My idea of a perfect winter day...

My idea of a perfect winter day is a light snow on the ground about 3 - 5 inches and not having anywhere I have to be.

Sleeping in and waking up to make homemade peanut butter cookies.

Then fixing a cup of peppermint hot chocolate to enjoy with the cookies for a late morning brunch.

Warming up in front of the fire place and staying my jammies and warm socks all day.

Vegging out on the couch and watching my favorite Christmas movie.

Then I would read my favorite Christmas book, Deck the Halls.

I would finish off the day with some homemade bacon gravy and Grand buttermilk biscuits.

Oh, what a perfect day that would be.

Weekend wrap up....

It's been a crazy past four days. I worked till 3:00 on Thanksgiving. There are two gals I worked with the past two years that are in college now so I don't see them much. But they worked with me Thursday and we had a blast. We call ourselves the A Team because we really rock when we greet together.

Did some shopping on Friday and found some great deals on some things on my wish list. I can't post those. But when I got home, I started decorating for Christmas. I don't have it all done yet, but I did get out my favorite Christmas decor. My daughter-in-law had it made for me a few years back. 

I got the kitchen done. More pics later but for now here is the kitchen table.

Found the cute little felt hot chocolate mug at Target on Saturday for just $3.00. Since I had all this other stuff except the sign I got for $2.49 at Hobby Lobby Saturday, I decided to create a little hot chocolate bar. Loving it.

Put the tree up on Saturday night and hung all my favorite ornaments. Some go back to my hubby's grandmother. They are from the 40's or 50's. But I love the one my daughter-in-law got me last year with all our names on it. 

I love the way my tree turned out. I am trying the "no icicle strands" plan again this year. I have never had a tree without the icicles. I tried it last year, but two weeks before Christmas I caved and put some on. I can't help it. Mom always had them and I loved them so I have always had them. Traditions are hard to break. We will see how I do this year. 

I did wrap a few gifts and put under the tree along with my snowmen bags. 

I found this button tree I made last year. I want to do some more this year.

Saturday evening I made my grandson Caleb a 7-Up Lemon Pound Cake with my homemade glaze. He loves these. I was going to do one last weekend for him but didn't have the right ingredients.

I saw this idea on Facebook. But in researching I found out that it is vinyl letters on the pot holder. They didn't come that way. I wanted to do this for an inexpensive gift but found out the vinyl costs $5 to have somebody put it on for me, making it an $8.00 gift instead of a $3.00. I have fabric and may use wonder under to put a candy cane or gingerbread on them. 

Came home Sunday from church to find a cat that had adopted my front porch. I don't know where it came from but it was there about three or four times today. I have seen it around the neighborhood but never at anybody's house. Not sure where "home" is but I can't keep it. I'm hoping it goes back home today. I just had a really sunny spot and I guess he liked it.

I was so tired that after church Sunday morning, I laid down on my couch to rest after lunch and fell asleep and slept for 5 hours. I was so exhausted. Well, that was my weekend. Hope you had a good one.

Sunday Christmas Songs

I don't know about you, but I kick into Christmas mode the day after Thanksgiving. Lots of updates about my weekend will follow on Monday.....

But for now, here are my selections for Christmas songs today. Enjoy!

Thankful for the small things....

I was just thinking this morning that we don't always remember to thank God for the small day to day blessings. Sure, we are full of thanks when He answers a prayer for us that brings the miracle of healing. We thank Him when He pulls us up out the valley of despair by solving a crisis in our life. We thank Him for getting us through a situation that is our own fault because of the choices we make. But sometimes we just take the day to day tiny blessings for granted. 

So what made me think of that today? Going to the grocery store. Yes, the store. I had a list of things I need for my personal Thanksgiving meal and our work dinner. So I went to get them. Since I go to the same store all the time and all the items were things I buy a lot, I know the prices. I was expecting my total with tax to be a little under $50. So I go to the store and go through my list and get everything I need. I kept seeing the sale prices but didn't pay it a lot of attention other than "Oh cool. It's on sale." When I checked out, my total was $33.46. I had saved $12.49. Woo hoo! I bought 19 things and 19 things were on sale! Gotta love shopping at Food City with their value card.

Then I went to get gas at their gas station. Used the points on my value card for gas discount of .15 cents per gallon. Since it is Wednesday I was allowed to use two for double the discount. So I got gas for $1.95 a gallon today. I am think that those two trips actually were blessings from God.

What's coming up....

I don't mind admitting I am exhausted this morning. An 11 hour day yesterday, an 11 hour day today and facing an 11 hour day tomorrow. But the light at the end of the tunnel is that I am only 6 hours on Thanksgiving and off Friday and Saturday. I do get off in time to have my own little Thanksgiving dinner which I am excited about. I'm going to make me a graham cracker pie. Last one I messed up the meringue so it didn't work out. But found out what I did wrong so I'm trying it again this year. 

I am not a big eater anyway and I don't like turkey. I am a ham girl. So I don't do a traditional meal. I just fix the things that were my favorite from the holiday. I always make potato salad. Soft potatoes and lots of mustard. I'm a yellow potato salad gal.

And my favorite meals always include back beans from Mom's recipe. And obviously they always are made in my Pyrex. Using my vintage Pyrex brings a since of tradition to the holidays. Did you women have used Pyrex for over 100 years? Starting in 1908 when they released the first clear glass ones. 

I don't do turkey. I am more a ham person. However, buying a big ham for just me is a little expensive. But I splurge on Black Forest ham and roll it and cheese up in crescent rolls for my meet dish. These are my absolute favorite.

Of course, I will watch Miracle on 34th Street on Thanksgiving. I always do. I will look at the Black Friday ads and plan my day for shopping on Friday and Saturday. On the sneak peak of the ads I did find this printer. Mine is getting old and I need ink for it which is about $54 for the ink for both cartridges. So I am going to try to get this Cannon at Walmart for $19.99 on Black Friday. The cartridges when I need them will be about $17 each so that's a lot better than what I have.

I have been checking into a Roku Stick for my TV to see about picking up some extra channels. I did away with cable two years ago. My antenna gets 26 channels plus local and I get Netflix. But I want to get some extra channels with more choices and with Roku you can get a lot of free channels.

I am going to see if I can get this small 12" electric skillet at Penny's for $7.99. It is the main thing on my wish list and I may break my stand on not shopping on Thursday. We'll see. I'm on the fence about it.

Saturday will be more shopping with my daughter. We have gone for to Turkey Creek in Knoxville on the weekend after Thanksgiving to shop for years. We always eat at Steak-n-Shake because we love a good burger and fries. 

Sometime Friday evening I am going to decorate the house and do the tree. It's going to be a busy few days but I love this week of the year.

Weekend Wrap Up

I had a great weekend. We got together for our family Thanksgiving since I work on Thursday and the kids go to the in-law families on Thanksgiving day. We had some a great time. Lots of laughter and joy. Lots of funny stories told about the grandkids. Lots of Colby moments (the 8 year old). We never know what he is going to say. Switched back and forth between ball games. Ate too much. But had a blast. 

My son Chris, his son Garret, and my daughter-in-law Jamie.

Shelby and her ever present glass of milk. She will drink water and apple juice, but won't touch anything else but milk. 

Caleb likes to think I can't catch him smiling in a picture. I tried and tried.

Finally caught him when he wasn't looking....even I did cut the top of his head off. I'll take what I can get. At just 15 years old he is probably the tallest in our family. Out ranking his dad by just an inch or two. And he's not done growing yet.

My daughter Diana, my son-in-law Michael and their daughter Shelby.

Chris, Garret, Jamie and the funniest member of the family, Colby. He's the youngest grandbaby and he keeps us in stitches.

The one standing in the kitchen area is my granddaughter Alexis. She's grown up way too fast. I can't believe she is in high school this year.

I was so excited that Garret (L) got to come over. The way he works and with him being 19, I don't get to see him much. He was my first grandchild and when he decided to stay and visit longer when everybody left it just made my day.

Sunday I went to church. We had a small group for Children's Church. I ended up bringing them to the sanctuary early so we could see our new pastor and his family join the church. It was an exciting day. We love Pastor Sam and can already see growth in the church while he has been our interim pastor since the first of September. 

Before I went to church, I decided to get out my tree and put it together to check the lights. It's just three pieces so it didn't take long. Happy dance when you put your tree up and all the lights still work. So I will let it "fall out" some in the heat of the house and then fluff it so I can decorate on Friday evening.

I did get out a few things so my fireplace is starting to look festive. I love my little Believe sign.

I put Rudolph and the snowman in front of the fireplace. But I may change that this weekend. Not sure but I think I want to put real poinsettias there. Just a fair warning. When I am done decorating you will see a lot of poinsettias. They are my favorite flower and they are the flower of my birth month.

We have 4 - 5 shows a day this week at work so it is going to be a busy week. I worked three shows yesterday and came home and crashed. I have to schedule some time to make me a graham cracker pie, potato salad and deviled eggs to go with my ham, baked beans and mashed potatoes for my Thanksgiving dinner when I get home on Thursday. I get off at three so that give me time to enjoy my evening and look at Black Friday ads.

Happy birthday to my daughter-in-law Jamie

Today I want to say happy birthday to my daughter-in-law Jamie. She is a wonderful mother to my grandchildren and wife to my son. She has been such a good friend to me over the years and offered support through some of the toughest times of my life. Me and Allen used to always say that God really blessed us when our son picked her as his bride. And it is so true. Jamie, I hope you have an amazing birthday and may God bless you with many more.