Every year we make Chocolate Covered Peanut and M&M bags for our stockings. It was awesome the first year we found red and green M&Ms, perfect. We use honey roasted peanuts, they're sweeter, but still salty enough for the mix. The other bag we make up is full of the different Christmas candies, we start buying bags in October at Target. I just put the Pretzel mix in cellophane bags you can get at Michaels and the candies are put in ziploc bags with names on each bag. I also bake chocolate chip cookies the day before and put them in cellophane bags for each one to take home.
After I get up, first I light the Christmas candles and plug in the tree, village and other twinkle lights in the house. I make sausage and french toast with orange flavoring, instead of vanilla flavoring. We cook a turkey the day before so we can have turkey sandwiches and chips after opening presents.I just put out the buns, turkey, chips and drinks, because all the plates, napkins and bowls are already set up that morning.I have snowman coffee/hot cocoa cups with lids and hot cocoa packets on the table, or for anyone who wants coffee. I use red and green plastic cups for Cranberry Gingerale. I love Christmas traditions, when kids grow up it gives them memories of what they did every year.
Well Hello, Is everyone ready for Christmas? Alright then, I'm not either, lol, so I'm looking forward to it. I feel more like decorating this year than last and really want to celebrate life.
We have Thanksgiving here and Christmas, we've set traditions that are so important for people when things are not so good, traditions are stability in a sense. It's something to look forward to, how you decorate, what you set out year after year, all those things are psychologically important, esp for kids growing up. Everyone knows when they walk in there's twinkle lights, (that's all year for me,lol), Christmas music, movies and food. I send things back to their home when I can. If you go to someone else's house for the holidays you can take something as tradition, something you bring, bake or make, others will come to look forward to it every year.
It's hard enough for people working, they don't always have time to bake goodies. I watch the kids, everyone knows how much daycare is and if you can find a good one. I'm home, my grandkids are happy, fed and it bonds us even more. If it's not grandkids, then other relatives need the help. It's actually one of the most important things you can do if both parents have to work. It's crazy, parents can pay so much of their paycheck for daycare, hardly worth working and they need to, but you can provide a good place and take away that stress of daycare.
Anyway, going to start doing more Christmas decorating this week coming up, very excited. Didn't I just put up Fall decorations? Yep, sure did and Bam!, it's Christmas time. I love it, Christmas candy, oh I love those candy cane kisses and those butter cookies in a tin. Christmas colors are absolutely my colors. I'm crocheting Christmas items, knitted some more Christmas yarn dishcloths and such. I can not wait to see the tree up, and it's going to be interesting, another walking baby to keep off it. LOL One's three, so we just got past that last year and now a 14 month old, ~shaking head~, it will be fun, it will be fun. :D Here...we...go..~shaking head with a happy grin~.
I made peanut butter cookies, but I love the Christmas cookies that come out from Oreo, the white chocolate covered and now the Candy Cane oreos, oh yes. I painted a spice rack I had found in a closet and it was unpainted, can't have that. :) So I painted it red and put two coats of mod podge over it. I was washing up some dishes when my grandkids were over and noticed a whole cartoon theme, dishes my kids used. It just tickled me.
My daughter keeps dressing up Molly, you can tell how excited she is to be a super dog. :D
In the second photo she just looks like, "Really? Do I really have to put up with this?". Then the last one she's just given in, maybe she likes it, but she actually does sigh. LOL
I love Krispy Kreme, yum, their Fall boxes are adorable and I wait every year for the pumpkin donuts. Why oh why are they so good? LOL Anyway, it's not like I eat them all the time, you see how I'm trying to justify my addiction? ;D So, it's Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte I wait for and these donuts. Today we went to Panera Bread and I got their Pumpkin Spice Latte, it was so good, now I have another Fall delight. :P
So now do you see what I mean? LOL I'm so bad, now I wonder how many people will have to run and get them just from the pics?
Went to a baby shower yesterday, it was really fun, I made an afghan, duck bib and got a box of diapers. Good gracious, $20 for a box of diapers, how people do it now? It's crazy, but sure beats those cloth diapers. I think God had everything to do with the invention of disposable ones. :)
The house was so cool, love that fire place heater, the popcorn maker was awesome, the house smelled so good with butter popcorn she made for everyone. You can get smaller ones at BJ's. The Herbs and Spice cabinet is adorable, when you open the door on the other side it tells about herbs and spices and what you can use them for in cooking. I looked out the window and saw the face in the tree, so cute, thought I was seeing things at first. LOL
One of the games I really like is the rice and safety pin bowl. You put rice in a bowl with safety pins and get blindfolded, then you have 30 seconds or whatever time you choose for each of you to get as many pins out in the allotted time. Another one was she put baby items on a tray, socks, thermometer, diaper cream, etc and went through the room one time, without stopping and people had seconds to look at the tray and then write down how many items you saw. The winner is the one who ofcourse guessed the most, for a prize.
She got alot of nice presents, great idea having a baby registry for what you need. I took the photo before all the guests arrived, so she got more presents than what's in the food table photo. There was chocolate cake with a fluffy icing that tasted like cool whip and chocolate pudding mixed, it was so good. Oh and below is a baby sweater, she's having a boy by the way, that I fell in love with. It's knitted with deer on it, I swear I love crocheting, but I wish I could knit like this woman does. I love it.
It was a beautiful day today, the wind was blowing bringing in colder air tomorrow, but it was still beautiful. We went to a little beach on the lake with the fam. Had a cookout with burgers and hotdogs, why do they taste better outside on the grill? I love that smell, now I want a bonfire with marshmallows, hotdogs and cocoa.
Ofcourse the guys found acorns all over the ground, so they just "had" to do an acorn battle. LOL Then a birthday balloon flew up in the top of a tree and my son had to climb up to get it.~shaking head~ :D I guess when they have their own kids, it's too late to send them to their room. LOL He used to be able to stand and do a backflip, run and jump to the wall and flip back. Guess he'll have to leave those to his oldest in a number of years, but he still finds reasons to climb trees, he's fearless.
One time I caught him and his friend about to jump out of a two story window for fun. I believe they were going to throw a mattress down first. ~still shaking my head~ I did catch all my boys jumping off our roof, but that was a rambler, thank goodness.
I made chocolate cookies for the party, my daughter made chex mix and my DIL brought a cake that was made out of cupcakes, that was really cool. It was a little messier, because the cupcakes are covered with one layer of thick icing, but hey, it's cupcakes, so it's okay to be messy. :P
