Why do all our Christmas cookies look like Alien vs Predator?

Cranberry orange pancakes

No, no pictures of our decorated Christmas cookies but lets just say, my Stepdaughter and I had fun decorating them but none are picture worthy and I will have  a hard time picking out non-offensive ones to give to my Mom lol.  They taste darn good, however, and that is what matters.

I did snap a shot of these yummy Cranberry orange pancakes we had for breakfast yesterday.  You just use your usual from scratch pancake recipe (I use this one from allrecipes.com),  add 1 cup thawed whole cranberries cut in half and juice and meat from one large orange.  I also throw in any leftover cranberry sauce - in this case some I had frozen after Thanksgiving.  The reason you use thawed cranberries versus fresh is that they soften up and are much juicier.   These cranberries are likely even from Vancouver Island as there are a few local cranberry growers who sell all of their crops to that big brand cranberry producer.

Christmas is just a few days away and the entire family is all done their shopping.  We dropped the kidlet off at the mall on Friday and she speed shopped.  Her and hubby need to do some wrapping and I might just make one more set of cookies to take to the neighbors and that's it.  We decided to do a Mexican dinner for Christmas Eve along with spiced rum and cokes and coronas.  We will likely play games or watch a Christmas movie that night and the next day will have turkey and open our gifts.  It is so nice having Mom live two blocks away - we get to spend lots of time together and we can just walk her home.  She has now been living in our town for almost exactly one year and she loves it.

My Mother-in-law turned 80 this week.  We had given her her gifts/presents last month when we visited but sent her a Christmas flower arrangement on her birthday as well.  She was required to take a new driving test but missed the appointment (fortunately) and now has lost her license.  She can only get it back if she takes the exam but she has decided not to do so.  Thank Goodness!!  She has dementia and was insisting on driving when the entire family has been trying to convince her not to.  She had a very bad incident earlier this year when she drove several miles down the wrong side of a divided highway.  A police car finally pulled her over (after several people called 911)  but he let her off.  I know sometimes police are trying to be nice - but seriously - she could have killed someone and she should have been forced to address the issue then.  Unfortunately, you cannot force your family to stop driving - only a doctor or the court can do that.  In Alberta at 80 you have to have a medical exam which she passed and it is up to the Doctor if he thinks you need to take another driving exam - which he required.  She has access to transportation at her senior home and gets meals in but was being very stubborn about this driving issue.  We are all very relieved although I am certain she would not have passed the test anyway.

Hubby has a really bad respiratory/chest infection and is going to the Dr today for medication - the only side benefit to that is that he is forced to sit on the couch and relax (he is type A, that never happens) to try and get better.  I am hoping he gets healthy soon so we can enjoy Christmas and the rest of our holidays.

This will be my final post until after the 25th - so I wish everyone a safe, healthy and happy Christmas!