So, there is Advent and its calendar: too late to start one this year! We have the 12 Days of Christmas: also too late, and that song gets annoying! We are down to 10 DAYS people! So, I wanted to find some way to bring the season to life this year. I started thinking of my favorite Christmas things and one of them has to be the memory of my dad & mom and our old neighbors on Forest Road arranging to light luminaries on Christmas Eve. Those were some of the warmest, most peaceful images of Christmas I can ever hope to see. So, as fate would have it, December 16 begins the celebration of Las Posadas. I will post other Christmas Favorites each day until December 24th. Feel free to join in!
Lori and Larson and “just” finished…
Enjoy this wonderful entry highlighting three recommendations from Lori!
Erik Larson. I really love his writing. He incorporates history in readable stories. I always read history in black and white (in my head), these books give color and life to historic events.
“In the Garden of Beasts” is set in the months before World War II, in Berlin. William E. Todd (born in Clayton, NC) moves his family to Berlin to become America’s first Ambassador to Hitler’s Germany. Excellent book and relevant in these times of intolerance.
“The Devil in the White City”* Murder and madness set in Chicago. The history of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and a madman who murders young women. Scary, but I couldn’t put it down. I loved the history of the architects of the fair. *a major film currently in production starring Leo DiCaprio, to be released in 2013.
Just finished “Shanghai Sisters” by Lisa See. Great story set in the years before WW II to the 1960’s. Two sisters and how they escape China, and build a new family with strangers in California. Makes me wish I had a sister!
Lori
Every day a Holiday…tell your favorite Thanksgiving story!
Thanksgiving. A day devoted to eat and pray! Also a day that comes with lots of memories… [slideshow]
Words from an angel…
“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
― Audrey Hepburn
Jan’s Pumpkin Cake
Okay, you will have to trust me on this…. One of the most fabulous cakes I have tasted. My friend Regina served it at our last book club… to die for. Deceivingly light tasting……Enjoy!
FOUR-LAYER PUMPKIN CAKE
1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz) pumkin, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup veg oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice, divided
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8oz) Cool Whip, thawed
1/4 cup caramel topping
1/2 cup pecans
Preheat 350. Grease/flour (2) 9in round cake pans.
Beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs & 1 tsp pumpkin spice in large bowl on medium speed until well blended. Pour evenly into pans. Bake 20-22 mins until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.
Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in small bowl, medium speed until creamy. Add powdered sugar, remaining pumpkin, remaining 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice; mix well. Stir in Cool Whip.
Remove cake layers from pan & cut each horizontally with serrated knife. Stack layers on serving plate spreading cream cheese mixture between each layer. Do not frost top.
Top with pecans and drizzle caramel.
Store in fridge.
Just finished…
The Crossing. Cormac McCarthy
Second in the Border Trilogy.
Beauty and bleakness.
I will need a break before Cities of the Plain.
St.Mary of the Woods. For you, Dad.
We felt surrounded in a beautiful, colorful world of peace and light.
And so I pray it will always be.
Amen.
[slideshow]
Reading now…
When at O’Hare flying standby, good things CAN happen!
I bought (yes paid City of Chicago taxes ++) Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses.
It turns out to be the first in his Border Trilogy. Why do I love trilogies?
Now I’m reading the second book, The Crossing. Gorgeous, quiet story so far. Love the Wolf!
Book #3, Cities of the Plain, is being made into a film in 2012.
Just be warned, he also wrote No Country for Old Men – the film was bleak and brutal (not sure I could READ something like that!), and also, The Road – which veteran readers say contains exceptionally disturbing violence.
Oh well, the HORSES sure are Pretty!
http://www.cormacmccarthy.com/