Buh-bye 2009!

Happy almost-New Year!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I had a really great day with my family. We had some plans for both Christmas Eve and Christmas day that had to be tweaked at the last minute, but everything was great even so. It was a lesson in flexibility for me lol.

We had a pot-luck style dinner planned for Christmas Eve as well as some last-minute baking that had to be done. I had brownies baking in the oven and my Mom went to turn on the stove to start cooking and when she did, there was a blue spark and then the stove died. Oven and all. We live in a rental, so the first thing we thought to do is call the Landlord. But what can be done on Christmas Eve? We figured he had plans as well as we did, but we still called and spoke to his wife. As we thought, there was nothing that could be done until the day after Christmas, so she offered us the option of using the stove in one of their other rental units a few miles away.

I removed the almost-done brownies from the oven and still had another batch to cook, so we got together a few things we needed the stove to cook and drove to the other house. Thankfully we were able to finish up the remainder of our cooking in crock pots. We had a nice dinner and later on I finished decorating all of the gifts I had wrapped a couple weeks ago while we watched a movie.

In the words of one of my favorite photographers Jasmine Star, a post is not complete without a photo. So, here are a few:

The stove that saved the day!

Our kitchen-away-from-home

The brownies that almost weren't

Last glimpse of the Christmas tree

We had a big breakfast cooking on the electric griddle and then opened our presents. We were all so blessed this year! I got so many great things, one of them being a sewing machine. I was (am) so thrilled with it! I already have a list of all the things I want to make. I had Home Economics in school and remember the basics, but I am definitely still a beginner so I will start with the easy projects first. I will post about my first 'creation' tomorrow :)

Timber's tired from all the gift un-wrapping

For Christmas dinner my Dad was supposed to make a lasagna. Our new plan was to carry all of the ingredients, pots & pans, and utensils over to the other house to cook and then bring everything back for our dinner. But, that would have meant hours for him at the empty rental house on Christmas day with nowhere to sit and nothing to do while waiting. We decided to cancel the dinner until our stove was fixed and we ate leftover pizza strips instead. It may not have been the big meal we planned, but we made the best of it. And, we actually decided that we liked the simplicity of not having to cook and clean up a big meal on Christmas, so we are going to have a quick and easy meal again next Christmas too! Starting new traditions :) 

Well, this post is getting a bit long and I could still keep on typing, but then we would be getting ready for the arrival of 2011 lol. We ended up getting a nice, newer stove the day after Christmas so we are having our lasagna tonight and we're going to ring in the New Year at home.  Nice & safe and off the roads with the crazy/drunk drivers. It's also a full moon, so the looney toons will be out too! lol I'll spend my evening working on a new layout for my Mom's blog, and possibly one for mine too (big fun, I know!). I hope you have a wonderful and safe night and a happy and prosperous New Year in 2010!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Ten on Tuesday

 

10 things you want for Christmas but wouldn’t buy for yourself

I don't generally complete memes, but this one was fun.  I actually had a tough time coming up with a list...I guess that must mean I am pretty content with what I have, right?  Here's my list:

1.  iPod touch
2.  macro lens
3.  Nissan Murano
4.  tickets to a John Mayer concert
5.  wide-angle zoom lens
6.  diamond hoop earrings
7.  a new Dooney & Bourke
8.  HD video camera
9.  a trip to Hawaii
10.  HP Touch Smart computer

Ah, it's fun to dream :)  What's on your Christmas list this year?

Jumping the gun

I learned a lesson today about jumping to conclusions.  Actually, a situation happened a few days ago that should have taught me this lesson, but I guess it took a second scenario to get it through my head lol.  I often jump the gun in a situation and automatically think the worst instead of waiting to see the outcome before drawing a conclusion.  Not one of my best character traits ;)

I went to the grocery store this afternoon to do some shopping.  I always use the self checkout register at the market and did the same today.  While I was paying for my groceries, an elderly lady came up behind me and was standing pretty close to me.  I do like my own personal space and prefer that perfect strangers stay out of it, but that wasn't the problem.  I was using my debit card to pay and had to enter my pin number, so I try to be as discreet as possible while punching it in.  Having worked for a bank and seeing the horrible things that can happen, I am a bit overly cautious about it.

Well, to be honest, my immediate thought was 'Why won't this lady back up and let me finish?'  I assumed she was just in a hurry and wanted me to move quicker.  I do not want to label everyone here in the New England region, but many folks here tend to be very cold toward each other and seem to be VERY impatient, especially while waiting in line.  So, I assumed that was the situation with her.  I worked in retail during high school and for a few years after, so I enjoy helping people and often I am the only one smiling in a store of miserable faces.  I always say I belong down south with other friendly people lol.  Now here is where I learned my lesson.

As I was waiting for my receipt to print, the lady asked me if I knew how to use the self checkout.  I told her that I did and she asked me if I could help her ring up her purchase.  And there it was.  I, yet again, jumped to conclusions about her and all she was really doing was standing close watching me so she could learn how to do it herself.  I smiled and told her I would help her, and I showed her how step by step and stood there until she was finished.  She thanked me for my help and I left.  I knew as soon as I walked out of the store that God was trying to show me something.  This is the second time in a week something has happened where I jumped the gun too quickly and was left feeling like a jerk.  I do know that it will not take a third time for me to learn to be slower to react to situations and not jump to conclusions.  I'm learning :)

Decorating: DONE!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! I braved the busy stores on Thursday to do some Christmas shopping and was able to finish shopping for my Dad's gifts. We went to Kohl's and boy did they have some great sales! I saved $153.00 on my the items I purchased, which I must admit, did include a couple things for moi ;) I bought a runner for our side table in the living room and this cute potholder:

I could not resist him, he was calling my name. Really, he was. I heard him ;) I also bought a placemat to use at our table so I will not spill anything on the nice tablecloth we have on it. I have been told (many times) that I often make a mess in the kitchen, both cooking and eating lol. I tend to disagree, but I figure using a placemat can't hurt :) I think I reverted back to my childhood when picking out this one, but like the potholder, I couldn't resist the glitter and cuteness!

I also made my way over to Yankee Candle which is in the same shopping center. My Mom got me into their candles a few years ago and now I am just as crazy about them as she is! I bought some tarts in various Christmas scents and a new tart warmer:

As if it wasn't already cute enough, the J O Y and lollipop light up! That sold me and off it went, home with me.

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Yesterday we decorated the Christmas Tree (which seemed to take much longer than other years) and finished putting out the rest of the decorations. We started around 1 pm and did not finish until 5 pm, but it was so worth it when we lit up the tree for the first time!

Timber wanted to help out

Finished product

Some of the other decorations around our house:

Votive candle holders I made last year

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We also had some snow last night, so of course I had to run outside and take photos lol. I wasn't using my tripod, so they are a bit blurry.

This is a better one taken this evening:

Well, I am off to do a little more Christmas shopping online. I will try to post some more photos of our snow soon (I have about 150 photos to go through!). Have a good night!

Oh, Christmas Tree

In mid-October I went with my Dad to a local tree farm to tag a Christmas tree. When you first arrive, they give you a tag with a number on it. You browse their selection of trees and when you find one you like that hasn't been sold, you put your tag on it and leave a deposit with the owner. Then, when you are ready to pick up your tree, you bring the ticket stub back to the farm and they cut the tree down and you have yourself a Christmas tree :)

Last year was the first time we had ever tagged a tree, so when we showed up in mid-November to tag our tree, there wasn't much of a selection. We found a nice enough tree but it was only about 5 feet tall. This year we purposely went to the farm on their opening weekend on Columbus Day (Oct. 10th) to make sure we would find a nice tree. We spent well over an hour searching for the best tree and when we found a really nice one, we tagged it and left the deposit.

This was the tree farm:

Our tag on the tree we chose

After an hour of searching, this is the tree we picked

So, today was the day we decided to go and pick up our tree. Ironically, before we left the house my Dad joked that he hoped our tree would still be there. When we showed up at the farm, we gave the woman our tag stub and she had her husband go out into the field to cut down the tree. About ten minutes later he came back and said he couldn't find our tree. We went out into the field to help them locate our tree and my Dad and I found the section where we knew the tree was, but we could not find our tag number. At that point, I started to think that someone had removed our tag and took our tree by putting their own tag on it.

I went to the next row of trees from where ours was and, lo and behold, I found our tag. Someone removed our tag from our tree and just stuck it in the branches of another persons tagged tree! The worst part is that there are a couple of signs on the way down to the field that says 'DO NOT REMOVE TAGS FROM THE TREES'. We were so upset, my Dad especially. There we stood looking at the tree that we believed was ours, with someone else's tag on it. And there was nothing we could do to prove it was ours. The owner offered to give us our deposit back of course, but we were still so disappointed that we spent all of that time searching for this tree and some could come along and just take it.

So, off we went to find another Christmas tree. We drove to a nearby Christmas tree stand that had nice, freshly cut trees and found ourselves a beautiful tree (and it was a little cheaper too). All in all, I think the tree we ended up with is nicer than the original tree we tagged. The first tree was about 6 feet tall, including the long stem at the top, but the new tree we brought home is at least 7 feet tall and is much fuller. I guess something positive did come from the whole experience :)   I will be decorating the tree tomorrow, so I will make sure I come back here to post some photos!

This is the tree we bought from the tree stand. It is much bigger in person than it appears in the photo...I am 5'7 and the tree is about a foot and a half taller than me!

I will be back tomorrow to post photos of the tree decorated. Have a great weekend!

Can you keep a secret?

I had a request from my last post to share my recipe for the chocolate cream pie you see above.  I am more than happy to post it of course, but I have to admit I did laugh to myself at the thought of sharing 'my' recipe.  My not-so-secret recipe comes from the back of a pudding box!  I make it look all fancy, but the truth is that all the pie consists of is a ready-made pie crust, pudding, and cool whip.  The 'recipe' is below ;)

Two boxes of My-T-Fine chocolate pudding mix
Whole Milk
One pre-made deep-dish frozen pie crust
Cool Whip
Hershey bar

Prepare the pudding first using the directions on the back of the pudding box.  I use My-T-Fine pudding because that is one of the richest and best tasting mixes in the market.  Jello brand pudding just doesn't give the pie the same consistency.  If you cannot find the My-T-Fine brand where you are, just be sure to use a cook and serve pudding instead of instant.

While the pudding is cooking, bake the pie crust and let it cool.  Once the pudding is done, fill the pie crust almost to the top.  Refrigerate the pie for several hours and spread the cool whip on the top before serving.  You can add some chocolate curls to the top by using a vegetable peeler to grate the Hershey's bar.  That's all there is to it!  I wish I could say the pie is the result of a treasured family recipe passed down from my ancestors on the mayflower, but 'tis not :)  If you do decide to try it though, you won't be sorry!

Black Friday: Mission Accomplished

Well, my Black Friday shopping was a success.  I got a few really good deals and didn't even have to leave my computer chair!  I can't say what I bought just yet though, my Mom reads this blog and I wouldn't want to ruin her surprise ;)  I kept my word though - I had hot cocoa and listened to some Christmas music while I shopped.  Did it help me get in the 'Christmas Spirit'? Not really.  I think I am still brainwashed from all of the Fall decorations I was looking at around me while I shopped lol.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Ours was really nice.  A little discrepancy over how long to cook the turkey due to bad instructions I found online, but it came out great just the same.  I had a lot of help this year with all of the preparations, so it brought my stress level down to nada.  I am the type of person that does great cooking, until the very end that is.  I am nice and relaxed the whole time, then at the end while trying to have everything ready at the same time - boom! Stress.  And a very red face.  And when I sit down to eat you might think I just ran five miles on a treadmill because I look like I have been through a war lol.  Ah...the joys of preparing a big meal :)

The photo below is for my friend Pea, who lives in Canada and had their Thanksgiving last month.  Your slice is on the way Pea! lol

A few more photos from the day:

Our table

I took some leaves and acorns from outside and glittered them up

Emeril eating his carrot

Timber posing in my Grandfathers rocking chair after dinner...poor kitty got nothing :(

That's all for today!  Enjoy the rest of the weekend :)

Happy Thanksgiving

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! For me, it is the official start of the holiday season. I decided to skip the Black Friday shopping in the stores this year and will do my shopping online instead. On Friday morning, I plan on sitting at my computer with my hot cocoa and Christmas music, doing my shopping while everyone else is crammed into the stores fighting over the sale items. Long lines, items sold out, trying to find parking spaces.....I don't think I will be missing much lol.

Tomorrow I will be doing most of the cooking. We got alot of the preparations and baking done today so there won't be too much left to do in the morning and everything should go smoothly. It is going to be a small family gathering with only the immediately family so it will be a nice, relaxed day without having to entertain guests. I am really looking forward to watching the parades on TV and, I would be lying if I didn't admit, the chocolate cream pie ;)

I hope you all enjoy the day with your family & friends and take a moment to think about your life and what you are grateful for. It's during these times when you realize just how blessed you are.

Fun at Emeril's book signing

I have to say, I really had a nice time on Friday night going to Emeril Lagasse's book signing with my Dad.  He has been a big Emeril fan since his show first came on the air.  So when we were in the supermarket a couple weeks ago and saw a flyer saying that Emeril was coming, my Dad didn't need much convincing to go.  This was the first book signing I have ever been to so I didn't know what to expect in terms of how long we would have to wait to meet him.  When we pulled in the parking lot we were both shocked, but just like everyone else, we found a parking spot and got in line.  Despite the wind and chilly air, it was really nice to just relax and listen to people around us chat while we waited.

It also gave me an opportunity to take a few photos since we weren't able to inside the store.  I brought my camera with me so I could take a photo of my Dad with Emeril when he signed our book.  The camera weighs approximately two pounds with the lens.  Two pounds doesn't sound like much, but hang it around your neck and it feels like 50 pounds after two hours of standing in one spot lol.  So, I felt satisfied that I got a few nice photos at dusk and bringing the camera wasn't a waste of time.  They told us that the reason we couldn't take photos inside was because of the long line waiting as it would slow things down too much.  Emeril's 'people' told the store manager that he can sign about 400 books per hour (questionable I think) ...wouldn't want to lose that pace I guess, right?  Another rule his PR people had was that he would not be able to sign any books that weren't purchased at this store.  This meant that all of the people who brought copies of the book that they purchased elsewhere couldn't get his signature after waiting all that time in line.  Or, they could buy another book of course.

I felt so bad for a woman who was in line behind me.  She had just come down after working all day and had two copies of the book.  She spent $50 on them at Borders when the book was released earlier this month.  She had been in line for almost an hour before she found out that they couldn't be signed.  The thing is, she called the store on Thursday to find out the times for the book signing and also asked that since she had two books already, could she bring them to be signed and she was told yes.  Apparently the store's employees didn't know the rules set by Emeril's 'PR people'.  She told the store manager that she had asked first, but he said there was nothing he could do.  What I thought was really nice was another woman who was in line near her heard the whole thing and offered to buy one of the books from her.  This would allow her to buy a new book without spending more money and have at least one signed copy.  The woman nicely declined and was so frustrated with the whole situation that she got out of line and went home.  It goes to show that there are still some nice people in this world.

And now, some photos from the night:

This was when we first got in line. This line was just to get inside the store, then there was a second shorter line to meet Emeril.

Getting darker


Dusk





Sorry about the blur...I still haven't mastered taking photos in low-light.

This unfortunately was as close to a picture of Emeril as I was going to take that night. There was a sign up once we got to the front of the line that said we couldn't take photos during the book signing. I had already envisioned the picture hanging on my wall...Emeril with my Dad, big smile on his face. There went that plan. This cardboard cutout will do I suppose ;)


At last, the book!