Waiting for Christmas

.  I replaced what Amber took and made one more "slice and bake" recipe, and now have it safely in the freezer, although I may bake off a tray tonight--just to make sure they taste right, of course.  I spen what time I can in the studio.  And I attend my exercise class.  I get to do some of my exercises just about everyday, concentrating on those that are most difficult for me.  I'm making progress but not quickly.  I have the movement, but not the strength, and efforts to improve strength are impeded by the porr condition of my other leg--although that remains my strongest leg.  My arthritic back has been a problem, but the Physio has modified/corrected how I do the exercises, to protect my back and that's helped.  I guess I just "keep on carrying on". Progress, while it's slow, can be seen.  I'm using the cane less and less, and loosing track of it more and more.

Last Sunday we cooked one of the chickens we got from Cathy.  We have had two meals off it, and should be able to get two more.  I made stock, but a little differently.  I put everything in the slow cooker before we went to bed and it stayed on for over 13 hours.  And what nice stock it is!  Dark and flavourful--quite a bit nicer than my usual stock.  Today I plan to use the slow cooker again to make a chicken stew.  Then I'm going to see if I can cook dumplings in the slow cooker.

Beth, your cookie memories brought back so much to me.  I don't know why I was moved by it, but know that I was.  When I was working with Amber and the girls, we talked a bit about how to ice cookies, and I was talking about how we used to ice the tree, bell and star off center and to one side, and how that allowed us to stack the cookies once they were done.  Amber expressed surprise, saying that she thought it was just the weird way we iced cookies.  Ah-h-h,  family traditions!