Second Thanksgiving

Gary, (Eldy's brother), Eldy, and Eldy's son Brian

Boy, are we lucky! Two family dinners with two days of each other and both wonderfully delicious! The company was great...Almost all of Eldy's brothers and sisters were there, his brother's children and grandchildren were there, and we just had a great time. It's always fun to find out some silly family secrets about your better half, or to hear how Eldy used to be when his kids were growing up (much more strict). We wished we could have taken the motor home there for a little tour for everyone, but it was too big a hassle to unhook and then maneuver our way into a residential neighborhood. 'Course if Eldy could drive a motor home with car in tow down the packed streets of downtown Bar Harbor, Maine, in the middle of summer as he did this past summer, to bring the motor home to Milford, that would have been a piece of cake. Speaking of cake, er, cookies, here's a great recipe for spice cookies, the kind you DON'T have to roll out. It's from an old cookbook by Peg Bracken called The I Hate to Cook Cookbook. You know, I think I need that one! We had these cookies at my sister's. They were so good Eldy didn't get any. That means my sister and I ate 90% of them, and that's why I'm going out on the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail on my bike today. More about that tomorrow.

Elevator Lady Spice Cookies
3/4 c. shortening, 1 c. sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 c. molasses, mix this stuff together first. Then add dry ingredients-- 2 c. flour, 2 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 t. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 3/4 tsp. cloves, 3/4 tsp. ginger. Form walnut size balls on greased cookie sheet. Bake 375 degrees for 10-12 min.  I write recipes like I cook, very casually! You don't have to roll these out and use cookie cutters which really appeals to me this late in life! And you know, by the title, this is an OLD recipe...how long has it been since anybody has seen an elevator lady or guy?

Eldy's grandkids

On our way to Milford, yesterday, we stopped off in Shipshewanna to stock up on fabulous Amish cheese, zucchini bread from the Blue Gate Bakery, and pretzels from JoJo's. We'll freeze them, and when the longing hits for a pretzel or zucchini bread from our home state, we've got some! Shipshewanna was all decorated for the holidays, mini lights on every single tree everywhere, garlands and Christmas figures and sleighs in the yards, too bad there wasn't any snow to be seen! (Eldy says, "No snow, no snow!)

Hope everyone had a great holiday....not much happening today...errands, laundry....tomorrow we pack up the motor home and head to Freightliner in Elkhart to see if the voltage problem will show itself to the service guys...it's definitely much worse than it was so hopefully diagnostics will catch what's wrong. We may be done tomorrow and it's our last day in Goshen, or we may be here another couple of days waiting on a new alternator! I'm sure I can think of some shopping I'd like to do...hmm-m-m-m-m-m,,,there's a cool shopping nook in Goshen called the Old Bag Factory..it's full of interesting shops and I've never seen it. ("Uh-oh!" says Eldo)...See you tomorrow.....