December 10-18 2012

I had posted on Facebook that I was becoming so good at doing nothing that I could now do it in my sleep.  It seems that our lives went from 'doing nothing' to busy every day. 

On December 7th we had our Christmas Potluck and gift exchange here at Shady Oaks.

Sunday school and church on the 9th.

Bible study at Shady Oaks on the 10th

11th was a different Bible study at Highland Lakes UMC

On the 12th we had a community breakfast at HL UMC

The 13th I attended a Qigong class (exercise)

14th other than the daily coffee with the guys was a quiet day.

My granddaughter's birthday party was on the 15th ... after the party we also did some shopping while we were 'in town'

HL UMC had their Christmas Cantata on the 16th

17th Shady Oaks Bible study

18th HL UMC Bible study

The following photos are out of chronological order because that is the way they loaded and I haven't figured out how to easily move them into order.

December 12

Sitting room for these
gorgeous Texas days

Steam rising from Inks Lake above the dam

Another cloudless Texas sunrise

December 12

Spiderweb

Deer

Colorado River below Inks Dam

December 15 ... Sofia's Birthday Party

December 18 

Landscapes from near our campsite

Buzzards near our campsite

With this many buzzards around, I don't take naps outside!


December 17

Predawn on a cloudless Texas morning

Bread

Bread having risen for about 50 minutes

As long as I'm cutting expansion slits in the top ... they might as will be pretty

Fresh from the oven

Potato bread
12 oz room temperature water
4 cups flour
3/4 cup instant potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin cold pressed)
1 package dry yeast

Combine dry ingredients
Combine water and oil and add to dry ingredients
Mix to form a sticky dough
Kneed on a floured surface until dough is elastic (about 10 times)
Form into a ball
Let rest in a lightly greased bowl until about double in size (cover with a damp towel) 
Lightly punch down dough and reform into a ball
Preheat oven to 350 degrees 
Let rest on a lightly greased cookie sheet until about double in size (cover with a damp towel)
Bake until golden brown (45 to 55 minutes)
Place bread on a cooling rack and wait until almost cool to the touch. (It's not easy to wait with the smell of warm bread ... and you can imagine the butter melting so quickly into that hot slice of homemade bread ... but it'll be better if you let it rest a little first)

Fireworks on Inks Lake

On December first there was a parade of boats, the lighting of the decommisioned bridge over Inks Lake and fireworks!