Friday Foto Dump

Pictures of random bits of life are piling up in my phone and while I'd love to think I might write whole entire too wordy posts about at least a handful of them I think we all know that's probably not going to happen. 

Let's do a little photo dump and see where it goes. 

I'm going to warn you where it goes is mostly the kitchen but that's okay. Somebody's gotta cook and I find baking therapeutic. I recently spent an afternoon baking cookies and it was lovely. 

It was actually two weeks ago, but recent enough. We'd been invited to dinner at our neighbor's house and she said not to bring anything, but I can't not bring anything so I baked cookies. Then we were invited to another friend's house the next day to watch the Ohio State - Texas game and I brought a tray of cookies there too. 

Snickerdoodles and a peanut butter jumble. 

It's been a long time since I had a leisurely few hours in the kitchen and baking cookies makes me think of my mama in a way that makes me smile. 

The pup went for a swim. It's pretty much his most favorite thing, but he's not in perfect health these days so doesn't happen as often as it used to. 

Hubs grilled the most delicious flank steak recently and we made a grilled romaine salad. Yum! So easy to do and definitely something we'll repeat. Raise your hand if you're happy we're back to eating lettuce. 

We're in our sports viewing era. 

Baseball and soccer and more baseball. 

We made Cubans with some left over pork tenderloin and they were delish. We use our panini maker which works great for these-

Sun coming up-

I take too many pictures of this every day phenomenon, but I can't help myself. 

I spent most of Tuesday in the kitchen and made a pot of pasta sauce, three kinds of quiche for the weekend, and some tortilla roll ups for hubs to take to a card night he had at a friends house this week. I love cooking when I can take my time. 

We went to a dockside concert on a random Monday afternoon because that's what you do when you're retired. There were four musicians on the dock and boaters pull up and people float and listen to music and chat with whoever happens to be floating nearby. The weather was perfection.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Linking with Erika and Andrea for today's Friday Favorites 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 668

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (August 26th) to share answers with all your friends and neighbors. See you there! 

1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine? 

2. Your favorite cookie? 

3. What's something you've learned from a culture different than your own? 

4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic...which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why. 

5. What's a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly? 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Hello Holiday Monday

Hello friends. It's crunch time with just ten days until Christmas. Is your to-do list done? Nope? Well pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea, and let's talk about our weekends because why not? It's late in the day for blogging, but does anybody really know what time it is? Or what day it is for that matter?

Linking with Holly (Pink Lady) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) for their regular Monday hop. 

Honestly this last week everyday felt like the weekend. We had two holiday dinners, I had a luncheon with my volunteer team, a book club party and a neighborhood party. I have just a handful of pictures, mostly food-sorry!, but it's the holiday season and there are lots of yummy bites to be had. I won't post all the pics from our wine dinner last Wednesday, but this appetizer-

Lump crab, compressed cucumber, and a delicate coconut lime vinaigrette. Scrumptious! Hubs knows the chef, and about a month ago they got to chatting and next thing you know hubs had invited him to dinner at our house. It will be fun, and best of all he said he'd cook the quail we have in the freezer. Whoop! I told him if he wants to bring a repeat of this app he should feel free. 

Four of us were in black velvet that night, which needed documenting. 

Friday was a day date kind of day, episode ten if you're keeping track. We went out for breakfast which is one of my favorite things, and then walked over to Hobby Lobby (also a favorite) and then drove downtown to a couple of little shops there. 

Is everyone finished with their shopping because I still need a few bits and pieces to truly call it done. I'm ready to have all the buying behind me, and hopefully tomorrow will be the day. There's a lot of us. 

Hubs didn't even blink when I said we needed a picture in the middle of Hobby Lobby. 

Friday evening we went back into town to watch our two oldest grands in their school Christmas program. Is there anything sweeter on planet Earth? No there is not. Each grade performed a song and then scripture was read between the various class group performances. Max's class sang O Christmas Tree and the Mancub's class sang Little Drummer Boy. 

If that doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit nothing will. 

Watching a child scan the audience for his mom and dad, then knowing when they finally spy them from across the room because their eyes light up and an enormous smile spreads across their face, well it will turn your heart to pure mush. 

I spent all of Saturday morning wrapping gifts. I'm still not done, but I made a lot of progress. We were invited to a neighbor's house Saturday afternoon with several other neighborhood couples to watch the Army-Navy game. Our host made so many yummy snacks along with a delicious turkey chili, plus everyone brought something so a very full table. 

I made the cranberry-jalapeno dip we love to have this time of year (recipe here) and you use a slotted spoon to pour it over a brick of cream cheese. It's the perfect combination of sweet and spicy, plus a mix of textures too. So good! 

The game was actually really exciting and I was rooting for Navy.  My dad was a Marine and attended the Naval Academy, plus hubs and I lived in Annapolis for nine years (non-military) so my loyalty is there. It was a close game with quite the finish. 

Sunday was church, then I hit the grocery store. Hubs vacuumed the whole house and polished the wood floors. I did some prep work for the luncheon I was hosting on Monday (today) and I finally cleared off the dining room table which is where I've been wrapping and writing cards and doing pretty much everything Christmas related. It's been making hubs twitch so he was happy. 

I meant to take pics of the luncheon set up, but I was busy luncheoning. I had nine friends for lunch including my daughter. So fun! She arrived a few minutes early (thankfully!) and helped me with last minute stuff, of which there was somehow a lot lol. 

I made hot chicken salad, a veggie tray, a Christmas fruit salad, and cranberry bread. Everyone brought three dozen cookies to swap and I bought these cute containers for the take-home goodies. The cookies were beautiful and we did not have any doubles.

And that was the weekend. Hope your week ahead is merry and bright!