Living in the US - Where we say TO MA TOE and you say TO MAH TOW

[alipiggie]

Wow we filled the thread guys. So as I was about to Say UR you've probably had squirrel if you've eaten Chinese . Think I've had most things. Just don't ask eat. Roasting hot here, very busy but having a blast. Enjoyed our new gym yesterday and picnic in the park tonight which was wonderful. Live music, handsome young men - need I say more.

People do that here, Cali. You see lines of cross-country skis stuck in the snow outside the diners on Sunday mornings.

Thanks for the recipe. I see it's one of Dorie's - she's mean to be very good. Mincemeat sounds odd but I will look out for it this week.

Hi Again,
Snow and mince pies......so Christmassy. Today it was almost 70F here in Texas. I think this is why I procrastinate getting ready for Christmas, it just doesn't feel like December.
I made mince pies one year. My dh's family (Texans) each ate ONE very polietly.
I always intend to make Christmas pudding, but have never located any suet. I was told to go to the butcher's and ask for bird food, they laughed at me. Went to the bird feeder place and asked for suet, but theirs was already combined with birdseed. The suet always looked like maggots to me anyway.
This year I will be in the UK for Christmas(yay!) which leads me to a question - when you go to the UK, what do you bring back? especially for a baby (mine's 4 1/2 months)

Someone once told me that Mince Pies (but big ones) are eaten in the South but I am yet to meet an American who has eaten one.

Tea
Marmite
Custard
Oxo/ marigold bouillon
Tunnocks Wafers
Hula Hoops
Earl Grey
Cocoa powder
Biscuits (like custard creams)
Toothpaste for DS (minty)
Lemsips
Hair stuff that I can't get over here
Chocolate
Twiglets

When DS was that age, I brought back

Sleep suits
Onesies
Socks
Clothes

and people sometimes ask me to bring back codeine products

And also, space allowing, books. And my mum always leaves me a pile of trashy magazines which I then distribute among my friends who seem to think them far superior to the ones you can get here. I don't know who any of the slebs are these days since they are all from I'm a celebrity Get me out of here Again or Big Brother 258 or Pop Idol.

Has anyone read Freakonomics? Tis very good.

Well we did the outside thing, and I was the one who lasted 2 minutes. I make sure the kids have warm coats, boots, hats, gloves for the 2 days a year we need them, but I have nothing of the sort. My coats and boots are more of the decorative variety than overly warm. They do fine for the 40's, but not the 20's with wind.

It is very windy tonight. Supposed to have 50mph winds. It is in the mid 20's, and is snowing ice pellets right now. Poor DH is going to have a time getting to work, as we live on a city that is pretty much entirely on a hill, and he needs to go down and over 2 cities. I don't think there's a chance there will be school tomorrow, which is going to make Colin sad, as it was supposed to be his Christmas party.

Poor Colin

We have strong winds too. And rain. And a weather warning but I haven't bothered to check what it will be. I suspect more snow

Update: no coffee but potentially lunch tomorrow

So we had another dumping of snow and it's currently -20c/-4f outside and going to drop to roughly -22c/-9. There will be school here tomorrow unless we get another dump of snow. Mince pies made, scrummy yummy. Wood fire burning, central heating on aswell it's SO cold. Stay warm and stay safe everyone.

Stay warm, Ali.

Can anyone tell me what Holy Manna is?

That's hilarious, ali. They've already canceled school because of 25 degree temps and a few inches of snow.

You mean the food that rained down from the heavens that God sent the Israelites when they were wandering around in the wilderness, SB?

Is that what it is, Dooney? It makes sense because the song is saying, "Brethren pray and Holy Manna will be showered all around"

The next song is called Ballstown but I won;t ask about that.

They were wandering around in the wilderness hungry, and God gave them manna as a miracle. They had to gather just enough to feed their family every day, because it went bad the next day, but that was okay, because there was more the next day.

You've just got to love our neighbor. It was "snowing" upward, because there are little mini-tornadoes the wind is blowing so hard that the snow is off of everyone's roof, and is coming up from the ground, but now there's not, because everything is one shiny, slippery sheet of ice. Her 6 and 4 year old boys are playing in their front yard right now, all alone. Or am I just an overprotective parent?

Mince Meat pie - absolutely a southern thing. Holidays would not be the same without it! The name used to freak me out a little when I got old enough to think about it though, lol. My mom has made homemade pear mince that is delicious in pie.

manna - there is a theory that during a meteorite-type event complex carbohydrates were formed in the atmosphere and fell down. They were suposedly sort of solid-honey like in composition and due to the heavy cloud cover/ash all vegetation withered and the "manna" kept the people alive. From a book called "Worlds in Collision" iirc.

How fascinating about Manna. I'm imagining it to be a bit like honeycomb which is making me smile with the thought that God invented Crunchies. I will look out for that book, Jabber, Sounds interesting.

I don't think I'd let a 4 and 6 play out at the front alone. But perhaps in a safe neighbourhood, if it were bitterly cold and I was MNing watching from the window? It does sound very little to be out by themselves though.

I'm going to Whole Foods and World Market, hooray!

Sounds yummy Superbunny although one of our friends does call Whole Foods the "dollar-a-bite" store, lol.

It isn't so much letting them play alone, it is the letting them play alone at 9 pm at night when it is in the low 20's with sheets of ice on the ground and winds gusting close to 50 mph, and not having the curtains open to watch. I need to get a life, though. She really bothers me, because she's the one that left them playing outside this summer and drove off and left them for 2 hours all alone.

I am seriously loving World Market more and more. There's so much good stuff there I never noticed before.

I call Wholefoods "wholelottamoneyfornottalottafood"!!!!!

Update: no lunch today as his day has (and I quote) "turned to crap".... so will have to wait til after the holidays. Patience is a virtue hey. He'd better be Joaquin's doppelganger LOL.

We call Whole Foods "Whole Paycheck," here. Then a competing grocery must have picked up on it and began a campaign that said "You don't have to spend your whole paycheck to feed your whole family." That was a good laugh.

Boo!!! (On the day turned to crap, that is.)

Whole Foods came and bought out a local natural foods chain that wasn't cheap, but wasn't as expensive as WF. Portland is a pretty natural foods/granola type place, but there is a lot of ill will toward WF here.

I've just wrapped the last of the presents. My tree is all trimmed and pretty. I'm soooo looking forward to Christmas, it was a bit of a non-event last year as I only came out of hospital 2 days before after my mastectomy.

DH finishes work today, till January! And on Weds we're going to Marks & Spencer in Hamilton to buy Christmas pudding, mince pies, Dundee cake and chocolate biscuits. I am excused from doing home made this year as I am still officially recovering from my recent op.

anorak you are way ahead of me. I've got to get it in gear - tree up but not decorated

mananny, sorry lunch was delayed. Wonder what the "turned to crap" was? Probably to do with current software project I'll bet.