Fruit Pizza and Christmas Pud for Christmas

Fruit Pizza and Christmas Pud for Christmas

One for tradition and one for modernity.( is that the right word?)

                                          Fruit Pizza

I found the photo and recipe for the fruit pizza on Pinterest and thought that it  would be a good  desert for  after a large Christmas dinner. It was really easy to make with a biscuit crust and different fresh fruit. Very tasty as well as the fruit are all placed on a cream base made with cream cheese and whipping cream. Voted a success!

Tradition dictates also having a  Christmas pudding so this year I made one from scratch and it turned out very well ( to my surprise).
I have made puddings in the past but really not many people these days like the heavy, steamed, suet pudding made with a combination of dark fruits and spiced with rum and brandy. In fact the only way we were persuaded to eat pudding when we were children was that inside the pudding were hidden presents - silver sixpences, and if you were lucky enough to find one , you kept it. A real treasure. 
( I think now that it probably was quite dangerous as a small child could easily have choked on the treasure but that was then...)  
No hidden presents in my pud. We did do the lighting of the pudding which I always like to do plus it gives us a chance to talk about the old-fashioned kind of Christmases we so enjoyed and remember.

Our Christmas was lovely. There were 16 people of many ages  mostly family and friends  collected together and  we had good food, good wine and drinks, lots of fun , warm weather, laughter and caught up on all the family news. No TV and phones/tablets kept to the minimum.!!
Thank to son Trevor and his wife Laura for being such good hosts.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

This is a book about immigrants to America and basically the hardship they face.
It tells the story of a Mexican family. a mother, father and disabled daughter who sell up all they have and buy passage to move to Delaware. They do this primarily to get better medical and education help for their daughter. The father like many other immigrants works in the only job he can get at a mushroom farm.
The motel and area where they live, is home to many other kinds of immigrants coming from many other areas of the world.  It is through their interaction we learn of the trials, fears, homesickness and desperation of these new immigrants, these unknown Americans.
The younger immigrants cannot understand their new land or even much of the language and even  their parents find it difficult. within their own communities  the young ones have problems because their parents old customs   don't fit with the customs
It is a sad book to read because it tells us that we could do better and be more welcoming and understanding  to others.

Welcome Kartier

Welcome Kartier

I got a very nice surprise from my son this week. In the mail came a heavy box."What could it be?" I thought as I opened it.
Well, inside was the cutest little black dog you have ever seen.The best thing about it was this one is already house trained, extremely quiet and a friendly fellow who attracts a lot of attention.Everyone who has seen him, loves him.

So cute when he puts his head to one side 

We decided to name him "Kartier". a nice posh sounding name for a very unique little dog. 
There are other reasons as well as the letter that also came in the box explained that the origins of Kartier came from a 30year old Canadian Wonderland JuniorKart used in the "KartSTART" program.This for anyone who doesn't know is a Canadian program that teaches young children to drive with Go karts.

Like all dogs he is always ready for food!

For those that are interested in the finer details of Kartiers' genetic makeup,  here they are:- his head is a muffler, the main body is an axle, the rear legs are part of the kart frame and the tail is a tie rod end. The ears are a Rotax dashboard arms, the eyes are axle collars and the front legs are seat struts.

You will see he is already settling into his new home and even has made friends with Mr Froggy, the hockey playing frog from Canada.

Challenge ." Fall"

Challenge ." Fall"

Water color " Fall" 9" by 10"

This was the painting I did for the challenge Fall . It had to be done fairly quickly as November was a somewhat busy month. Fall was really peculiar in our part of Texas as it was fairly warm and we also had a lot of rain. Rather more like Spring. That said, the leaves were really late in starting to change color but just a few of them on my Bradford pear  tree had changed so I decided to paint those.
Even now the leaves haven't fully changed although they are falling rapidly so this year won't be a good color for the Autumn leaves.
Here is a photo of the leaves from 2014. A much better year for leaves!