Duchess

Tiny Duchess

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The year has started already and I am slow to start with it.  No resolutions. No new goals.  Just continue to make time with the Duchesses. 

The two older ones are busier these days. I will need to work harder to get in their schedule.  That is part of the process of growing up.  I am thankful I am still able to go and do with them. I am anxious to have a weekend with them again.  I am missing my no longer little Duchesses.

The little one has a hold on me like no one. The first two were a pair.  A lot of time we have is the two of them playing with each other. I suppose it is because in the first days of this Tiny Duchess, I was with my little one so much more.   Or more likely, it is the place I am in my life now.  Older, retired, more time on my hands.  Maybe it is just her.    

At any rate, if I go too many days without seeing her, I start to feel unsettled.  We are hoping she will be ready to spend the night with us soon.  She is like her Paw Paw.  Wants to sleep in her own bed in her own room at her own house.  Don’t tell Paw Paw, but Granny is getting that way, too.

Over my lifetime, I have spent a lot of time with little ones.  Babies and toddlers and preschoolers.  I have known a lot of very sharp little minds.  This tiniest Duchess seems to have an edge on all of them.  I did notice a touch of stubbornness yesterday.  Certainly not her father’s hard headedness, but just a little of wanting to do something and not as easily redirected. 

She is always talking about her Paw Paw.  Wakes up in the morning asking for him, cries for him when she gets tired.  He plays with her like a kid.  The baby whisperer, he has been called.

 Watch his face when he talks to a little one.  He is fully engaged and animated.  To the rest of the world, he is rough around the edges and tough as old boot leather.  But, with children, he is laughter and tickles and tumbling and racing.  It has been said very accurately that you cannot be sensitive and be friends with him.  That is true.  But, not for little ones, certainly not for the Duchesses.  And absolutely not for the Tiny Duchess. 

Tea Cakes and Sugar Plum Fairies

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I am trying to perfect tea cakes.  I have my great grandmother’s “recipe”. Really a set of instructions that she tried to put measurements to when relaying it to my aunt.  I have the dough down pretty well.  I need to survey some of my older relatives to get more information.  How thin is “really thin” and were they soft or crisp when cooled? 

I made a variation of the dough this past weekend.  I substituted eggnog for the milk, increased the vanilla a bit and added a good spoonful of nutmeg.  They have a subtle flavor Rock and I like.  I think our son will like them.  He is a fan of eggnog.

At the antique mall, the older duchess found a Sugar Plum Fairy Barbie doll.  It wasn’t complete, but when I explained to her why, she seemed to understand.  We got it and after we got home, I pulled up a video of the Bolshoi Ballet performing the Sugar Plum dance.  She danced her doll around while listening and partly watching.  Maybe in a couple years both of the duchesses will be ready to sit through a production of The Nutcracker Ballet.  I have wonderful memories of my mother, the children and me dressing up and attending the ballet in Beaumont at the Julie Rogers Theater.  My niece danced in it as a child, too.

I am keeping Christmas music playing and when on the road in the evenings, I am looking out for Christmas lights.  The tree is up and the handful of decorations I use are put out.  Each year there is some variation of what I do.  Every year I use deer antlers in the dining table centerpiece because Rock likes them. And I want to do things he likes.  I change the details around them.  Sometimes I get carried away and we are pushing the centerpiece out of our dinner plates.  Oh, well…………

I haven’t been Christmas shopping, yet.  I have a couple of things I picked up along the way. I suppose sometime this week I should get busy.  I seem to wait later every year.  I told my bunch I don’t want anything wrapped up under the tree.  I have some projects around the house I would like for them to do instead. 

Ten days and counting down to Christmas Eve.  I really had better get myself busy.  A lot to do for our family gathering.  I am already busy enjoying this special time of the year. A gathering with friends for dinner, special moments during Sunday morning services, music, lights, decorations, Duchesses.  The younger one will be here this weekend.  We’ll see what she finds to explore for the season.  Yep, I’m already busy!