Hello, everybody!

Well, the Christmas holiday season is officially underway, and I'm sure many of you already have your trees up and decorated by now, as well as most, if not all, of your gifts.  Yes, it is once again the time for everyone to dust off their old nutcrackers and ornaments and plastic poinsettias and holly and mistletoe (they're safer for pets and small children) and your old vinyl albums, yes, the ones with all the scratches that skips the lyrics, and the CD's and Ipod selections for those who've upgraded, and the DVD's of your favorite holiday movies and TV shows, 'cause Christmas time is here, and so is the Yuletide cheer.

And, of course, now is the time most of us are making preparations for the holiday feast, which, for most of us, would consist of two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  For those of us who have relatives who came from the southern part of the United States, such as myself, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner is a chicken stew called gumbo, which is relatively easy to fix.  All it is, is a chicken stew with a floured rue made of flour, corn starch, and a little chicken broth, fried for about five minutes on very minimum heat on top of the stove.  After the rue is cooked, it's added to the stew made up of a stewing chicken, smoked sausage, turkey necks, and, if your family came from the American Gulf Coast, crab meat and oysters.  The Christmas Eve gumbo is usually served with crackling corn bread and dirty rice, which, incidentally, also serves as the basis for the holiday dressing, to which we add canned smoked oysters and Mrs. Cubbison's seasoned dressing to the dirty rice.  The Christmas Day main course could be any bird of your choice:  chicken, turkey, or, the most traditional, goose, which is quite good, I might add.  But, a lot of people choose turkey as their traditional Christmas bird, which is also just very fine by me.  Seasoned eatings!

Well, that's all the time we have for this week.  Until next time, be well, stay well, and remember to help the disaster survivors!

Sincerely,




Marley Sue