Our Old Friend....

We'll be spending time again with our old friend, the one who has been relegated to the pole barn, the minute gas hit $1.50 a gallon it became necessary to find something else to drive, but we decided it wouldn't hurt to save our comfortable old vehicle just for traveling long-distance trips.

I'm so glad, because once you've been driving for six hours straight, it sure feels good to stretch out in the back seat and take a nice nap. And, if we want to pick up more passengers for a daytrip while we're gone, we can do that, and everybody can ride together and visit.

We've been a lot of places together during the years we've had her, we've traveled a lot of miles, and seen a lot of the country. We've got plans for her this week, she's taking us to see Jamie + Thad.

Do You Covet My Warm Cinnamon Rolls?

No need to envy....you can make them, too. And without tons of time invested! There's a shortcut you should know about!

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Our Christmas morning tradition is Cinnamon Rolls. They're actually fast and easy: something you can get prepared the evening that Santa comes down the chimney and put in them in the fridge.

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Pull the unbaked rolls out in the morning and let them rise a bit and throw them in the oven. Go to the tree and open gifts, throw some wrapping paper around awhile and they'll be done fast. As they bake they'll make the whole house smell delicious! Here are some FBTSOYP quick instructions.

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Your secret shortcut is frozen bread dough loaves from the grocer's freezer! Not all stores carry this, I find mine at Kroger, and one package contains five loaves. Some for these yummy rolls, and another loaf or two for homemade pizza!

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USE:

>Frozen bread dough loaves, thaw well ahead of time, spraying the pan and the tops of the loaves with Pam. It takes about two loaves to fill a 9 x 13 baking dish. If you find it necessary to finish thawing the loaves in the microwave, cover them loosely, and thaw at a very low setting -- 2 or 3 --and put a separate cup of water in the microwave so they won't dry out. I do 8-9 minutes at a time at cooking level three until they're squishy all the way through.

>A stick or more of real butter, softened but not melted. Margarine works too, but know it's second best.

>Brown sugar, light or dark

>Cinnamon

>Pecans, chopped (optional)

>Raisins plumped up in boiling water (optional)

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Cover a countertop or a large cutting board with some flour, and stretch/roll the dough so it's a long rectanglar shape. Get it as thin as you can without it having holes or air bubbles.

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Now, smear butter all over the surface of the bread dough. Oh what fun! Now lick your fingers, but don't wash your hands....don't worry, mama really didn't know what she was talkin' 'bout.

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Next, sprinkle generous amounts of brown sugar and cinnamon on top of the butter.

If you like the nuts and raisins, add them next. If you like nutmeg, a smidgen of that is good in with the cinammon. (No nuts or raisins for my bunch, we're already nuts enough.)

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Roll up the rectangle of bread dough from bottom to top, to make a long roll. Admire your work. Splash a bit of the flour on your face. It's fun!

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Cut the dough into sections about two inches or so, the longer you cut each section, the larger your finished cinnamon roll will be. You can cut with a sharp knife, or use the dental floss you used last night to cut them cleanly in sections. (Just kiddin' on that floss!)

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Put the cut cinnamon rolls into a pan that was sprayed with Pam, and on the bottom of the pan spread out some of the softened butter and sprinkle some brown sugar and cinnamon. It would be good to throw in some of the chopped nuts to this goo if you go for the nuts. This will give the bottoms of the rolls that exta caramel-y goo that is so coveted. The more butter/ brown sugar/cinnamon combo that you use, the more caramel you'll have. Use another stick of butter if you want to!

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Lay your cinnamon rolls in the pan, not too close, give them a little room to rise and spread. I usually use a glass or ceramic pan. A regular 9 x 13 cake pan is fine, too.

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You can let them rise before placing them in the fridge overnight, covered in Saran wrap. Or you can let them rise in the morning while the oven preheats. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven, watching not to let them get too brown. Put the coffee pot on now....got an old stovetop percolator?

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When done, drizzle with a very thin confectioner's sugar frosting, or not. (If you don't use the frosting, then brush the tops with butter to keep the tops from becoming too hard.) They're great either way.

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Serve upsidedown if you like with the gooey caramel on top! Enjoy the resulting love handles and extremely attractive, squishy, below-the-bra-bulges you always wondered about when you were a kid as you hugged your grandma.

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Merry Christmas! I hope Santa was kind enough to bring you all you wanted.

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FBTSOYP=Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants

OFFICIAL FARMHOUSE FOOD!

A Merry Christmas To All....

A Big THANK YOU to all of our military men and women who are serving away from their home, friends, and family so that we can enjoy our freedom, and that our children can run, jump, laugh and play and enjoy the special holidays. They serve so that we can be free to enjoy all that this great country offers. Thank you for your sacrifice.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a sense of peace and tranquility for this special time of year that we remember the Reason for the Season.

Doesn't Take Much to Make Me Happy!

I began my Christmas postcards early last week. It took me a couple different days to get them done, and it shouldn't have but....my card file where I keep all my addresses was an absolute disaster. So, before I could get them mailed, I had to re-organize my address file. Here's its new home and pretty pleased with it, I am.



I like using old crates and boxes for ordinary everyday use around here, and a couple examples are above. They can be old and battered or refinished and all shiny.



I like my addresses on file cards, because it's easier to toss a card and replace it with a new one than it is to try to keep an address book up-to-date. (The problem comes when I stop putting addresses back into the file under the proper letter, or when I don't purge it for several years in a row!)



I found these hard plastic A-Z guides at Wal-Mart and they look pretty sharp in this antique wooden crayon box! So next time you see a little wooden cheese box or an old ammo or dynamite crate at the flea market or antique store, grab it, they're lots of fun to use around the house.



The one containing my runaway magazines is one I bought at a garage sale this summer, for $1 each, turns out they're old drawers from an old-time hardware store. They still have the old porcelain knobs on the front, and thick tags hammered on the front to indicate what was in the drawer. They were really dirty and full of old scrap metal. I cleaned them out and dusted them off. They're put back to work once again! Here are more containers around the house.


On the dinner table holding napkins.

Full of mints and gum....grab some on your way out the door!

On the floor by the new record player, a candle crate full of our old record albums.

A couple crates hold playing cards and dominoes.

And, finally this, from a couple weeks ago, old enamel pots, repurposed for catching the drippies in the laundry room.

Can You Handle THIS Centerfold?

Click on any photo to enlarge!

Yes. This man, fully clothed, can make my heart flip. And when he talks....whooo! Sam Elliott, what a hunk of a man. Sorry, Catherine Ross. I can't help myself.

Who makes your skirt fly up?

A Fuzzy-headed NinnyMuggins!

It took me a half-hour to scrape most of the snow off the deck, poor doggies had to walk through it just to go potty, poor Little E's wee wee must have been frozen before he could find a spot. I also kindly shoveled off a spot on the lawn for the dogs to be able to do their business without their manly parts falling off.

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I then went out front and since it seemed like the snow had almost halted, I thought I'd whip out the snowblower and knock off the driveway, that won't take long! I didn't wear snowpants, just boots, coat, scarf, gloves.

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I came in numb over an hour later. This was the top of my head once I got in the house, I was encrusted like a nice piece of shrimp in this coating that was blowback from the snowblower. My glasses were iced over and of course my cheeks and down my coat collar was, too. This is a fine powdery snow and the wind is really whippin' so I was a snow-warrior out there battling to get the driveway cleaned off.

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Our snowblower could hardly handle this deep snow, in some places where it drifted it was well over a foot deep. It's fun, though to clean up after the storm, but only until around March. When we get this in April, it ceases to be fun anymore!

There's nothing like blowing snow to make me a fuzzy-headed ninnymuggins! (That's from the movie ELF, I love to say it!)

We'll Have a White Christmas! Snowstorm Today!!

Snowstorm today, school was canceled! There's another storm on the heels of this one for Sunday, and they're predicting another one for Christmas Eve or Christmas night! Today's total should be 9-12 inches.

I finally got my white chenille stockings made! Each of them have a different color of large jingle bells hanging from them! Chenille is a mess when you're working on it, but it sure looks nice when it's done!

More Christmas Corners

These are a couple things I threw together last week with the branches Lem cut off the bottom of the Christmas tree. I'm sure they won't last long, I can't water them in these containers, however they add to the atmosphere. The deer that glitter are just a couple dollar store items and the little bulbs thrown in are clearance from Joann Fabric. I hardly ever decorate the same thing the same way twice. I'll be walking by something with the evergreens in my hand and I'll plop them in something that's in my sight that is empty. That makes me a plopper.

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Like that word? Plop. Say it again. Plop. Plop. Fun word! Plop. Plopper. Plopped. Plopping. I wonder, would it be legal on the Scrabble board?

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That's how I roll, I plop things; so this is what I've got this year and next year it'll be something totally different.

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I hope your Christmas preparations are going well and that you have found some time to have a little fun "plopping" decorations around the house. That's really how I do most of it! It's a peaceful time, looking out the window at the snow, watching the birds flit around between feeders, and an ocassional bunny hop across the snow to its next hiding spot between snacking. Inside the house, it's warm and cozy and the dogs are snuggled up napping.

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It makes me look forward to the long months after Christmas where we can just sort of enjoy being snuggled in and the whirly-hirly-hurriedness is behind us! May you find a little peace of solitude in your day!

*I apologize for the stars between paragraphs, blogger is having issues today with formatting. Grrr....

Thanks KATIE!

Look at what my niece, Katie picked out for me! I love this little vintage daschund and my little mini-daschund loves KATIE! When Kate is here, Little E is all over her, snuggling up, or playing "hide under the blanket" where Katie gets under a blanket on the floor and I say "Where's Katie?" and he goes over and "digs her out" from under the blanket. Such giggling and laughing takes place and our little doggie loves every minute! Thanks Katie, I love that you picked this out for me!

What It's All About!

Last night we went to the Christmas concert Luke's school puts on for the parents and families of those in all the various choirs in the middle and high school. My favorite was the combined high school choirs and almost 100 voices!

It was a very enjoyable evening and was held in an historic old Catholic church, the sound carried beautifully and it was a gorgeous setting for a concert, the sound carried so well in the cathedral shaped building. We slowed down and remembered what this season is all about. My compliments to the school and staff for a classy event and all the work that went into this concert.

Christmas-y Corners....from a Gift of Vintage-y Goodness

Someone who loves me very much gave me a surprise bag yesterday, a gorgeous gift that I opened this bright snowy morning, come along and look with me! Thank you so much for all of this fun packed in one bag!

A Putz House with a decorated bottle-brush tree and a little country church covered with glitter! I absolutely adore this, how could I put this away after Christmas? Look at all the glitter! The adorable banner says GOD BLESS AMERICA and it now sits on my Americana shelf in the living room, looks right at home, too! How about that star on the top of the tree? Thank you so much, I LOVE IT!

Oh, how much I love this retro vintage-y cute stuff, and this bagful of surprises was delightful! Now I'm not sure if I should actually color in this cute little "Little Miss Christmas and Santa" coloring book or just make myself copies! Every picture on the inside is just as cute as the one on the outside! I will always put it out at Christmas time. It looks great on the coffee table in the living room!

OH, be still my heart! Check out this vintage-y bottle-brush wreath! So soft and kissed with glitter finished off perfectly with a prim red bow and a silver holly leaf!

It's the perfect finishing touch for my Santa shelf! Don't you think it fits in this little spot? Oh, I love it!

And this is from that same person from a year gone by, another of my most favorite things to pull out at Christmastime! Don't you just love the old fashioned snowman? It reminds me of a Little Golden Book we had when we were little, called FROSTY THE SNOWMAN. The Frosty and the little kids in the book looked just like this!

A Frame Job

One year, Mary and I got together one late fall weekend for a crafting bee. I took all kinds of stuff up north for the weekend, bits of this and that and odds and ends that seemed like they'd be good for Christmas crafts. Mary pulled out these bright frames, I think they used to be yellow with pink yellow and green photo matting, and we gave them a good makeover. What fun that was! She's so good at imagining how things should look.

The vintage-look stickers here are from the Dollar Tree years ago, how I wish now I had bought fifteen sheets of them! They are 3-d and this frame has room between the glass and the frame for them. They enhanced this frame gorgeously and the tiny tinsel was something she picked up at Target on clearance, I believe. The red striped paper around the opening for the photo was a stripe from a roll of cute wrapping paper!

It has become one of my favorite things to pull out at Christmas, to remember the fun we had that day making all kinds of pretty Christmas-y things.

This year it holds our Christmas card photo on the top of the shelf where we display our music boxes and water globes. I think the photo in it rather matches the look of the frame. Here's a photo of our shelf, too that I thought you might like to see.

Bake Now, Pay Later

Frosted sugar cookies and the Nuts and Bolts are two things that everyone agrees must be made at Christmastime!

This mixture is hazardous to your willpower. Some call it Chex Mix, some call it Nuts and Bolts, and in this house we kind of like hardware terms. (My husband and son both run hardware stores). Contained within this mixture is a delicious elixir for a salt-lover: a blend of butter, worcestershire, seasoned salt, garlic and onion powder! You can make it go KAPOW if you want to and add a bit of bacon grease (I don't do that, it's evil enough already!)

Your crunch needs will be satisfied with all three types of Chex, Cheezits, oyster crackers, whole almonds, pecan halves, cashew halves. It's taken me years to get it down to what will NOT be in the NUTS AND BOLTS because of what I see get left in the bowls when people are done snacking, I did away with pretzels of any kind. I like Cheerios in it, but the kids aren't so crazy about those. Next batch might be MY batch with Cheerios!

CHEX MIX RECIPE

Tweak to your taste! This can be doubled!

Preheat oven 250 degrees

Use 12 c. total of your cereals, nuts, crackers, etc. I use about 2 c. each of the corn, rice, and wheat Chex.

I use all 3 kinds of Chex, Cheerios, Cheezits, Almond halves, Pecan halves, Cashew halves, you can use any of the following, also: mixed nuts, bagel chips, pretzels, etc.

In your big roaster melt 6 T. butter or maragine and then stir into the pan:

2 T. Worcestershire sauce

1-1/2 teaspoon Lawrey' seasoned salt

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Stir well.

Gradually stir cereal into margarine and seasonings and worcestershire, until coated with the margarine mixture.

Bake for one hour, stirring thoroughly with a wooden spoon every fifteen minutes.

Makes 12 c. of YUMMY snack! Store in a tin to keep dry and fresh.

OFFICIAL FARMHOUSE FOOD!

Little E and Duke beg for a frosted sugar cookie. They shared a small one. Little E has a way of making you want to share, he can stand on his hind legs like this forEVER.

All done! It was a long day!

Today after church, we stopped off at an Italian restaurant for lunch, Lem and I shared a stromboli and a good salad, Luke had his usual full order of popcorn chicken. We enjoyed a nice long visit and ate, and as we left, a city police officer that was eating lunch there with his partner stopped us and told us where we lived and where Luke went to school. What?? We don't live within the city! Luke doesn't go to school there, either.

By way of explanation, he said he lives just down the road from us and saw us drop Luke off every day last year at school, his daughter goes to the same school; and he knows where we live and he hunts in some of the surrounding farmland here. He and Lem visited a while about hunting. I had noticed this guy watching us as we ate and talked, but then we were about the only other people in that part of the dining room. You never know who is watching you and what they know about you. That was so odd.

We came home and got busy. Lem mixed up the sugar cookie dough to spare me the trouble (he knows how much I detest doing the whole thing from start to finish!) and then he and Mark got ready to go hunting. As they were out in the blinds, Luke and I rolled out dough (seemed like it took FORever!) and cut out a triple batch! They saw 17 deer between them (didn't get a shot, they were too far out even for muzzle loaders). Luke and I saw three deer from the house. We should have counted cookies! I bet there was at least 120.

It took around three hours to get them all rolled out and cut and baked. Then I made a huge batch of frosting and used every bit of powdered sugar I had in the house! We frosted, all three of us, for about an hour or so. I just now finished packing the last of these into tins. WHEW! It was 11:oo by the time the dishes were finished and the lights turned out. My only "To Do" as far as baking goes is I still have to do the chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles. Those will have to wait for another day.

Saturday night, I had made four batches of Chex mix. I hope it lasts, but there's more Chex in the pantry JUST IN CASE....

How's your Christmas baking going? Do you dread how your jeans will fit in January?

Simpler....

I have often thought of different things I would do if I could start my married life all over again; intentional and simple things that would have helped us become debt-free sooner in our life.

Being debt-free is such a blessing, I haven't talked about it on here yet, I wanted to approach it in a way that would inspire someone want to make that their goal, I didn't want to seem as if I was taking a "holier than thou" attitude, and I don't want to seem judgemental of anyone who might have debt: we lived most of our marriage with it!

But the way debt complicates living is what we no longer live with...bring on the freedom!

Once we made it a goal to wipe debt out and live without it, it seems like life was made so much more simple, and we've learned to embrace and be happy with living a simple life!

I'm not where I want to be quite yet on simplifying all of my life, but I am learning. Getting rid of debt helps you realize there are endless possibilities when life is paid for with cash. In times like we are living, I am so glad that we started this journey about ten years ago, with a goal in mind of removing the burden of OWING others from our marriage and our life.

But I am going to tell you some simple things that looking back from the vantage point of 27 years into my marriage some things I wish I'd known:

I wish I'd started our marriage out with each of us purchasing ONE HUGE anniversary or birthday or mother's or father's day card, or for any other special day so each of us would take the time once a year to write our feelings to each other in that same card in give it to each other over and over. If we ran out of room we could have attached a piece of paper to it and kept on writing. How precious this would be with 27 years of love recorded in one place! I didn't know it then and maybe I'll help someone create a memory for their whole lives in this way.

Just think about it: when you're old and gray and sitting in the rockin' chair reading to each other the notes you've written over the years of your marriage....how precious to relive your life each time a special ocassion comes up!

A. It would have saved us hundreds of dollars.

B. It would have saved us lots of looking and stress.

C. It would have saved me lots of clutter, you know how it's just impossible sometimes to throw these sentimental things away?

D. I would have a card for each special day in the year that has it's own mini-history of our lives! That would be priceless and I wouldn't have a bunch of cards that are precious to me scattered around the house, under the bed, in the attic, in a sock drawer, they would all be in one spot and what a thing for our kids to hold onto and to treasure when we're gone!

I wish I'd started Christmases for our kids as a much simpler holiday, and I wish I'd known a rhyme I've heard that goes something like this:

Something you want,

Something you need,

Something to play with,

Something to read!

PLUS...

Santa brings the biggest gift!

Stockings are a fun-filled bonus!

Had I known about an intentionally simple Christmas, the happiest season of all would have been so much more stress-free and the Christmas Club check would have stretched much farther. The other preparations for Christmas would have been made into the celebrations, the focus less on the presents or gifts under the tree.

My kids would not have built up overly high expectations of what Christmas would be like. They would have had the above rhyme on their Christmas wish list, and fill in the blank for each. They would have birthdays for us to fulfill other wishes.

In times like these, I can't imagine having little kids to buy for several times a year and having overblown Christmases and birthdays. I think we will be going back to a simpler time, even if it's involuntary. One day, we'll all realize it's better anyway!

Two-Dollar Treasures: Vintage Wooden Music Boxes

, This music box is on a round base: you can see that it's hand-painted and is made to look like a toy drum, the engineer stands on top beside the engine and there are little toys all around. Stamped & dated Taiwan 1986. Plays "Santa Claus is coming to Town". Next photo is the view of the other side....

See the little bottle-brush tree peaking through the cutout in the grandfather clock or fireplace, I'm not sure?

This is the other side. See the bottle-brush tree here, too? I like the turquoise with the red on this one. It's also on a round base and has three wooden soldiers holding their rifles. Made in Taiwan 1985. Plays "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas".

Our original music box from back in '83 or '84, it's made in the shape of a wooden abc block, the lid has a mirror inside to reflect the little wooden toys.

The first music box here is ours, we bought it back in the 1980's, the first of many we would collect. It was cheap, we didn't have a lot of money back then, but we loved it, mostly because our babies watched the elephant bob up and and down, and the teddy bear twirl, with their eyes big and their mouths in a little "o", the way only babies can look at you in awed wonder. We'd never get rid of it no matter how ugly it might seem to someone! Our kids have always known it to be out at Christmastime.

The same visit to the Salvation Army where I found the vintage personalized stockings I wrote about yesterday, I spied three wooden music boxes, from the 1980's. They reminded me of the our little music box; ours was made in a similar fashion as the two above. They were priced at $2, and two needed a little minor repair, other than that they were in great condition. The third was beyond fixing. I brought these home and asked Lem to take a look, I also wanted to know if we should keep them or if they should go on eBay. Well, they're living here now, he had repaired them in no time.

I happily displayed them amongst the balsam greens in our shelf full of Christmas music boxes and water globes. I don't know their story but they have a new one, starting now. They are so vintage and retro I don't think I could have parted with them, plus they have a friend and he doesn't feel so lonesome anymore, being the only wooden music box!

I Wish I Knew Who These Belonged To!

Today's find kind of made me sad, what I found in the bottom of a bin at the Salvation Army store: A whole family of handmade knitted Christmas stockings. Someone worked long and hard to make these. I can't imagine the number of yarn color changes required in each of these patterns.

I hope they were enjoyed at least for a time by Jon, Michael, Lisa and Julie; kids happy to run downstairs and check to see if Santa had come. (That's how we knew he had come, because when we went to bed, the socks were empty, if we woke up and they were hanging full, then we knew he had been there!)

Two boys and two girls. Did grandma make them ? Did the kids know they were throwing them in the bin destined for the thrift store? Didn't any of them realize what a treasure they were losing? Would one or even all of the kids kept them, had they known they were going to be thrown out? Or was it a case of a divorce, and dad kept them in the attic for years, hoping against hope that the family would be put back together again? I never will know.

It makes me realize, though, how something can mean so much to one person, and not to the other, even though that other person is in the same family. I also thought about how life circumstances can dictate that it's not possible to hang on to all that might be sentimental to us. Perhaps these stockings weren't worthy of packing and a long trip to another state in a major move. Sometimes what is precious to us is funny to our children: I should be prepared for "the wordless look" someday when I offer them something sentimental: the expression that seems to say "and why would I want that?" so I need to be prepared for my treasures to someday be tossed.

These are highly collectible, and will most likely sell. But as I washed these and hung them on the line in my laundry room to dry, I couldn't help but wonder what their story is, and the route they took to our house.

I hope these make someone happy, someone who collects vintage Christmas and there's a possibility they may end up in Oregon or Oklahoma, or Massachusetts, but they will be far away from whom they were intended for and far away from Jon, Michael, Lisa and Julie.

Sinfully Delicious! Homemade Chicken Fingers!

Once in a while you want fried chicken, right? Well this fried chicken is different, delicious, and delightfully easy! It would be great paired with mashed potatoes, salad and biscuits for a Sunday dinner, or it easily goes casual and is great paired with marinara and/or ranch dressing for a casual supper Sunday night in front of the game! I'm sorry I don't have exact amounts or measurements, I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of cook!

The ingredients are few, you will need:

Boneless skinless chicken breasts

milk (not lowfat)

Italian bread crumbs

Grated Parmesan cheese fresh or the kind in a can (actually the dry stuff in the can has better results but the fresh has more zip)

canola oil

1. Cut the chicken into thin strips, not too thin, but about 1/2" thick.

2. Pour the Italian bread crumbs and the parmesan cheese into a low bowl or pan suitable for breading the strips of chicken, ratio about 1 to 1-1/2 cups bread cups to about a half cup parmesan cheese.

3. Pour your milk into one bowl or pan that's flatter and suitable for soaking the chicken strips in before dipping them into the crumb mixture. If you have time, it's nice to soak the strips in the bowl of milk for a awhile before dipping, this helps tenderize the chicken.

I use an electric frypan to make this, it just makes it easier to regulate the heat and doesn't mess up the stove with splatters....you can use a frypan on the stove, I prefer a teflon coated one.

Here's what you do until the chicken strips are all gone:

1. Drain the milk from each strip.

2. Roll each strip in the bread crumb mixture, if I run out of the mixture I throw a little more of each into the bowl and toss with a fork and get right back to dipping!

3. Fry them in the hot oil (my family loves extra crispy and dark like the picture above) turning when you're happy with the doneness.

4. Drain each batch on fresh paper towels.

Enjoy the resulting love handles!

OFFICIAL FARMHOUSE FOOD!

Christmas Meme

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? WRAPPING PAPER
2. Real tree or Artificial? REAL!
3. When do you put up the tree? NORMALLY THE 1ST OR 2ND WEEK OF DECEMBER
5. Do you like eggnog? IF IT'S MIXED WITH VERNOR'S, YUMMY!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? A CRIB, LIFESIZE BABY DOLL, A ROCKING CHAIR AND A DIAPER BAG WITH A LAYETTE, AND A HOMEMADE QUILT, ALL IN THE SAME YEAR, AND ALL US GIRLS GOT THE SAME, JUST A COUPLE DIFFERENT SIZED DOLLS.
7. Hardest person to buy for? LEM, IF HE WANTS SOMETHING, HE USUALLY GOES AND BUYS IT, SO IT'S HARD TO THINK OF SOMETHING HE NEEDS OR WANTS!
8. Easiest person to buy for? MY SISTERS
9. Do you have a nativity scene? OF COURSE!
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? MAIL
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? A SALT BLOCK LEM GOT ME ONCE AS A JOKE! LONG STORY!!!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I LIKE THE OLD ONES, LIKE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET, ETC.
13. When do you start shopping? USUALLY WHEN WE SEE THE FIRST SNOW, IT MAKES ME WANT TO START SHOPPING, BUT I DON'T HAVE A SET DAY!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? NO
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I LOVE ALL THE GOODIES, REALLY! BUT A FAVORITE SNACK IS CHEX MIX AND THEN FROSTED SUGAR COOKIES
16. Lights on the tree? THE OLD FASHIONED KIND!
17. Favorite Christmas song? I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? STAY AT HOME
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? DASHER, DANCER, PRANCER, VIXEN, COMET, CUPID, DONDER AND BLITZEN, BUT DO YOU RECALL THE MOST FAMOUS REINDEER OF ALL? RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? STAR
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? THE KIDS OPEN THEIRS FROM EACH OTHER CHRISTMAS EVE, AND THE STUFF FROM SANTA OR MOM AND DAD WAITS UNTIL CHRISTMAS MORNING!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? PEOPLE WHO SAY HAPPY HOLIDAYS INSTEAD OF MERRY CHRISTMAS!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I'M OLD-FASHIONED AND LIKE RED, GREEN AND SILVER!
24. Favorite Christmas dinner? USUALLY A GOOD HAM WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS!
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? DIGITAL SLR CAMERA LIKE JAMIE'S!

Snowflakes in the Window

Something to do with the oddball ornaments and those extra snowflakes you picked up "just because they're so pretty". Take fishing line and stagger them and hang them in a window, interspersed with an old-fashioned ornament or two. I found these heavy pendulum-shaped ornaments on clearance 80% off and paid $1.24 for four of them. I've never used them, they seemed to make the branches on a balsam fir sag too much. That is, until I decorated this window and decided that the lights beneath the snowflakes needed something to reflect, so now I have these ornaments that swing nicely when someone moves about the room (or the cat decides they look like fun!) and they bounce the Christmas lights around wonderfully. The silver ornaments actually show off the snowflake ornaments, which are transluscent. Fishing line and a few ornaments, and maybe a well-placed nail or two are all you'll need!

A New Look for Old Junk....

I just thought I would show you what you can do with old enamel pots. I have seen people use these for their powdered laundry soap, the dry kind, but I use liquid and get weary of wiping up all the drips and drops of detergent and fabric softener on the top of my front loaders, so I'm using these old pots to set the laundry products into. I've also got an old blue enamel roaster pan that I use for a planter in the summer! It's a gorgeous shade of blue. So next time you're at a thrift store or next spring at garage sales, pick up an old enamel pot or two, there's tons of uses for these banged up kitchen items from the past!

IT'S CALLED CHRISTMAS WITH A CAPITAL "C"

Another video you'll enjoy! Merry CHRISTmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ

Something EVERY mom will enjoy!

Here's something fun that will just take a minute to watch, it's a great laugh and what an awesome talent this lady has! But as she sings, you will hear yourself in almost every line!

The mom song on VIMEO http://www.vimeo.com/1509073