It’s Christmas Cookie Time!! Grab your sprinkles, your icing, and your cookie cutters, and gather in the kitchen! We’re putting on the Christmas Carols, warming up the mixer and baking while we talk. No sticking your fingers in the batter while the mixer is running.
Have you started decorating for Christmas yet? Started your baking? Finished your shopping? What else is happening?
 | Nunniabiness B on Magic Eye |
 | neomama on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | Shelley on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | Dyahn Darvey on Salisbury Steak from Paula… |
 | irene trammel on Magic Eye |
 | Julianne on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | Vanna on How long do you shower? |
 | Michelle Colpus on Your children |
 | Tanya on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | Heather on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | Donna Dillard on Cheeseburger Soup |
| Donna Dillard on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | Sharon on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | JoJo on Cheeseburger Soup |
 | Ellen on Cheeseburger Soup |
Us Girls..Our Views 
Now while I’m thinking of it, I’m pissed right off they they’ve changed the posting area here!!!! WHY do people think they have to change stuff when nothing is wrong? Now instead of taking a few minutes to post it takes me about 10!!! Totally ridiculous!!!!!
Thank you very much!!!
I’ll be back tomorrow.
is that for posting a post, or a response?
It’s posting from the can. You used to be able to select what you want and hit “publish” and then you could hit the back button and it would take you back to where you were. Now you publish and hit the back button and a big box pops up and asks you “if you’re sure you want to leave this page. If you do all is lost” or some damn thing. Then you okay to leave and you go back to the posts but it’s all of them and you have to click “drafts” and then you have to click “excerpt view” to see more than just the title (which I need for the questions). So it’s so many more steps than it used to be. It takes me almost three times longer now to post each night and I’m not quite sure someone in a suit would change something like this.
I’m so scattered lately, that I can’t tell you what’s going on this week, because I don’t think I know. Let’s see… Josh starts Wrestling tomorrow night, then we have a Den Meeting on Tuesday, TKD on Wednesday… sometime this week, I have to fit in some baking, ’cause we’re invited to a cookie exchange. I’m working on a playdate for Josh and me (josh’s friend’s mom is MY friend, too, so we’re all trying to get together). I’m in charge of the Den Meeting on Tues, so that means a bunch of planning. And sometime this week, I have to get my Christmas Cards written and sent, finish decorating the tree and house, and figure out and purchase some Christmas Presents.
Man, oh man. I need a wife.
Tell me about it!
Okay.
No.
No.
No.
Not sure.
Hooray for the Sunday night post! I am always eagerly awaiting my chance to dump all my baggage on my online friends!
Actually it has been a good weekend. Yesterday the girls had their adoption-themed Christmas party. The girls were so pumped when Santa showed up! And both of them eagerly awaited their turn to sit on his lap and tell him they wanted a watch for Christmas! [Hee hee, I did NOT manipulate that (much)!] They did awesome, but wouldn’t you know it, I forgot to bring my camera! A friend took some pictures and promised to email them to me, so we’ll see.
After the party I took the girls for a haircut and then we went shopping. I must have had 50 people literally stop me and tell me how sweet the girls looked in their matching red dresses. I thought it was kinda cute the way they marched through Walmart singing in unison, myself. It ended up being a long day as Miss A was still dragging from some bug she is fighting. But all in all, it was nice.
Today we were “almost” on time for church (ha) so the morning was a success. After we got home, we dragged the tree up from the basement and stood it up. It’s one of those that came with the lights already wired into the branches, but the lights weren’t working. I played around and got most of them working, and then we added a string of lights to cover the dark spots. So now it’s ready for some ornaments, but we still have to find the ornaments and drag them upstairs. I also need to bring up the girls’ Chrismas toys, books, etc. Other decorating by others in the house and yard is also on-going. So I think we will be pretty much done with that this week.
There is something strange going on with my 401K. My earnings have gone down to a tenth of the prior month, and since it’s money market, that makes no sense. So I need to find out what the heck. Of course they are only available on weekdays so that is something I need to work into tomorrow.
I got some work behind me this weekend, but not as much as I should have. I’m still distracted. I did go ahead and buy some vitamin D, because I’ve been dragging ever since I reduced the amount I was taking. Dare I say I already feel a bit better? If only it is that simple, that would be nice. I can definitely use the stamina this month.
Oh crap, I just remembered that I need to wrap up a couple of little gifts for my kids’ school program (which will include another Santa), and they are due Monday morning. I bought them a couple of Scholastic storybook DVDs with Christmas themes, so they can enjoy them for a few weeks before Christmas. I remember last year, Miss E noticed right away that the school Santa was not the same guy as the adoption party Santa. So I explained the whole Santa’s helper thing. I hope that goes over well this year.
As far as cookies (since that’s the topic of the day), I decided to try again, but this time I bought already-cut, ready-to-bake cookies from a different source. Three flavors that sound kinda fun. We’ll try to do them for the kids’ classroom party. Worst case, I’ll just have to eat them myself . . . .
Well, I can’t think of much else to report. Just the usual ups and downs. I’ll let you know how the girls’ Tuesday program goes. Here’s hoping I don’t forget my camera again.
Have a great week, everyone!
Oy!! I forgot ALL about our Tree!!! Every year, we have the Live vs Fake debate. I am totally sold on the merits of a live tree. Growing up, we always had one. But Steve prefers the convenience of a fake tree. This year, since it looks like we’re going visiting for Christmas, I relented and said, “ok, we can use the fake” because we didn’t want a live tree going dry when we weren’t around to care for it.
Last year, I spent several days – yes, I’m talking close to a WEEK – going through that stupid tree, light by light, trying to figure out where the guilty bulbs were and replacing them, because more than half of the prelit tree was dark. It was a massive pain in the arse.
This year, I vowed not to do that. So the minute I brought the tree up from downstairs, the three of us sat down and started removing the strings of lights from the tree. We worked from around 4 – 6:15 Saturday evening, and finished up at noon yesterday. Steve figured that between the three of us, we put in about 7 man-hours. My thumbs were completely numb from popping off those stupid little horseshoes that hold the strings on the tree, and my wrists and hands were slashed all over with little scratches. But we got ALL of the lights off. I have no idea how many there were, but there were three strings total.
And now, I have a plain fake tree, and I put my own lights on. all 500 of them. And you know what? EVERY SINGLE LIGHT WORKS!!!
We have that same problem with our tree and next year I’m doing what you guys did. Now we have the top and a tiny section in the middle of it out with a string in it and I’m sure nobody but me notices but it bugs the heck out of me. What makes me mad is we spent a lot of money for this tree. It’s really nice but those lights near the top went out after the very first year. Then of course they give you replacements but you still have to take every single one of them out and put a new one in to find the dang one that’s burnt out and the replacement bulbs were all multi colored but the tree had on clear/white! Now I’d prefer the multi but what the heck is up with that???!!!!
We went with the fake because it was getting to the point of it just being to hard for Paul and I to get it out of the house after Christmas. I take it down the day after and am usually alone. I also LOVE they way my decorations hang in this tree and the fact I don’t get poked while trying to work with it. I’d never give up the memories of the kids and us taking our fried chicken and lunch and drinks and the horse and wagon rides we had but that was another time.
I just think it’s way more convenient to string on the lights. This way, I can sit on the couch and test/replace the bulbs, rather than doing it while balancing on a ladder!
Be warned… removing all those lights is a MASSIVE PITA!! I wasn’t kidding when I said that my hands/wrists were all torn up.
We found it easiest to split the tree into its segments (it’s a three-part tree), and remove the strands from each. AND, we also discovered that the strands were connected in no logical way. One strand at 12:00 might be connected to another at 6:00 (pretending the round tree is a clock), and the one at 1:00 might be connected to the one at 2:00. It was all over the place.
It was a frustrating job, but I’m glad we did it.
Thing is, everything was perfect as long as we left the tree there. This had to have something to do with us moving it downstairs and back up again. Maybe someone tugged too hard on something. The bummer about using our own lights is that now we can’t let the tree rotate. Not the end of the world, but I liked that feature. Well, maybe we could still plug the alien lights into the wiring that’s attached to the tree. I’ll have to look into that.
I do love a real tree. My parents still get one every year (at least, up to last year). But I know I’m not going to through all that every year, and we’re used to this tree since long before the kids came along. I think we’ll just leave it where it is like we used to.
Please tell me these are NOT your cookies!
Nope. Not this time. Although I AM considering doing some cut-outs this week for the cookie exchange. If I do, and they turn out well, maybe I’ll send you some pics!
And just in time… I plan to do this with my cookies!! Excellent! I tried to win a trip to this cookie decorating weekend, but I was up against about 100,000 other commenters, so it’s no surprise that I didn’t win.
But I can still make the cookies! Got my meringue powder and everything!
Yes we’ve decorated, no to the baking, almost done shopping, and I don’t know what else there is! I just ordered our Christmas cards so now I’m very happy!
Well I must make a confession…
I REALLY want to string lights on that big ol “Christmas Tree” in our front (sided) yard but it is soooooo HUGE. It’s approximately 32′ tall by 35′ around at the base. I could do it but spending a tone of $$$ on lights is holding me back. I figure between the commercial electricians and tree trimmers I know I couold get a lift over here to string the lights. It really would look awesome though…. if done properly.
The other problem is that the small street light is about 10′ in front to the right of it. I guess I could paing a cardboard box black and cover the street light.
I just don’t know.
If you are one of my Facebook friends you will see the tree as my profile picture.
Plan it for next year, and between Dec. 26 and 31, go around and hit the “reduced to nuthin'” sales at Wal-mart, Target, Menards, etc. I scooped up a good ten boxes of lights (100-count strands of the little bitty lights), for $1 or less/box. I picked up a bunch of replacement bulbs, as well.
I plan to do it again this year, ’cause last year it was all white lights. This year, I’ll stock up on colors.
I have decorated for Christmas. I started the Sunday before Thanksgiving because the Vikings sucked it up so bad, we needed a little happiness in the home. The tree was cut and decorated the day after TD. Last night Bailey put candy canes on it. We haven’t done the Christmas cookies yet, but we did bake chocolate chip ones Saturday. As for shopping, all the parents are done, and my niece is done. Now I’m just waiting on everything to get here. We haven’t gotten Bailey anything yet, but that’s mostly on Jason. He shops in the cities for him where all the sports and game stores are. I do the stocking stuffers.
My plans for Saturday were to watch cartoons and Christmas movies all day, but Baileys best friend Bailey came over for a sleepover. So instead I rented Back-Up Plan from PPV, cute movie! Some of it was a little cheesy, but it was cute.
And of course Sunday was a GLORIOUS day for all Vikings fans!!!!! 🙂
Yay for your Vikings! It was a nail-biter for us Bears Fans, but our guys squeaked it out. Now I’m nervous. Some of my friends are looking forward to a Bears SuperBowl again. Frankly, I’m not. I don’t like our coaching staff, and I don’t think they deserve another SuperBowl. I want them to earn their way into that game, not stumble into it. But maybe I’m old fashioned, and have been spoiled by the ’85 Monsters of the Midway.