A Peaceful Christmas Eve

Here it is Christmas Eve and everything is ready for the big day tomorrow. I have been really good about planning things out and getting my shopping done early enough so that I’m not in a last minute panic like I was last year.

The grocery shopping was probably the worst. I went around 4:00 in the afternoon and the place was jam packed with people. It was so crowded I could hardly make my way up and down the aisles. I had a list with me to help speed things up, but it really didn’t help much. I was stuck in the human tide of going up and down each aisle anyway.

I wrapped the very last gifts this afternoon and have been able to enjoy a nice, quiet dinner and I’m actually heading to bed early. I hope Santa likes the chocolate chip cookies that I baked for him, and that he is good to me – and you!

Have a Nice Cup of Hot Tea

This week while grocery shopping I went a little crazy in the tea and coffee aisle. I decided to try several flavors of teas and bought boxes of teas from several different brands to really experiment with teas.

The tea of choice in my house while growing up was Lipton Tea. My mother would not buy any other brand. She used Lipton for hot tea and also for iced tea, although we did not have tea often. My dad preferred coffee and drank a cup in the morning before leaving for the office, drank more coffee while at work, and had a cup of coffee after dinner each night with dessert. But in the summer time, mom would make a pitcher of iced tea once in a while, rotating that with various flavors of Kool Aid and lemonade or orange juice.

So I limit my coffee to just one big mug of Starbucks home brew in the morning. If I drink anything else throughout the day it is usually just plain cold water or a cup of hot tea. I still have Lipton on the shelf, but I decided to try some different brands this time and have several boxes on a dedicated shelf in my kitchen cabinet next to the microwave so that I pick a flavor to try each day. This afternoon I am trying a blend of green tea with mandarin orange. It smells heavenly and the taste is very mild. I think I found a winner!