Ready or not?

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A house up the street from a few years back.

I wonder if everyone is ready for Christmas....I am...almost. I still have a few things left to wrap. And actually need to get gifts for the little kids next door. And I have yet to get in all the fixings for Christmas dinner. But that is not that much left to do.

Neal and I were talking the other night...our talks always include talking about childhood and the things we remember. I was telling him, the one memory that really stands out in my mind is all the cakes mom would bake at Christmas. There was a metal cabinet that had two shelves up top behind glass, and those two shelves would be full of cakes! I could not remember if it was just a year or two that she did that, or every year.

He said he thought it was every year, and that he helped her bake them. So, I told him I didn't remember actually eating them...he thought that she gave most of them away. Which makes sense...I just can't imagine not remembering eating them.

I cannot remember the variety that she made, but know she almost always made a jam cake...it tasted sort of like a spice cake if I remember correctly, and she always made a caramel icing for it. She also made a stack cake...at least that is what we called it. She had no written recipe, and did not measure a thing....but she made this dough. I know it had eggs and sugar in it, and other than that I can't recall what else. I know I liked the dough raw, better than baked.

She would divide take a dough ball about the size of a fist or maybe just a bit bigger....she would pat that out flat in a greased iron skillet. She kept two iron skillets in the oven and would make anywhere from 8 to 12 or 14 layers.

For the filling in between the layers, she used dried apples and cooked them down to something similar to apple butter but with more texture if I remember correctly. ( I know water and cinnamon were added to the apples, but think there were other spices, just don't recall what all.) That was a cake that company always enjoyed. I have never seen the cake made by anyone else, but I did find a recipe that sounds right here.

Thinking back, that is one of my favorite memories.

A visitor today

Lorelei stayed with us today....she is quite the character. Never still a minute. Wait. I take that back....I put her little jacket on her, and wrapped her blanket around her. Loosely. It wasn't cold, just windy. And we sat in the swing on the front porch once again. It has been ages since I have seen her that still. She just sat so quietly, not moving at all unless a car passed. She totally loves cars...I don't know what it is about them but she watches them as far as she can see them.

And she mimics us....at least Roger. If he coughs, she coughs. It is just too cute for words. And any of us can initiate a yelling contest. And she smiles the whole time. When she crawls through the house, she looks like a little wind-up toy. Specially on the linoleum in the dining room and in the kitchen.

I only hope everyone gets as much enjoyment from their kids as we do her. Her mom and dad are just so good with her. And her aunt is wonderful with her.

I never talk a lot about my older daughter...but I am just as proud of her as can be. I showed Lorelei some pictures of her today and when she saw them, a smile lit up her whole face. This daughter somehow inspires that in kids.

When she was in college, she worked at a mini mart for about 3 or 4 years while going to college. So many of the kids that came in there reacted to her in ways that astonished their parents. One or two would always have to kiss her good-by, all the time the parents saying their child never did that with anyone else. Then there was another couple that had a little girl about 3 yrs. old if I remember correctly....they would try to get gas without bringing her in. They would come in and warn my daughter to stay away from the window, but if their little girl seen my daughter, she would insist on being brought in. And my daughter would have to pick her up for just a couple minutes. The only thing I can think is that she made them feel safe.

Road to memories

As I sit here trying to type, a cat is at the front door wanting in. With four cats, there is one wanting in or out continually. When it is really cold, sometimes one will want out and when we open the door and it feels the cold, it will either step out and turn around and run back in or sometimes they don't even go out. But it has to be really bitter cold/wind for that.

Anyway, this road to the barn reminds me of other roads, other barns, other times and places. But mostly I think about our barn. It sure seen a lot of life. Just the normal day to day chores of feeding the pigs, and we always fed Old Bob, our old horse a little extra every day. I think it was corn ground up with some kind of sweetening added to it...maybe molasses? I don't really know what was used--I just know it smelled good.

And how many of you know that pigs will eat coal? Honest to goodness, they do. A few times during the year, I would have to get a bucket and gather it full of smaller pieces of coal, the various sizes of crushed rock. I don't know how mom knew they ate coal...and I don't know what it supplied for the pigs but they ate it like the pigs they were. Totally enjoyed it. And I know mom thought it supplied something they needed. And I have heard a neighbor talking about his pigs and thinking something was wrong, and mom told him to feed them coal.

And in the summer, two or three times a week mom or I, or both of us would cut a big armload of what we called horseweeds and carry them and throw them in the pigpen to the pigs. I have been trying to find a decent picture of what we called horseweeds but can't. What is listed as horseweeds in a google search is not what we called horseweeds. I just had a thought googled ragweed, then clicked images. It came up as giant ragweed. That makes sense because of the flower head--it is similar to regular ragweed.

In the summer, my sisters would usually come home for at least one visit...and soon as they got in my nieces and/or nephews wanted to go to the barn. The one thing I remember them really liking to do was to shell corn for the pigs. It was an added bonus if we happened to have a calf that we were keeping in the barn! I didn't realize it when I was a kid, at least not at first, but a couple of the nephews would try riding the calves if they were any size at all!

That is just a few of the memories that flood my soul when I see barns...so it is no wonder that I love them.