Sunday Letter: 12.15.19

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

We only have two more weeks in this decade. I say this only because everywhere I turn I see these sorts of announcements—last full moon of the decade! — last Christmas of the decade! — last fill-in-the-blank of the decade!

Ha.

We could play this game for the rest of the year.

Last Sunday Letter of the decade?

Maybe. Maybe not.

It’s always a game-time decision for me.

Chocolate and Lemon Mousse

What’s the plural of mousse?

I looked it up and found a confusing bunch of etymological information. Bottom line, the plural of mousse is mousse. It can also be mousses but that’s a mouthful.

Anyway, I made two kinds of mousse for Momma’s birthday party—lemon and chocolate—and promised you the recipes.

These are keeper recipes, y’all, perfect for those times when you want something sweet yet don’t want to bake. I think they would be great at Christmas too. Add a few raspberries or sugared cranberries to up the festive factor.

If you are a fan of lemon (like I am) you will love the lemon mousse which came from Three Many Cooks. Three Many Cooks served hers in shot glasses. I doubled the recipe, added extra lemon curd to the whipped cream (because you can’t have too much lemon curd), and served mine in sherbet glasses for larger servings. Click HERE for the recipe and details.

For the chocolate mousse, I whipped a box of instant chocolate pudding mix with 1.5 cups of 2% milk and a cup of heavy whipping cream. To assemble, I added crumbled brownies as the bottom layer, spooned in a layer of mousse, topped with more crumbled brownies and crumbled oreos. Then I repeated.

You can bake your own brownies or buy those delicious Two-Bite Brownies that most grocery stores seem to carry these days (which is what I did).

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!

We saw the musical, A Christmas Story, at Walton Arts Center this week. It’s based on the classic holiday movie. You know the one about Ralphie who wants an “official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and a clock that tells time” for Christmas? The BB gun that will surely put his eye out…

If you have an opportunity to see this play, GO. I highly recommend it. (Fayetteville friends, TODAY is your last chance to see it at Walton Art Center this decade.)

At the very least, you could watch the movie. I triple dog dare you.

A dose of nostalgia is always in season at Christmastime. Especially those highlighting childhood wishes and shenanigans balanced by the wisdom of our Mommas.

Wrapping Presents

I say this every year at Christmas, but I LOVE to wrap presents. I would wrap all your presents if you’d let me. Even the hard-to-wrap ones.

This probably goes back to my elf days (which I talked about in last week’s Sunday Letter).

The ribbon, the paper, the tags—all of it. I set up a makeshift Santa’s workshop on my table and get lost in my own little wonderland. But this year, my workload is next to nothing as we have all but eliminated exchanging gifts. Yes, I mailed gifts to the kids, but other than Christmas morning stockings, that’s it for our family. (We have too much stuff, and no one needs anything that can be bought at a store.)

Neighbors, if wrapping presents isn’t your idea of fun, bring your paper and unwrapped gifts to me and I’ll take care of it.

No, really.

#ChristmasFail

To all my wonderful friends who have sent Christmas cards—thank you! Each one brings joy, and I sincerely hope you will not delete me from your list when discover I haven’t reciprocated.

In a spurt of Christmas cheer, I mailed five cards at the beginning of the month. How I chose those five, I can’t really say. This week, I’ve made peace with my #ChristmasFail of the season. It just isn’t going to happen.

Evidently last Christmas was my last time to mail Christmas cards this decade…

I could point out that you do receive a Sunday Letter from me nearly every week. But pointing this out seems a little petty on my part, doesn’t it? So never mind.

Maybe I’ll send cards at some random, unexpected time in the new year decade. That would be fun.

Things Momma Says:

I finally found my blood pressure machine! It was stored with my Christmas lights.

***

10 days til Christmas!

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.