Reindeer Envy & Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

This is the second time I'm typing this tonight.... don't know what's happening with the site. Too many bloggers trying to enter stuff at one time? Don't know, but I will try this again...

We didn't go to Galveston today... very warm outside, but cloudy and overcast, plus we're right at the end of our colds... no sense in pushing our luck and getting sick all over again. We'll just have to wait and see "Dickens on The Strand" next year.

As each day goes by, more and more reindeer are popping up on the lawns here on our street. There are just 15 houses on our little street, and hopefully, just about all of them will have reindeer on the lawn by Christmas week. If H hadn't moved away, I'm sure every lawn would have at least one reindeer by now. Between H and my husband, they would've made this entire cul de sac look like reindeer heaven this Christmas. But we're getting there... more reindeer this year than last.

The newest reindeer is across the street at L & B's house. B's reindeer is the standard white-lighted deer, but his deer has a red-lighted wreath around its neck, plus the head of the deer swivels from side to side. Nice touch... and I'm sure all the men on the street will be wanting one of those. I saw B outside earlier this evening, and told him how great the deer looked... and how wonderful that it moves its head. "Great reindeer!" I told him. "Sure is!" said B. And he stood there in the middle of his lawn like a proud papa. B lives in H's "old" house, so H would be happy to see such a great reindeer on her old lawn. She loved that house and was its original owner. No matter how long B & L live over there, somehow that will always be H's house.

I spent part of this afternoon baking chocolate chip pecan cookies... getting ready for this weekend's Christmas party. Two hours of baking and I've got just one platter of cookies. And I doubled that recipe. I'll be baking more during the week... I've got a recipe for peanut butter cookies, except I'll be using cashew butter.

The recipe for Chocolate Chip/Pecan cookies is from a Mrs. Fields baking book. Her recipe calls for almonds, but I used Texas pecans. For the sugar, I substituted the same amount of Splenda (less calories and the same taste). I didn't use almond extract, just the vanilla. The original recipe goes as follows---

Ingredients: 3/4 cup salted butter, softened; 1/3 cup sugar; 1 tsp. vanilla extract; 1/4 tsp. almond extract; 1 cup flour; 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips; 1 cup slivered almonds.

Method: Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar, using wooden spoon. Add extracts and mix. Add flour, chips and nuts. Mix well, but don't over-mix. Shape rounded tablespoonfuls into 1 1/2" balls and place (2" apart) on baking sheet. Use your hand or the bottom of a glass to flatten them out a bit. Bake for 15-17 minutes, just till the tops start to get browned. Great, easy cookie!

We watched a made-for-TV movie tonight-- "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." Three hours long.... with about one hour's worth of commericals. Take out the commercials and you'd have a two-hour movie. It's been years since I've watched a movie on TV... amazing how many commercials they can throw at you. The movie was good, though... they stuck to the book. But the book is always better... no commercials.

Well, let's see if this prints the way it's supposed to print. As I said-- I tried it before and everything got lost in the Twilight Zone.