There’s no place like Home!

Happy Holidays To you for this glorious season of Love, Singing, Joy, and laughter!

Having a White Christmas is a wonderful, joyous time if you love the cold and fun in the white stuff! We just moved to Kingman, AZ, from Phoenix, AZ, and are looking forward to seeing a light skift of snow. Not enough to inhibit a jaunt in the car, but enough to get the feel of “A White Christmas,” just like the ones we used to have back home in Maine.

Kingman, by the way, is a small town compared to Phoenix. It is not as small as the town where we grew up in Maine. Dexter had one main street and one stop light.

We would love to do all the traditional things that one does when they have a “Home,” like Christmas lights, outside and inside on the tree. We will get to those in time, but this year, we have a tree with lights. I crocheted an Angel for the top! We’ll see how great she looks later! We are constructing a Gazebo! I will write a blog about that later. And we will put my hot tub inside the Gazebo. My arthritic joints are looking forward to that hot tub!

Many years ago, when we first came to Phoenix from Montesano, Washington, we changed our traditional Christmas dinner to homemade Pizza! Our kids were living near us in the city and would come to dinner, inviting several of their friends who were alone in the city and missing the folks back home.

The first year, we had 6 or 7 kids; it grew to quite a few more later! We asked that they bring their favorite topping, and to our surprise, we got several cans of black olives, and strangely, NO ONE  wanted them on their Pizza! From then to today, we purchased the toppings and tried to have a wide variety of toppings available. I arrange them in small dishes so we can allow everyone to pick any topping or variety of toppings. We have some strange-looking pizzas,  but it is all fun!

We usually arrange them in dishes so that putting them together doesn’t interfere with games. Shirl and I make the dough from scratch! By the way, use less yeast if you like a thinner crust. Pizza dough is easy. It is just like bread dough, but you do not have to let it rise and beat it down. It will rise in the pans before you put them in the oven.

This year will be fun as we have an extra large island in the kitchen and a big gas stove, and we can probably cook three or four at a time! In our little apartment, we had one small oven and had to cook one at a time. We love to put as many toppings as we can get on top without them falling off in the oven. There is nothing like a bunch of people, young and older, gathering around the Island with Pizza and beer, wine or soft drinks, munching, laughing, and talking! Usually, games will be played, and more Pizza to snack!

Later, we will gather on the patio and enjoy the stars, toast some s’mores over our fire pit, tell tall tales of our past escapades, laugh, eat, and just enjoy

I truly hope that you all have a wonderful time this holiday and hope for Peace on Earth soon.

This is a picture of our new home in Kingman. Later I will post another picture of our patio with the gazebo.