Happy New Year

No More New Year’s Resolutions
The holiday season gets me so mixed up I don’t even know what day it is. Christmas on Tuesday felt like Sunday. I thought Wednesday was Monday. I took the garbage out and almost went to work.
I got smarter the next week and didn’t take the garbage out. On the wrong day. I stayed in most of the time and just enjoyed the most beautiful snow I had seen in years. It wasn’t too cold. The trees and bushes white with snow made me want to try out my new camera that Santa brought.
The end of the year was about the same for me as years past, except for one thing: I did not make New Year’s Resolutions. They were about the same every year. From staying on a diet to keeping the dishes done. And the all-time resolution breaker–do not procrastinate.
Sometimes my list was so long, I would have had to reinvent myself to live up to what I had written. But most years, the resolutions were broken before the Christmas tree came down.
As I write this, the newspaper is being delivered .The garbage truck is backing down the lane with its beeper alive and well. And I am scrambling to make deadline. I’m glad I don’t have a list.
That doesn’t mean I won’t try. With this New Year I am going to make a real effort to be more thoughtful and be a better listener. Sometimes it isn’t what people say, but how they say it.
I wasn’t surprised but saddened by some responses to after Christmas chatter. Before Christmas we say "Merry Christmas" to everyone we meet. After Christmas, it’s, "And how was your Christmas?" Many times I would hear, "It was okay," or "I got through it," The happiest voices said, " I’m glad it is over." (I was in the last group. It gets so hectic.)
I need to remember that the holidays are a tough time for a lot of people. It may be because of sickness, the loss of a loved one, money, any number of things. Or maybe just, "Bah, humbug."
The happiest Christmases are those lucky enough to have little children who know there is a Santa. And those lucky enough to know why we have Christmas in the first place.
Three days into the New Year, things are going well at the cottage. I have a WEEK to get my next column written, the dishes are done, and there is no chocolate in the house. And all without resolutions.
My thoughts are good ones for you and yours. We have a whole year to get ready for Christmas.
No matter what our mood, Mother Nature gave us a treat at the end of the year.. Just the kind of winter that Wisconsin can deliver. What is more comforting on a winter’s night, but a good thick soup or stew. Try these biscuits with your meal.
Garlic Cheese Biscuits
you will need:
1 1/4 cup Bisquick
1/3 cup water
½ cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
½ stick butter
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t salt
1/8 t dried parsley flakes
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper if you have it
combine the Bisquick and cheese
add the water and stir-dough will be slightly moist
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet
Bake for about ten minutes until firm and beginning to brown
Mix the rest of the ingredients to make the garlic butter
Brush biscuits using a pastry brush as soon as they come out of the oven
Enjoy
p.s. you can also use the garlic butter on Pillsbury Oven Baked Buttermilk Biscuits.
They are really good, too.