Category: Holidays

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Gift Shopping

Sometimes I hate shopping for Christmas gifts.  It’s the crowds that bother me.  I don’t like walking into a store and being surrounded by a million people. It drives me nuts when I can’t move my cart through an isle without having to wait for someone to move theirs.

This year I’m finishing up my holiday shopping online.  I love the ease and conveninece of being able to shop at any time, day or night in the comfort of my own home.  And, I don’t even have to get dressed up to leave the house.  I did my shopping in my pajamas!  I got some great deals on Amazon and didn’t have to pay tax.  I love that part too!  I even saved on the shipping since everything I bought was eligible for the free Super Saver Shipping.  I love Amazon for that reason.

I’ve finished just about all of my shopping and an rest easily.  Now I just have to worry about wrapping everything.

 

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Cookie Exchange

What  a great turn out we had this year for the cookie exchange.  There were soo many gorgeous cookies and tasty ones too!  One person brought cookies that looked like a snowman was melting on top of them.  They were absolutely adorable.  She frosted the cookies with white icing and then stuck a marshmallow on top and partially melted it to look like the snowman head.  She decorated the rest of the cookie with items for the face, and hat etc. The kids went bonkers over them.

We also had a few other treats that I’ve never seen before that I just couldn’t get enough of.  I LOVED the little pretzels with a Rolo candy stuck on top with a nut.  Rolo candies are chocolate covered caramels and are one of my favorites. When I discovered this little tasty treat had Rolos I was in heaven.  I’ll definitely be making them in the future.

The party was a hit!  We had twenty five different varieties of cookies and everyone went home with a box filled with an assortment of their very own.  A few people asked if we could do it again next year.  Since we had such a great time I think we will.

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Happy Thanksgiving!!!

What a wonderful time we had over the holiday weekend.  It was nice to see all of the family.  We drove out to my grandma’s house and spent the weekend there.  I got to see all of my siblings and catch upon all of the exciting family gossip.

I was looking forward to grandma’s famous cinnamon buns.  Every year she makes these delicious cinnamon buns from scratch. I love the ooey gooey caramel that melts out of them when they cook.  She tops them off with a delectable, homemade cream cheese frosting.  My mouth is watering jut thinking about them.  I’ve tried to make them myself but they are never the same.

In addition to the tasty treats we enjoyed some quality family time.  After we ate the huge meal together we all gathered in grandma’s famliy room to play a few board games.  We played Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit.  The kids had a great time kicking our butts.

I’m excited to do something with everyone again next year.  We might get to see everyone again for Christmas and do it all over again.  I can’t wait!

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Imagination Time

The kids were watching a science program on the public access channel and were enjoying all of the experiments they saw.  My oldest asked me if I could get her a lab coat like the one the scientist was wearing in the program.  She said she wanted to play science lab.  I told I would see what I could find for her.

I looked around online and found a few options on http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/. I think she would like a coat no matter what size it is.  I might just order one for myself and use it as a model to make one that will fit her and then we could both play science lab together.  Her imagination is really vivid and I know she’ll come up with some wild concoctions to experiment with while she wears her fancy scientist lab coat.  I bet if I got her some safety goggles she would really be thrilled.

I suppose I’ll make a science lab kit for her for a Christmas present.  The lab coat will be the best part of it all.  I’m excited to see everything put together now.  Our imagination time is going to be filled with lots of new science adventures.

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Black Friday Sales

PhotobucketBlack Friday. You either love it or you hate it.  I was hoping to get out this year to do some last minute shopping for some amazing deals but I’m not sure I’ll be able to compete with the crowds.  I would like to get a portable DVD player for the car when we take trips. One player for each of the kids would be ideal but I’ll settle for one.  I’d also like to get a television for the guest bedroom.  Maybe I can convince my husband to go out and brave the crowds for me this year.

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Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! I wasn’t able to go trick or treating with the kids and my husband tonight because of my injury.  I made sure my husband took lots of pictures so I wouldn’t miss out.  I really wanted to go but walking around on crutches atgreat length did not sound easy.

I ended up staying home and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters.  I actually really enjoyed myself.  I sat on the porch all evening with a huge supply of candy.  I had my husband bring out all of the bags of candy we had and put them in our giant ice chest so I wouldn’t have to get up to refill the candy bucket every so often.  It worked perfectly because I was able to open the cooler up and just scoop out another bowl full whenever I needed more.

I had a bunch of kids show up to my house this year.  There were spooky costumes and a whole lot of princesses and fairies.  One of my favorites that I saw was a kid that dresses up as a bag of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans.  He had big giant balloons for jelly beans that were in a clear cellophane bag. It looked like he had a bag on the front and back so he could walk and not actually be in the bag.  I thought it was clever and really cute.  I wish we had two cameras because I wanted to take pictures of all of the cute costumes that I saw to share with the kids and my husband.

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Tasty Treats

Someone brought in the most divine cake pops I’ve ever had in my life today. They were beautifully decorated to look like little pumpkins and ghosts. I don’t have the skill to do the fine piping work that was done on these or I’d try to make some myself.

These tasty treats were made with a pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting. They were coated in a chocolate candy coating that was smooth and creamy when you bit into it. The cake was exceptionally moist, not one bite was dry. The woman who made them wouldn’t give us the recipe but she did share that much with everyone.

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Pumpkin Carving

Today we carved the pumpkins we brought home from the pumpkin patch.  We decided to not do anything scary this year.  Instead we went with nontraditional cute pumpkins.
 
One pumpkin we carved into a penguin.  The girls have been obsessed with Happy Feet and can’t wait to see Happy Feet 2 so a penguin was an obvious choice.  The second pumpkin we carved into a cute kitty cat.  It was very detailed and had lots of fine lines to cut out.  I was worried that part of the pumpkin was going to cave in around the eyes because there was very little flesh left in that spot once it was finished.
 
Both pumpkins turned out great.  If I can find my camera I might even be able to upload some pictures of them.

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Pumpkin Patch Trip

Today we took the kids to the local pumpkin patch.  We rode the hay ride and ran through the corn maze.  We all got our faces painted too.  The girls got cute little black cats painted on their cheeks.  My hubby’s face was turned into a skeleton.  The girls thought he looked really spooky.  I got a friendly jack-o-lantern painted on my cheek.

It was a blast roving through all of the pumpkins trying to find the perfect one.  There were pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.  They had some award winning pumpkins that were bigger than the kids.  I can’t imagine how long it would take to carve some of those giant pumpkins, let alone clean out all of the pumpkin guts and seeds.

After a while of wandering around and inspecting pumpkins we finally found the perfect ones.  We brought them home and plan to carve them out soon.  We don’t want to do it too early for fear of them going bad. There is nothing worse than rotten pumpkins sitting in your living room and on your front porch.

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Spooky House

On my way home from work today I saw a house that was completely decked out with Halloween decorations.  It had spider webs all over the place, amazing jack-o-lanterns along the front portch, and even a huge blow up skeleton on the lawn.

Seeing houses like this remind me of when I was younger and we’d go out with the family to see lavishly decorated houses.  I think maybe we should start doing that with our kiddos too.  I’m sure they would enjoy seeing that spooky house too.