For what? My Grandmother's fruitcake recipe! Seriously, I did have a few ladies ask for it. I'll post at the end of this after I post a card. Someone also asked how I was getting any shopping done since I was still making cards to post here. Well. . . I still need to shop. But I have made a bit of a dent in the cooking, have made about seventy cards (and mailed sixty-five of them), and [drum roll here, please] I've almost finished a stuffed bear that my little boy had his heart set on. He requested that it be hand made by me--someone who truly hates sewing. Not only did I sew, but I sewed that horrible fuzzy teddy-bear-ish cloth that feels and slithers around like nylon underwear on one side, while shedding fuzzies profusely on the other side. I reminded him several times that this should prove to him once and for all how much I loved him. . . (Do you think I milked that a bit much?) I need to sew Teddy's head on, but my sewing machine is too noisy to use at night. Wonder if I could attach the head with my Crop-a-dial? Now there's a quiet tool--ungh, ungh!
This is a 4-1/4" x 4-1/4" card. I used the Marvy Giga Scalloped punch for the Real Red mat, and a Cricut cut for the inside circle. I pierced holes in the scallops with my piercing tool. Smaller circles are punched with a mixture of SU and non-SU circles. You can't see the bling, but it's there in the form of stickles on the little tree as well as the Green Galore dots surrounding the main image. This isn't really a "me" Christmas card, but it was fun to play with Big Pieces in different colors than I tend to use with it.
Now the moment that only three people in the whole world have been waiting for. . . the fruitcake recipe! This is a very basic recipe--not much explanation came with it. I tried to babble sufficiently to fill in the blanks; that part is italicized. Our family used recipes just to get basic proportions right; the rest was creative mingling.
Grandmother Holliday's Fruit Cake
2 cups plain flour divided (one to use in batter and one to dredge fruit in)
1-1/2 cups butter (no substitutes)
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 Tbls. + 1 tsp. lemon extract (sometimes I use almond and vanilla, or vanilla and a touch of butter rum--whatever!)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
_____
5-1/2 cups fruit (Here's the deal: if you use good fruit, the cake is good. If you take a shortcut and use premixed fruit with peelings and who-knows-what-else, I make no guarantees. I use red and green candied cherries, candied pineapple, dates, golden raisins, dried apricots, dried cranberries, and dried cherries if I have them. Use the fruits that you like, just so you have 5-1/2 cups in the end. . .)
5-1/2 cups nuts (I like fresh pecans best, but I don't always use this many. I have used as little as 3 cups without really messing up the texture of the cake.)
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and flavorings, and cream again. Stir in 1 cup of flour.
After cutting your larger fruit into manageable pieces (cutting cherries in half or dates and apricots into smaller pieces), add the reserved cup of flour to the fruit mixture and toss the fruit, coating it in flour; this helps the pieces to be separate rather than congealing into one sticky hunk. Add the chopped nuts and toss again. Fold the fruit/nut mixture into the batter.
Grease and flour either one large tube pan or two large loaf-sized pans. You may line them with foil if you wish, but you should still grease the pans.
Bake at 300 degrees for 2-1/2 hours. Cover cake with foil to bake. Put a dish of water underneath to keep it moist. Uncover the cake for the last 5-10 minutes to lightly brown the top.
This cake keeps well, though it never lasts more than a month at our house, Maybe that's why my grandmother never drenched it in any kind of alcohol; we ate it before it needed that kind of help! ;-D
I hope that you are having a wonderful Christmas!
(I can say nothing except "thank you," and I probably mispronounce even that.) The people have been gracious and helpful. The sights, sounds, and scents (such as the ubiquitous kimchee) are all new to me. . . It's all a part of the experience! 
We were in the arts district in an alleyway when I looked up and saw the paper lanterns perched in bamboo trees like a flock of colorful birds. Aren't they dramatic?
We had lunch in a vegetarian restaurant that day--would you believe a twenty-course meal? This picture shows only part of it! I truly enjoyed most of it; I must admit that I haven't developed an appreciation for seaweed yet, but I decided to be brave and try it all! I am finally able to use chopsticks--won't say that I've mastered them, but at least I won't have to ask for a fork now. 
Finally, I snapped this picture of an enormous bouquet being delivered on a motor bike. The driver was laboring to carry one of the two that he had carried on this bike into a door. How on earth he balanced two of these monsters, I have no clue! 
