Chocolate for Christmas – Day 2

December 18, 2017 | Sandra Pavloff Conner

Exif JPEG

An early Christmas gift from my sister. We share many wonderful chocolate memories.
Hint: The Orange Cremes are the rectangular pieces covered in dark chocolate. They are the very, very, very best pieces in the box —- although each one of the others has its own merits as well. I promise you not one piece will be thrown out.

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One Man’s Response to Pearl Harbor

December 7, 2017 | Sandra Pavloff Conner

PEARL HARBOR, 1941, FREEDOM IS NOT FREE - black & red
The following is a quote of my dad’s own words as he explained his personal response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941:

DADMARINEJPG - ED. “The dramatic part of my life began, as that of so many members of the armed forces did, on one of the most infamous days in U. S. history — at Pearl Harbor. Even though I was only 17, I talked my dad and step-mom into signing their permission for me to enter the Marine Corps and do as much as I could to help win that war and make it as short as possible.

“Actually, I had always wanted to be a Marine. All through high school, it was my dream. At the age of 15, I’d felt the call of God on my heart to become a preacher of the Gospel, but as far as I could tell, that wouldn’t preclude my serving my country as well. And if I were going to serve, I was going to be a Marine!”

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Weekend Coffee Share – Christmas Decorating

December 4, 2017February 26, 2018 | Sandra Pavloff Conner

COFFEE BEING POURED W. SPOON - PDPics -- PX — photo courtesy of PDpics @ pixabay.com

Well, I’m cutting things pretty close for this “Weekend Coffee Share,” but I’ve never participated in the past and suddenly decided it was time I did. So here goes.

To begin, I can tell you that I LOVE coffee. In fact, a couple months ago, I did a whole series called “Daily Grind Coffee Quotes,” where I shared some amazing pictures of coffee and a personal quote that fit each picture. If you think you’d enjoy them, feel free to check them out. I’ll include a link here to the page that has only the “Daily Grind” posts.

Now, if we were sitting and sharing a cup of coffee today, I’d probably talk about Christmas. I LOVE Christmas. My sister and I both do, and we enjoy keeping as many of our family traditions going as possible. However, I had a lot of renovation done to my house this fall, and there’s still a tiny bit to finish up. So I’ve been getting to my Christmas decorating a little slowly.

No problem, though. It’s still lots of fun. I do have a brand new electrical outlet on my front porch and on the back of my house — which makes doing my outside lights much easier than it was in previous years. I have lots of white lights on my front porch and a cross of white lights on my front door. I have multi-colored lights along the back of my house.

I’m a little sad that my huge, beautiful Blue Spruce ( Big Blue by name) won’t get lights though. I used to decorate him, but now he’s so very tall and big around that it would take at least 3,000 lights to do him any justice at all. Unfortunately the normal outdoor Christmas lights warn against linking that many strings together, and the LED’s are just too expensive to purchase that many when I want other decorations as well. Besides, I’d also have to hire someone with a crane and bucket to string those 3,000 lights. Oh, well, I still enjoy my tree. And when it snows and covers the branches with soft piles of snow, it’s a truly enchanting sight.

I’ve almost got all the inside decorations up. My tree will go up tonight, along with a large Christmas Teddy Bear who gets to sit in his own little red rocking chair. It’s actually MY little red rocking chair. I’ve had it since I was 2 years old. Considering the fact that I’m now 69, I think it’s quite an accomplishment to still have it in great condition in my living room.

One of my favorite decorations is a huge adult pop-up story book that was a gift from my very best friend about 5 years ago. Since I’m a minister as well as a writer, he knew I’d enjoy some kind of book that was connected with the Scriptures, and he found a pop-up book that covers the first five books of the Bible. Each book has an enormous and very detailed scene that come up when you turn to that page. One of the scenes — ‘The Tower of Babel’ — stands 13 inches high when it pops up.

Wow, I didn’t intend to get so carried away about decorating, but — as I mentioned — I do love Christmas. I even have a separate website devoted to nothing but that wonderful holiday. I hope all of you are looking forward to the celebration of our Lord’s birth as well. And I hope you have as much fun getting ready for it as I do.

Well, my coffee needs a warm-up, so I’ll sign off now and go take care of that. Thanks for visiting with me and sharing my favorite beverage today.

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Thoughts on Thanksgiving – Day 6

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 | Sandra Pavloff Conner

PUMPKIN PIES - ART -- Avrilsshowers -- PX How Many Pumpkin Pies Is Enough???

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A Pumpkin Pie Memoir

When I was child, I did not like pumpkin pie at all. We had a rule in our home that at the dinner table, my sister and I had to eat at least 3 bites of each food on the table. Like most kids, there were things we did not like (which we later grew to like very much), but my dad was a strong believer that because my mom worked diligently to make sure we had a very healthy, well-balanced diet (including good sweet treats as well), we owed it to her and to ourselves to at least try things that we thought we did not like. After we took 3 bites, if we were still convinced we just could not eat that food, we were excused from eating it.

One evening, my dad decided he’d encourage us further to eat something we said we didn’t like. He often brought us little gifts or tokens of his thoughtfulness when he came home from work, and that night he said he had a special gift for us if we would eat all of our dinner — including the dessert — which was pumpkin pie. I was discouraged because I really didn’t like it, but I wanted the gift, so I made myself eat a small piece of the pie and finished it. When we were done, Dad said, “Okay came over here, and hold out your hands.” We stood in front of him, holding out our hands, and he kissed each one of our hands. Bummer!!! We complained, of course, but it was all good-natured fun. We knew he meant it as a family joke, so we weren’t angry — but we did tell him we’d never be tricked like that again.

Now, today, I love pumpkin pie. And I like it best with vanilla ice cream. I have Andy Grifffith to thank for that fact. All the years prior to seeing one particular episode of The Andy Griffith Show, I had always eaten pumpkin pie plane or with whipped cream. I had never seen anyone eat ice cream on it. That combination was for apple pie. But while watching one of the episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (just about my favorite TV show ever), Aunt Bea served Andy pumpkin pie with ice cream, and he talked about how that was his favorite dessert.

I thought what a strange combination. But then one day I decided to try it. And from that moment, I was hooked. Now almost any time I have pumpkin pie, I also plop a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Mmmmmmmmm. If you’ve never tried it, be sure you do.

And just think: you’ll have a great excuse to try it just two days from now — that is if you live in the U. S. And if you don’t —- well, try it anyway. You’ll be glad you did.

photo courtesy of AvrilsShowers @ pixabay.com

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