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. 

A great start to a great weekend

The family all gathered last night to celebrate the three birthdays we had this past week. I don't know what I was thinking, but I failed to get any pictures of the kids and grandkids. We were so busy having a great time that I just forgot. That is so not like me at all. They will be back at Christmas so I'll be sure and get some the. But we did have an awesome time. We exchanged gifts and I was beyond excited with my presents. 

My son's family had gotten me a candle that smells so much like vanilla ice cream it made me want to go grab a bowl and chow down. 

I was ecstatic about the new cookbook they got me as well. It is a cushioned type cover and I fell in love with it. There are a lot of really good recipes that I can't wait to try. They know how much I love cookbooks and this one will go in a place of honor on the shelf. 

Every once in awhile my daughter really surprises me. When I opened the gift from her family, I was speechless. I think she thought I wasn't excited, but the truth was that I was so stunned that I couldn't get past just staring at it with my mouth open. 

She is not into vintage collectibles and sometimes I wonder if I bore her with my talk of Pyrex and Cinderella bowls. Unbeknownst to me, she does pay attention to her mother. She called around the local antique stores to ask about Cinderella bowls and when one lady said she had the 441 in Colonial Mist, my daughter realized she had scored. 

This was the set I had gotten when I got married and over the years, I didn't had sold it....never dreaming I would become a Pyrex collector some day. I have bemoaned the fact that I wish I still had it and was despairing of ever finding the pieces. I got one on trade online the other day and now this one from her. You could have blown me away I was in that much shock. Just a few days ago, I couldn't find any of these anywhere and now I'm halfway there on my collection. I guess she knows I'll be dragging her around to more shops after Christmas until I can complete the set. 

I immediately started scouring through my new recipe book to find recipes to make using my new bowls. I kept finding perfect ones. I cannot wait to try it out. My daughter and my daughter-in-law both know me so well that I always get presents that are absolutely perfect for me. This year was no exception. I love everything I got. I am really blessed. I was really amazed that Edgar sat quietly through the gift giving. He didn't ask for any birthday cake. He didn't snoop in any of the presents. He just stayed quiet in his little corner of the house. 

But after my bath, I went looking for my new book to see what I could make new for Christmas. I finally found it in my office chair with Edgar's nose stuck in it. He was about to drool over the peanut biscuits. I agreed with him that this one is going to be a MUST to try. 

Of course, he is a normal person so the Chocolate Cake held his attention for several minutes. I didn't think he was ever going to turn the page. This looks so good with the glaze/icing dripping down the sides. 

But the one that made his jaw drop with desire was the raspberry cheesecake. 

I have a busy day planned today. Hope everybody is enjoying their weekend as much as I am so far. 

Been busy again

It's been a non-stop week again. You will recall I have been to two school programs - 1 Monday and 1 Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I had a busy day at work and knocked off just in time to get some snack mix put together and grab my gifts to head out to our Secret Sister Reveal. We had some delicious foods thanks to Ms. Janet. She spoils us. 

Then it was time to exchange gifts and reveal our Secret Sister. I had at times felt like it was my Pastor's wife, Ms. Christy. Sure enough it was. I have been so blessed by her kind words and cards and have really appreciated the fun Secret Sister she was. Wednesday, she had me this precious little devotional. I can't wait till January 1st to start using it. 

Each of my gifts from my Secret Sister were such a good fit for me...tea sets, fuzzy socks, lots of goodies. So I figured the person either knew me really well or had been to my house. Ms. Christy fit both of those categories. She had me one final gift in this gorgeous box. 

This exquisite tea set. I fell in love. I have an entire room dedicated to beach theme.

Check out the minute details. It is gorgeous.

I really didn't want to put it in the kids room because I am not in there that much and then I remembered my beach shelf in my office that contains beach items that hold special memories. So I put it front and center with pics of beach trips, the ship my son's family brought me back from the beach, memories of trips past. It is a perfect place for this final thoughtful gift of the 2012 Secret Sister Exchange. 

Yesterday, I finally finished decorating my office for Christmas. I didn't do much. Just a little tree on the craft table. 

I had some Rudolph & Clarice material that I just laid around the tree for a tree skirt. I just love this material.

My little Dollar Tree container for pencils. I need to go through and organize them. They are a shamble. I had just dumped them in from the other pencil holder and forgot to straighten them up.

My Thirty-One work area. Edgar is fascinated by my office and hangs out in there a lot. He's waiting to see how many parties and online catalog parties I book for January. Plus I think he was needing a rest after the cookies and Pyrex escapades this past week. 

Speaking of January. Do you like my new desk calendar? It was $1.00 at Target in there dollar section. I picked up four or five different types of organizing items in there to be used the first of the year. 

I have some unique ornaments that I have received over the years at ornament exchanges. They are a little heavy on the tree but I hated to keep them hidden. So I figured out a temporary way to display them.

I usually use the little wire holder for Christmas cards. It's about 30+ years old. This year I stuffed some leftover poinsettias in it. 

The top of my file cabinet holds my Kleenex box a friend made me a few years back as well as my Dollar Tree baskets for outgoing mail. 

My sister sent me a dishtowel she had made me. I fell in love with it but I had to laugh a little. We are so much alike. She hasn't seen my material I used for the tree skirt above, yet look what she picked out to make dishtowels from....Clarice. Great minds do think alike.