Merry Christmas!

I've Made My List and I've Checked it Twice!

For the most part I am just about ready for the big day!
*I made a quick run to Trader Joe's this morning and picked up some last minute things.
*Made a quick detour to the car dealership to check out a new car I may want for Christmas. Hear that Santa?
*Various cookies and candies are made!
*Got a call that someone wants to come look at the house on Tuesday. Will worry about that after Sunday! ;)
*Went to husband's Tae Kwon Do party last night. Year end awards are given out and he won an award for Most Perseverance! I would have to agree with that!
Still have to:
*Clean house before parent's arrival tomorrow!
*Go to the market to pick up beef tenderloin.
*Wrap gifts!
Hope you all are ready and enjoying the holiday!

I Must Be The Only One...

who doesn't like peppermint and chocolate together!
Peppermint hot chocolate, no thanks!
Peppermint mocha drinks, no thanks!
Peppermint chocolate bark, no thank you!

But,
I love chocolate
and
I don't mind a peppermint now and then!
Just please don't put them together!

Well the countdown is on!
Christmas will have come and gone by this time next week.
We had a great weekend. Friday night was a quiet night for husband and I. Teenage son went out with some friends to Wasabi to celebrate his best buddy's birthday. Teenage daughter went to spend the night with a friend in the neighborhood. So, husband and I ate subs and then watched some movies.
Saturday the in-laws came for a quick visit. My MIL is the one that buys me my vintage christmas decorations and she wanted to come see how I used them! I had made a homemade vegetable soup for our lunch so after they ate they were back on the road!

It is a tradition with our local fire department that Santa comes around the neighborhoods on a firetruck. One of the firemen gives out candy to the waiting children. You can't miss him because the siren is going all through the neighborhood!

Saturday night we attended husband's company Christmas party. I think it was the first party in quite a few years! It wasn't that bad. It was held at the owner's house, well actually out in his barn. It was catered and we had smoked ribs, BBQ, hash and rice, green beans, and cole slaw. It is the kind of food I only eat about once a year! But, it was very good! I made a Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle for one of the desserts. And, I learned that wine out of a red solo cup isn't so bad after the first couple cups! ;)
Teenage daughter loves to decorate a Gingerbread House each year. Yesterday she started on one, but didn't get it finished. A friend called to invite her to go shopping and she just couldn't say no!

I have a stack of books on my night stand to get me through the holidays!
Notice the one labeled Large Print! Ha, it is a lot easier to read, even with my glassed on!

I think tomorrow I will be finishing up preparations for the weekend, then I can sit back and enjoy!

One of My Favorite Things!

I LOVE Mrs. Meyer's products and the Orange Clove hand soap is yummy!
It is great for the holiday season, smells like the Russian Tea that people used to make! I don't know, maybe people still make it! I just remember it from when I was a kid!

One Christmas Celebration Down, Two More to Go!

I finally got all the decorations up in the house!
The weekend started with husband testing and receiving his black belt in Tae Kwon Do! I am so proud of him.
Then Saturday morning we headed out for my parent's house. When we got there we ate a light lunch and then it was time to open gifts!
We were definitely spoiled with all the great gifts we received!
Not long after opening gifts it was time to head over to my sister's house. We would be eating our traditional Lasagna dinner and then gathering outside for her neighborhood's christmas parade!
We roasted marshmallows in the driveway and rushed to the street when we heard the parade approaching. It was really a great idea for her neighborhood. Some of the floats collect items for different charities. I brought some things for the Meals on Wheels collection.
After the parade we roasted a few more marshmallows and then went inside to visit and relax.
Sunday morning we had our annual brunch and while we were eating Santa had come! The kids ran down to the basement to see what he had left for them! You see, grandma is personal friends with Santa and she is able to have him make a special stop at her house early in the month! He will still come to their houses on Christmas eve.
We ended up getting home late afternoon on Sunday.
Now my parents will come this year to spend Christmas eve and day with us and then we will go to my in-laws a few days after Christmas.
I have been busy this morning trying to get all of our christmas cards addressed. My goal is to have them in the mail tomorrow!
This is the last week of school for the teens. They have mid-term exams this week and then two weeks off! I can't wait!

Getting Ready for The Weekend

I am still trying to finish putting up decorations! I finally got the trees decorated, but still have to put out my vintage christmas village. And then there are still the lights outside the house that need to be done! And you may be thinking "doesn't she have a family that could help with some of that stuff?" Well, you are right about the family, but I have this irrational need for control and no one else is allowed to help! I clearly have issues! ;)
We go to celebrate with my family this weekend. We normally have our family get together the weekend before Christmas but this year my sister's niece is making her debut at The Grand Old Opry on that Saturday. That's kind of a big deal and she and her husband didn't want to miss it, so we had to change things up! I am not even finished with shopping for them, so I need to get moving!
After the last visit with my parents, I am not really looking forward to going. I am hoping that everyone will be too busy to start in on those "hot" topics!
Hope you have a safe weekend and get everything done that needs to be!

Weekend and Monday Morning Recap

* Saturday husband went car shopping for me! I then went back out later to look at some of the options. I didn't get a new car! I am probably a car salesman's worst nightmare!
*Watched Clemson win the ACC championship on Saturday against VT. Couldn't believe they pulled it off! But, so glad they did.
*Sunday made eveyone dress kind of similar and headed out to Middleton Place to take our christmas card photo. Realized my tripod is broken, so took a friend of teen daughters to act as a human tripod! Gave her $20 for putting up with my directions and yelling at everyone!
*Almost finished with my book club selection, The Marriage Plot. Man is it taking me a long time to finish!
*Got myself all psyched for my Dr. appointment this morning, just to get a call that the doctor is out sick with the flu and I have to reschedule! Ugh! I spent all that time shaving for nothing! ;)
*Still didn't get the trees up over the weekend, since I now have some free time this afternoon may try to get it done then.
Happy Monday!?

Can We Just Slow Down the Time?

Time is going by too fast!
I have started putting a few things out for Christmas. I hope I finish up this weekend.
So far I've put out some of my vintage decorations.

Yesterday I went with the Women's Club in my neighborhood to the Annual Creche Festival at Mepkin Abbey in Monks Corner. This was my first year attending.

This was one of my favorites. It was made by a local artist here in the Charleston area. He used discarded materials to construct it! Things like old water tanks and old bed springs.

Wreath over the door to the Clare Boothe Luce Library

This was made by someone locally and the figures are oyster shells!

This one also used oyster shells for the figures! So creative! I'll never look at an oyster shell the same!

After our tour we stopped in the gift shop. I purchased a fruitcake made by the monks. They are struggling financially, so I wanted to do my part to help! And, I am one of the strange few that actually loves fruitcake!
This morning I had a shift at Middleton Place. I am starting to feel very comfortable doing the house tours. I had really big groups today, and they were ones that asked a lot of questions! But, I felt very confident answering them!
The house museum is already decorated for Christmas and looks so pretty. They used all natural clippings from the property for the arrangements.
Not a very busy weekend planned, but I do want to get our family photo for our Christmas card taken! The teens probably won't be too excited, but I would like to go out to Middleton and take it on the property.
Are your homes all decorated? I hope you will share photos!

This is Some Seriously Good Stuff!

(This is not my photo)

I picked this up at Trader Joe's last week and it is so good!
I am kind of sad because it is all gone now, might have to make a Trader Joe's run!

The Count Down Begins

Thanksgiving was really nice.
Nice that we didn't have to go anywhere, it was just the four of us!

I made this Sausage Breakfast Casserole on Thanksgiving morning:
1 can refrigerator crescent rolls (I used the low-fat ones)
1 lb. pork sausage ( used turkey sausage)
1 cup shredded cheddar
1 cup shredded mozzarella
6 eggs, lightly beaten (I used egg whites and used 8 plus 2 whole eggs)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 375º.
Place crescent rolls in bottom of a lightly greased 13x9 pan, pressing together at perforations to form a crust. Bake for six minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. reduce oven temp. to 350º.
Brown sausage in a large skillet. Drain and spoon over baked crust, then sprinkle with cheeses.
Combine eggs, milk and salt and pour over the sausage and cheese. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until set.
Serves: 8

It was really good and we ate it with some fresh fruit and muffins.
I really pared down our Thanksgiving dinner and only cooked things that I knew everyone loved. Even at that, I cooked all day and then we were done eating in 15 minutes!
Would you believe not one photo was taken!

I went in search of the homeless man and never crossed paths with him again before Thanksgiving day. I did notice that there was a bag of food sitting where he normally hangs out. Wonder if someone left it for him? I did purchase a few gift cards to some fast food places nearby and figure I may give them to him the next time I see him. At least he could go in and get coffee or something to eat and get out of the weather.

I had to volunteer at Middleton Place on the morning after thanksgiving. It was so busy! I had at least 13 on every house tour! They said that on Thanksgiving day every tour was almost full!

I was just looking at my calendar and I have something scheduled for almost every day between now and Christmas! It almost makes me have an anxiety attack!

Did a little Christmas shopping while husbands car was being worked on this morning. But, I noticed I still have a lot to get, and I am normally done by this time!

Are you ready for the Holidays?

I Never Do This!

I never put up a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving, but we were at the lake this weekend and daughter was bored, so I let her and her friend go ahead and put up the tree! I figured we won't be back until the holidays are underway and it would be nice to come back to a house already decorated......
The tile guys came back this morning to finish the grout in two bathrooms. We are almost back to normal here! I have learned a family with two teens cannot function well with one bathroom! How did people ever do it? I take so much for granted sometimes!
Now, time to get ready for Thanksgiving! It will just be the four of us this year, so I am probably going to scale back and not cook for an army! Though I did go, this morning,
in search of a homeless man that I see a good bit around town to see if I could meet him somewhere on Thursday to bring him a plate and anyone else who might need one. I saw him sitting outside the library and by the time I came out he was gone. I may try again tomorrow. If you have been reading for any length of time, you know I have a soft spot for the homeless!

I am Having Major Anxiety

The guys came to lay the new tile in the bathrooms and laundry room yesterday.
I like everything neat and in it's place.
My house is not like that right now!
I am leaving the house most of the day today so I don't have to look at the mess.
But, it is going to look great when they are done!

The Weekend

We had a busy weekend!
Headed to our hometown on Friday afternoon to stay at my parent's house. We grew up just down the road from Clemson! Teen daughter didn't make the trip. She had a big babysitting job on Saturday, so she stayed with a friend.
We made teen son go with us and he wasn't too happy, until he got to the game!

Our seats weren't too bad! We were in the sun for the first quarter and before the end of the second, it was total shade!

Even the trees were decked out in Clemson colors!

We met my sister in Greenville for dinner on Friday night. Her husband wasn't feeling well so he stayed home to rest.
We met up with that sister and her husband and my other sister and her husband and rode to the game together, even though we didn't have seats together. We had a great time, even though it was a nail biter of a game! But, we did win in the end!
It would have been a perfect weekend, except for my big mouth! My parents have become very narrow minded and intolerant in their old age. This is so hard for me, because growing up they were so different! So, my dad asked me a question and one thing led to another and before you know it voices were raised and blood pressures (mine) were raising! Later, husband asked how I could have taken their bait, and I said I just couldn't help myself! Eventually they may realize that the reason they don't see me very much anymore is because of the way they act. I was really trying to ignore their outlandish views, and I even invited them to come spend Christmas with us. Oh, I am so not looking forward to that!
On to something more exciting.... we are replacing the tile in our master bath, the upstairs baths, and the laundry room. We decided that it was time and it would only make the house better for prospective buyers! I gave the go ahead to the tile people today and they should be able to start on Thursday! I am excited!

An Oh So Good Cake!

I got this recipe from my friend, Landlocked Mermaid, and man is it good!

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Heath bar crumbles
Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup toffee bits, 1/2 for cake batter + 1/2 for topping (optional)
1/2 recipe cream cheese frosting (I just used my go to recipe for this)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 9×13 baking pan with non-stick baking spray or butter and flour.
Whisk eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar and beat until creamy in color.
Add pumpkin and combine.
Add remaining ingredients and beat until well-combined.
Pour into a prepared 13×9 cake pan and bake for 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely and spread cream cheese frosting over the top.
Sprinkle toffee bits over the top. (optional)
Keep refrigerated.
YUMMY!!!!

I stocked up on canned pumpkin last year and now need to use it up! I have made something with pumpkin in it at least once a week. My family is loving me!
We are heading to SIL's house tomorrow for their family Thanksgiving. We are driving 3 hours just to eat and then coming home! What we do to keep the peace!
Have a great weekend!

The Fair 2011

We headed to the dreaded Fair last night!
For a Wednesday night there was a pretty big crowd.

I love onion rings and eat them only once a year, at the fair!

I do like to walk around the agriculture buildings and look at all the animals!
When we move back to the country, I am definitely getting some chickens.

Love the rabbits! I might get some of these too!

Teenage son's photo:

Teenage daughter's photo(it looked so much better in color, but her teacher had her submit it in black and white):

And, the whole reason I even bothered to go: to hear Crystal Bowersox (from american idol a couple years ago) sing. She was very good.

Traffic was a mess getting out of the parking lot! It took us 30 minutes to go 1/8 of a mile!