Sylvia's Scenario

We are having a quiet Christmas morning with just Bruce and I here until Lauren and her boyfriend come over for breakfast.  Last night, was also a quiet Christmas eve with just us but to tell you the truth, I was happy about that because I've been so "last minute" this year and it’s not been for lack of time.  I've had a lot of time this year.  However, I barely got the house decorated for Christmas!  And this is a person talking who has had the Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving in past years.  Yes, this year has been a little lackadaisical for me.  I miss the grandkids which is probably the root of it all since I keep remembering how much fun we had celebrating Christmas with them the past three years in addition to being in Spain with them last year.  But it's also been a very peaceful season for me, meaning a peaceful frame of mind. We’ve definitely done a lot of memorable holiday activities so all is good that way. I just feel more slowed down...

We went to our first Christmas party of the season last night and I just had to post all the festive food ideas.  It was an appetizer, drinks and dessert Christmas party for about eight of us neighbors. It's nice to just walk down the street past three houses and we're there.                          My neighbor, Karen, loves to host parties and I've written about her parties  here  and   here  and other various places.  We've lived on this street going on ten years now and I can't even remember how many of her parties we've been to.  One of her best parties was when she turned 80 a couple of years ago and she had an 80's themed party.  (I went with the Madonna-look). Her food spread is always impressive. That party was in the summer so we could go outside and use her deck which is nice because we all have great views on our street.  Karen is a lot like me in that she loves to ...

You are probably wondering why I am posting a recipe for Chex Party Mix.  Anybody can get the recipe off the box of any Chex cereal, right?  That' s what we did for years.  I use to make this during Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays when the kids were little and everyone loved it.  But that was before you could buy it pre-made in a bag in all stores like a bag of potato chips. When Bruce was shopping at Costco last month,  he said he almost grabbed a bag of Chex Party Mix for our Thanksgiving guests.  But then when he was in the cereal aisle,  he saw you could buy all three Chex cereals together (he always buys his Cheerios and Grapenuts at Costco) and decided it would be fun to make it homemade again.  So, he came home with the three Chex cereals and made it from scratch. We had several bowls of it out for Thanksgiving, all of which got completely eaten and people even commented how good it was.  I admit I ate my share, as well and it was ...