White Christmas

These are the Christmas flowers outside my door! There is another bunch getting ready to bloom and it looks like there may be daffodils growing in the front of the house.

Merry Christmas

Hey you Kids,
Merry Christmas! Love you Bunches and so glad that we can talk and touch base despite the fact that we all live so far apart. Thinking of you a lot today! LOVE YOU!

Betsy's Cookies w/ a Twist

Several nights ago, I was craving Betsy's M&M cookies. So at 10:30pm I started the process of making them. Like any true Billman/Dahle, I doubled the batch to allow for ample eating of the dough. The "twist" is that I used almond extract as opposed to vanilla extract. I HIGHLY recommend this twist, not because I am the big brother, but because it actually tastes really good.

The dough tasted so good that I had at least 2 dozen cookies worth,...
At 2:30am I put the final tray in the oven, and promptly fell dead asleep... something I do NOT recommend, unless you want to be rudely awakened 2 hours later to the horrible smell of something that is "not quite right." I snapped wide awake at 4:30am to that exact smell. Looked quickly at the clock, said several expletives, ran to the oven, and pulled out 12 perfectly blackened cookies that resembled hockey pucks.

The hockey pucks spent the rest of the night and all the next day on the front porch, while I spent the same time trying to make the air in the house smell just a little bit better. I judged the shelf life time for the hockey pucks to be about 2 years and 2 months....

So, do try the twist, and definitely do not fall asleep.

HEY Jeff's been here!

Welcome to the Blogousphere!

Weather Contradictions

The weather is so odd for December. While I hear about the snow on the east coast I look out my window at spring flowers blooming, three robins in my yard. Later I drive down the street and see deciduous trees that have colored leaves that are dropping all around. The weather doesn't spawn holiday feelings. Thinking of all of you though, does! Hope you all have had a nice weekend! Hope the Minnesota Thanksmas dinner went well, Greg and Laurie. Sending Sunday Evening Love and Hugs!

December 20th

Welcome to the Blog, Bailey!

It was a happy birthday!

Now that it is two weeks past my birthday, here is the birthday report! Thanks for all the birthday wishes - Bets and the kids made it a great one!
On Friday, Bets surprised me and took me to a nice restaurant for an early dinner. Then we went crazy at the Nickel-cade! It was a blast to go on a date together. Saturday, Bets made my favorite pie - raspberry cream! It is so delicious, and the kids enjoyed licking the spoons after she made the cream! Who wouldn't? Can't say I didn't lick my fair share!


A couple months ago Sam and I made a couple of bird feeders to hang in the tree outside our window. It took awhile but the birds finally found them. The kids love seeing the birds - it is cute to hear Hadley say "Bird" with excitement when she sees them.


On my birthday, I woke up to find this wonderful birthday sign on the window. Sam helped Bets make it. And to boot, two inches of snow had fallen overnight! Sam was almost as excited as I was. We hadn't had much snow all fall, so it was a great birthday present.

Sam loves to help with everything, and wrapping (and unwrapping) presents is included on that list! Not a bad job!

Hadley loves to talk these days, and she decided she needed to take over my phone on my birthday.

For my birthday treat (the pie was devoured the day before), Bets made some brownies so that I could blow out candles - Sam insisted we had to do it. Bets put a few candles on a brownie for me, but it looks like a mini-nuclear bomb going off. Imagine what 31 would have looked like!

Thanks to everyone for a happy birthday, especially Bets for all her hard work to make it a special day and weekend. Love you all.