Christmas Tree Lights

This is about what you think it is about....

I bought a rather expensive (although on sale) fake Christmas tree last year. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer a real tree. But because of several extenuating circumstances, it has just become a better choice for us to have a small fake tree. But, I wanted it to look like a real one -- for crying out loud, we live in Montana! I want a tree that looks like the ones outside! So, I spent a pretty penny. Now, a person would expect that spending that kind of money would get you a quality item. However, in this day and age, even if the tree is made in the USA, more than likely the lights are made in some foreign mass-producing twinkle light factory. Keep that in mind, if you should ever decide to spend lots of money on a fake tree!

So..one year -- beautiful lighted tree. This year, (having learned the hard way to check lights as I go) I plugged in the bottom half of the tree and it was beautiful...until I moved it around to straighten a branch. Then, boom...the top quarter part of the tree lights went dead. I wiggled various branches and they blinked back on...and then off again. About 3 turns on the tree and I isolated the problem. This is supposed to be a lighting system where if one light goes out, the rest still work. But the "problem light" kept shorting out the rest. I pulled the single little light apart from the socket, and one of the connecting wires came apart in my hand!

Now, I am a light savant, as twinkle light savants go. I had four sets of lights I purchased in the 1990s that were unique to any others I have ever seen. I used them every year on our big (real) Christmas trees. Over the years, the lights would go bad, but I had a little bag of extras that I pulled from to do repairs. (Other twinkle light brands did not intermix with these sets.) When the extras ran out, I took apart the light strand that had the most burned out lights, and made three strands that worked. The last few years were really a struggle, though, as more and more my darling little twinkle lights wore out. ....And that is how I became a twinkle light savant!

So...back to this years stupid little twinkle light problem...

First....UNPLUGGING THE LIGHTS FROM THE ELECTRICITY, (a lesson I learned from a story my girlfriend, Cory, told me!!).....

The wire that came unattached so easily was obviously the problem. The bit of wire at the end, that was not covered with plastic, was so short that it had not attached itself properly to the itsy bitsy metal plate inside of the teeny tiny twinkle light. So, I pulled the bulb out of the socket, and one of the itsy bitsy metal plates (there are two of them inside each teeny tiny twinkle light socket) fell into my hand --obviously unglued! I have a fair idea of how the electricity conducts itself through these light strands, and I knew I had several options...none of which involved asking my husband (who has huge hands and a short tolerance for fixing teeny tiny things) for help. I was not certain if glue would ruin the electric conduction, but, it being the simplest option, was what I decided to try first.

I got a couple of napkins (again, lessons learned) and put just a dab of E6000 (the champion of glues) on it and grabbed a toothpick (teeny tiny socket, and all). Using the toothpick, I dabbed just a bit of glue inside the socket, where the little metal plate was supposed to go, and waited a minute to let the glue dry a bit. Then, I trimmed about 1/4 inch of the plastic off the end of the wire, to expose more of the wire, and dabbed a bit of glue onto it, stuck the wire back into the bottom of the teeny tiny socket, and held the wire against the metal plate. I plugged the lights back in...no difference in my problem... So, making sure the little wires on the teeny tiny twinkle light bulb were bent properly, I pushed the light back into the socket. Not expecting much, I plugged the lights back in and....BOOM!! they all work!

So, I am sitting here, telling you about my grand accomplishment, terrified to move the tree to where it belongs (because we all know that there are times we speak too soon!). I am going to wrap electrical tape around the Light In Question, 'just in cases". and hope for the best.

But presently, I am sitting here, glowing in my grand accomplishment!

Turkey Soup From Scratch

Today is Turkey Soup Day. Our lovely Thanksgiving Turkey has been devoured and we are left with nothing but the carcass. But DO NOT toss that (seemingly gross) thing in the garbage! It has great potential! Make a hearty and nourishing soup with it:

In a large pot, cover the carcass and all the bits of unused and unwanted turkey with water and put it on the back burner of the stove, to simmer for about four hours. While it simmers, add a few bay leaves, a half dozen whole allspice, a couple of teaspoons of salt, and about a teaspoon of whole peppercorns. This will give a great base flavor to your turkey stock. After the four hours, set the pot to one side to cool off for an hour or so. Then, over the sink in case you make a mess, pour the stock from one large pot into another (or a large bowl, if you only have one big pot). I hate to waste anything, so I sort out all the bits of turkey meat, then in toss out the bones and put the stock and turkey bits back onto the stove to simmer.

Now, in a frying pan, sauté an entire chopped onion, a few chopped stalks of celery, and a few cloves of minced garlic, in about 2 tbsp of butter. When the onion becomes translucent, add this mixture to the turkey stock. Then chop about 2 cups worth of carrots and add that to the simmering stock. After about 30 minutes, check to see if the carrots are tender. If your turkey stock has dissipated because of the cooking process, add water back, then taste and add salt as desired. Now add egg noodles. We like large flat noodles, but any kind will do. The more you add, the thicker and heartier the soup becomes. Bring the soup back to boiling and turn off the heat. The noodles will soften, but not turn mushy if you do this! (little secret there!)

This makes a large pot of soup. I ladle it into jars and screw the tops down tight, while it is hot. They will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, if the jars seal.

Any soup can also be frozen. But, since the liquid will expand during the freezing process, give at least an inch of head room in the jar, and wait for it to cool completely before you put it in the freezer.

Enjoy!

'Tis the Season!

I love the Holiday Season! I love the smells of baking, the twinkling lights, the decorations, the colored lights on the porch...I just love everything about it!

When my grandchildren were small, I promised myself I would give them the most fantastical Christmas I could conjure up...I wanted it to be magical, but homey and rememberable.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we would all go tree hunting into the local forests and trudge through snow to find the best tree we could. Sometimes, if the snow was deep enough, we would take the sleds and the kids would entertain themselves on small runs. When they got cold, we would have marshmallows and cocoa around a small campfire.

The next week, Larry would set up the tree and put the colored lights on the porch. We would run twinkle lights around fir branches along the banister and hang giant lit candy canes from it. Then he would set up three twinkle-light deer in the flower bed next to the porch.

I would set up the Christmas Village above the entertainment center and decorate the tree. The entire house would sparkle "Christmas Time".

And then I would start the baking. For many of my more energetic years, I would put together boxes to mail to loved ones far away and 8-10 Christmas Baskets for local friends. Our most favorite thing to do for ourselves, was to take an afternoon on into an evening to deliver those baskets, wish our dearest friends a Merry Christmas, and oftentimes raise a cup of good cheer.

I would just load the tree with presents for the kids! I spent the week that Larry was gone hunting, to wrap them while watching Christmas Movies. Larry would come home and pronounce another year of "wretched excess'. However, as he had asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and my answer (as always) was for him not to complain about the pile of presents under the tree....he could not complain, could he? ...lol...

Granted. As the years went by, it became more and more stressful for me to do all these things, and as years progressed, I dropped one tradition at a time until, two years ago, I gave up the Big Christmas here at our house. I packed up all the lovely ceramic Christmas Village houses and packed them into boxes and passed them on to my daughter. I toned down the baking to a couple of kinds of cookies, fudge and some snack mixes. The boxes to loved ones now consist of fudge and cookies. We no longer visit friends for drinks. I no longer am in charge of Christmas Dinner. I have passed the baton. And in many ways, the holiday season is less for it. I suppose it is the natural progression of things. But it does make me rather sad...

Now, we are making new traditions...We started this season with a Christmas Movie matinee (because we hate driving home in the dark). I decorate three small fake trees with fragile decorations, because I do not have to worry about children and puppies knocking them off. We only put up colored lights on the part of the porch we do not need a ladder to reach. We start watching "Christmas movies" the week before Thanksgiving. (Die Hard is always the first one!) Things are simpler, the holiday is diminished. But it is ok...we move a little slower. We reminisce...we are officially in Grandpa and Nani mode!