How Many More Days Until Christmas?

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, filled with family, friends, and fun! Just about everyone I talk to has told me they plan to start making gifts for next Christmas early--some of them plan to start right away and put things aside all year long. I've tried that before, and it doesn't seem to work for me, but I'm fairly optimistic so maybe I'll try it again. I really liked the way the picnic tote turned out and may make more for family gifts next year. Here's a photo of it stuffed with the rest of the things I made and bought to fill it for our son's girlfriend:

Besides the tote itself, I made two roll up placemats and two napkins. I bought a set of utensils and put two forks, two spoons, and two knives in the inside pockets. I added a bottle of wine and a Trader Joe's gift card. Sarah seemed pleased with it although winter's not the best time for a picnic!

We all had a wonderful Christmas here at our home. Our gathering was small--just me and my husband, our son and his girlfriend, and my sister-in-law Kathy. I made a crockpot full of cream of chicken and rice soup, and my husband baked up a batch of honey wheat rolls. Besides that, we had numerous other appetizers and finger foods--we started with these heated up veggie and cheese stuffed bits.

Because we just munched on food all day long, I was able to use one of my favorite sets of dishes--the 12 Days of Christmas plates you can see stacked in the photo above. Each salad-sized plate is different and represents each of the "gifts" from the popular Christmas song. I just love to get these out each year and look at the different pictures on each one while the song goes through my head.

We didn't skimp on sweet treats either. Here are a few of the things weighing down the table--and those don't even include the cheesecake I hadn't gotten out yet!

This morning, while my husband and I were doing some preparations in the kitchen, we heard a knock at the door. I went to answer it and found two strangers there--an adult man and a boy. The man introduced himself and said his family had moved in a couple houses down from us in November, and he was just coming around to introduce himself and his son and hand out Christmas cards and homemade peanut brittle. Isn't that a wonderful way to meet new neighbors? We were both pretty tickled to think a new neighbor would take the time to do that. Of course, the peanut brittle was added to our treat table and was greatly appreciated.

Truly, though, I don't think that any of us overate. I know that a nibble here and a nibble there adds up, but I think we ate less than we would have if I had served appetizers, a huge Christmas meal, and dessert.

On Christmas Eve, I had to make a last trip to the grocery store for a couple things. As I was driving there, I was thinking about what foods I had planned and what I might possibly need. As I thought about the different things I planned to serve, I realized I didn't have any soup bowls. Well, I DO have some simple white bowls, but they didn't seem very festive. Should I make a detour and stop at Kohl's to buy some bowls? Pretty quickly, though, I thought about how my husband would complain about more dishes--and justifiably so, because our storage is pretty limited. So I resigned myself to using my plain white bowls and continued on to the grocery store.

As I reached the end of one of the aisles at the grocery store, what did I see but a display of red dishes and the perfect red soup bowls! And when I saw that the store had marked all of it half off, I absolutely KNEW it was fate! So into my cart I happily placed four new red soup bowls, and life was good.

Before I got out of the parking lot, though, I started to think again about my husband's anticipated reaction. Thinking quickly, by the time I got home, I had worked out a plan!

Fast forward now to my family gathered around the Christmas tree today, opening gifts. Within reach of his recliner, my husband found a gift bag addressed "To Kim, From Santa." What could it be? He passed the bag over to me, and knowing HE hadn't placed it under the tree, he watched in puzzlement while I opened the bag. Now how did Santa know I needed four new red soup bowls?! I'm telling you, that guy is MAGIC!

Well, as I expected my husband--and the rest of the family--burst out laughing. He knew immediately what I had done and why. In the end, he told me that as long as Santa wasn't putting diamonds under the tree for me, who was he to be bothered by four red soup bowls?!

I hope your Christmas was merry! 364 days until next Christmas, I think--time to get busying making gifts and getting ready!

A Turkey Tale

I know what I was trying to remember to tell you the other day! Remember the Wild Child and the Drooling Dog were coming to stay for several days and we were going to have our Thanksgiving early? Well, as it turned out, the Wild Child's friend Liz needed to return a vehicle to Colorado. Liz doesn't have a driver's license, so she offered to pay all of the Wild Child's expenses if the Wild Child would drive. Unfortunately, it meant the Wild Child would have to miss our Thanksgiving celebrations. Now to tell you the truth, the prospect of NOT HAVING THE DROOLING DOG here was pretty darn appealing. So, much as I miss my daughter and am sorry she can't be here with us, I'm not quite devastated by the news.

We had planned an early Thanksgiving specifically so the Wild Child could be here and not have it interfere with her work as a waitress/bartender. By the time I learned of this change in plans, the turkey was already defrosting in the refrigerator, so we went ahead with our Thanksgiving on Monday.

Since I've been desperately searching for lime green ornaments, I got the turkey ready and put it in the oven before heading out on yet another shopping expedition. I carefully instructed my husband to check the turkey in two hours and cover it if it was looking pretty brown. I also mentioned that he should be very careful about brushing up against the oven dial since the bird needed to cook at 325 degrees for about four hours.

Three hours later, I came home to find that my husband had accidentally brushed against the oven dial and turned the oven up to 425 degrees--presumably when he covered the turkey. The funny thing is that when he looked at the dial to make sure he hadn't changed it, he saw it was set at 425 degrees and thought that was what I had said. So, needless to say, the turkey was done. Okay, actually the turkey was overdone. And it was still over two hours until dinner. So much for multi-tasking. I guess it wasn't a good idea to think I could shop and cook a turkey at the same time, huh?!

Everything turned out okay though. We spent a lovely evening visiting with my son and his girlfriend. I didn't cook too much food and I managed to send a lot of the leftovers home with the kids, including the half of a chocolate mousse cake. (Hey, I know it's not quite a traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but if I'm only going to have ONE dessert, it sure as heck isn't going to be pumpkin pie when the chocolate mousse cake was calling my name!) So, back to the diet tomorrow--more or less. I'm sure we won't be quite as good at sticking to it during the holiday season, but at least we'll try. Or I'll try. My husband, on the other hand, will probably moan and groan and whine every time I do something like send a chocolate mousse cake home with my son.

I took one last photo of my Thanksgiving decorations in the dining area since they'll be coming down Tuesday.

Oh, and these are my Thanksgiving plates--a pattern by Johnson Bros. called Frozen Up from the Historic America line. I dearly love these plates--I'm just sorry I can really only use them once a year, but that makes it kind of fun to bring out the "special" plates, don't you think?

And what do I have to show from shopping while the turkey burned? (Okay, a slight exaggeration, but it sounded good.) Here are my green things. I still didn't find plain old glass balls, but these will do. Target had some green ornaments that I nearly bought but they were glittery, and glittery wouldn't go so well with the rest of my stuff for that tree. Anyway, I thought maybe this green garland and the green bells will add that color I need to the tree and blend okay with what I already have.

And then Kari left me a comment with a link to Amazon. They had some green ornaments and some turquoise ones too, so I placed an order--hopefully they won't take too long to arrive. And thank you all for your suggestions on where to look. They were helpful, but I didn't find quite the right thing. However, if I ever want pickle ornaments or Green Bay Packer ornaments, I certainly know where to look now!

Oh, and I guess I should explain my need for this green--I don't think I really said, did I? It's that darn Holly Jolly fabric and the Christmas Past fabric I used in Marcie's Trees on the Table pattern. I'm making one of the two "Trees" tops into a tree skirt and I want to make a wallhanging using the Holly Jolly fabric. Both of those lines have a lime green in it, and I'm trying to coordinate the decorations for my kitchen tree. Makes sense? Yes, doesn't EVERYONE have a kitchen tree that they coordinate with fabric for quilts they haven't even made yet? And may not get made if they don't stop shopping and stay home long enough to plant their rear end in front of a sewing machine and get some sewing done?

And okay, so yes, as a matter of fact, I AM a bit obsessive when it comes to Christmas decorating, and yes, I certainly will subject you all to photos in the coming days--I just wish my photographic abilities and/or camera were a bit more adequate.

Time to head into the Sweat Shop. Yes, it's midnight, but I'm on vacation, I've had two (or three?) cups of coffee tonight, and I quite clearly have projects to finish now that I've found green ornaments. "See" you all later!