1 Degree

I want my money back. This weather was not in the brochure. Even long-time Tri-Citians are saying it's going to be a hard winter with a start like this.  Yesterday, one of my attorneys, Mr. Pun, just had to tell me what the temps are in Cabo San Lucas. He's going there next week. Don't hate. That's what I was thinking.

When we lived in Yuma, we never used our heater. We did have some cool mornings but we had a propane oven and my favorite way to warm up the house a bit in the mornings was to make corn muffins for my honey. He loves it when I do that.  Today .... I have an orange-cranberry nutbread in the oven for him.  Made with love.

I actually have two bags of fresh cranberries in the fridge and I bought a 3 lb. bag of walnuts a week ago at Costco. They cost as much as steak! And, last year I bought an orange zester that I've hardly used. Sounds like a recipe for good bread, huh.  I've made this recipe just once and it is really yummy. He's going to be surprised when he wakes up!

So I was looking at that 3 lb. bag of walnuts and it took me back a lot of years. I've never bought a 3 lb. bag of walnuts before.  I hardly buy walnuts at all. We were pretty strapped for money in my growing up years (notice I did not say poor) and things like walnuts and fresh cranberries were not on the grocery list.  We got soda pop on very rare occasions like New Years and well, there were just a lot of things that we learned to live without.  I've found in adulthood, it's been hard to shake some of that old baggage. I never put walnuts in my fudge, ever. Ah, you don't need 'em.  I never put nuts in my cookies, ever.  But now I have this 3 lb. bag of walnuts and by golly I'm going to use them.

I always get a little (okay, more than a little) emotional this time of year. The holidays are not always happy, happy, happy for everyone.  I love the baking part.  I definitely love that my son and his wife are arriving tomorrow.  But, I'm always thinking about the folks that don't have it quite as easy as I do. Over the years, I've talked out loud about it but it doesn't make it easier. I think about the families right here in my own town who may not have any heat in their house this morning, or enough milk to put on the kids' cereal before they head off to school.  I try really hard to not dwell on it ... but when I have a 3 lb. bag of walnuts sitting on my counter, I feel like the richest person in the world.  Funny how those walnuts took me back to my childhood days. We survived a long time without walnuts but we always had milk on our cereal and mittens and boots and heat in our house. Thank you, mom and dad!

My wish is that nobody has to be cold or hungry this morning.  Whew ...