This Morning My Mom Insisted I Open A Package From Arizona To Find A Plethora Of Christmas Cookies

I called my mom and dad this morning to let them know that a package from Arizona had arrived.

My mom asked about the package delivery soon after answering the phone.

When I said I had not yet opened the package mom told me I needed to open it at once, because the box was full of stuff which needed to be eaten.

So, after getting off the phone I opened the box and what to my wondering eyes appeared? A selection of the greatest hits of my mom's Christmas cookies.

The box contained the assortment you see in the foreground, plus a sub-box full of gingersnap cookies, plus the fruitcake hovering above the boxes.

I have never understood some people's aversion to fruitcake. I have always liked fruitcake. Maybe it is my mom's fruitcake I have always liked and that I have never been exposed to the type fruitcake to which people have an aversion.

Due to my mom's macular degeneration my dad acts as mom's sous chef for cooking operations.  I suspect maybe my sister was part of this cookie cooking operation. Though I have seen my mom and dad in cooperative cooking mode and it is an impressively efficient operation.

I may be going into a form of diabetic shock in the coming day or two. I am not used to eating dessert type sugary stuff.....

My Mom & Dad Christmas Cookies Finally Arrived Along With Dark Photo Complaints

Christmas Cookies From Arizona

Last Friday my mom told me a box of Christmas cookies was on its way to me.

That day I told my mom about another box of Christmas cookies that had arrived that were inedible.

Those particular Christmas cookies remain uneaten.

I had about given up on the box of cookies from my mom & dad, figuring they'd gotten lost or purloined in transit.

But, they arrived today. There are two variations of my favorite in the box. Both involve raspberries and almond paste. It's a Dutch thing.

As you might guess from the cover of the box, they came from Arizona, the Phoenix suburb of Sun Lake, to be precise.

Changing the subject from Christmas cookies to Anonymous comments.

One of the Anonymous comments that caught my attention today did so by being interesting, the other by being odd.

The interesting Anonymous comment had to do with Don Young's Tandy Hills Christmas Tree caper....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Don Young Clears Up The Controversy Over His Tandy Hills Christmas Tree Cutting": 

Chesapeake owns the land east of the park.

So, is this Anonymous commenter suggesting that the Don Young Gang got their Christmas tree from Chesapeake Energy land adjacent to the Tandy Hills Natural Area? If so, I have no clue whether this makes the caper more, or less, capricious.

And then there was the odd Anonymous comment. It is of the sort that makes me wonder why someone would go to the Anonymous bother....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Afternoon View From Miss Puerto Rico's Thinking About Learning The Afghan Language Pashto & Turkey Soup":

This photo is too dark for me to appreciate anything about it. What was your reason for posting it? Actually, I used Photo Shop on it and improved its contrast and brightness enough to be able to make out a few things, and still I don't see any particular reason for its posting. Could you shed some light on it? 

Why would someone Anonymous go to the bother of asking why I would post a picture of the late afternoon, shadowy view from a balcony? Let alone look for anything to appreciate in the picture. And then in that quest to find anything to appreciate, go to the bother of brightening the photo in Photoshop.

That is just really weird.

I need to go eat a cookie now.

A Chilly Walk With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts While Talking To My Mom About Burned Russian Tea Cakes & Gas Along With Incoming Possible Snow

Dreary Village Creek On Christmas Eve Eve

I had myself a very chilly walk with the Indian Ghosts that inhabit the Village Creek Natural Historical Area today.

As you can see, via the view of Village Creek, gray is the dominant color for today in this formerly totally parched part of the planet.

The grayish white snow clouds that are hovering above Village Creek is scheduled to begin delivering precipitation tomorrow, on Christmas Eve.

Some parts of North Texas will likely see snow, while other parts of North Texas, like where I am, will, maybe, see snow mixed with rain.

My primary weather information provider provided me a Special Weather Statement a few minutes ago...

...ACCUMULATING SNOW POSSIBLE ON CHRISTMAS EVE...

The Weather Outside May Get Frighful
But Inside It is Just Delightful

AN UPPER LEVEL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS TEXAS THIS WEEKEND AND WILL BRING WIDESPREAD PRECIPITATION. FOR MUCH OF THE AREA...THIS PRECIPITATION WILL FALL AS RAIN. AREAS TO THE WEST AND NORTH OF A LINE FROM GAINESVILLE..TO WEATHERFORD...TO LAMPASAS...WILL SEE THE POTENTIAL FOR SNOWFALL ON SATURDAY.

TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE LESS THAN AN INCH...WITH MOST ACCUMULATIONS OCCURRING ON GRASSY OR ELEVATED SURFACES. TRAVEL IMPACTS WILL LIKELY BE LIMITED TO INTERSTATE 20...MAINLY WEST OF U.S. 287. BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES WILL BE THE FIRST TO BECOME SLICK.

ELSEWHERE...RAIN COULD BECOME MIXED WITH SNOW DURING THE EVENING HOURS ON SATURDAY. HOWEVER...SURFACE TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN ABOVE FREEZING...SO ACCUMULATIONS ARE NOT ANTICIPATED.

I don't know why the Weather Statement makers feel the need to shout their statement in CAPITAL letters.

Changing the subject from my favorite one to gas.

On the way to Village Creek I got gas. So, like I always do when I get gas, I called my mom to tell her I got gas and how much it cost. Apparently gas in Phoenix is still over $3 a gallon.

Weather-wise, Phoenix is also being cold, with snow in the high country that surrounds the Valley of the Sun making it so mom and dad are currently limited on where they can drive.

A couple days ago I mentioned getting a box of inedible Christmas cookies in the mail. I lamented not getting Christmas cookies from my mom anymore, due to mom not baking Christmas cookies anymore, due to her bad eyesight due to macular degeneration.

Well.

I was wrong. I don't know why I've not had any of my mom's Christmas cookies shipped to me, in what seems like years. But, mom told me a box of Christmas cookies was heading my way.

I mentioned the inedible Christmas cookies and the faux Russian Tea Cakes that tasted like rotten bananas, that I had to spit out. My mom told me she'd made some Russian Tea Cakes, but did not send me any because they were slightly burned. I told my mom that her slightly burned Christmas cookies would be more edible that the aforementioned box of inedible Christmas cookies.

I don't know why I had myself convinced my mom no longer baked Christmas cookies. The last time I was in Phoenix, at mom and dad's in Sun Lake, I was surprised my mom had made an apple crisp and, despite impaired eyesight, had dished up the apple crisp, with ice cream.

And, I had witnessed, with my own eyes, my mom and dad being a pair of canning machines the last time I was in Tacoma, watching them work for hours making raspberry jam.

In the jam making operation my dad is the eyes while my mom gives directions. I suppose the cookie baking is done in the same way.

So, I guess if you want to get technical about it, it was my dad who burned the Russian Tea Cakes. He likely caught a lot of grief over this.

Trapped In Wal-Mart By A Downpour Before Gagging On A Bad Christmas Cookie

The Weather Outside Was Frightful,
While Christmas Cookies Were Not Delightful

Sometime around 4 this afternoon I journeyed to my Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.

For those of you who do not live in a zone with Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, they are different than a regular Wal-Mart.

Much smaller, basically a grocery store without all the other junk Wal-Mart sells at its big stores.

All was fine, rain-wise, on my short drive to WMNM. But when I went to exit the store the sky was in full downpour mode.

I waited for the downpour to let up, along with a throng of other like minded sorts who were averse to getting wet.

After about 10 minutes of waiting I gave up on it letting up and made a run for it. My exposure was maybe 20 seconds. I was totally drenched by the time I closed the door on my motorized vehicular transport.

Upon my return to my abode I found the mailman had delivered a box from Washington. When the box was opened a collection of Christmas cookies was found inside.

Before my mom's eyesight went bad, due to macular degeneration, mom was a Christmas cookie cooking maniac. My mom made all sorts of really good cookies, candies and pastries. Like Dutch Raspberry Almond Tarts. Almond Bars. Fudge. All sorts of tasty treats, including Russian Tea Cookies.

When I lived in Washington every Christmas my mom would deliver a big box of her Christmas baked goods. After I moved to Texas I'd get a big box mailed to me, before Christmas, with a few hundred thousand calories inside. Until mom's baking slowed up.

Today's box did not come from my mom. Upon opening the box I saw what looked like Russian Tea  Cookies. Anticipating my mom's type of deliciousness I took a bite. That is all I took. It was not a Russian Tea  Cookie. It was some banana flavored ball of hard dough. Maybe it got roughed up in transit.

Don't worry about me hurting the feelings of the baker. The baker does not read my blog. And, if you want to get technical about it, the cookies weren't actually sent to me. It was more a thing where I had to forward the cookies to the proper recipient, who then opened the box, thus exposing me to the fraudulent Russian Tea Cookie that made me gag.

And reminded me of how good my mom's Christmas goodies used to be.