Sharing some peppermint hot chocolate with Edgar

If you've read my blog for awhile, you might remember my pesky little elf friend, Edgar. Daddy bought him for me the year I got married and he has come to visit every year since then. He is a little mischievous at times, but he is a load of fun. I decided to make some peppermint hot chocolate yesterday and while I gathered supplies, Edgar decided to join me.

I love this stuff. I use my favorite Nestle's Hot Chocolate mix. I pour the mix in my cup.

While the water is boiling I make what I refer to as peppermint dust. I just use a nutmeg grater or any fine grater. I am going to get me a mini chopper and go ahead an just make a jar of this but for now I was just doing enough for one cup.

I used a different brand on my candy cane so it didn't grind as fine. I used full size ones but the best to use are the box of all the mini candy canes that you can get at Walmart. Taste is the same, but the small ones are easier to grind up.

Edgar still sat patiently watching me as I poured the hot water in.

Of course I added marshmallows. What is hot chocolate without marshmallows. Sometimes I use the jar of Fluff, but yesterday I went with mini marshmallows.

I had stirred some of the peppermint dust into the hot chocolate mix after I poured the water. Then I sprinkled some on top of the marshmallows and garnished it with candy cane. 

I cleaned up my mess before sitting down to it and when I returned, Edgar apparently thought I made it for him. But I pointed out to him very quickly that it was MY hot chocolate. 

Next thing I knew, he had grabbed his cup and filled it with marshmallows and headed over to visit with his good friend Ginger. That elf sure makes himself at home when he comes down from the North Pole.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Worked hard on my decorating yesterday. Here's some things I wanted to share with you. 

The snow globe is 16 years old. It was bought when the oldest grandchild was two. Every Christmas the kids would gather around as Papaw wound it up and they listened to the music as the train went around. Now that he is gone, somebody always winds it up each year and they all gather to watch it.

I love my Santa collection. I have a few more scattered around the house. The trees with snow on the bottom shelf are candles that my hubby made me in 1989 when he worked for a candle company. The tree on top is the one my grandson made that I showed you yesterday. 

My tree. I am heading to Walmart this morning to return the icicles. First time in 35 years that I have not decorated my home tree with icicles. I was going to. Had it all planned out. But there are so many sentimental ornaments on my tree that I didn't have the heart to cover them up this year. I love my little $40 pre-lit tree. 

Papaw's chair was taken over by my mischievous little elf, Edgar and his friends. I'm sure we will see more of Edgar in the days to follow.

This is a blurry picture and the color wasn't good, but these are a few of my nativity sets.

I think of Ms. Debbie at Jeremiah-2911 when I set this out. I know she loves cardinals. Deb, look at the little box I got. It has a cardinal down in the snow. 

I posted this yesterday, but I just adore it. The good list and a stack of presents behind him. 

This is my Christmas mouse display. Mom made these things a few years back. I think she did an amazing job on both of them. 

More nativity. The little children on the top shelf and the angels with them are all Home Interior I got when my kids were little. These are over 30 - 35 years old.

I love my old vintage lights.

Just some cute stuff. The snowman and Santa on the right are nesting dolls. I sat them in an easy place for the kids to get to. They like to play with my nesting dolls.

My wine rack decor. I am the only person in the world who has a wine rack that she doesn't use for wine.

My hot chocolate and junk food station.

I need to find me some more cookie cutters.

My quilt rack with more of the dish towels Mom made as well as some I found at the store. I bought the sled at a yard sale this year so I had to get the sled dish towels.

We put the leaf in the kitchen table and with cookie baking time coming up soon, I just left it in. My daughter had a tablecloth she doesn't use any more so she brought it over to me.

Not sure if I like this display. May move some things around . I still need something for the dining room table as well.

My coffee table. 

Well, there you go. I got a lot accomplished yesterday.

Weekend Wrap Up

My weekend was awesome and it isn't over yet. I shared with you that Friday I did a little Black Friday shopping. Well, Saturday was my big shopping day. My daughter and I went to Turkey Creek in Knoxville. We hit all our favorite stores that we do every year and had our annual lunch at Steak & Shake complete with onion rings. I even bought myself a little something to put under my tree for Christmas morning. Going to have my daughter wrap it and keep it till closer to Christmas so I don't break down and give it to myself early.

In my normal Christmas tradition, I bought the icicles for the tree. I would think that I am the only person in the world that still uses these, but the fact that Walmart still carries them every year surely means there are other people who still use them.

I bought my first couple of rolls of wrapping paper so I can start my wrapping soon. I love this paper. It was 50 square feet at the Dollar Tree. I got the tags there as well. Can't wait to start wrapping.

Start decorating for Christmas yesterday. First thing out is always my poinsettia basket that Mamaw Eden bought me when she took me shopping when I was 5. It came from McCroys.

Next thing out was my Christmas tree made for me by my grandson Garret when he was about 4 or so. The reindeer my mom made me about 30 years ago and the Santa was the one I bought at the beach this past September. 

My other favorite thing to get out first is my Santa with his "good" list. It says The Grands and then lists all my grandchildren. I like it beside the little boxes I also bought at the beach this year.

Saw an idea on Pinterest where you use an afghan or fleece blanket for a tree skirt. Guess who just happened to have an afghan in her Christmas boxes. Yes, I believe I have a new tree skirt. Tree isn't fluffed or decorated yet. Isn't even sitting exactly where it is going, but when I found the "skirt" I had to immediately put it around the tree to see if I like it. I do!

One of my favorite Christmas pictures was this one of my twins when they were just a year old. I refer to it as their first Christmas but it was really the first Christmas they could pay attention to anything. They were December babies so were just a couple of weeks old their actual first Christmas.

I was off work Saturday and Sunday and I'm off again today. So I got a little bit of a head start yesterday on my decorating. Today, I will finish it and get the tree done as well. May even do some wrapping later tonight. I plan on watching Christmas movies tonight and having my hot chocolate that I meant to do last night, but ended up going to choir practice so I didn't get everything done that I wanted. Going to make some brownies sometime today as well. Got a busy day planned. I sure love this time of year.

It's Christmas time!

No need for words. This song says it all.

Time to decorate...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I did. A lady volunteered to work for me this morning so I could do some black Friday shopping, but I am home now. I got some good bargains but didn't do a lot of shopping today because the things I needed or wanted weren't on sale. Plus tomorrow my daughter and I do our annual trip to Turkey Creek in Knoxville. Even though I didn't shop long, I did get a chance to look at a somethings with my daughter-in-law when we met up in Kohls. 

It's time to start decorating this weekend. I took my tree out of the box and hooked it up, waiting till the weekend to decorate it. And I did wrap the garland around my porch rail. But that's all I got done so far. 

I'll keep you posted.

Happy Thanksgiving

May you and yours enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving for the blessing God has provided.

I've created an epidemic....

You remember my three-tiered stand I did the Christmas display in? Turns out my cousin Patty loved it so much, she made one herself. Loving how hers turned out.

And one of my other cousins, Amy, saw them both and decided to do one. Another beautiful one was made.

One thing I didn't consider was the storage of the tier stand. Then it hit me! Take the stuff out and put it in a storage container BUT leave the stand out and redecorate for each holiday. Here are some ideas I found on Pinterest. 

January - snow theme. 

Valentine's Day love theme.

St. Patrick's Day and you could just remove shamrocks and add Easter items at the proper time. 

Or you could just do the whole month of March as the Easter one.

Once Easter was over, you could do a spring one with lots of pretty flowers. 

The favorite I found is one I want to do for May, June and July for all the Patriotic dates. I am so in love with this one. I want to try to copy as much of it as I can.

August back-to-school one would be fun. 

And I love sunflowers for fall.

Halloween would be a blast to do.

Here was a cute idea for Thanksgiving.

There you have it...year round ideas. I would wrap everything and tag it and then store it in a couple of storage containers. How cute and how fun to change out every month.

What I've been up to....

I didn't do my normal Weekend Wrap Up yesterday so I wanted to update you on what I have been up to. Well, let's see...

On Saturday, I had to work a 14 hour day. On Sunday, I had to work a 10 hour day. On Monday, I had to work a 13 hour day.

Oh, and I did manage to eat and sleep a little bit each day. And when we work long days they always feed us.

How's that for a weekend wrap up. But the good news is that I haven't had my two days off yet this week and I plan on enjoying them. And the best news is I get to spend time with my family this week. Going to miss my oldest grandson who can't make it to our gathering, but I will get to see him on Christmas break.

The other good news is once this week of Thanksgiving is over, my schedule will return to normal. Which is good since I have  Christmas parade, birthday celebrations, decorating my house for Christmas, and the church choir Christmas program, all coming up in the next few weeks. 

So you would think I would rest on my days off. Nope. Christmas shopping to do, gift wrapping to do, decorating to do, baking for the holidays to do. 

Busy, busy, busy. And loving every minute of it. We have some black out days the first week of January and I don't plan to leave my house. I'll catch up on my rest in January and early February. But for now, I'm loving my hectic schedule.