I'm so tired.
More bad news for my family. Grandma O. passed away on Saturday night, so everything has been crazy since then. Finally my uncle was able to get the funeral scheduled last night, and it will be on Sunday. I won't be going up for this one though because I'm still having surgery on Friday so won't be in a condition to travel up to Indiana on Saturday. Nate won't be going obviously because he lives overseas. Nick may go if he can get Monday off, although he could still go to the funeral on Sunday and just miss the graveside service. They need to get pallbearers for Monday. I think Dad will be one, and a couple of my cousins who are going, but they need six. Mom has been contacting relatives all morning, and also she made arrangements for the flowers. I'm glad they were able to put the funeral off until Sunday. My aunt Emily (mom's sister) is too sick with fever to travel right now, and also since it's on a weekend her husband can go with her. I hope she gets better by Saturday.
I still have to come up with a cake to bake for Christmas too. I think I know which one I will make, and Mom said she would bake it if I wasn't up to it. I need to hunt down the recipe and take inventory. Red Velvet swirl cake is my old standby if I don't know what to make, and if Southern Living's cover cake doesn't appeal to me. This year it doesn't. I haven't made the cover cake since 2013 when it was a five layer cake with three red velvet cake layers and two white chocolate cheesecake layers between them, and white chocolate frosting. I saw a smaller version of that online with two cake layers and one cheesecake, which I may find and show to Mom, but most likely this year's cake will be swirl cake. I love the peppermint cream cheese frosting that goes on it.
I still have to make divinity or coconut haystacks for Dad for Christmas. He said I didn't have to make both. He would take cashew butter fudge too.
I've also been giving out lots of candy gifts. I gave Nick a plate of truffles and cashew butter fudge. He liked the truffles enough to ask Dad for the recipe, so I emailed it to him. I added rum extract to my latest batch of caramels, and that addition was a big hit. I will most likely do it again sometime. I have another idea about an extract to try, but I'm keeping it to myself for now. My little tiny scoop that I used to add it got either lost or thrown away. I haven't seen it since I washed it. I should have put it back in the bird supply drawer because it came out of there.
I have something cute I've been doing with Rocky. I can grab him and I play a game with him that I call tunneling. I put him against my body, and he tries to climb up. I put my hands over his back as he climbs so it's like a tunnel. He has to squeeze through the tunnel so I can feel his soft back, and then I let him climb up to my shoulder and fly back to the cage. Today he molted a dot feather while on my shoulder. I can't grab or tunnel Izzy. He screams too much when I grab him.
I won't know when to go in on Friday until they call me on Thursday afternoon. I hope my surgery is early but not crack of dawn early.
I still have to come up with a cake to bake for Christmas too. I think I know which one I will make, and Mom said she would bake it if I wasn't up to it. I need to hunt down the recipe and take inventory. Red Velvet swirl cake is my old standby if I don't know what to make, and if Southern Living's cover cake doesn't appeal to me. This year it doesn't. I haven't made the cover cake since 2013 when it was a five layer cake with three red velvet cake layers and two white chocolate cheesecake layers between them, and white chocolate frosting. I saw a smaller version of that online with two cake layers and one cheesecake, which I may find and show to Mom, but most likely this year's cake will be swirl cake. I love the peppermint cream cheese frosting that goes on it.
I still have to make divinity or coconut haystacks for Dad for Christmas. He said I didn't have to make both. He would take cashew butter fudge too.
I've also been giving out lots of candy gifts. I gave Nick a plate of truffles and cashew butter fudge. He liked the truffles enough to ask Dad for the recipe, so I emailed it to him. I added rum extract to my latest batch of caramels, and that addition was a big hit. I will most likely do it again sometime. I have another idea about an extract to try, but I'm keeping it to myself for now. My little tiny scoop that I used to add it got either lost or thrown away. I haven't seen it since I washed it. I should have put it back in the bird supply drawer because it came out of there.
I have something cute I've been doing with Rocky. I can grab him and I play a game with him that I call tunneling. I put him against my body, and he tries to climb up. I put my hands over his back as he climbs so it's like a tunnel. He has to squeeze through the tunnel so I can feel his soft back, and then I let him climb up to my shoulder and fly back to the cage. Today he molted a dot feather while on my shoulder. I can't grab or tunnel Izzy. He screams too much when I grab him.
I won't know when to go in on Friday until they call me on Thursday afternoon. I hope my surgery is early but not crack of dawn early.