#1 On my List

Dear Santa,

I've been very good this year, excepting a few big setbacks to my lifeline, and I would really love to get a Nintendo DS for Christmas. Please? I was ever-so-good to my brother, we didn't fight, not even that one time over that one boy! I always recycle, and this year I started using homemade laundry detergent and bought the expensive but not-petrolium-based dishwashing liquid! And I didn't even yell at my mom when she used the whole bottle to do my dishes one day! So, in conclusion, I feel I totally deserve this as my present for Christmas.

Good luck this next month!

Love,
Sarah

PS: I'll totally leave you some cookies. Do you want them shaped like yourself? Because I always thought that was a little borderline canibalistic, to be honest.

After the Fact

There are a few things I want to do for next Christmas that I didn't get a chance to do this year.

Firstly, I want to make a yarn garland. There's a specific garland I'm going to emmulate, and it's the one that Kmart sells under their Martha Stewart Sugarplum line for Christmas. I've wanted it for the past three years, only realizing this year that I could do it by myself for much cheaper and with a bigger sense of gratification. I want to do it next year. I've already got some of the poms made - this year they were strictly for decoration.

I want to make a garland or an ornament with the cards we recieved this year to hang next year. Maybe I'll make a garland for next year and an ornament after next Christmas? Something. They were all so pretty and it felt so nice to get them, I think it would be nice to have a momento of some sort. Maybe start a tradition.

I want to do a gingerbread house. That's pretty self-explanitory.

I want to go carolling with a group that does it up north. I know the guy who runs it, so I'll get on the list for next year.

I also want to keep making Christmas ornaments for people every year, because this year it was really fun and I already came across some ideas for next.

I want to make things with salt dough and some things with paper-mache. There are so many cute things out there (ornaments, etc) that can be done with these. The sky is literally the limit.

I want to make more crochet snowflake ornaments. I've got one that I made this year, but maybe I could make one per year or something? Something.

Don't worry, I've already got something lined up with my cousin Michelle for Valentine's Day, too. ;)

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone out there has fun celebrating whichever holiday they choose to honor. If any. Special thoughts sent out to those of you celebrating with awkward family members for the second time in two days and really not looking forward to it. Actually, I'll send you some prayers, as well. To Pete.

Merry Christmas, every one.

Cookies, Made

Oh, thank god, this new blogger, right? Finally it makes it easier for you to sign in and do your own thing! I love it.

Today I went to Grandma Mavis' house, and happened upon many many cookie cutters. This completely alleviated my past stresses about cookie cutters, and even though my boss scheduled me for different hours today than she's scheduled my hours for every other Thursday in the past two to three months, I was OK with the whole deal, because I had good cookie cutters. Some of these cutters are so antique they're impossible to fine now. I'll show you, as soon as I get some good pictures of the sets.

My cookie mystery has come to an end. Please come and visit us (Especially you, Cam, because Bruce loves you before all else - except for me - we LOVE visitors.)

I AM THE FREAKING COOKIE MONSTER!

What the hell? I realize that waiting until the week before Christmas is probably cutting things a little short, but WHY ARE THERE NO CHRISTMAS COOKIE CUTTERS ANYWHERE?

All I want, I was telling Bruce this, all I want is a reindeer. Just one reindeer cookie cutter, so that I can make oh-so-thin-and-crispy reindeer sugar cookies, just like Grandma always did. The closest thing to Christmas I've come in three stores is a freaking star. Which would be fine, but Hello? I've already got a star, thanks!

And even the most trusted store of all (Mom's House, as in, where my Mom lives) doesn't have them. She thinks that perhaps she THREW THEM AWAY.

GAAHHHHH!

Public Service Announcement:

If you still haven't recieved your card in the mail, there are two possible reasons. The first is that half of our cards haven't gone out because we don't have all the addresses we need. Please send us your address.

The second reason is that some of our cards have been delivered back to our mailbox, because our mailpeople are dumbasses. Here's what they look like when they return to us:

(The front of the card.)

(The back of the card.)

Our mailpeople are having a hard time telling the front of the card (with the stamp on it) from the back of the card.

Wave #1

The first wave of Christmas cards will go out tomorrow. With harvest stamps from 2005. I'm pretty sure that protocol says I should buy fancy Christmas stamps, but if I don't get this first wave of cards out of here, I'll never fall asleep at night.

If you're not in the first wave of cards, that means we don't have your address. You should send me your address.

Love,
I can't believe the things I lose sleep about

Addressee

So, I was on the phone tonight with Abbie, and I realized that I don't have the addresses I need to do my Christmas card send-off. This is the first year I'm doing it, and I have been a very bad friend and not gotten anyone's address. I don't know how I call myself a girl. I used to collect addresses all the time, so that it wouldn't look suspicious when (say, for example, right at Christmas time?) I needed them for something very obvious all of a sudden and came out and asked.

So I just committed a huge faux-pas and emailed all of the people I could think of and asked for everyone's address. Yeah, that's cheating. I'm well aware of it. But at least there will be Christmas cards this year.

Sweets

I'm working on a master list of Christmas candy to make this Sunday with my mom. What, I didn't tell you? Bruce is going on a business trip this Sunday. How grown-up are we? Very Grown Up.

Here's my list of candy and recipes I've found across the web so far. Any glaring holes in my plan? (Except for nuts. I'm not a huge fan of nuts.)

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CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER BALLS
Printed from COOKS.COM

1 1/2 pkg. crushed graham crackers
1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter
1 (3 1/2 oz.) can coconut
1 box powdered sugar
2 sticks melted butter
1 (12 oz.) pkg. chocolate chips
1 block paraffin wax

Mix first five ingredients together and roll into small balls. Melt chocolate chips and paraffin in double boiler. Dip the balls in mixture, one at a time, and place on waxed paper to harden.

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THE EASIEST PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE
Printed from COOKS.COM

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter

Put sugar and milk in pan and bring to a boil. Boil two and a half minutes. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir just until mixed well.
Pour into greased pan (the smaller the pan, the thicker the fudge will be). Cool and cut.

Submitted by: Jen

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PEPPERMINT CRUNCH BARK

1 lb. white chocolate
1 c. peppermint crunch (you can also use crunched peppermints)

Melt white chocolate for one minute in the microwave. Stir in peppermint crunch. Spread on cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Place in freezer until cool (approximately 3 minutes). Break into pieces.

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So, that's what I'm thinking about so far. I know I'm a little crazy for being as anti-nut as I am, but them's the breaks. If I think of any really good stuff using nuts, or if I hear a good suggestion, we'll probably make that too. I'd add a recipe for chocolate-covered pretzels, but that's just silly. I'm trying to think of a recipe now, and all I can come up with is 1)Melt some chocolate. 2)Cover pretzels. Anyway, we're making those, too.

Patience is a Virtue

Bruce informed me earlier tonight that although I'm "very soft-spoken", I'm also "one of the most impatient people he's ever met." It wasn't said in a mean way, before you jump the gun, but in a sort of informative way. He likes to be informative after a few beers. I'm not offended. I know how his mind works. In fact, it made me think. I am, in fact, a very impatient person. At least I am when it comes to him. We have this amazing connection. We've had so many conversations discussing how there are no other people in the world we could possibly live with, and so on (unfortunately, for a couple less than two years wed we've had more than one person live with us, so we know), and I know for a fact that we were just destined to be together. So what gives? Why am I so impatient with him?

I can tell you one thing I'm not impatient for - NaBloPoMo's ending. I'm actually sad that today is the last day it's running, because it means I don't have a possible reward staring me in the face for posting every single day. I'm going to try to keep it up anyway (let's hope it sticks, eh?) because it really has helped my sleeping and to just clear my head in general. The whole reason I started blogging was to keep a record of what I was thinking and doing for myself, and there's no reason I shouldn't.

Guess what happened while Bruce and I were out to dinner tonight? You'll never guess. Go on, try.

You're wrong. In fact, the carpet and tree fairy visited our house. On our side porch, a roll of carpeting leaned against the house. At first I didn't know what to make of it, thinking one of our neighbors was possibly a flooring installation man and also very confused. Then I noticed the extra pine tree standing by our row of pines, and realized what had happened. I told my dad two days ago that I was in the market for some carpeting, and he told me he had some left over from a renovation at one of the schools he works in (he works for a school district as head of maintenance), and asked if I wanted it. I said yes, and it turns out that I'm very happy I did. It's this muted turquoisy-purple color, without too much fluff, and it will make the perfect cat-tree. If anyone knows of any good cat-tree-making tutorials or instructions online, please point me in the right direction. I'm all about making it right now.

So we've also got a Christmas tree! Hurray! I was so excited that I insisted it be put in water and set up RIGHT AWAY (see patience: above) even though the trunk looked like this at the bottom:

Well, it was fine for a little while, until I realized that the tree was either bending way toward the viewer or way toward the corner, and then I realized the problem wasn't with the way I was twisting the tree but with the trunk. Then I told Bruce this, and after thirty seconds of waiting I took matters into my own hands. I took the

[As I type, Bruce is opening Huck's mouth and pouring in a tiny bit of beer. If it weren't so funny I would chastise him for being too frat-boy for my tastes. It would help my argument if Huck wasn't begging for more beer afterwards.]

tree and I sawed off the bottom part of the stem (the curvy part) and then tried to stick it back into the tree holder, but it wouldn't reach the bottom so I sawed off some of the lowest branches as well. When Bruce came to help me it was all done and less than two minutes after his volunteering to help. I am perhaps a little bit impatient.

Anyway, O Christmas Tree and all that. Here's a picture:

Those pieces at the bottom are the parts I cut off. I might have been too impatient to take the stuff I'd already put on the tree off before I started sawing. I didn't get electricuted, but I wouldn't do it as habit. You know. Be more cautious than I am. You should know that by now.

Do You Believe?

I believe in Santa Claus. I believe in presents many families can barely afford appearing out of nowhere under the tree on Christmas Eve night. I think the love that has to be present for that to happen is really real. Parents don't want to spoil their children, and Santa Claus is magical because he lets parents not spoil thier children.

As Requested:

Here are the ornaments. They're still on stage two, I woke up feeling rather more under the weather today. Yesterday was nothing compared to today. And yet I'm going back to work. Don't ask me to make sense of that.

This is a dot garland that I made yesterday. I got the idea from Martha Stewart. I used the "bold" colored markers, and just colored in almost four sheets of each color. This is how much garland one sheet of each color makes after sticking the stickers back to back on some quilting string. (Martha recommends using button thread, but I couldn't find it. Quilting thread is really strong, so I used that instead.) I think it's cute, and it'll look especially good on a tree, when the thread all but disappears and the colors pop because of the lights.

The tree we're getting is one that grew on our land. It's just a regular tree that my dad has been trimming for a few years in hopes of making it a Christmas tree. He wasn't planning on using it this year, but when the loggers came in to do some work, the tree was uprooted. I want to use it - it's got sentimental value already. I haven't seen it yet, but my mom has refered to it as a sort of Charlie Brown tree. I'm really going to go overboard on the decorations if that's the case.

Craftily Ill

While I'm home sick, I figure the least I can do is try to be a little productive. So I've spent the morning making Christmas ornaments for people on my list (most cost-effective presents ever*) and cleaning the house a little bit. There's been a laundry build-up for about a week and we also have some clothes that have been packed away since we moved up from Missouri that are "questionable" in their cleanliness. The easiest way to fix that is to just wash them again, so that's what I'm doing.

*It cost me about four dollars for the ornaments themselves, and three for the glue, and four more for the glitter. That's less than twelve dollars (tax included) for the whole kit 'n caboodle. Nice, right?

The ornaments are proving to be very fun indeed. I'm using glue pens and very fine glitter to decorate them with Christmassy sayings and Christmassy things (wreaths, snowflakes, snowmen, etc.) It's turning out quite well. I'm hoping that by tonight or tomorrow they'll be dry enough to start on the other sides of them, where I'm going to write "B & S '06" or something simple like that. Maybe throw in a "Love" or two. You know, cause it's family, and family likes that mushy stuff.

One thing I'm learning as I go is to not use too much glue. When I'm done gluing and glittering one globe, I set it back in the egg-crate type contraption to dry. Several of them had too much glue and dripped down the sides before I noticed. Luckily, I was able to catch them and fix it reasonably well before the damage was permanent. I'm not saying they're perfect - far from it! - but they are cute and one-of-a-kind, and that's what I really wanted.

Giving Thanks

I had a good day yesterday. Bruce opted to visit and have dinner with my dad, who was eating with my grandma at the nursing home. It was a great idea, because he was a little overwhelmed at the idea of having all of my family surrounding him for a big holiday, but he wanted to see them, too. He ended up driving up right after dinner and meeting everyone for a short time. Then my dad took us out and we wandered in the woods for a few hours.

I have pictures, but they're in the camera, which is... somewhere else. I don't quite know where. I'm sure I'll find it by tomorrow.

Crafty Christmas

For some reason, this year I can't wait to get into doing things for the holiday season. I'm looking forward to making cookies for people, making crafts for decorating the house, and most of all to just getting a christmas tree. I've never been this excited for the season before. I think I caught the holiday spirit that Jess lost a few weeks ago.

I was talking on Yahoo with my friend Misty, and we made this doodle: