2022 has been quite the year with the new quilt shop.  We appreciate our guests frequenting the shop for fabric and Creative Passions clothing.  New colors of shirts just arrived this week!   

At the end of December, the Retreat office will be closed Friday, December 23 through Monday, December 26, reopening on Tuesday, December 27.  Then closed Friday, December 30 through Monday, January 2, reopening on January 3.  This will give our team two 4-day weekends in a row to enjoy family and festivities.  Thank you for understanding that they need breaks too.   

I am hoping Mother Nature gets over her “hot flashes” soon, and we can move on to beautiful snow.  May your holidays be safe and healthy. 

Hugs and Holiday Wishes, 

Laura G 

This morning as I was in my kitchen making coffee, I saw 2 rotten bananas sitting on the counter and as I went to throw them away, I thought, I probably have time to whip up some muffins for Lucas for breakfast before he leaves for work.  My banana bread muffin recipe is probably my most used recipe of any of my recipes.  The card is starting to wear down, the writing is so smeared I can barely read it but honestly…I get the card out just in case.  The card is written in my Great Grandma’s handwriting and it’s one of the few things I have that has her writing on it.  While baking this morning, I thought well shoot, I need a recipe for the newsletter that was due yesterday so I pulled out my peanut brittle recipe, a recipe that used to be in my mom’s handwriting but I had to rewrite it years ago, and thought I would share that one with you ladies.  I’ve probably already shared it and thought, oh well, I’m a good cook but not a chef, this girl only has so many recipes to share.   

My peanut brittle recipe was shared with me by my Mom.  I’ve been making it every year for as long as I can remember, first by my mom’s side, then I took over the making of it and now, I make it because she can’t.  It’s a tradition, she made it for her dad, then I made it for him, then made it for my family.  I thought about what I would write in this newsletter all morning while getting ready for work and how I would talk about traditions and what I would say before I shared the recipe with you and guess what, I spent so much time thinking about it, the recipe card is at home on the counter while I type this.  I could have turned around and gone back for it but thought, is it really necessary, it’s not.  Holidays are stressful, they’re amazing for some, hard for others but stressful for all and why add any additional stress to myself.  So, my recipe for this month is, 

10,000 cups of time