Wearin' Of The Green....or Not

Well it's almost here...St. Patrick's Day....one of my least favorite holidays. Oh, I enjoy the color green and the Shamrocks and even the creepy little leprechauns. What I don't like is how the holiday here in the U.S. is little more than another excuse for people to get drunk. I know there are people that probably celebrate responsibly, but all I hear is how great it is because you have an excuse to get drunk. Oh yippee!

I have read that St. Patrick's Day in Ireland is a day of spiritual renewal. Prayers are offered for missionaries world wide, businesses close and many people attend mass. If any of you are Irish...is that all still true today? That does NOT sound like St. Patrick's Day around here. Why in the Windy City we even dye our river green!

At work we are having a potato bar. That will be nice. We put up some decorations in our office and those are cute. At home, I don't decorate and we won't have a special Irish meal. I feel like such a party pooper. Am I the only one out there there doesn't jump up and down and say,"Oh yeah, it's St. Patrick's Day? How about you? Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you! I hope you have a wonderful day today. Remember to smile, hug the ones you love...and maybe even the ones you don't love....you never know... you just might make their day. I hope your day is filled with family, good food with lots of laughing and lots of love. Make it the best day ever and I will chat with you tomorrow.

It's Christmas Eve!!

I almost forgot to post the awesome stuff I got in a little gift exchange I did. It was organized by Angela of Pickles on Pizza fame. I was so excited when I opened my package from Creative Coquette at Foxy Monster! Some little birdie told her that I LOVE socks, and she sent me these! They are just so soft and so warm....I could live in them.

Then as if the socks weren't enough, she sent me this darling gingerbread girl necklace from her shop. It is so cute. I wore it to work the next day and got tons of compliments on it. Isn't it just the best?

So, here it is Christmas Eve. I am cleaning house this morning and then just chilling out. We normally stop by Irv's nephew's house on Christmas Eve, but we need to see if and when Rebecca's flight gets in. The weather is suppose to be horrific over much of the country today so we are playing it by ear.

Later this evening, we will be popping in some frozen pizzas that Irv will work his magic on and just enjoy each others company. Tomorrow it will be a full house....full of family, food, fun and DOGS!

Enjoy your day and if you are celebrating Christmas today....I hope it is the best ever!

Christmas Love

Have I told you how much I LOVE this time of year?

I love Christmas music....well most of it. I prefer the classics and don't like most of the remakes and I loathe....yes loathe...the red shoe song.

I love how happy the teachers at school are as they count down the days to their much deserved break.

I love the lights.....not the decorations like the big blow up snow domes and cartoon characters...but I love the lights...especially the little white lights. I love the trees just filled with little white lights...it warms my heart.

I love planning our family get together on Christmas Day. The snacks, the dinner and the desserts. Mmmmmmm!

I love the aroma of cookies baking in the oven. I hate to bake, but this is the one time that the rewards outweigh the hassle....and my family loves cookies. I love making each person's favorite.

I love having our whole family together at Christmas. This is the one time all year that we are able to do that and it means so much to me.

I love hearing Matt get more excited to come home each time I talk to him. His excitement feeds my own until it's almost unbearable.

I love watching Sparky stick her nose in every shopping bag I bring in the house as she searches for her gifts. I honestly think she knows that Christmas means a new toy and a special treat. I love watching her open her own gifts on Christmas Day.

I love the Christmas tree in the evening with the lights shining brightly, and our little fake fireplace with it's warm glow.

I love giving gifts. I love trying to find things that people will truly enjoy and then seeing the happiness on their faces when they open the box.

I love annoying my kids as I carefully smooth crumpled wrapping paper and snatch up pretty ribbons and bows...because I know I will find a good use for them....maybe even to wrap their gifts next Christmas.

I love snow at Christmas. Fresh, fluffy, white and glittery snow as it falls from the sky and rests ever so peacefully on the rooftops and lawns and trees.

Have I told you how much I LOVE this time of year?

I Did It

Yep, I did! I took today off.....I really can't believe I did that....like four days wasn't enough? I really do have so many things I would like to get done. We are still putting the house back together and hanging things after painting, I have drapes to press and hem, a couch cover to find and food to prepare on Thursday for our company on Friday. It's just 6 of us, possibly 8, but it's still nice to have the house looking good and have tons of food to pig out on. :)

The extra day off will just make it so nice and relaxed.....so chee hoo for an extra day off.

So, what is on your Thanksgiving Day dinner menu? I love hearing about the different things that people cook. We are pretty basic here in my house. Here is what we will be eating...

Lots of pre-dinner snacks
Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Good old Green Bean Casserole
Cauliflower with buttered bread crumb topping
Rolls
Deviled Eggs
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
Caramel Pecan topped Apple Pie

I am SOOOOO ready for the pumpkin pie. I'm sure I will have one of them half eaten before anyone even arrives!

Whatcha' eatin' at your place?

I Need Another Day Off

What a wonderful day it was. The weather looked "iffy" for a while, but it ended up being pretty nice. The kids came over in the early afternoon...we ate, and chatted, and laughed, and ate, and chatted and laughed and ate some more. The perfect holiday I would say.

Tresa and Chris are doing well. We listened to stories about Casey, the kitten from hell! I just laugh. I never thought Tresa would have any pets, and now she gets one that likes to terrorize her. Too funny!

Michael and Bernadette found a house that they might put an offer in on. It needs some MAJOR updating, but has great potential. It's in a wonderful area and if they can get it for what they would offer, it could be a nice first home for them. It will need lots of wallpaper removal, and the kitchen and landscaping need help, but it's a cute house.

Poor Irv bent over to pick something up this morning and tweaked his low back. He's been hurting all day.

Man, I ate way too much. I didn't even finish what was on my plate, but about 45 minutes later the desserts came out and I didn't hold back. I had to have it all. Now I feel like crap. Right after we ate, everyone was comatose and ready for a nap! Including Wrigley!

Wish we had just one more day off.......

Matt is Home

Well Matt is here! He left Telluride early Saturday morning and drove 19 hours before getting a motel for the night in Iowa. I don't know how anyone can drive 19 hours on 3 hours of sleep, but I guess I'm not 25 years old either. Then he left there at 5:15 this morning and headed home. The weather is awful here. It is so cold and we got a little snow. The winds are blustery and we had a blizzard warning all day. Matt hit areas where there were two foot snow drifts across the roads and one lane was completely closed. It was a mess....but he finally made it! It is so good to have him home.

Do you have family coming in for the holidays, or do you travel yourself? We have always been home for the holidays. I'm not sure how I would feel about not being here.

Matt dumped a number of bags and backpacks on the living room floor, (of course) along with a large bag of dog food for his border collie Luna who came along with him. His snowboard is on the bed.

We had a nice chat, he showed me a video of avalanches....just what the mom of a snowboarder wants to see. Actually, the video was amazing, beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.

Michael came over around noon and it's been all football, laughing, wii, arguing, laughing, fierce competition, and more laughing. Right now Matt is in the kitchen cooking us some kind of pasta dish for dinner. I could get use to this!

I sat in my workshop this afternoon working on the invitations for Tresa's wedding shower next month. I could hear the boys in the living room talking and laughing. It was such a wonderful sound. We have been empty nesters for about six years already. It took me a while to adjust to the quiet, and each time they come home, it takes me a while to adjust to the noise....but what sweet noise it is!

With that said, I am going to go help with dinner. He informed me he isn't very good at timing pasta and could I be in charge of that. So, I am off to tend to the pasta. I think it could be a late night tonight unless he runs out of steam after that drive.

Tomorrow we are baking cookies.....Matt and mom. =)

Ho-Ho-Holiday Preparations

Oh my...it's almost here! I am so excited as always. How are your holiday plans coming? I really do love this time of year. Irv and I headed out early this morning to finish up the shopping. My plan was that I was not coming home until I was done, and I did it! I must say that Mr. Bah Humbug started to get a bit cranky when we left the mall and headed into town to hit a few other stores. He can only tolerate so much holiday spirit in one day.

Me, I could have circled the mall all day and been very happy. I love the atmosphere. I love the people and the decorations. Ho-Ho-Ho!!!

We went into the pet store and Mr. Humbug wasn't pleased that I spent over $30 on the four dogs. We have two and the boys each have one. Good dog toys aren't cheap. Ours are getting the fleece toys without the stuffing because no matter how strong it says they are....my little toy fox terrier, Sparky can destroy it in no time and she throws that stuffing everywhere! Mine got the cheap toys. It's the boy's border collie and aussie that cost a bit more. Hey, they are bigger and require bigger toys. Ho-Ho-Ho. I don't care. I love the dogs.

We finally got home and Mr. Humbug started straightening up the "guest" room, figuring someone will be sleeping in there. Mr. Humbug was crabby. He didn't want to be cleaning the guest room. I said I would do it, but Mr. Humbug likes to do nice things and then complain the entire time he does them.

Then we talked to Matt and he thought the basement might be a better place for him to sleep because it's bigger and he travels with a lot of stuff. So, Mr. Humbug went down and cleaned up a bit down there. Now, even though Mr. Humbug complained, he made it so nice down there with the little fake fireplace and some Christmas lights. I told you he does a lot of nice things, I think he just likes to hear himself complain.

I sat on my workshop floor (and let me tell you...sitting on the floor is not very comfortable anymore) and got all of the gifts into the boxes and started wrapping and after two whole gifts I ran out of tape. UGH! I had hoped to get everything wrapped tonight. So, Mr. Humbug went to town to get a new furnace filter and tape....and Subway for dinner.

After dinner I will dig in and start wrapping again. Matt just called and he will probably stop for the night in a couple hours. He's been driving for 15 hours already on only 3 hours of sleep. He hit some nasty weather in Colorado that slowed him down a bit and his windshield squirter things were plugged up and wouldn't squirt! He wants to be home by 11:00 tomorrow...he didn't say why, but I would suspect that it has something to do with football.

Oh, we also have to fix our little Charlie Brown tree...he is trying very hard to fall over. We will never, ever buy that type of tree again. The trunk is very soft as are all of the branches. The lights are having a hard time staying on the branches and now he is falling......timber!!!!

I was talking on the phone earlier to Mr. Humbug's and my daughter, Tresa who I shall from here on out call....Ms. Humbug. Ms. Humbug decided that next Christmas I am going to go shopping with Chris, her soon to be husband, and she is going shopping with Mr. Bah Humbug. She likes Christmas about as much as he does. She went shopping today and hated the snow, the people, the lines and everything else about it. Hmmmmmm....wonder where she gets that from.

Fa-La-La-La-La-La-La-La-La

Apple Pie....The Perfect Comfort Food

I had something else planned for today, but I wanted to be sure to get this to you before you finish planning your holiday meals. This is the absolute best apple pie I have ever had, and trust me, I love apple pie. The recipe belongs to Marsha Brooks, the 2001 Apple Pie contest Winner on Good Morning America. If your family loves a good apple pie, give this one a try!

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie

Ingredients:

1 pastry crust for a deep-dish pie 9-inch (homemade or store-bought)
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
6 cups thinly sliced peeled apples (golden delicious or fuji)
1 recipe crumb topping (see below)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup caramel topping

Ingredients for Crumb Topping:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup butter

Directions for Crumb Topping:

1) Stir together brown sugar, flour, rolled oats
2) Cut in 1/2 cup butter until topping is like course crumbs. Set aside.

Directions:

1) In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt.
2) Add apple slices and gently toss until coated.
3) Transfer apple mixture to the pie shell
4) Sprinkle crumb topping over apple mixture.
5) Place pie on a cookie sheet so the drippings don't drop into your oven.
6) Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil.
7) Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 25 minutes. Then remove foil and put back in for another 25 to 30 minutes with the foil.
8) Remove from oven. Sprinkle pie with chopped pecans then drizzle with caramel on top.
9) Cool on a wire rack and enjoy warm or at room temperature

My tips: Slice your apples really thin...they bake up nice and tender that way. A frozen crust works fine. You can take it out of the aluminum pan it comes in and transfer it to a glass pie plate if you like. The pie will drip, so put it on a cookie sheet. Serve the pie warm with vanilla ice cream...so good!

What's The Buzz?

I feel excited, psyched and hyper. I have that strange little feeling in my stomache, and that can only mean one thing...THE HOLIDAYS ARE COMING! I always tell myself that I need to chill out a bit, but I don't know, the closer the holidays get the more giddy I get!

I always thought it was going to be strange when our kids grew up, that the holidays just wouldn't be the same....what I have found is that it's just as exciting, just in a different way. We don't have grandchildren yet, so there are no little ones watching and waiting for Santa but the spirit of Santa lives on!

I am not one of those people that freak out over the holidays. In fact, there is very little that rattles me. Not sure why that is, but it's a really good thing especially at this time of year.

I see other people running around, stressing over everything...upset because this needs to be like this and that can't be like that, and why can't so and so be here on this day and how come they are coming on that day, and hurry, hurry, hurry, gotta get it all done!

Then there are the "Bah Humbug" people. They dread the holidays. Everything about the holidays is a tedious chore. I just really don't get that. Sure there are things that need to be done...but none of it is a chore. It's a wonderful time of year.

One of our sons is married and our daughter in engaged. Our youngest son will be driving in from Colorado for Christmas. Last weekend we sat down and tried to figure out where everyone needed to be and when they needed to be there for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. It can be difficult when you are dealing with muliple families that all have their own special traditions.

As it turns out, to make it easier on our kids...we will celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday at our house. We did that last year and it was great. We had all day Thursday to prepare and they were able to spend time with their other families and then we had all day Friday to be together.

Christmas is a bit hectic, but we got that all figured out too. It's all a matter of being flexible. It takes a lot of the stress out of the holidays when you can sit together and work it out so everyone can relax and enjoy themselves.

So anyway...I am buzzin'! I am going to pick a photo to use for my Christmas cards tonight and get those made over this next week or so, and I am actually ready to go chop down that tree, get the lights up in the windows, order some new holiday candles (from someone at etsy of course) and get the holidays going!

There is no "Bah Humbug" in my holiday world!

Do You Send Christmas Cards?

Do you send Christmas cards? If so, do you ever think about "why" you send them? That's a simple question....but the answer wasn't always quite so simple for me. Now, maybe I'm the only one that has ever had this issue, but I kind of doubt it.

There was a time when I sent about 80 store bought cards every year to friends, family and neighbors. A small handful of people would get an extra handwritten note on cute holiday stationery, but most everyone got just the card with the preprinted message on the inside and then I wrote something like, "All Our Love, The Krolls". Sometimes I would write a little extra, "Happy Holidays". Then I would carefully stuff them in the envelopes, write the address on them, put a return label on them, seal them up, add a holiday stamp and pop them in the mailbox.

Another chore completed! Did I say chore??? Sending cards for the holidays shouldn't feel anything like a chore! Why did it sometimes seem that way? Why was I sending that many cards?

Was it because it's just what I always did? Was it because they sent me a card? Was it because I would feel guilty removing them from my list?

I finally decided that something had to change So,over the years I have whittled my list down to about 40. It isn't that I don't care about those other 40 people...I do. It's just that I never talk to those other 40 people. I never see those other 40 people. I never wrote special notes to those other 40 people, and those other 40 people never wrote special notes to me. Those other 40 people had no idea what is going on in my life, and I had no idea what was going on in theirs.

Sure Christmas is a nice time to "catch up", but I would have to write them a book to fill them in, and that isn't what Christmas cards are all about. Those 40 people were the sign the card, stuff it in the envelope, address the envelope, stick on the label, slap on the stamp and pop them in the mailbox people.

That isn't what the holidays are to me at all. That isn't what sending Christmas cards means to me. I love sending Christmas cards, and I love receiving Christmas cards.

So, this year I will be sending out those 40 cards...wonderful handmade cards with a beautiful photo taken by my son on the front. The inside of the card will start out blank, and I will write a personal and meaningful message to each person inside. I will make each card special so that every person that receives one knows that I really was thinking about them when I wrote their card. They will know that they are very special to me and that I really am thinking about them this holiday season.

Do you send Christmas cards? If so, do you ever think about "why"?