Today was a good day y'all.

Got up and got to work EARLY. This was one of the first weekend days that my honey was home and so he had HIGH hopes for for progress today. So we started taking down the Christmas CRAP that has invaded my house.

Normally I like having my Christmas stuff up until the first of the year, or whenever it strikes me to take it all down {last year the fake tree lasted until May - don't judge me}. But this year since we have barely scratched the surface on unpacking boxes from the move, I am actually EXCITED to put away the Christmas crap!

Putting away all this stuff means I have a place to put all the stuff in those boxes. Everytime I look in a box for anything lately I find something and say "OH I remember THAT! Gee, wish I had a place to PUT it."

So today I decided to get rid of this stuff. I packed it away nicely in boxes, labeled and everything! I did good. And then I decided to do more, I tackled laundry, and dishes. And THEN I decided to tackle the girls' room! Now I really hadn't done much in there ... at all. I mean, they didn't even have a DRESSER. It was chaos. I had put together all the furniture I bought like the dollhouse, bookcase and toy box. But it just wasn't done. We needed another matress before we could put up Princesses bed so she was on a toddler bed {not for lack of TRYING to find a bed}, and Terrible Two was still in her porta-crib!

So today I had DH stop by a furniture store and get a dang matress. So the rest of my day was moving things around in the room, putting together the twin bed, moving stuff more, taking the dresser from Boss's room upstairs and filling it with the girls's HELLA clothes, setting up the room, and FINALLY ... the room is good. And there was much joy.

So now I'm relaxing, glass of wine securely in hand. The only renants of Christmas are the tree and mantle {I still want to take formal shots of the kids in their fancy clothes} and I have one room DONE {well done with exception of ANYTHING on the walls ::sigh::} and only 3, no 4, no 5, nooo ... egh LOTS more to go. But one is done {mostly} and that is good ... for now.

I want so badly to do more but DH will be out at a side job tomorrow, and I have a friend coming over so I doubt much will get done :-D Oh well, its a looong weekend ... yay :-D So thanks for checking in ... sorry there wasn't much going on today ... OH WAIT! I forgot to mention that RIGHT NOW ... Terrible Two is in her BIG GIRL BED for the first time :-D She kinda cried at first but that was cause she didn't wanna stop playing. Once I put on her night light and closed the door, all was quiet! Haven't heard a peep outta her since! Can I get a w00t w00t! Hehe, ok I'm done :-D

This year I embarked on a new scrappy adventure ...

PAINT CANS!!!!

I made a small paint can for the Milf Club's Christmas party and it came out so cute that I decided to do more :-D Well actually I decided to do more before that, but when I was actually able to complete one and had it under my belt I felt ABLE to do more. So this one I did for a friend of mine here in town. She was sweet enough to get me a Christmas gift so I wanted to return the favor. I used it as a gift card holder, though there are MANY things you can do with it! SO. MANY.THINGS!

I googled "altered paint cans" and came up with so many websites with ideas and pictures that I was totally on overload! I'll share my favs with you in a second here :-D

Something I have discovered that I would also like to share is that CLEAR paint cans, though a tad more expensive, are WAAAAAY easier! So much so that if I had only done the regular ones, I might not have been inspired to keep going. With the clear can, as above, I only put the paper up to the circle handles - CIRCLE - which is REALLY difficult to cut out of paper if you DON'T have a circle cutter! And since the large size cans are larger than a standard 12x12 paper, you have to use two sheets cut to fit. So with this one, I used one piece up to the handle, and one above! Since it's clear you just put some cute shiny paper shreds inside and it looks totally put together and SUPER cute!

Now my plans for the future paint cans include themed cans like the ones you will find at these sites!

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze2vd8k/printdesignservices222/id34.html

http://www.scrappingwithstyle.com/articles/paintcan.html

They have AWESOME ideas that I will be copying in the future FOR SURE. This site helped me with logistics,

http://www.joyouscreations.net/AlteredPaintCan.html

If any of you out there, oh internetz lurkers, make paint cans I would LOVE to see them!

For now, it's time for pizza, beer and relaxation - Happy Friday Everyone!! Thanks for coming on by!

Is it just me or is Christmas Vacation like the FASTEST way to get rid of the Christmas spirit?

I love my kids, more than anything, but WOW, I need them not to be HERE all the time.

Anywho back to my fun family sweet Christmas Morning. Well we set the alarm for 5:30am because we had to get the Boy on the road to his mom by 7ish and didn't want to rush them. Well we fell back asleep and woke at 6 - cause in our house - that's sleepin in!

Well while DH went potty I ran to wake the kids, by the time he came to the stairs the were awake, downstairs, and presents were done.

Because they are all about sweet simple holiday spirit.

I didn't even have time to grab the camera or the video camera! But they were happy and getting into their stockings so whatever...it's a party.

And these are her "TOOOOES!" as she would like you to know...

After the stockings and the bikes we sat down to our traditional cinnimon roll breakfast. It started with my mom and I, even when she had to run to work Christmas morning. And just because they all had to leave at 7 was NOT going to ruin my pictures! - I MEAN - our lovely morning :-D

So once the Boy and DH were on the road I still had some time with the girls and they were BEGGING to ride their bikes. So I dressed them up as though we were trudging through the snow, and we ventured out into the 45* weather - BRRRRRR ;-)

They looked so damn cute in their new hats, gloves and jackets! It was SO hard to get this picture though as you can see Terrible was DYING to get on the road! They did pretty good on our little court. It was fun going out in the quiet cold of the early Christmas morning, until they went screaming down the street of course and I had to keep telling them "QUIEEEEET! Not EVERYONE wakes up at the BUTT CRACK of dawn like you people!!!!" - or something to that effect.

Well their dad came and got them and then it was just Terrible and I. DH got home soon after trying to find an open Starbucks {he JUST missed one!} so he instead brought the breakfast of champions - Jack in the Box. Sausage croisants, hashbrowns, and mimosas :-D So eventually we did have our champagne and semi-quiet.

After that we were like EXHAUSTED. And all of a sudden it was 10! We were supposed to be heading over to a friends house for appetizers/drinks at 12! And I had to bake still! And make 2 paint cans! And fill those paint cans! !!! That was SOOO not gonna happen! So I started to really freak out. I tried to bake and burned the cookies because I was trying to make paint cans! I got so stressed out! Then DH was falling asleep on the couch and Terrible was ready for a nap = STREEEEESS. But we perserviered.

I DRAGGED em anyway! Cause that's what Christmas is about - making people who love you do things they REALLY don't wanna do just to make you happy :-D am I right?? We went to a friends house and had an early dinner and this other friend and her family came over too. That was fun but a little uncomfortable being thrown into the mix for the FIRST time. The two husbands are both video game freaks too, and they kept talking about it, or cutting down their wives in a we'rejustbeingfunny kinda way - BOTH of which my honey doesn't participate in. Yes, I am a LUCKY girl and I totally know it :-D So, they didn't exactly click. But he's willing to try again, and THAT is why I love him :-D

Anywho~so we came home and were ready for bed by like 5. We FORCED ourselves to stay awake until we put the baby down, and then it was a little quiet time and then NI-NIGHT. Christmas just takes it OUT of me these days! I guess it's because we basically had 2 Christmas days and that is TOUGH. It was pretty great though, exhausting, but fun.

Hope you Christmas was as great as ours! The house is a WRECK, the kids are NUTS, I am a MESS, and I need to get those paint cans done by tomorrow - ::sigh:: - ><>

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up ;-) Credit where credit is due ... Clark Griswold, I think is me in another life. I start out the Christmas season with happy thoughts of clean quiet sweet thoughtful GRATEFUL children and family members and the perfect this and perfect that. And then by the time Christmas morning FINALLY gets here I'm ready to "drive you out into the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?" Ok, if you haven't watched that movie within the last week then A) you have no Christmas spirit B) you can NOT be American and C) you have NO IDEA what I just said.

Then I had to RUN the baby up to bed because it was WAY after her bedtime. Then we grabbed some old stale cookies for Santa instead of baking them.

Threw them on a plate and got OK pictures that were minus one of the kids - and if you are a scrapbooker - you know why that SUCKS SO BAD. Then after getting them in their jammies I had to send them out into the cold to spread reigndeer chow because I forgot. Couldn't find the camera {for the 1,375th time that night} so there is no physical evidence that this took place. So after ensuring that they would wake up with pnemonia, I threw them up the stairs and into bed. That is when I sat on the couch and breathed that sigh - no, not of relief - but of OHCRAPIstillhavesodamnmuchtodowhytheHELLdidIwaittilthelastminute!

So then after my afternoon of baking and preparing for Christmas Dinner, we got down to business!


The kids did their best to wait patiently since *I* was instructed to go first :-D

And now every time we get out the camera Terrible Two becomes somewhat camera shy. What ever she's holding in her hand at the time becomes the focus, she just shoves it in the camera and screams "DOOOORA!" in this case, it was cute the first time ... kinda ...

So my gift was the biggest gift, it covered up the fireplace! So DH got the camera set and ready and I opened the FIRST box ... and as you might guess ... inside there was ANOTHER box ... and then ANOTHER and ANOTHER and AAAAANOTHER and so on until I got down to a very small box. Inside the small box was a bag ... inside the bag was ...

Our family's first video camera! I was SO SUPRISED! And to really put it over the edge, he told me that he had tested out the camera. After making sure what I was about to watch was G-rated, I watched his funny, sweet, cute message about why he got the camera and everything I could do with it! At the end he talked about our kids and well ... basically I teared up like a little girl ... as you can see.

So we pressed on with the rest of the gifts and each kid found their fav and then got bored and found another ... and another ... and QUICKLY my living room looked like Toys R Us threw up in it.

They looked so cute in their outfits! They played and played and played and my house got crazier and crazier! And there was still dinner, getting Santa's cookies ready, spreading our the raindeer chow, and bed time! Not to mention waiting for the kids to FINALLY fall asleep so Santa could come, helping Santa set up and fill stockings, and then hauling our EXHAUSTED bodies up the stairs to bed. But I have pictures for all that so tune in tomorrow :-D

My Christmas posts actually start with pics from a birthday party! ;-) Sorta. My friend came down from Eureka to hang out with me and took me out to PARTAAAY - isn't that what the hip kids say these days?

I think we look pretty cute though :-D SHE JUST had a baby though! She looks fantastic! And yes that means we hate her - it's ok :-D j/k

Yeah that was me whilst dancing to some jazzy-bluesy country Beaver type live music - OH - thats because we were at the Battered Beaver - in cause you wondered - Yeah that't the name of the bar. And no they don't mean battered as in covered with deep fried yummies - no they have a picture of a beaver sportin a black eye on the front window.

Only the best for us classy gals.

That was Saturday night. Sunday I spent MOST of the day either bakin or cookin or somethin, I just know it FLEW by and all of a sudden it was time to run to Target the rest of the world for stuff like stocking stuffers and last minute perfect princess matching Christmas dresses :-D Ok, maybe that last one is just me.

But I made it back! Monday morning came all too quickly and we got up VERY early. DH had to run to work for a bit and I had to run and get the girls. We got home and since DH and I HAD to get all of our wrapping done in time for today {Monday - Christmas Eve} the tree/presents/house looked great!

We got home and the FIRST thing - after asking to open presents - they BEGGED to get into their PRINCESS dressyes :-D This year I did something a little different. Usually I get them matching dresses, but since I waited until the last.possible.moment there were none of course. So I instead I hunted and found a pink and black princess flower petally dress for Terrible Two, a sophisticated-oh-so-grown-up dressy for Princess, and a hip-not-a-little-kid-anymore two piece outfit for the Boss. ALL in black on top, pink on bottom! HOW CUTE IS THAT?! And their dresses could NOT have fit their personalities better! AND they were on clearance!!!!!

Our second order of the day was to put on our ornaments chosen this year.

So I tried and I tried and I tried and all I got was this lousy picture ;-) Becuase 2 SECONDS later she ripped her right back off.

Now that was very early in the day. We decided to start opening presents around 2 since our moms were coming at 3 and we wanted a LITTLE bit of time just for us. So they hung out and watched A Christmas Story and I slaved away in the kitchen, for like FOUR HOURS! Or it seemed that way anyway :-D I did a little baking but mostly I was getting our Gingerbread Lemon Blackberry Trifle ready :-D

But they sure look like THEY'RE having fun! Terrible Two was so damn cute today! Just as I knew she would be. Seems like the year of the 2 is full of fun as much as it is insanity. One minute you tear up because they hug you for the first time ON THEIR OWN, and the next they're drawing all over the white furniture muttering "OH REALLY? No more cookies you say? Well LETS JUST SEE WHAT I THINK ABOUT THAT!" Or again, that may be just me :-D

Now that was only half of our wonderful day, but I am exhausted and Santa still has to make his appearance, and I still have to clear a spot for him to do so!

So Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you are able to spend it as filled with love as we are! From our crazy house to yours - MEEEEEEERRY Christmas! :-D

So you may or may not remember THIS POST about my demon spawn, I MEAN, youngest daughter, who decided to unleash her creative spirit on my WHITE dinning room chairs ... and couch. It looked a little something like this ...

Well I have no transfered my non-sexual crush from the OxyClean guy to the makers of Microfiber ...

THIS IS BEFORE ... BEFORE I REALLY KNEW MY DAUGHTERS POTENCIAL TO INFLICT PAIN WITHOUT A WEAPON ...

THIS is AFTER! And the heavens opened up and smiled down upon me as RUBBING ALCOHOL cleaned this unGodly mess. I kid you not, it LITERALLY melted away and WIPED off! It was like a miracle and life was good and we did rejoice :-D

That is until I found this ^^ At the time of my original post I did not see this MESS on my COUCH. My poor husband could not even sit near the mess for fear of cutting out youngest out of our will. HOWEVER...

Again, the heavens parted and the microfiber and rubbing alcohol did clean that MESS. Seriously though, can you BELIEVE IT?! I only wish they made walls, toddler clothes, and countertops in this stuff.

Other than that, things here are busy but rolling right along. Our MILF Club had the Christmas Party on Friday where we did that fun little stealyourstuff game and I got all excited, right? Cause we were SUPPOSED to spend $25, right? So, I would SOMEHOW end up with something good, right? And I worked really hard on my gift so through the magic of Karma I would therefore end up with something of equal greatness, riiiiiiiiight?! Hmmmm, um, well that would be a BIG.FAT.NO. I feel like Charlie Brown when he looked down into this Halloween sack and said "I got a rock." Well, I got a rock y'all. A rock in the shape of a $3 Walmart candle.

It had a teeny tiny frame on the front which I guess MUST have cost $22 - but for some reason, I think I just got a $3 Cinnimon sented Walmart rock.

Whatever. Karma, you suck and you SO OWE ME.

Today I finished up one of my giftys and will post pretty pictures of it sometime after the holidays see'ins how other people may get ideas on what they're getting ;-) I also narrowed down the rest of my baking list and got all of the who's, when's, and what's narrowed down and listed out ... which puts my OCD at ease and lets me sleep better at night :-D We also did our shopping today so we are all set for Christmas dinner - YAY PRIME RIB!

I will be making a Gingerbread Berry Lemon TRIFLE ladies and gentlemen ... oh yeah!

So we got out of that pretty unscathed, unless you call $230 for Christmas dinner scathed ::sigh::

And right now I am about to eat dinner with one of my best friends and then we are hittin the town baby! w00t! And drinks are on HER! w00t w00t! Cause I'm old now! w0 .. waiiiiit ...

So I better get going so I can cover up the wrinkles, lift my saggy mom-boobs, and take some advil! Cause I'm drinkin tonight! ;-) Until tomorrow! In which I will again address the fact that my 30 year old body hates me and expresses itself in hangovers :-D I know ... YOU CAN'T WAIT! ;-)

I don't know what it is about turning 30 but its seems your body just sorta decides it hates you and wants to punish you for your early 20's ...

But anywho :-D The last couple days have been busy! I got MUCH wrapping done, decided to wait to mail out my gifts as they probably wouldn't make it by Christmas anyway, redistributed the goodies I had left - ahem - and finished a gift for the 'MILF Club's' Christmas gift exchange thing. We had to get a gift worth $25 for that fun stealyourstuff game! And I wasn't sure what to get so I got something I would want and would steal - sanity! - in the shape of a Starbucks gift card.

But I wanted to make it better than just a card. SOOOOO...

I perused my local scrappy store for inspiration ... and my first altered paint can was born :-D

Isn't she PERRRRRTTY?! I LOOOOVE IT! I already asked if you can steal your own gift ;-)

DON'T YOU LOOOOVE THE BACK?! It's so freakin cute. And doing it this way saved me SO MUCH work! It's REALLY hard getting the paper around the handles so with these awesome clear cans I like to only go up TO the handle and leave a little showing through, so pretty I think :-D

Other than that the birthday festivities keep on rollin :-D Tuesday night we went to Target - w00t - and then to a lovely mexican place - egh whatever. But the rest of the evening was nice, and I mean how can you not love the excuse "But ... it's my BIRTHDAY!" can't get tired of that ;-)

My husband gave me a little crap about how it seems like I've had a birthday WEEK, to which I said "Some things are just too special for just ONE day" :-D Am I right? Am I right? We also have 'Mother's Day WEEKEND' - falls under the same category if you ask me...

Then last night I got together with a couple gals from the MILF Club and we had drinks and cake and presents and it was AWESOME. Then I get to do it AGAIN this Saturday when one of my friend comes down from Eureka! Oh man, birthday weeks are the BEST! ;-)

Well I still have MUCH to do and only an hour left of my house being a 'kid-free zone'. So thank you for checkin in! And for all the wonderful birthday wishes :-D Even if some of you didn't actually COMMENT >:-/

Until tomorrow!

Well, not really, but I am 30 today so these things aren't far off!

I missed blogging yesterday {bad! I know} but I was SUPER busy baking for my mailing out gifts and getting ready for my mom to come and whisk me away to go shopping for my birthday!

Things started of a little rocky as we got a late start, but I DID get to Walmart to pick up some gifts I ordered online so that was good. I also helped her pick out some stuff for the kids but by the time we were done it was already time to get back! Which turned out to be a blessing because I BARELY made it home.

I get these headaches I call migraines because they sound like migraines, but I am starting to wonder if thats what they truly are. The are similar in that you are extremely sensitive to light and sound, OH and if you don't squash it in time, you puke like CRAZY. The only odd thing is that they start off like a sinus headache. Or in the back of my head at the base of my neck. I thought migraines were centered elsewhere? Well, whatever, point is, IT SUCKS.

I got home and IMMEDIATELY put the baby in bed and laid down, desperate to get rid of my pain and nausea. My mom took Princess out for lunch and to play and to giveme some quiet since ... did I mention my family birthday party was supposed to start at 6! So the house would be the OPPOSITE of quiet with 4 kids and 4 adults up in here.

Well my rest worked and the headache easied and I got to work getting the house picked up. Then DH got home and 'kicked me out!' He had some 'stuff to do' to get ready for the party {which really was just a ruse to give me some time out of the house alone -is he great or what?}. So I called up a girlfriend and she met me down at this Mexican food place for Mojito MONDAY! I didn't have a mojito, I had a cosmo - ok 2, but its fun to say ;-) OH it was great. It was nice just to sit and have a drink {or 2} with her and then race back home for the festivities! The kids were SO excited and the moms were there too. And I was greeted by my sweet hubby by ANOTHER cosmo! He researched my fav places and got their recipes for the PERFECT cosmo and got the stuff to make it for me! He really puts so much thought into my birthdays, I love that about him.

So then we had cake and opened the CUTEST cards from the kids and presents and called it a night! 'And WHERE are you pictures?!' perhaps you are asking?! Well, as many other mothers can tell you, unless YOU get out the camera and YOU start taking pics and YOU ask other people to take them of YOU - YOU are not in any pictures! IF there ARE any! Which I am not because there are not. So I guess my 30th birthday will go unscrapped! A crime I know. But there is still tonight. We are going to TARGET Y'ALL! w00t! ;-) And maybe WingStop! w00t w00t! So we shall see...you know, all I really need is ONE so I can journal the rest of the stories! I will work on that :-D

Ok that's it then, thanks for checking in today and I'll talk to ya tomorrow!

I love a good Meme as much as the next blogger so I thought this would be a fun one! I am going to list my top ten favorite holiday movies! Then I will tag as many people as I can think of and send it off to you bloggies everywhere! And since I am tired, rushed, busy, sleepy, cranky, and many other not-so-nice words, there are no rules just my list :-D YAY LISTS!

10. Bad Santa - Ok, so this is probably a HORRIBLE holiday movie, it was SO FUNNY and SO BAD, I was just ROLLING on the floor laughing. If you um ... don't care for swearing ... NOT THE MOVIE FOR YOU PUT DOWN THE REMOTE AND BACK AWAY SLOOOOWLY...

9. Edward Scissorhands - Tim Burton's movies are a little kooky I will say that, but I love this movie, and not just because Johnny Depp is my long lost husband. I love the music and just the oddness of it! So sweet and sad at the same time, wonderful.

8. The Santa Claus 1/2 - As I mentioned yesterday...I don't usually care for Tim Allen, but does he or does he not, make the BEST santa?! It's SO FUNNY and answers SOOO many questions! The other day, Princess asked me something santa related and I was all "Um, let's watch The Santa Claus and see what they say" ;-) Totally worked though, that movie has an answer for EVERYTHING!

7. The ORIGINAL How the Grinch Stole Christmas - I HATE the stupid live action Jim Carrey one, it was kinda dark and scarry to me! The cartoon is just cute and sweet, well kinda, but at least at the end you don't walk away and have NIGHTMARES!

6. It's a Wonderful Life - what list would be complete without this movie? I don't watch it every year or anything, but I really do love the theme of it. I know I have felt inconsequencial from time to time, or just not realized how amazing life really is, this movie really makes you think ... if you let it. It has become a cliche sure, but the message is still there if you want it. We are ALL here for a reason and we ALL have a purpose, though we may not always SEE it, maybe we just need to look harder.

5. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer - This was my favorite holiday movie as a kid, and my kids love it to this day. The music is great, the story too, and the way it was shot and filmed was so far ahead of it't time! I love Yukon Cornelious and how "Bumbles Bounce!", it's just great :-D

4. A Charlie Brown Christmas - Charlie Brown himself, kinda makes me sad actually, he has a bit of an eeyore attitude sometimes, course I guess I would too if some psycologist-wanna-be-bitch kept yanking the football away from me! But how can you NOT love that tree?! And the kids and the dancing and the music and oh it's just CHRISTMAS ya know?

3. Elf - Is this not the cutest funniest movie ever? I loved it so much. I mean Will Ferrel is so cute and so BELIEVABLE as the human raised by elves, he says "I'm smiling, I love smiling it's my favorite!" SO CUTE! I JUST WANNA HUG HIM!

2. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation - Clark Griswold is the embodiment of Muphy's Law, anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong. I mean how can you not laugh! I watch that movie thinking WHAT ELSE can happen to this guy, and then of course it happens and it's funnier than crap. I mean how can you not laugh when that old lady wrapped up her cat?! And the tree going up in flames?! And the turkey?! OH that movie is great!

1. Scrooged - Not only did it have a great message, it was damn funny. "Oh Frank, look, what do we have here ... it's a TOASTER!" - LOL - I LOVE that part, I end up crying with laughter every time :-D And you know, he makes a great point at the end, "(At Christmas), we act like the people we always hoped we would be." I think he has a great point, if only we could take that feeling with us all year long, how happy we might be...

SO there is my Top 10 Favorite Christmas movies :-D Now YOU - Rebecca, Sherry, Anne, Rachelle, Melanie, and any of you LUUUURKERS out there ;-) consider yourself TAGGED and when you post your top 10 let me know!

Thanks for checking in and I'll talk to ya tomorrow!

SO! I have been tagged by Rebecca, a Not-So Desperate Housewife, for this Christmas 'Hoopla' as girl named Andrea at Life Song has dubbed it. While similar to the 'dreaded "m" word' it is NOT to be called the 'M' word!

So here are the rules:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that has to do with Christmas
2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word
3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.
5. If you want to -- please give me, Andrea, some link-love as the 'Hoopla-Creator'. I love new blog-traffic.

SO here we go!

1. I love Christmas music! So much so infact, that the ONLY stations on from Thanksgiving to whenevertheystopplayingit is the all-Christmas channel! My husband goes a little nuts I think but he does it for me :-D And I listen to it at times when I might normally not - paying bills, baking, blogging, and having company over, it just makes me happy :-D

2. I like Prime Rib for Christmas dinner better than turkey. My hubs usually makes an amazing turkey dinner but we tried out a prime rib the other day and THAT will be our dinner from NOW ON! w00t!

3. I WISH I didn't procrastinate so much wrapping gifts. I end up waiting until right before to wrap the majority so it seems like WAY too much work for little reward. It seems like I just wrapped all that stuff and now they're tearing it all to pieces! I would have liked to have worked on that this year, however it is the 15th and I have not ONE present wrapped ... ::SIGH::

4. I love watching holiday movies with the kids. My fav is the Santa Claus. I usually don't care for Tim Allen, but he makes a GREAT santa :-D I also like the OLD Christmas movies, things looked so festive and nice back then.

5. One holiday tradition we have is getting new ornaments each year. They are supposed to represent us - right now. When I used to pick out the kids' ornaments they would always get the character they were most into that year, so my tree is covered in power puff girls, scooby and now Dora :-D I also pick out an ornament that represents my husband and I as a couple, and all of us as a family. So 6 new ornaments a year, our tree is getting FULL!

6. As much as I hate having to share my kids' time, I am going to look at the bright side. This year we have all 4 kids for Christmas eve and then we take them to their other parents Christmas morning at 8. I am NOT going to think about what they/I are missing out on, I am only going to focus on what we have. It is going to be GREAT this year.

7. Our tradition Christmas breakfast goes back to something my mom and I always had, pilsbury cinnimon rolls :-D We ALWAYS had those and they were soooo gooood. So I started that tradition with my family, even my first year away from home. Ever since then, 11 years ago, we have always had them. This year we will have to get up at 6 and open santa's stuff, but OH WE *WILL* make time for cinnimon rolls :-D

8. I miss that 'new tree smell' in the house. We broke down a few years ago and bought a fake tree because of the savings in cost, time, and EFFORT and we love it! But wow I miss that new tree smell. We have tried getting tree trimmings and wreaths to bring the smell in, but it never really works. DH says that next year we are getting a REAL tree.

9. I miss my friends. Of the course of the last year +, most of my best friends have moved away. Last year I had a holiday dinner with two of them and their hubby's, it was so much fun. My birthday is Tuesday and I won't be able to celebrate with any of them. I have tried to get a few people together here but it's JUST not the same. I miss them.

10. I love baking and gifting and crafting! I love thinking about other people and how to make them happy. So I make food, make presents, and think really hard about what they would like and what would make them happy, and THAT makes me happy! Kinda funny but just thinking about how to make someone happy makes me happy :-D I'm a giver ;-)

11. I loved being FROSTED and loved even more FROSTING! I can't wait to do it again next year!

12. I love the feeling of Christmas. I love the way I feel surrounded by the lights and the cold air and the songs and the decorations. I love that MOST people are nicer too. It could be the new place we live, but I think {read: hope} people feel the same way I do and try to feel that way all the time. I love thinking about Christmas Eve and morning and being with my family and being warm and happy together.

There ya go! 12 things about Christmas about me :-D I will go ahead and tag Sherry, Anne, and Rachelle - if ANY of you do it - LET ME KNOW!!!! ;-)

OK, tomorrow I think I am gonna post my TOP 10 FAVORITE Christmas Movies EVA! I think I MIGHT make a tag out of it too! So check back and check it out :-D

Okay, I won't lie {this time ;-)} I didn't post yesterday - I know I know - bad! But I was very busy!

Yesterday started with my journey to the center of the earth, or Tracy, so I was UP and TIRED and CRANKY as my body again betrayed me and I started my . 4 days early again. That also happened to be the day I hosted our weekly playdate at my house. A lot of people have been sick lately so I wasn't really sure who was coming. I had also posted that the playdate would be open to come and go from 9:30 to 3:30 as is customary these days, even though I wouldn't even get home until 8. So it wasn't shaping up to the be the best day.

No one even showed until 11! But I was MORE than fine with it since at 9:30 I was actually still in my jammies, covered in muffin batter, and the baby was running around in her diaper. So we were ALL glad they weren't on time ;-) And SEVERAL people showed up who didn't say they were coming so it ended up being a FULL HOUSE let me tell you! There were 7 moms and 8 kids! It was nuts. And about an hour in I was quietly wondering why in the CRAP I put myself through this as all the conversations revolved around getting teeth and breastfeeding and pregnancy - none of which I can relate to anymore. Maybe it wasnt just the conversations that bothered me, it was the length of time and way they were discussed.

These chicks, or well a couple of them, I think only show up so they have people to tell the same stories to over and over and over again. And they won't let you in! They competely ignore what you said that was related to the conversation and go back to what they were saying - OR - they JUMP into OTHER conversations and turn it to their crazy kid. Sorry, it just bugged me yesterday. Perhaps it was because there are too damn many of us! The kids seemed to stress a bit this time, they seemed to act like i felt. So once a few of them left things seemed to get better. Over all it was a good time I guess.

Then after they left it was time to get ready for our big date! For my birthday my mom asked if the girls could come over and help her decorate her Christmas tree and we could go out ... ALONE! So we got ready WAY fast, drove em down, dropped em off, and went out to dinner :-D For my birthday my mom gave me a gift cert for our favorite place we used to go to all the time. I miss that place. It's dim lit, romantical, has amazing food and great drinks = heaven :-D So we hung out there for a couple hours just talking and kiss a little ;-) Then the live music started and it was nice ... for about 5 minutes. Then it was loud. So it was time to go ;-)

And because my body betrayed me {and I'm not THAT open} this is where the story ends :-D I will post more later though! Today is shaping up to be a much better day! I got to sleep in, have my coffee, and I smell sausage! So thanks for checkin in! Talk to you later!

Let the 'Birthday Weekend' begin! :-D

Ok ... ready? I baked today ... I know I know ... you're shocked! As was I! ;-) Well yesterday and the day before were so much fun but I just wasn't sure that I had put my ALL into it yet. I felt as if something were still missing. Plus, I suck at baking and all my cookies come out overcooked and dry.

So tomorrow I am sending ALL of them with DH to his company's 'We're-Too-Cheap-To-Pay-For-A-Company-Christmas-Party-or-Even-Dinner-Just-Be-Glad-You-Have-A-JOB Lunch' :-D Haha!

And I am starting over! Ok, not really. I still have much left over dough from the cookies so I will just make that and REALLY try not to OVER do it! The chocolate chip biscotti is just crap though, so that's going to be thrown out.

I am SUPER happy with my toffee though :-D So if any of it lasts until I ship out the boxes my friends will be happy :-D I did try two new recipes today though! Raspberry Lemon Drop Cookies and Peppermint Bark! They came out AMAZING! The cookies are soooo freakin good! And I changed the Peppermint Bark from Almond Bark base to a white chocolate base cause the almond was ok, but HELLOOOOO - white chocolate! I can't wait to share these recipes and more photos! And I SWEAR I will, but oh girl, it is so late here and I am SO tired and my DH is cleaning because I promised him naughtiness and I am SOOOO TIRED! and so I must go!

Just 12 days left you guys! Can you believe it?! Where has the time gone?! And when am I going to get to the Post Office?! ACK! OK, now I really have to go ... thanks for coming by :-D Talk to you tomorrow!

I got last years birthday present down from the fridge - this HUGE STAND MIXER that time forgot, I lovingly call it 'The Beast'. I was VERY excited about using it though! Have heard MUCH about it! One thing I DIDN'T hear is that if you first turn it on medium, the bowl throws itself at you :-D Consider yourself warned...

Another thing to consider...when the recipe calls for 'chopped chocolate chunks' ... buy chocolate SQUARES, as chocolate chips are rather difficult to chop :-D

And I would like to ask internet, are oatmeal cookies supposed to have the consistancy of peanut butter? I almost broke my spoon.

NOW, as I was baking the cookie biscotti I started work on Gingerbread Drop Cookies :-D They came out pretty good! The recipe didn't SAY to roll them in sugar as the picture indicated though - so my BFF and I contemplated going away from the recipe - for about 20 minutes-ISH. As we are both left brainers, going *away* from a recipe seems WRONG somehow and therefore DOOMS the recipe to certain failure, and the world as we know it to UTTER CHAOS!! After pontificating on the possibilities of rolling in sugar and not rolling in sugar for SOME time, she said "well sugar can't be THAT bad", and I agreed :-D

So today I resumed my duties after getting back from picking up my daughters for school. I started out making recipe 4 Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate cookies = :-D They were a little hard to work with and made me wonder if I had put in a jar of peanut butter and forgotten to tell myself. But I think they came out good :-D The LOOK good, don't they?!

Now *THAT* is when the drama began and I almost burned down the house. I imagine Betty Crocker MUST have started a few conversations that way, don't you?

It all began with a candy thermometer. Did you KNOW there were thermometers SPECIFICALLY for candy? Well, Betty Crocker and I do! It has a clip on it so you can clip it to the side of the saucepan and keep an eye on it. HOWEVER, that only works if you use a pan that is TALL enough to clip it to. So i get so far as looking at the thermo and the pan, the pan and the thermo, and saying 'Hmmmm, well I'll just sit it cock-ied here and it should be FINE!' Well I stirred the BOILING candy mixture and of course, knocked the thermometer INTO the candy. Went to grab it, out of the BOILing candy, burned myself, dropped it back in, picked it up with a dishtowel. Tried to lean it again, stirred, it fell back in. Grabbed it with the dishtowel again and the top of the tub containing the thermo came off, it fell back in and began to fill with candy, picked it back out with dishtowel, dishtowel caught fire {JUST A LITTLE!}, dropped it back in the candy to put out the fire. PICKED IT UP AGAIN and just held on to it this time, for another 10 minutes.

But the GOOD news is, the candy is AWESOME! Bad news is ... it's late and I have to get going, so that's all the foder you'll get from ME today! ;-) Thanks for checking in! Talk to you tomorrow!