Happy Birthday to my Twins

My precious babies are having a birthday today. 34 years ago today God blessed me with the most wonderful gift a person could ever receive....one of each....my son...my daughter. And to get them both at one time was so amazing. I had no idea I was even having twins until they arrived. I still get giddy when I think about it.

They were so sweet and loving. I look at pictures of them at this age and wonder where the years have gone. I miss having them as little ones, but no matter how old they get, they will always be my babies.

I could sit down and go through old photographs for days. Just looking at some of the precious moments of them growing up. My daughter, my first born.

I still feel my heart tug when they smile and I recall all the many memories of those precious little faces smiling up lovingly at their Mommy. My son, my baby.

They still share lots of smiles and lots of laughter and I love them both so much.

Our babies may grow up, but we are blessed that they have remained close to us and have given us even more babies to love and cherish. I see so much in my grandchildren that are little copies of my kids at those ages.

So as I reminisce about that very special moment in time when the doctor said we had one of each, I want to take a moment to wish them both a happy birthday.

Happy birthday to my twins, Christopher Shawn and Diana Lynn. I love you very much and hope you have a very blessed day.

Busy, busy, busy



Christmas is getting closer and closer. I am so far behind this year compared to other years, but I am not at all stressed about it. I have a plan. As long as I have a plan I am good to go.

This season has been different than past seasons. I normally have a mixture of committments from December 1 until December 24. They are usually spread out, allowing time for shopping and wrapping in the beginning of the month through till Christmas Eve. I have already been to nine functions since December 1st. I have five more between now and the 15th. Then I'm done until the 24th. I've been picking up a few little gifts here and there, but plan on doing the balance of my shopping between the 17th and 22nd. I love my busy schedule. It keeps me in the Christmas spirit.

Speaking of busy schedules, my sister had a moment to stop by the blog today and to send me some photos of a couple of new Christmas items she has this year. I thought you might enjoy them.

She got this adorable Christmas cookie jar at Krogers. She had looked at the normal stores you would shop for cookie jars at and I am sure she was amazed to find what she wanted at her local grocery store. He sure is a cute fellow.

On her last visit down, I was showing her my new Scentsy candle and we were talking about them. Look at the little snowman she ordered. His hat holds the warmer tarts. I just love this. May have to order me one.



I love Santas and Snowmen at Christmas. Here are a few of my favorite snowmen I sit out every year.

What "theme" items do you like to put around your house at Christmas time?

I love $1.00 deals....

Yesterday, I picked up a great little bargain.

A friend of mine posted a neat little planner she picked up at the Dollar Tree for just, you guessed it $1.00.

Visit Wise Old Owl Designs to see her post.

I was headed in that direction and I had already been looking around for inexpensive planners for 2012 so I decided to trek on over to the Dollar Tree. I picked me up 2 of the planners. I got the floral design since I love flowers so much. I got one for my office and one for my personal stuff.

But what I really love about them is the fact that you put the month and the day on them yourself. I may go back and get a couple more to put up in reserve for 2013. I also love the fact that they are spiral bound which makes them easy to lay flat.

In addition, they have a section for telephone numbers.

And one for Notes.

I guess you can tell I'm very happy with my new little planners. Thanks to Ms. Debbie at Wise Old Owl Designs for sharing this find with us. This is one of the reasons we all love to blog....the sharing of bargains!

Plus while I was there, I found several great stocking stuffers for my Mom and Hubby. All in all a great day to shop.

Some stuff for Wednesday....

I went last night to my oldest granddaughter's school Christmas program. It was a really cute program. The kids had a blast doing it, you could tell. The little girl above with the pony tail in the black and white dress is my granddaughter, Alexis. She looked so pretty. She was so animated when it was her groups turn to sing. I really enjoy these kind of moments.

 When will I learn to quit procrastinating. This past week we had temperatures as high as 72....in December....in Tennessee. That is unheard of. It was beautiful. Did I do anything spectacular to celebrate the warm weather? Did I catch up on anything outdoors that I needed to do? No, I, in my great wisdom, scheduled today to meet with my Pastor to go layout the lineup program for our Community Parade this Saturday night. We need to go to the "meeting" site and decide who will go where to be pulled out and put in line so we can be organized.

 

I thought of our need to do this when we were having beautiful weather, but decided to wait until later. Well, because of my schedule the rest of the week, I need to go today. And how is our weather today? Pouring the rain. I mean torrential downpour. Rain so hard it sounds like it is going to beat the roof off. Lovely. This should make it SOOOO much easier to plan a parade layout...in the RAIN! When will I ever learn.

I've been picking up a few presents here and there. I started this morning putting the ones that needed gift boxed in a box. Guess I need to start wrapping before somebody sees something they shouldn't.

I guess I probably should maybe, kinda, sorta actually start my wish list for Santa. Every year, I usually have the list started before Black Friday. Here we are December 7th and I don't have a clue. Not to mention my hubby keeps asking what I want for my birthday next week. Again, no clue. This is so not me. I usually see so much I want that it is hard to narrow it down. But as you can see, my list is blank. I am tossing some ideas around.

I know I want a pretty silver and gold bracelet. One that is stretchy. I love those kind because they fit my skinny wrist better than the ones that hook on. I want one that has links if Hubby can find it. That's the main thing on my wish list.

And it is NOT Christmas unless I have new jammies to put on after my bath that night. I love flannel and fleece, but this year I am more in a fleece mode. And the wilder the bottoms, the better. I love character p.j.'s. Not sure why, but I do.

And I just have to have a new book to read on Christmas day so I'm sure I'll ask for Debbie Macomber's new Christmas book, 1225 Christmas Tree Lane. It's the final one in her Cedar Cove series and I have read every single one of them so far.

And I would like a new pair of black dress pants for church. I have two pair and they are in pretty good shape, but I need something new. I also need some new ones in dark brown as well. (Oh, and Dear Santa, can you bring me a slim body like this to go along with the new pants.)

And I would love to have a couple of new sweaters. I'm into the wild patterns likes Fair Isle or Missoni. So if Santa could stick a couple of those under my tree, it would be awesome.

And I would love some new shoes to wear with jeans that are just slip on. I think that needs to be on my birthday list so I can pick them out myself. Hubby is an awesome shopper....except for shoes. We never agree on styles when it comes to shoes and having flat feet, I always need to try them on. But since he takes me shopping for my birthday, I think we will shoe shop this year.

See. This is why I LOVE blogging. Now, I have Christmas wish list for Santa.

A great time....



I'm riding the Tuesday Train

We had a wonderful time last night at our Secret Sister gift exchange. I swore I was not taking cookies to the party. But cookies is what I ended up making. They are laying new water lines in our area and the water was going to be shut off most of the day so I had to work fast and get my baking done with stuff I had on hand.

  

I love spice cake with caramel icing, but I wanted something for the dessert that would fit in with finger foods. So I went to Duncan Hines website and found the recipe for converting cake mix into cookies. You ignore the directions on the cake mix box and simply add 1/2 cup oil and 2 eggs. Then you drop by rounded teaspoons full on a cookie sheet (using parchment paper will keep the bottoms from getting too crispy). Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

I used Duncan Hines caramel icing and put it on the cookies while they were warm. This will cause it to "glaze" over and be a firmer set icing. This allows you to stack the cookies after they are completely set without having to work about them sticking together. They turned out really good. At Christmas, most of the cookies I make get a little sprinkle of red and green sugar for that extra Christmas look.

  

While I was in my dessert zone, I went ahead and made some of my Reese's Peanut Butter fudge. It is so simple and so delicious. Put 4 cups of sugar and a can of Carnation cream into a medium sauce pan. Mix well and place on medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once the mixture comes to a complete boil, set your timer and let it boil for 5 minutes, stirring most of the time to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and add 1 bag of Reese's peanut butter baking chips and one stick of Parkay margarine. (I have tried other margarine and butters, but it doesn't turn out as well unless you use the Parkay). Beat until smooth and pour in a 9 x 13 pan and place in the refrigerator. Let set and cut. It will need to be kept refrigerated except when you are setting it out to serve.

 

While I was at it, I kicked into my Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade zone. I love that lady. I grabbed a box of Molasses cookie mix from the cabinet and mixed it per the directions. I added a teaspoon of ginger and a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to give them some zing. I delivered them to my "car guys" where we have bought all our cars for the past 12 years. They are a great bunch and are always up for sampling any new desserts. They said the cookies had that little ginger kick to them that made them divine. So I guess I can add that recipe to my list.

So I headed out to our Secret Sister exchange. There were only 8 of us, but we had a wonderful time. Lots of great food. I ate until I couldn't eat anymore.

We had sausage balls that were without a doubt the best sausage balls I have ever eaten in my entire life. We also had little sausages in a cranberry sauce mixture, mini pigs in a blanket, spinach dip, a homemade cheese ball that was the best I've ever had, several other types of dips, two different types of sandwiches, a no-bake fruitcake that was a huge hit with everyone, brownies, cookies, cinnamon loaf, lots and lots of goodies.

 My secret sister has been awesome all year. I have received some great gifts, but she topped herself last night. Since my birthday is next week, I got birthday presents and Christmas presents. Check out everything I got.

That little angel in the front is going to go on top of the little Christmas tree in my home office. I was beyond thrilled with all the gifts. Everyone had such a wonderful time. We played several Christmas games that were really fun and then everybody won one of these little Pillsbury candles just for playing the games.



I can't wait until January to draw names again so we can get started on next years fun.



The Great Debate

Tonight is our Secret Sister dinner and gift exchange. I am signed up to bring a dessert. I don't know why I continue to do this to myself, but I have a bad habit of jumping in with "I'll bring a dessert."...only to worry at the last minute with "What should I make?"

Now I know it is perfectly acceptable to run by the local market and grab something from their bakery, but I just do not have it in my genetic make-up to do that. You will notice at the top of my blog I say something good is always baking in the oven. Well, that is just about true. I love desserts and there is usually a fresh one on the counter or something in the oven or ingredients in the cabinet awaiting their turn.

There in lies my problem. It's not that I can't decide what I want to make; it's that I simply can't narrow it down. I have so many wonderful recipe books and I have tried and true recipes that I've made for years and years. I hate putting it off to the last minute because then I'm tempted to go with quick and easy instead of 100% homemade and absolutely scrumptious.

I know it won't be cookies. I am going to get enough cookie baking in the next couple of weeks just preparing for Christmas. A cake is just so normal unless I can find a recipe of a "to die for" cake I haven't had before. I do have a recipe for a triple layer iced brownie concoction I have been wanting to try. Also a nice pan of gingerbread with some cool whip might be good since it is a holiday.

I just don't know. I've got about 6 hours to make up my mind, check my supplies and make a dash to the store for extra ingredients before I have to start baking. So if you have any brilliant ideas for me, please comment and let me know. Until then, I guess I'll just keep pouring over the recipe books looking for inspiration.

The Christmas Story

About 12 years ago, I wrote a poem for my Mom at Christmas. It was from the heart and I'd like to share it with you. I hold the copyright, but I don't mind if you want to share the poem as long as you link back to my blog.

The Christmas Story

Packages wrapped up with ribbons and bows,

Stockings over fires with embers aglow;

A tree in the corner strung with tinsel and lights;

A soft falling snow on a cold winter night.

Under the tree on a soft woolen skirt,

Sat a nativity scene of the dear Savior’s birth.

As I knelt down close to take a good look,

My mother would read from an old worn book.

She told of a mother, weary and worn,

Looking for a place for her child to be born.

The inns were all full, no room could be found.

They were shown to a stable with hay on the ground.

She read how the shepherds were watching their sheep

When angels came to them with voices so sweet.

She read of their messages of tidings of joy

As they told the shepherds about the birth of a boy.

We’d listen intently, eyes glued on that book

As she told how the shepherds went to go look.

How they found the sweet baby in a manger that night

And how they gave praise to God for the sweet blessed child.

We hung on her words, the picture so clear,

For this was a child the world would hold dear.

She flipped back some pages as we knelt at her feet,

While she read of some wise men and a star in the east.

She told of their journey to see the small babe.

She read of their worship and the gifts that they gave.

We heard about the frankincense, the myrrh and the gold,

As Mom quietly finished her story of old.

As she closed the worn book that she’d just read,

We’d get our kisses from Daddy and scoot off to bed.

As she tucked us all in and kissed us good night,

We’d think of that story as she covered us tight.

For we had been raised to know the Lord’s love,

And we knew that sweet Child was a gift from above.

We knew that a great sacrifice had been made,

That started with the birth of Jesus that day.

So forget all the presents, the ribbons and bows.

Forget all the stockings and lights all aglow.

For the greatest gift you’ll find on your Christmas morn,

Was given by God, the year our Savior was born.