This weekend is the annual Pops concert at Austin College put on by the Sherman Symphony Orchestra. It is always a festive and fun way to get into the Christmas spirit. We opt for a table which means that we sit up near the stage and we have a place to put our hot chocolate and cookies during intermission. I always make gingerbread men for this event.

I had Elanor and Jack over yesterday morning and I thought it would be fun to let them help with the baking. I am now going to admit to something that not every mother or grandmother will admit to: I do not bake well with children.

I do not have fond memories of baking with my boys when they were little and that is probably because I have erased those days from my memory. My husband has always been better in the kitchen with children and I've decided that I really don't need to try to do what he already does so well. I made a promise to myself – never again. None of us needs the stress that was generated yesterday by doing what was supposed to be fun.

However, at the end of the day, we did have lots of gingerbread men and women (both with gluten and without) and everyone was very happy. FYI – I use red hots instead of raisins on my GBM. They add just the right sweet punch to the cookie.

I hope you each had a lovely Thanksgiving! Ours was different. We visited Steve's family in Moore, OK, on Wednesday night. We visited my mom and my sister, who was still in the hospital, on Thanksgiving. And then we drove home and built fence. We ate our turkey dinner on Friday which was odd, but not bad.

I'm showing you our trash containers – not photogenic but it's where they live. I spent a few hours on Friday moving wheelbarrows full of that red sand you can see there. I'm so glad that I don't have to do that on a daily basis.

Steve built a lovely gate. The hinges are self-closing (for safety) and they work like a charm.

Steve devised a way for me to hang my bird feeder so that I can fill it from the yard and then move it out over the alley. That way the squirrels can't get to it and the bird seed falls in the alley, not next to the pool – but I can still see the birds at the feeder from my studio window. The design needs a little tweaking, but it's going to work really well.

Here's what happened today: the cement truck pulled into the alley behind our house.

The decking crew came too and got right to work. They spread more sand and taped off the house so that it wouldn't get dirty from the cement. Then they started moving wheel barrows full of cement.

This is not easy work. The only guy standing and watching was Bill, our pool contractor. And me – I took pictures.

In the photo above you can see one guy smoothing the surface of the cement. There were 2 guys spreading it into place and making it level. And then there were the 2 guys with the wheel barrows. And their boss, Al, who was overseeing and doing whatever needed doing.

After the cement got set enough, they stamped the pattern into the concrete. The stamps aren't at all what I imagined. They were thin and flexible. One was 3'-4' square and the smaller one might have been about 18" square.

That hole you see is a drain. They put 3 or 4  in and connected them to a french drain to move the water off the deck, away from the house.

We chose a pattern that looks like sandstone in a sandstone sort of color. Bill said to go darker than we want because over the course of the first year, it will lighten. The way it works is that once they smooth the concrete, they spread the concrete stain "dust" over it. As the concrete sets up, it draws in the color. They also added dark highlights to make it look more natural. It should be set up and looking good in a couple of weeks.

We've also been working on the fence. Here's a shot from Sunday…

And this is what it looks like on the outside:

Sue Conrad has been making and selling pies in Sherman, TX, for a very long time. Her pies are legendary and it's because of the crust. Her pie crusts almost taste like a cookie – buttery and perfect. I bought her cookbook this summer and am just now getting around to using it. I'm making her famous strawberry pie tonight.

For those of you about to bake a pie, try this. It's amazingly good and easy. I've added to Sue's instructions, answering the questions that I had as I made mine.

Sue's Pie Crust

(Sue says to use the exact amount called for. Don't get sloppy.)

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1/4 cup Wesson oil (I wouldn't substitute unless you absolutely have to since she is very specific)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk

I used my Kitchenaide mixer and it worked perfectly. Put the flour and salt in the bowl and stir it with a fork. Attach the mixing blade. Add butter and oil, blend well on low. Add buttermilk and mix well. Form into a ball.

Roll out between waxed paper – don't add any flour. (Wipe your counter with a damp cloth first to keep the waxed paper in place.) Makes one 10-inch pie shell.

Carefully put the crust into a pie pan. (This was the tricky part for me but if I can do it, so can you.) Trim the edges, add crust where you need to by pressing more into place. Make the edges pretty.

When preparing crust for cream or fruit pies, prick the bottom and sides of the crust in a few places with a fork. Bake the crust at 350 until golden brown – it took mine about 25 minutes to reach this stage.

For pies that require an unbaked crust, Sue recommends baking the crust for 8-10 minutes before adding the filling.

Sue also says to start baking your pies on the bottom rack. Move it up as the pie becomes firm.

My son, Jeff, is taking part in Movember. Participating men are growing mustaches and raising money to fight the “man” cancers, prostate and testicular. Jeff’s page is here and it’s easy to click to donate.

I'm back from OKC. My sister is better! She was sitting up and eating some and is mostly coherent so Mom sent me home. I got home to find that they have leveled the yard and built the forms for the concrete decking. The drains in the deck are set and the electrical work is finished. The green tags are in place – meaning that the work has been OKd by the inspector.

That red dirt you see is actually sand, probably from the Red River. It's very iron-rich sand. They were supposed to bring the concrete this morning but rain in Dallas has kept them away. It will be Tuesday before the deck gets done.

This morning after my walk I went to Lowe's and bought 250 fence pickets – 1×6's and 1×4's. The helpful folks at Lowe's loaded them into the pickup for me but then I unloaded them from the pickup when I got home. Steve would have done it but he's at work and I want to get as much as I can done today because we don't have a lot of time to work on the fence tomorrow. That meant me doing some manual labor which doesn't hurt me a bit.

I proceeded to cut the boards to the correct lengths with the miter saw. What a great power tool! I used the table saw to cut the 1×4's in half, lengthwise. As I was doing all this cutting I couldn't help but think that the saws were an awful lot like rotary cutters – except that you could cut your hand off with them. I was very careful.

Our garage smells like cedar.