Nut Cracking

Every year for Christmas, my aunt Anne who lives in Oregon, sends us nuts as a gift. They are the kind you have to crack. The nuts you see in this photo are from last year or maybe some even from the year before. As you can see, I don't crack many nuts. I just don't think about cracking nuts while I'm sitting and watching TV. But today I pulled out a recipe for cookies that I want to make. They called for chopped hazel nuts. I'm sure if I were to look in some of the grocery stores, I could find some already cracked hazel nuts. But, I thought this would be a good project for me this afternoon. I don't have the TV on or music playing in the apartment. Just quietness that leaves me alone with my thoughts while I was cracking nuts. I thought about what I was going to make for dinner, what Christmas gifts I need to buy, things I need to get done in the next week or two, whether I really want to drag out Christmas decorations for the apartment and lots of other things, I'm sure. I cracked nuts for about a half an hour, and as you can see by my photo, I didn't get many nuts cracked. If I'm going to use these hazel nuts for my recipe, I'd better get cracking!!! And use these up before I get my new box of Christmas nuts from Aunt Anne!