Blah....

I woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain. I was able to sleep in for awhile. But it was little comfort knowing I have a 10 hour day ahead of me. By the end of my 5 days this week, I will have 52 hours. I'm tired just thinking about it. But the rain sounds good. I just hope it clears out before we get groups this afternoon. No fun helping unload buses of people in the pouring down rain. Not to mention getting them in some place dry and organized to get the group picture. But it will be challenging today to say the least. 

On a happier note, I'm not sure if I posted this. But I received my amenity from Thirty-One for the Spring Premier. I love it. They have had Icons for awhile now, but they were always just an outline. For the first time, you can get them completely filled in. I love the little bird. I have a couple of birds in my spare room that are going to go good with this. After New Year's, I will be redoing the whole room so I'm not sure what I will use this for yet.

That's the latest from Mamaw's Place. It feels weird not having a ton of things to do. I came home last night, put on my new comfy jammies, read my new book awhile and then went to bed and watched an episode of Big Bang Theory and fell asleep. Pretty sure tonight will go the same way. I need to find me a new umbrella for days like today. I'm kind of liking this one. 

Have a dry happy Tuesday.

Weekend wrap up

What an amazing three days I have had. It's been a wonderful Christmas. Friday I made a cinnamon roll french toast casserole for our all day Christmas party in the Guest Services office at Dixie Stampede. I ate all day. Lots and lots of good stuff, but I couldn't stay out of the desserts. LOL. My favorite was pretzels with melted Hershey kisses and an M & M on top. I don't want to get on the scales for a few weeks after all that food. We did a secret Santa gifts exchange.

The lady I got absolutely loves sweets. So I got her a Thirty-One candy basket like mine and filled it with candy. She was thrilled.

Saturday the kids and grandkids came over for Christmas Eve. My daughter was setting with my granddaughter, Alexis. Alexis is the daughter of my son. My son realized that his daughter looks just like her Aunt Diana. We never realized how much they looked alike.

Colby was patiently waiting on everyone to get done with the clean up so they could open presents. On a recent visit over here, he discovered Snyders Puff-n-Corn. He is slightly addicted to it because he prefers just to have the whole bag. 

I love getting up on Christmas morning and turning my lights and fireplace on before opening presents. I keep up my home traditions even if I am the only one there. I still enjoy doing what me and Allen loved so much. 

Between the gifts from the kids Saturday night and my "Santa" gifts, I had a great Christmas. I love my new Samsung tablet and my pink and black polka dotted planner. Not to mention my jammies and sweater. I had a Big Bang Theory marathon last night with my new DVD's.

But there was one present under the tree that nobody claims putting their. It must have really come from Santa. It was a Nora Roberts trilogy series I have wanted for a couple of year but it was always in the oversize paperbacks that I do not like at all. Too bulky to read. But somebody found the series in regular paperback and snuck it under the tree with no tag. Whichever one it was, I am so happy that they found them.

I went to visit both children yesterday and see what all the grandkids got. I was just going to eat light all day since it was just me, but around 4:30, my mind changed itself and I ended up baking the ham, made some baked beans, potato salad, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was so good and now I have leftovers.  

 Now it's back to reality and a busy work week. We have 4 shows today at work and 5 shows a day the rest of the week. We are going to be slammed. I get to work group greeting and doors 3 of the 5 days this week. That is always so much fun. Have a great Monday.

Merry Christmas from my house to yours...

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve. It's early morning and I am sitting here looking at the beautiful tree lights in the dark before the sun comes up. 

Today is for the cooking and then family time. I can't wait till they get here. We have our traditions. We eat. We unwrap gifts. The kids play with new toys. But we also watch Norad Santa Tracker. You are missing out on a ton of fun if you haven't visited this site before. 

So you better watch out, you better not cry. Santa Claus is coming tonight. May your Christmas wishes be fulfilled and your life be blessed with great joy.

It's almost here....

Last day of work today before Christmas. When I get off this evening, I plan on starting my baking for the holiday. But this morning, I need to make something for the work Christmas party. I am taking the cinnamon roll french toast casserole. I go in at 9:00 and we start eating from morning till close. It's an all day buffet. Thought this would be good for the brunch portion of the day.

We are having our Secret Santa exchange at work and I can't wait to give my gift to the lady I drew. She is going to love it. But I can't post it here because it's a secret.

I got the rest of my gifts wrapped earlier this week and they are under the tree waiting for our Christmas party. I am so excited for my family to come over. I have a lot of cooking/baking to do tomorrow, but it is so worth it to have family time. This was my Christmas pic with the grandbabies last year. It is one of my favorite pics because they are all smiling. Of course, they are always laughing and smiling....until you point a camera at them. LOL

Hope everyone is getting their final items marked off their to do list.

Holiday Food

We all have those favorite foods that make up the holidays. My Christmas menu goes from what drinks I have to have at Christmas all the way to the main course. These are favorites year after year and many of them go back to my childhood because they were things Mom had every year.

In addition to my standard Pepsi, I have to have grape and orange pop. When I was young it was always Nehi. But we can't get that around here and I have fallen in love with Crush over the years.

I love baked ham. At Christmas I top it with orange marmalade and brown sugar. It is divine.

Potato salad is a must if I am going to have ham.

In my house I can't have ham and potato salad without my all time favorite ... baked beans.

Then of course comes the dessert. No bake oatmeal cookies top my list of things I have to eat at Christmas.

And chocolate cake is made around here at least 2 or 3 times per month. I love chocolate cake.

My special holiday dessert is graham cracker pie. I only have it for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I didn't get to make one for Thanksgiving this year so I am definitely having one for Christmas.

Then you move onto the quick snacks. Starting with Mom's recipe for old fashioned chocolate candy. Not to be confused with creamy fudge. This melts in your mouth.

Plus peanut butter fudge. I love that just as much as the chocolate.

There are some store bought snacks that I can't live without at Christmas that bring back memories of my childhood. The main thing is Brach's chocolate malted milk balls. I've been sneaking into these all week.

My other Brach's favorite is their chocolate covered raisins.

I also have to have nuts. My favorites are cashews, honey roasted and salted peanuts.

If all of that doesn't make you hungry, nothing will. I plan all this to last from Christmas eve through New Year's. I know the kids will help me eat it when they come over for our party. I just hope I have enough time to get it all made. 

My Random Thoughts...

As Christmas draws near, I have so much still left to do. Well, not really that much. I do have some final wrapping to finish up and some fudge to make for a friend. Other than that, the rest of my baking for my family will happen on Saturday morning so it is good and fresh when we gather for our Christmas party. To kick off my final few days before Christmas, we all need a good laugh. I blog this cartoon every year and my blogging buddies always love it. 

My children gave me money for my birthday this year so I could get my new mixer I wanted. I saw it every week when I went to Walmart. Then when I got ready to get it, it was out of stock at all 5 Walmarts in my area. I had given up hope of finding in. Monday it was on sale at Sears for $20 off the original price, which made it the same price as Walmart's price. So I got it and I am loving it. 

I broke it in really good by making chocolate cinnamon cake cookies with homemade chocolate frosting, spice cake cookies with salted caramel icing, peanut butter cookies made from scratch and snicker doodles made from a cookie mix. This was just two boxes of them. I had a total of 4 boxes. They were gone in no time. Out of all of them, the chocolate ones were the biggest hit. Even people who don't eat cookies came back for seconds, and thirds and fourths.... 

The peanut butter ones were from Mom's recipe she made when we were little. The kind where you make them from scratch and then refrigerate the dough for about 3 hours. I had to keep a few of those to eat myself that night with a glass of cold milk.

It was so cold yesterday in our office. When I got home, I put on my warmest jammies and fuzzy socks and sat in front of the fireplace just trying to get warm. I just noticed the tablecloth above and the p.j.'s below. I apparently have a thing for red plaid.

Saw this on Joann's online this week. In light of the fact that I want bolder colors in my sewing room and that I need a sewing basket, I think I may need to order this after Christmas.

I have been scouring Thirty-One, Vera Bradley and Donna Sharp sites looking for the perfect bag for work. One that has enough body to set up right without flopping over. One that has enough room for the items I have to carry back and forth every day. One that is stylish and in a pattern that I love. Well, I finally found exactly what I'm looking for. It's from Donna Sharp. I do love her bags and purses. This one has a leather bottom with four little "prongs" to keep if from getting filthy on the floor. This is on my wish list for January. 

It is so roomy inside. Perfect for my needs. We share desks in the call center so we always take our personal folders, notes and notebooks back and forth everyday. This will be exactly what I need. 

One day a few weeks ago, I stopped in at Walmart. Since I will be going to the eye doctor in February or March and I already can tell I need new glasses, I decided to look at what they had. This pair really caught my eye.  

Come spring, I am going antiquing and to yard sales to build my Pyrex inventory back up. I am going to start looking for space savers in the 503 size. I have one in the Town & Country and I have used it for so many different things. 

Have a great day!