Baking has begun

Yesterday was a great day to start my Christmas baking. It was windy and cloudy and rained most of the day. I woke up and baked some Pillsbury cinnamon rolls to get the oven going and me motivated. 

I have never been good at making sugar cookies. I had to make a couple dozen for my grandson's school Christmas party today. He loves to volunteer me for baked goods. He wanted the green and red sprinkles so I just decorated them with the sprinkles. Nothing fancy but the kids will love them. 

Hubby has been wanting one of the applesauce cakes like his Mom always made. We have never made one and he doesn't eat a lot of it and I don't eat applesauce cake so we just never made it. This year, i am giving some goodies as gifts so we decided to make the cake in mini bundts and mini loaves. That way he can keep some and we can give some away. He said it tasted just like his Mom's so I was happy. 

And then of course, I had to bake the annual batch of Mom K's Orange Cream cookies. The recipe makes around 6 doz. This year we ended up with 78 cookies. Some as gifts, but most to keep. This is the one sweet that he does eat a lot of. Every year that I make them since she passed away, I have to ask him to check the consistency and flavor since there is no set amount on the juice from the orange. Every year, he will tell me how much to add to get it right. This year, when he taste tested the batter I had it perfect. When he tasted the icing, he said I nailed it. Then he gave me the ultimate compliment...."Mom would be proud." I love my mother-in-law and miss her very much. Baking "her" cookies every year is one way I honor her memory. She has been gone around 20 years and I still find myself wanting to call and tell her something. 

That is it for now. I'm going to make something else this weekend but not sure what yet. I have a couple more gifts to pick up on Saturday. I haven't even started my wrapping yet. I may try to do some this afternoon. 

I need to go see Santa.

Okay. That's it. I'm in love. First off, I switched from Internet Explorer 9 to Google Chrome for all my web needs about 8 or 9 months ago and I will never leave Chrome. I am a huge Google fan and think that it is the best thing for working on the web. Well, I caught the end of a commercial the other day so I had to go check it out. I "googled" it of course. 

It is called the Google Chrome Book and I want one...really, really, really bad. The only ones I found are Acer and Samsung right now. But oh, I'm in love. 

It has an Intel® Core™ Processor with 2 GB DDR3 RAM 320 GB Hard Drive - 5400 RPM. Weighs 3 lbs. and is just 11". It has built in ethernet and wi-fi. Three USB ports as well as an SD card reader slot. It has Google Chrome Operating System and is geared toward using applications that reside on the web instead of on the machine itself. It boots up in 20 seconds. Wow! And the best part is the cost is only $199.00! It even comes with its own carrying case. 

Then when I was at Target recently with a friend, I saw this little camera. It is smaller than a smart phone and only weighs 3 oz. I love it. It is on sell $80 off right now, making it $99. It is a 10mp with all kinds of neat settings. I am going to have to keep this in mind. It actually fits right in the palm of your hand. I lost my Canon and have been using my cell phone as a camera for months.

I also saw the perfect sewing machine for me. It is about 1/2 the size of a full size machine and said it was perfect for hemming, mending and crafting. Which is exactly what I want one for. And at $59.00 for a Singer, I think it is a good buy.

My vacuum cleaner is not working well. We have cleaned all the filters, checked all the settings and it still picks up, but not like it used to. We've had it about 16 years so I guess we are due a new one. I am thinking about a canister one, but not sure. Does anybody have any thoughts? I don't want to spend an arm and a leg on a vacuum cleaner.

But Hubby doesn't think appliances make good Christmas presents so I found him some ideas. I love this sweater. It would be perfect for those times when it is too cold to go without a coat but a coat is too bulky. I really like this neutral color as well. 

Don't laugh, but I love the gift sets everybody puts out at Christmas. And my favorite soap of all time is Dove. I need to tell Hubby about this. Things like this just thrill me at Christmas. I'm a simple person and very easy to please.

Do you remember how much I love nesting dolls? Target has a nesting salt and pepper shaker and a nesting measuring cup set. How cute are these?

Yes, I think I need to visit Santa...and maybe even Cupid and the Easter Bunny as backups. 

My motivator (or instigator)

Edgar has appointed himself as my personal motivator. Last night Mr. Bear and Edgar were reading Twas the Night Before Christmas.

When they got done, Edgar went investigating. He stood in disgust as he noticed there is not one single present wrapped and under the tree yet....which is so NOT the normal for me. 

Then he went snooping and found our stockings and wondered if I had done any shopping for Hubby's stocking. He thought he would get cute and try to put them on. Just a tad on the big side for him. 

So he went to see if I have any wrapping paper. As usual, he got side tracked. He was trying to use them for stilts. 

Next I thing I know, he is worried because we haven't started baking yet. He started snooping through the recipe cards to find the orange cookie recipe. (We'll share it later this week). 

Once he got it, he checked this fridge and realized I had bought the oranges yesterday. So he felt better because he knew I had a plan. 

He actually was very helpful when he accumulated all the ingredients into one place so I could grab everything with ease when I was ready to get started. 

Not leaving anything to chance, he decided to make me a list. You will notice that three of the five items revolve around cookies. I think he is getting excited. He has a thing for cookies. 

He was so busy he finally had to break into my Junior Mints and Orange Crush for a little Christmas snack. Thanks Edgar for all the help. You deserve your snack. 

Pyrex online

It is so easy to find those favorite Pyrex pieces on E-bay. And many times the price is unbelievably low....until you add the shipping. Here are some items I found that were at a great price, but the shipping made them more than I wanted to pay. I would rather keep my eyes open at our local antique store. Even though antique stores are higher than thrift shops, they are still more reasonable than e-Bay with shipping.

I am looking for one of these casseroles in any color, even though pink is my preference. But not at $36.50

This isn't a bad buy for four of them for $15.00. But they don't have lids. Since I want them to store stuff in, lids are a must.

Another set with no lids. This makes me sad because this is the pattern on my mixing bowls and at $13.00 total that just made them about $4 each. I wish people would keep their lids.  

I love these solids. But at $37.20 each, I would not pay it. 

This is a pattern I want really bad and $13.65 is a pretty reasonable price since it does include the shipping. However, I am wanting it in a mixing bowl, not a Cinderella bowl so I'll keep hunting.

This is a pretty baking dish. I have a casserole dish in this pattern. I just don't think I want it bad enough to pay $20.24.

A flamingo pink baking dish at $20.17. I would pass simply because I just don't like to pay that much for one piece.

You will recall I bought my Hamilton Beach Large white mixing bowl for $12.00 locally. The small one is $19.00 on eBay. As much as I want to complete my set, I am going to keep looking locally. 

This is one of my dream pieces that I would love to own. I just would not be able to look at it knowing it cost $39.99. I would cringe every time I would see it. 

This is a cute pattern and one I would like to find some pieces in. I am not sure about $16.00 for the price. It's not that bad, but again there is no lid. 

I bid on this one because this is actually a really good price since it includes shipping. Plus it is exactly one of the patterns I collect and it is the style I have been looking for $19.49.

Weekend Wrap Up

We had our community Christmas parade Saturday. It was a nice turnout and it went off without a hitch. We started right on time. 

A special thank you to my neighbors, The Claus's, for their participation. The kids loved them.

Shelby wrote with her cousin Brystan and their Papaw Kenny in his old Chevelle.

  

Caleb wrote with his Daddy in his Papaw's Kenny's old truck.

Santa and the Mrs. road on the church train. 

Sunday morning I went to church with my son and his family to see Alexis's Christmas program. Her and Colby came home with me. 

We spent the afternoon together then went back to their church last night for Garret's play. I wasn't able to get photos of either play but let me tell you they were both wonderful. There are some talented kids in that church and the adults really worked hard to make both programs a success. 

That Crazy Edgar....

I went to church this morning to watch Alexis in A Super Christmas at Richardson Cove Baptist Church. Alexis and Colby came home with me and we are going to go back tonight to watch Garret in his program, A Main Street Christmas. We stopped at McDonald's to have lunch.

Colby fell asleep and took a good nap. 

Alexis thought it would be fun to play with Edgar to see what he got into and then she decided to write the rest of this blog. So Alexis, take it away.

Hi this is Alexis. Writing on Mamaw's blog. 

Edgar, what are you watching? Oh, I see, an elf cartoon. You would be able to see it better if you sat right....and in a chair!

I gasped when I saw Edgar and Frosty playing. 

Edgar loves the Mrs. Bear. 

Edgar is with Santa and Rudolph. My brother Garret made the tree for Mamaw one year. 

That is the end of the blog for today. This is Alexis signing off. 

Christmas Music

Here are several videos for your Christmas pleasure. These are some of my favorite ones.