a holiday movie, play games, let the kids open the gifts they got for each other, then go to bed, get up early for breakfast, open more gifts then cook a big dinner…whew.  This year we’re not doing the dinner out on Christmas Eve and no one gets to open gifts (because my oldest is working and won’t be in until after midnight), but we will have a mini feast , listen to Christmas carols and play games. We’re a game-playing family.  One of our favorites is a variation of Pictionary. We use a white board with colored dry-erase markers and you get a card with five words that you have to draw within three minutes and your team has to guess the answer. It’s boys against girls and until my daughter started dating an artist, the girls won. Haha

So, what kind of traditions do you have? Do you change them up as the kids or you get older?

Before I leave you, here is one of my favorite Christmas songs…especially for you.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Chanukah!

Happy Kwanza!

A Very Happy Holiday to you all!