November 2012 – Susie Strauss

November 28, 2012

Countdown to Christmas Begins

The countdown to Christmas has already begun in our house. The kids ask daily how many more days are left until Christmas is here. I haven’t quite figured out a fun and creative way to count down the days with the kids. Right now we are just marking off the days on our wall calendar. It’s not that exciting and definitely not pretty.

Occasionally, I’ll feel crafty so I’ve decided to take a look around Pinterest to see what might be fun and not that hard to make. The standard paper chain is my back up and I know I can manage to glue or staple a few strips of construction paper together. No matter what idea we decide to go with, I just want it to be something that is fun for everyone.

What kinds of things do you do in your family to count down the days until Christmas? I’m open to suggestion and would love to hear from all of those crafty people out there that have ingenious ideas that I could never come up with on my own. I promise I’ll share your ideas with other families that are clueless about what to do too, honest.

27 days before Christmas, let the countdown begin.

November 23, 2012

What to do with Thanksgiving Leftovers

Thanksgiving Leftovers Turkey Sandwich — image credit: kthread

I recently did a post about ways to make over mac & cheese to turn it into something new and delicious by adding a few ingredients. I found another gal that posted how she is going to turn her Thanksgiving leftovers into something new. She is going to make Shepard’s Pie and some very yummy looking Buffalo Turkey Taquitos. I can’t wait to try some of those recipes out myself. I think my husband will really love the spicy buffalo turkey taquitos. He loves all things hot and spicy so they really should be a big hit in our house.

I love Thanksgiving but, I don’t like to eat the same thing over and over and over after a big holiday meal. That is exactly what happens every year if I don’t put in some effort and get creative. I hate to see all of the extra food go to waste after we all get sick and tired of eating the same meal over and over. Hopefully these new ideas will inspire me to try something new every year instead of having the standard turkey sandwich.

What do you do with your Thanksgiving leftovers? I’d love to hear how you turn boring leftovers into something delicious so that none of your food goes to waste.

November 18, 2012

Weekend Clean Up For The Holidays

This weekend I’m spending time cleaning up the house in preparation for the holiday. I can’t believe Thanksgiving is only a few days away. Before any big family gathering I like to do a big deep cleaning if time permits. I hate to think about someone coming over to my house and leaning against the mantle and being covered in dust.

It brings images of the white glove check to mind. If a white glove can’t pass over the area and remain white then it isn’t clean. That’s the principle I was raised on. I remember my mother and grandmother walking into my room after I told them I cleaned it to do a thorough check. It was always a scary thing and I hoped that I didn’t miss a spot.

Today I plan to tackle the dusting of every room, vacuuming, and steam cleaning of the carpets. It sounds like a lot but it really isn’t when you break it up in to chunks throughout the day. The longest part is waiting for the carpets to dry after they are cleaned. Once they are cleaned I just have to make sure that the kids, or anybody else for that matter, do not track dirt in all over them again before Thursday. It drives me nuts when that happens and I have to do it all over again.

November 11, 2012

Saluting Our Veterans

Today my family salutes all of the veteran’s we have across our country. We have veterans in our family and we always make sure to take time to thank them for serving our people and our country. If it wasn’t for our veteran’s we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the freedoms we have every day. Thank you to all of our veteran’s and their families and friends.

November 4, 2012

What Happened to All of the Trick-or-Treaters?

This year was a bit disappointing with the trick-or-treaters for Halloween. Our family went all out decorating our house for the big day. We had lots of inviting decor both on the inside of our house and out. We had friendly decorations, nothing spooky. I didn’t want to scare any of the little kinds, not to mention our own kids.

In preparation for the big night I bought countless bags of candy. Last year because I had an injury I stayed home to pass out the candy and had lots of fun and was really looking forward to doing it again this year. Over a 5 hour period we might have had 20-30 kids visit out home. I was utterly devastated. I was really excited to see all of the kids in their costumes and have them tell me what they were if I wasn’t quite sure. I did get to see a few creative costumes. One little girl came as a Lipton Tea bag, and her sister was a bubble gum machine. They really had truly original costumes.

I have way too much candy left over. I don’t want to keep in my home because I know the kids will want to devour it all, or maybe I might. We already limit the candy intake the kids have and it will just be an added temptation for them. I’m going to do some searching to find something to do with all of this left over sugar I have laying around. Oh I just remembered, the program about sending the candy to our troops. That will be a great way to get rid of it and do something nice.