Day 11 ... Baked ... so much ... FLOUR ... EVERYWHERE! Must CLEAN ... and bake more ...

Post coming ... with pictures ... of FLOUR ... and goodies ... soon! I swear! :-D

Have you ever had that moment where you quietly wonder if your baby hates you?

I had that moment today, when I finally realized what was going on, THAT was the first thought that came to mind..."Why does my baby hate me? Perhaps she was serious when she told me 'No more peas'."

While sifting through my MANY recipes and compiling a list of things I want to bake for friends and family this year, I looked over my shoulder at my baby. Which I HAD done many times, but since she wasn't in mortal danger I didn't look TOO closely.

Until I saw that look of PURE GUILT or Evil ... jury's still out ... and then she raised her hand ... IT HAD AN INK PEN.

I looked over, as if in slow motion, and let out the scream of 'oMG!THATSA*PEN*WHATDIDYOUDOYOULITTLES**T!' and as I screamed that scream that I am SURE you parents know {or WILL KNOW} my 5 yr old looked over the couch at the calamity and I think they both pooped themselves just a little...


THIS IS MY WHITE DINNING ROOM CHAIR ...

And as I screamed out 'My GOD why?!' I looked to my left and discovered that it was not ONE CHAIR ... OR TWO CHAIRS ... it was THREE ...

That was when I thought to myself, while looking at their terrified expressions, I wonder if she hates me? So what else could I do? I laughed. I laughed that maniacle laughter of the damned - or of a mother who has reached the line where you either laugh or you cry.

So as I ran to grab my oxyclean, and thought to myself "If this works...I am sending in my story to the Oxyclean people and they shall sing it from the mountain tops" - I even contemplated using my video camera to capture the miracle if it worked on the first chair. That's when my inner blogger ran for the camera to take BEFORE pictures ;-)

UNFORTUNATELY I HAVE NO AFTER PICTURES. Oxyclean has betrayed me and we are no longer on speaking terms. I found one, maybe two, possible products that MAY work and I'll be off to the store as soon as the hubs comes home. But even after all this I was laughing it off and saying 'Well at the worst, we'll just recover the chairs I guess, but that SUCKS.'

I needed to do something that made me feel better, made me laugh again, and something that related somehow. I was posting my story on my 'Mommies Message Board' and thought that her sweet angelic picture on there staring at me was MOCKING me somehow - soooooo that is when I opened up my MSPaint {as I am too poor to have anything else ;-)} and got to work.

I think it captures her inner spirit - don't you?

And after I started feeling a little better and thinking that recovering the chairs wouldn't be THAT hard I discovered the ENTIRE ARM OF THE COUCH - ALSO WHITE - COVERED in ink pen. ::SIGH::

That is when someone on my message board wrote - at JUST the right time - "Just remember, she loves you ... she just loves drawing too ;-) "

So that is my story for today, hope you enjoyed it as much as I DID :-D Til Tomorrow...

Today I got out of the house ... with no kids ... TWICE! I know I know, I am spoiled.

I started the day off just drinking coffee at the bar with the hubs waiting {im}patiently for the semi-local Walmart Photo shop to open. I got an email letting me know that 1/3 of my photo order {1/7th of my ENTIRE order} was ready for pick up! It was the photo I'm putting in our Christmas cards and I REALLY wanted to get those out so I sacrificed the CHAOS that is our house on a Sunday morning and went to Walmart.

Last night I finished sorting out and addressing all the cards so I'm ITCHING to get this OFF my list! The cards are handmade and therefore a bit bigger than the normal ones and all the envelopes say "MAY require additional postage" SO that means I drag one or more kids to the post office tomorrow, bright and early. F.U.N. But at least that will be done. I wish I had a printer, I LOVE getting the Christmas Letters with the cards and the pictures! I sent cards to people I haven't spoken to much this year and it would have been great to get them all caught up, BUT, I guess not this year.

I did get some pricing done though, and got one present for the hubs, something he TOTALLY won't be expecting :-D We ended up getting a small personal loan - ONLY because we got a good interest rate and will be able to pay it off when we get the taxes back in like FEBRUARY. So we're not being TOTALLY irrisponsible, just trying to do what we can to get through this financially rough time of year. And we're using it for things like taxes and for the hubs to get his flooring and tile licenses, and for things like timing belts and tires. The last of it is for presents.

So he has this great idea of getting bikes for the kids for the big Santa present. And that SOUNDED like a grand EASY idea :-D HA! It started out that way. I found resonable bikes at some online stores but they were out of stock, so I when I was out I went to two stores and found that they didn't have THOSE bikes in stock either but had different ones for only ONE kid, then I came home and found a cheap one in an add, went BACK out to the store to OF COURSE find that they were out of stock. So I looked online again and the ones they DID have in stock would be TOTALLY out of our budget by the time we paid for shipping.

::sigh::

So after battling for space in Target {why or why would I subject myself to Target on a weekend in December when I could just go during the week? OH yeah, no kids :-D = time well spent} I left with some clothes for the baby and a gift for the man. We have discussed it and the bikes are just too much work {and MONEY} for gifts that can't properly be enjoyed during the winter, so they will wait until their birthdays!

Anywho {as if you're still reading ;-)}, in between those two stops, the hubs and I took the boy and the baby to the store to get a tester Prime Rib. He decided he has perfected turkey and must now move beyond it and perfect a prime rib recipe. So since he has a kind heart {and would hate to give family the heaves} we got one early to practice on. I guess his kindness only extends to EXTENDED family ;-) I am excited though! We got all the trimmings and as I sit here it's smellin up the whole house in that yummy prime ribby smell :-D

So I guess I should get going and get the table set, or potatoes made, or see what fun Christmas movie is on tonight - thank you ABCFamily's 25 Days of Christmas shows! Thanks for checking in and I'll talk to ya tomorrow!

It's not so much the blogging everyday thing that was a problem today, it's the material.


How is my less-than-entertaining life supposed to be entertaining to you, the blog reader, when all I did was nap today? Well, I didn't REALLY nap, I just sorta drifted in and out while watching Seinfeld Season 8 on DVD. Hehe, I love that show. Which is why I didn't really sleep. That and I have that THING where I think too damn much.

Everytime I have a quiet moment and nothing specific to think about, I start thinking about stuff I don't wanna think about like our money woes and the fact that the construction business is TANKING in California and my hubby's company may be CUTTING HIS PAY. That and laundry and dishes and presents and what not. I'm sure some of you can sympathize.

So after my hubs got home I ran out to the store to get a few things for some projects I'm working on that I am not at liberty to discuss yet ;-) And I started feeling better again. I don't know if it was the crisp air on my face, the hands empty of sticky child fingers, or that a certain {secret} store always seems to put a smile on my face, but whatever the case, it worked.

I also started pontificating on Christmas, the meaning of and my love of, but THAT is a story for another day ... probably another nap day :-D

Thanks for checking it! Talk to you tomorrow!

So back on the 4th I was FROSTED! and so yesterday I chose who my FROSTee would be and went shopping! YAY! I picked out a couple inexpensive things and threw them together, what'dya think?!

I think it came out WAY cute! Ok so what I got was a cute platter that has a Santa on it and says "Santa's Cookies". Then I put this awesome Christmas shaker set! I mean nothin says Christmas like a cocktail set! Am I RIGHT?! ;-) And a big Santa cookie, and a cute little coco/marshmellow set...

I also included two coffee mugs that match the napkins. I folded the napkins and placed them draping out. Then I got these two little cups shaped like ornaments and filled one with candy and one with a cute Santa snowglobe ornament! Now, what would you pay for aaaaaall this LOVELY merchandise?! $99.95?! $49.95?! NOPE! For the low low price of $13.99{ish} you can be FROSTed in STYLE ;-) Thank you Target's {semi}dollar aisle, I say SEMI because they SLYLY have a $2.50 AISLE RIGHT next to the $1.00 stuff so if you aren't paying VERY close attention you might not see the difference! Well, not *I* so much as my DH who thought I got all this great stuff for a buck - mwa ha ha haha >:-D

So I just need to make a cute little card, write that HELLA long poem, wrap the whole thing up to seal it away from the elements, and take it on over! Shouldn't take long - HA!

Yesterday I organized a few things LIST wise for Christmas, decided who was getting what as far as friends go, and then went to the store to complete that list. So I feel much more organized and closer to being done as well. I still need to go to one more store, or well maybe two :-D And I should have everything ready to start! Hehe, start.

Today I was a bit more cranky that usual, lately anyway. I picked up my kids at their dad's house about an hour away as usual for Wednesdays and Fridays but now that means getting up at 5:15 and hightailin it to the car NO LATER than 5:40 to get there by 6:30-6:45 and back on the road no later than 6:50 to get to the school no later than 7:45 ... are you tired yet? Cause I was. OH ... and then there was the LITTLE matter of TORRENCIAL RAIN. It was SUPER stormy here last night, so windy that the door hanger Christmas thing was banging so hard on the door DOWNSTAIRS that it woke me up and I thought someone was breaking in! So this morning the roads were a MESS, but I perserviered. I got em here with time to spare and then as I got home discovered by kids lunch on the seat beside me ... SIGH ...

So I went home, fed kids, showered, fed kids, did my hair, make up, fed kids ... again, got kids ready to go, went down to the school, had to park HELLA far because they are so messed up and have NO parking WHAT SO EVER for parents who just need to RUN in real fast and dont wanna get HELLA kids outta the car in the freezing rain, got hella kids outta the car in the freezing rain, ran in the lunch, ran back out with a 2 year old attempting to repel from my arms to the street below, shoved them back in the car, took them back home so Princess could tinkle before getting on the bus, changed her clothes because we didn't make it, ran back to the bus stop, threw her on the bus, grabbed a Starbucks and were not-so-quickly on our way to the Friday Playdate :-D

The 'Mommies' have a standing playdate every Friday. It used to be at this one girl's house I will just say that I left early, which I never do. Not because we didn't have a great time, I guess it just wasn't my day. Plus two girls I really click with weren't there so that kinda lost it for me.

So anywho that's the story for today. Well that and the baby is up cranky from her nap, she was a POOP at the playdate today, I haven't defrosted chicken for dinner tonight yet, I volunteered to make a not-so-easy dinner and have no desire what-so-ever to get up OFF my butt and do it. As the baby screams at me "COME ON COME ON COME ON COME ON" not that she indicates WHERE she would like me to go, just that I should be going there NOW.

SO thanks for checkin in :-D and listening, talk to ya Tomorrow!

AHHHH, so far, as of writing this, it has been a very relaxed day :-D I am coming to you LIVE from my fireplace hearth :-D After I dropped Princess off at the bus I came home and picked up a little since the fireplace guy was coming to check out why it wasn't working properly. So it looked nice and that always relaxes me. Then I turned on the Christmas music while I waited and did the dishes.

He got here early, which was funny, because before 11 I didn't even know he was COMING! I was contently in my jammies and the house was a WRECK! While dropping the kinder at the bus I got a call from the scheduler, "Yes, we had an appt today between 8-12 but..." and that's where I says "OH ... um ... we did?!" thinking they were at my house while I was not and they were leaving and never coming back ... as contractor repairs have been known to do. Then she says "OH yes we do. But our guy is um ... gonna be a little late ... um because oooooof ... the rain." And I was thinking 'you mean the light sprinkling we just got? Yeah that's tough ... if you're the wicked witch of the west' but whatever I just wanted it FIXED!

So he has come and 5 later gone and my fireplace is running like a champ! The baby was napping so I've been working on my MANY Christmas lists just basking in how lovely the house was and how QUIET. So I took the opportunity to take some pics to finally share with you all! In fact, I took pics a while ago as well and thought I would show you the differences, see what you all though. So we'll do this. Each room I'll show you before and after, fall and Christmas. Then at the end I have some more Christmasy decor photos :-D
Ok so this the living room as you walk in the door, in November anyway ;-)

This is our December layout. We switched the couch and chair to accommodate our HUGE tree :-D

This was our scene from the dinning room/bar area back when I had just cleaned for a playdate but had yet to unpack ANY pieces of flair like A CANDLE or two.

This would be essentially the same angle NOW WITH FLAIR!

Now here is where I liked the old set up better, you could actually SEE into the dinning room! It didn't feel so closed off and set apart back then, and you get a nice view of the tile work too :-D

This is now with the couch there, slightly different angle too but you get the gyst.

This is the living room view from the kitchen back in the fall. Looking back now ... MAN I need to unPACK! How bout a FRAME or two - SHEESH!

Now I kinda like this picture. From the kitchen looking in and things look pretty :-D

Now, here I'll show you the kitchen from a while ago only, cause it's kinda messy right now and the lighting is bad and so you will just have to wait!

Back then it didn't have a backsplash, as you can see :-D, but I really like the cabinet color we chose with the tile and granite colors

This is from the hallway looking into the kitchen and the bar over looking the dinning room. LOVE IT!

Now this is what I was working on Monday since I had the Mommy group coming over Tuesday. YAY FLAIR! I think it turned out very pretty though. Those pics are polariods of us with Santa and I might change those out, we'll see.

Now thought this picture is fuzzy, it shows how it actual FELT in here today I think. It felt warm and fuzzy :-D Now if you imagine me with my computer on a footstool sitting in front of the fireplace you'd have it just about right :-D Well, an hour ago actually, NOW I have Terrible Two on my lap screaming "ITSATREEEE! ITSASTAR!..." and so on...

Well the quiet was nice while it lasted ;-)

I guess that's it for me today since she is not NEARLY as content with Christmas music as I and has that look of 'Where, exactly, is DORA?! And my beloved Tyrone, where is he?! And what this 'SNOW' and why do they keep singing about it?!" So I guess that's my cue to get outta here :-D

Thanks for checking in :-D Til tomorrow, Happy Holidays!!

Now that's a mouthful. Well today was productive and yet kinda boring. It seems like the day went by so FAST but I didn't seem to get much normal house stuff done. I have MOUNTAINS of laundry, and HILLS of dishes, and no motivation to do them.

I DID however get a lot of my holiday stuff done and THAT is great! With our monitary woes this year I wasn't sure how much we could really do for anyone, including our parents, so this year we gave them the gift of LOOOVE ;-) Or well kinda. I went to the Walmart website and it took HOURS but eventually I uploaded an A** load of pictures from all of 2007 and made each of the grandmas a calendar FULL of pictures of our little family! They had so many neat options I really recommend it! They even let you put pictures and text on individual days so I wrote in all the important dates for the families. And you can fit up to 3 pics on a page so I was able to get A LOT on there. I also made a mug with the kids' Santa picture on it that says "Grandma Loves Us" for his mom. SO, they were practical, one of a kind, and not TOO expensive - JUST what I was looking for :-D

The only thing is though, it did take HOURS to upload the pics and put it all together, the better part of the day actually. But I think it'l be worth it. Plus you can save the shipping charge if you just have it delivered to the closest Walmart. Which comes with the steep price tag of having to actually GO INTO that place, but I'll do it, for them. AWWWWWW ;-)

I also got the photo for our Christmas Cards ordered up, 30 of them! I decided to go with the whole family with Santa pic, I think it's pretty cute :-D I also ordered their winter jackets, and they were a whole $10 cheaper online than in the store! And when you are talking about buying 4 of said jackets, $10 becomes $40 and that is awesome :-D

So it appears that things are coming together. Now I just need to decide:

• what, if any, baking I plan to do
• what, if any, scrapped projects I plan to do
• what, if any, friends and teachers I am able to give gifts to
• what, and WHO, to FROST!
• SHOP for said baking, scrapping, and gifts
• wrap all the stuff we got for the kids {and eventhough we didn't go nuts on kid gifts you still have to multiply that small number by FOUR
• ONE childs gifts x 4 childs = MY CLOSET EXPLODING
• Oh yeah, and try to figure out how in the CRAP I am going to get my husband something!
• OHHHH and then figure out what the CRAP he WANTS!!!

So as you can see, I have my work cut out for me! So I better get goin! Thanks for checkin in on me! Til Tomorrow!

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Well, today has not been the best day. It started off just fine, I was excited about having company over tomorrow and even cleaning! I had the Christmas music on for inspiration and decided to pay some bills! YAY! *said with a sarcastic tone*

Then it all fell apart. When I say all, I mean pretty much ANYTHING that involves money.

I had a certain credit card with a high credit limit, paid off, and set aside for emergencies {read: holidays} and it was going to be used for this time of year to get us through this VERY expensive grouping of property taxes, holiday dinnerS, presents, anniversary, AND my birthday.

Now, I am the first to admit, it was not a perfect plan. I KNOW I should have been proactive and perhaps saved money to pay for these things seen's how none of them come up out of the blue. But with the house and many other things that came up this year, this was my "Get Us Through The Holidays Plan".

Now I attempted to use said credit card the other day and it was declined, so I called them today and received some very bad news. They had decided to close the account. It's a convoluted story and I just don't wanna get into it. They told me I could reapply, so I did, THAT is when the told me it didn't matter AT ALL that I was a previous customer of like 10 FREAKIN YEARS, or that they shouldn't have closed the account AT ALL. OH and they also told me that I would find out *IF* I was CHOSEN or not, and what my limit would be within 30 days.

NOOOOOW, tell me folks, HOW MANY DAYS LEFT UNTIL CHRISTMAS?!

Things are different now then they were 10 years ago and I have a feeling I will NOT be getting the same set up I had before. AND *IF* I did, it could be too late.

SO, since I have gotten little for my kids, nothing for my husband family and friends, have a big dinner coming up, my 30th birthday, some fun craftsy holiday stuff I wanted to do, and TAXES - I am kinda freaking out here.

To add insult to injury, I received a certified letter today from a company who fraudulently stole money from us a while ago and "claim" we owe them much much more. We have had many issues with the company and their scare tactics and I literally get so upset when they contact us that I feel like throwing up. They say we received services from them that we did not and that we owe them apx $10,000. They are very persistant and now claim they are taking us to court. MUCH OF THIS appears to be a scare tactic and receiving the certified letter today ... well it just completed my day.

So I tried to block it out and continue trying to clean/decorate. Then one of my BFFs called and said those words that seem to just make me BREAK DOWN "How are you? Is everything OK?" Well, I just cried and cried. I told her my sob story and she gave me some very good advice. Now, I just have to tell my husband. I was good though today. I kept it all in {hence the break down} cause he FREAKS OUT about money, and I REALLY didn't want to upset him at work. Plus, I needed to come up with a plan.

The two of have found that when a situation comes up one of us MUST stay strong for the other one. We CAN'T both loose it at the same time, or be planless. THAT just ends in frustration and chaos. So we have unspokenly taken opposite roles every time something has come up. If I am upset and worried and freakin out - he is calm and collected and reassuring. If he is freakin out and scared - I am cool and organized and come up with a plan. It has saved us many many times I think.

So now I am sitting here DREADING telling him. I think I have a plan but I just really don't know. I can't tell him before dinner because I have to run to the store afterward. So I gotta hold on to this for what feels like FOREVER.

If you are a praying person, and I know some of you are, please pray that we find a way out of this MESS. That we are still able to have a nice Christmas and don't pull our hair out in the process. OH and pray that those horrible horrible people at that "company" die in a fiery accident that destroys every trace of their very existance. Ok, maybe not THAT much, but the fire part would be ok I think :-D

Until tomorrow then, thanks for listening, it really helps.

I am a sap. Just so ya know. As if you didn't. But to further prove my point, I love Christmas music :-D It makes me HAPPY! I love that there are radio stations playing it non stop, and my cable has a music station for it too! So instead of listening to the Backyardigans theme song for the 34,563th time today I can listen to Frank Sinatra singin Jingle Bell ROCK baby! And I most times of the year I would rather stick a fork in my eye than listen to Mariah Carey, but nobody gets my booty shakin quite like her All I Want For Christmas song :-D Theeeeere's a visual for ya ;-)

AAAAAAnywho ~ so today started off earlier than usual. I was up LATE last night, until about 1:00 when DH left to hunt. Round 4:30 the baby starts SCREAMING. Princess of course can't sleep so she gets up and comes out to tell me the baby's crying.

As if I couldn't hear her.

I tried y'all, I really did. I tried to stand my ground. I brought Princess into my room to sleep so I could let the baby cry it out ... an hour later ... we were watching Sesame Street ... sigh. But the rest of the house was asleep ... it's amazing what we mother's will do for our families. So later that morning after all were awake and fed I turned off the cartoons, turned on the music and things started lookin up! The kids were playing ... QUIETLY ... I was able to get things done and still be on my computer and there wasn't chaos! Perhaps Christmas music has a calming affect on them as well! DH called and said he was on his way home so I got all the kids bathed and fed lunch so we were ready when he got home.

We had a date with Santa :-D


The sales office in our little community here was having a Holiday Party of sorts. They turned one of the models into Santa's workshop! And they were taking FREEEEEE PICTURES!!!!!

I think they came out quite nice! They took polaroids and then I *of course* brought my camera ;-) I was hoping to get a picture to send out with our Christmas cards! Which one do you think?

After the pictures, Santa asked each of the kids their names and what they wanted for Christmas ...

Boss - an Ipod - NO suprise there

Terrible Two - TOTAL SILENCE - again NO suprise

Princess - a kite - WHA?

LittleMan - an Ipod - HA! oh you silly little man

We then retired to Mrs. Clauses Bake Shop and they assortment of cookies, mini cupcakes and mini CHEESECAKE BITES! We grabbed a cup of cider or hot coco, said bye and thanks to santa and his elves and were on our way back home.

Where I then subjected them to RELENTLESS HOURS OF TORTURE! Mwa ha ha HAAAAA ...

Also known as "oklookatMOMMYnoturnyourheadTHATwaynoooooTHATwaynowsmileNOaREALsmileOKtryagainandagain...andagain"
you know what I'm talking about ;-)

But LOOK at what I turned out!!!!!!

I did further back shots and then close ups too. I LOVE the close ups :-D

Don't worry, I WILL be getting pics of DH in the hat ;-) He was unshaven and EXTREMELY tired and hurty ... I had to promise all kinds of naughtiness just to GET him out of the tub and over there today! So maybe tomorrow, I'll wrestle him to the ground, staple the hat to his head and get a good pic or two out of him ;-)

After all this holiday cheer, everything went just crazy, as it tends to do when there are 4 restless kids RUNNING around this place. We're settling in now though, watching The Santa Claus ... I love that movie :-D

SAP!

Ok then, thanks for coming by! Til tomorrow!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y'ALL! *pretend here people*

We had the BEST Thanksgiving ever! It started out early, as is the custom around this house. We got right to work cookin! Actually, we started cooking the night before. I discovered a YUMMY recipe for cranberry sauce *see recipe below*. I decided this year that I did not want the usual cranberry LOG so I searched and found one that sounded AWESOME and let me tell y'all - IT WAS. So I cooked that the night before as well as my HELLA pumpkin pies.

This was MY scene Thanksgiving morning ... my computer, my fresh ingredients, and my wine :-D Now, not ALL 4 of those bottles were mine ... only 3 ;-)

This was MY turkey, ain't she a beaute?! I have a special recipe for my turkey. I use the same methods as my DH who, if you ask ANYONE who has had our turkey, makes the juiciest bestest turkey EVER. Now the way mine differs is in the herbs, it's a Rosemary Lemon and Garlic Turkey. I stuff my turkey with a TON of fresh rosemary sprigs, 2 HEADS of garlic, and 2 lemons chopped, and an onion. I also make a rub out of the same ingredients and massage them into the bird. Below I listed the website for the WORLDS BEST TURKEY as well as my special concoction.

This was my table :-D Turned out BEAUTIFUL this year! I used my grandmother's china with some gold charger plates, got some pretty new napkins and rings, and pretty wine glasses from Target that matched PERFECTLY and were ON SALE for only $12!!!!! FOR 12!!!! OH, and not shown here were the MATCHING COFFEE MUGS!!! ALSO 12 for $12!!!!! Sorry, sales excite me :-D

I ALSO made this lovely centerpiece thankyouverymuch :-D

PREEEEEETY :-D

This is just a little shot of the dinning room from my stairs for those of you DIEING to see pics of the house :-D OH and you can see my lovely new backsplash in the first pic :-D

Hehehe, he's so cute ;-)

This was our splendid spread. In addition to the turkey I made, the 3 pies I made, the HUGE batch of cranberry-apple sauce I made, I ALSO made green beans almondine and rosemary garlic mashed potatoes! GO ME-E ... GO ME-E! For those of you who KNOW me, know why that is an amazing feat :-D

During the day while DH and I were cooking, the kids were busy in my oldests room. They took stickers and construction paper and made up a play ... with costumes! They made a pilgrim hat and two indian headresses for their play. After dinner we were treated to a production having something to do with pilgrims and indians though I'm not really sure what exactly it had to do with ;-) But they sure were cute!

After that we, our group consisted of us and our four kids, my mom, his mom and BFF Tilly. We sat at the table looking at the adds for Black Friday and telling stories heard only at the last Thanksgiving ... and EVERY Thanksgiving before that ... gotta love family ;-)

It was so great having everyone over to our new house and getting to make dinner and entertain. We had fun cooking and listening to saved clips of our favorite morning radio show on the computer with a glass of wine/beer in hand. It was actually pretty slow paced and very relaxing! I've really been able to keep this house pretty well put together, no running around like a mad woman getting the house "clean" before everyone shows up! It was really nice to just be able to have fun and relax and cook!


Hope all of your Thanksgivings were wonderful ... Happy {belated} TURKEY DAY! Recipes are below, and if anyone tries one - LET ME KNOW!!! Thanks for stopping by ... TNT!



Double Cranberry Apple Sauce
6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
1 small lemon, sliced and seeded
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries
Preparation:
Stir together first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often.
Reduce heat; simmer, stirring often, 15 minutes or until cranberries pop and mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat, and stir in sweetened dried cranberries. Cool. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Note: Mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.


Green Beans Almondine
1/4 cup fat-free margarine
3 pounds green beans, trimmed
3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
Preparation
Melt margarine in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add beans, and sauté 5 minutes. Add broth, pepper, and salt; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
Combine cornstarch and water; add to skillet. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in juice. Sprinkle with almonds just before serving.


Rosemary Garlic Mashed Potatoes
2 whole garlic heads
2 pounds cubed peeled Yukon gold potato
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons plain fat-free yogurt
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Remove white papery skin from garlic heads (do not peel or separate the cloves). Wrap each head separately in foil. Bake at 350° for 1 hour; cool 10 minutes. Separate cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Discard skins.
Place potato and onion in a saucepan; cover with water, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until potato is tender. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Combine garlic, potato mixture, 1/4 cup cooking liquid, and remaining ingredients; mash with a potato masher.

For THE BEST FREAKIN TURKEY RECIPE EVER - click here

and for my BEST FREAKIN HERB CONCOCTION EVER - click HERE

Even though it means my house is covered in boxes and glitter and wrapping paper until I get it all situated, more so than usual anyway, I LOVE the holidays! Our older kids left Friday so we used the weekend to get some errands done. We did some shopping and then went to storage and got out the tree and decorations! :-D

As is my usual custom, the day/weekend after Thanksgiving it's all about Christmas BABY!

So when the kids got home Monday after school we set about decorating the trees! YAY :-D

Terrible Two and I leafed through the adds, she did more crunching actually ...

Ahhhhh the masterpiece. This is the kids' tree, they have mini decorations for their mini tree

And then we set to work on the big boy :-D OHHHH YEAAAAH ;-) Now there is still much to do! But we are well on our way! Thanks for comin round and givin us a looksee ;-) TNT!

**UPDATED TO INCLUDE PICTURES YAY!**

Have I EVER mentioned that I love the holidays :-D Cause I do :-D And on another blog I read they talked of journalling their December. Which I thought was a WONDERFUL idea! December seems to be so full of happiness and fun and stress and friends and family and stress and all kinds of stuff I want to remember forever! Or maybe its just an excuse to blog and vent or w00t about whatever went on that day :-D YAY venting/w00ting!

So let me start out with saying how EXCITED I am about the holidays :-D We already have our tree up and mostly decorated though I am not entirely happy with it. I keep seeing all of these pretty trees with matching decorations and they look so ... preeeeety. Mine has beads that are kinda just thrown on there and TONS of misc ornaments. The ornaments are almost all special though. We all pick out a new one each year that represents the past year, and in the last few years that has meant 6 new ornaments each year! That will fill up ANY tree pretty damn fast! So my tree is covered in PowerPuff Girls and Pooh and Cars and Baby's First's and I LOOOVE them I do! I just wish it was a little more ... put together looking. Just a vent I guess...

Today I did a little more decorating.

I filled a glass hurricane type jar with different sized and colored balls

and another vase with a candle and small balls around it, they turned out pretty nice :-D

OH and I put that lighted garland on the stairs and then hung some little gold and red balls from it and its SUUUUUPER cute!

My house is just CLUTTERED

with the rest of the whatdidIusethisforlastyearIhaveNOwheretoPUTthis kinda stuff though. And unfortunately I don't have a TON of motivation. Well it's not motivation I lack, it's energy and health. The kids have all been battling SOME kinda cold and I had a UTI that I didn't get to the doc for until Friday and thats WAAAAY TOO MUCH INFO huh? I sorry :-D

Anyway! So people keep asking about my birthday like what am I doing, what do I want, all that and it's funny cause I turn 30 this year so people are making like a big deal out of it! And I AM LOVING IT! Everyone wants to do stuff, go shopping, take me out, buy me things - YAY! 30 is AWESOME! I don't feel old, or I should say, I have felt old for awhile but it has nothing to do with my age ;-) I don't think I look "30" so that's always nice. And I feel like lately, I've been getting myself back anyway so my 30's is lookin pretty damn good! If I could just loose some weight and find a free local babysitter I would be in HEAVEN!

And what the hell am I doing awake you ask? And why 3 freakin posts in one day you ask? And why another blogallmonthsetyourselfforfailureAGAIN thing you ask? Well my aren't you NOSY! ;-) Well, my kids are in bed, my hubs is in bed and getting up at 1 to go hunting, and it's a Saturday night and nothing is on TV - so that answers all 3 I think :-D Ok then...

Tomorrow should be fun though. Our community is having a Santa meet-n-greet thing where you can get your pic - for FREE! nice because those stupid things cost like $20 nowadays! - and there are cookies and coco :-D Plus it will give me something to do with these heathens while I have them all to myself! I intend on using my OWN camera to take the pic of santa and making sure we take enough pics to get it right cause it's going out in the Christmas cards! The sales chick SO owes me...

Well, Happy December everyone! And thanks for listening :-D Till Tomorrow!