I have two types of clothes. I have classy-I-could-teach-a-class-in-this type of clothes; and I have what I affectionately term “garden grunge” clothes, not fit for Walmart.

I felt like my plain gray shirt needed some snazzing up, so I put on a necklace.

I was really just going to do some light gardening, hopefully burning off my toast with apple butter.

I took some rich, crumbly compost and top-dressed my sugar snaps. I hope these have a growth spurt soon. They are awfully scrawny. I’m going to start another batch this month and see how they compare.

I also wedged in some cabbage collards and Bibb lettuce transplants.

Nothing too terribly strenuous, but it was nice to get outside and play in the dirt a bit. This is probably the most dressed up I’ve been for gardening.

Well, unless you count the times I’ve been seen in my church clothes dragging a hose around Sunday afternoons.

What about you? Do you get dressed up to visit your vegetables?

Christmas break has been awesome. My husband has been off work for about 2 weeks, and it has been raining so much in the Panhandle that we have just been relaxing and enjoying each other’s company so much. I have stayed up way too late. We had such a happy Christmas. I hope you were able to spend time with your loved ones too.

This rain has been persistent. Good for relaxing, but I just wish that I had plowed under half of my yard; scattered half a pound of turnip, mustard, kale, and radish seeds, and let these nine days of rain water them. They’d probably be half grown by now.

I have to be content, though, with harvesting a few sugar snap peas and some mustard greens. Planting those peas in September has worked out well so far. They got tossed into a stir fry last night. Yummy! The cosmos you see in the background is actually a second generation flower from seeds I planted last spring. I think all the plants are confused.

New Year’s Day I plan to make some blackeye peas and collard greens.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Where you out Black Friday shopping? Or were you at home in your jammies, sleeping?

I added some gifts to a cart, but it was a virtual cart online. The thought of the crowds and buying frenzy gives me the heebie-jeebies.

This morning I looked at my fall decorations and thought about putting up the Christmas decorations. I was just about to head out to the shed to get a bin, when I stopped.

It just felt wrong to put up Christmas decorations now.  The air conditioner was running, I was wearing short sleeves, and it just felt wrong to get the Christmas decorations out so close to the end of the glorious fall holiday weekend.

I turned the Christmas music off.

We love Thanksgiving and fall. I’m in no hurry to get out the Christmas decorations. The fall decorations will probably come down this weekend, and Christmas decorations will probably go up on Monday. That’s soon enough for me.

What about you? Are your Christmas decorations up already? Did you find any great deals? What did I miss out on last night?

It is just not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. Even if someone else makes a pie for dessert, I usually make sure that I have another one for me later. Today’s list: salted caramel pecan pie, mixed berry pie, and pumpkin cheesecake. My father in-law is a certified executive chef, and he’s doing the turkey and many of the sides.

First, I made homemade ginger snaps using the recipe on the McCormick site. I baked some of them a few extra minutes to get them crunchy.

They were used to make the crust for the pumpkin cheesecake. So good!

Then I made pie crust for the other pies.

Scraps were not wasted; I used my cute Wilton cutters to make little shapes. After a bit of egg wash and sugar, they were baked for a bit on some foil. Cute garnish, don’t ya think?

So maybe I spent way to much time on this crust. It is just going to be eaten, I know, but isn’t it pretty?

I’m looking forward to trying this tomorrow. My original plan was to put the pie crust leaves around this border, but I may do something fancy on the cheesecake tomorrow.

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving! Let us not forget our God, to Whom we owe everything. If you are able to be near a wonderful family, do not take that for granted. Many are so far from their loved ones on this special day.

Hug your loved ones close, thank God for His provision, and enjoy the day!

I poked some seeds into the ground Tuesday, and the turnips are already popping up from the ground!

I put a few ‘French Breakfast’ radish seeds in this evening; maybe I’ll have radishes by Christmas?

There’s lots more that you can plant now; you can visit here for more crops.

I was on a roll, so I planted some snapdragons, alyssum, pak choi, and cilantro. We’ll see how the flowers do; I would really like to save some moolah there.

It’s so nice to have homemade compost handy for starting seeds- what a money saver!

It’s not too late to start a garden- the weather is beautiful for planting!