Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! This ornament may say Happy Holidays, but it really means Merry Christmas to me and to all of you!



This year illness and, to quote my doctor, a "serious" surgery threatened to sap my Christmas joy. I was worried that I would end up having a Grinchy Christmas.


That picture is from the I Can Has Cheeseburger site.

Although we didn't go all out this year, a little bit of the Christmas spirit did manage to grace my home. My wooden Santa was placed out front, and that is all we got done as far as outside decoration. It just wouldn't be the same if my Santa wasn't standing next to my door though!


Inside, I placed only a very few decorations. Here is a prim Santa that I bought years ago either at a Country Peddler or Home and Garden party. He is on top of my pie safe.


Hanging on the door of the pie safe is a snowman pic that I put out every year.


And finally, a cute hand crafted snowman sits atop my display cabinet with my teddy bears.


The task of setting up the Christmas tree fell to my sons this year. There was some grumbling as the tree is really a pain in the butt to put together, but they did it! They added lights and youngest son put the ribbon up. I managed to put a few ornaments on. It isn't the prettiest tree and it's far from perfect, but it's up and decorated, and I'm sure enjoying it! My family room is decorated in blues, reds, and greens and those are the colors of the lights and most of the ornaments.


I've read that every Christmas tree is supposed to have a bird nest!


Here are some of my ornaments.












I almost forgot the angel tree topper. It was hard to get a good pic because the tree is about 7' tall.


A few years back, I made my own Christmas tradition of serving a breakfast casserole. What I love about it is that it is so easy to make, and you prepare it the night before, let it sit covered in the fridge all night, and then simply pop it in the oven the next morning. After presents are opened, you have a nice hot, tasty breakfast.


While I have lost the original recipe, this is how I made it. Spray Pam in the 9"x13" pan, then tear up 6 slices of bread. I include the crust, but you don't have to. Chop 8 ounces of Velveeta into the pan, spreading it about the pan evenly. Do the same with 8 ounces of cubed ham. You can buy this in the store in a nice package if you like things easy like I do. Dot a half stick of butter over the top. In a bowl, add six eggs to 4 cups of milk, mix thoroughly and add a squirt of mustard to the mix. I never add salt or pepper to anything, but most people will want to do this. Pour evenly over the other ingredients. This must sit a minimum of 4 hours, and is even better if you refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour to 75 minutes. And this is what you get!

Oh this tastes so good on Christmas morning! My kids request that I make this every Christmas and they gobble it right down.

First off, presents must be opened. Jared came downstairs wrapped in his blanket. Sean only looks half awake. Jake the dog had to get in on all the fun too.


As I am still not feeling 100%, my youngest brother decided to bring most of Christmas dinner to my house and cook it here! All I provided was a cranberry jello salad. He brought a ham that he was given at work, homemade mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, corn, biscuits, and pumpkin pie. Here he is cooking at my stove. Hey ladies, he is single! I was so blessed by my brother this year!


My kids threatened to boycott chores if I took pics of them at the table. Believe me, it was nothing fancy. Daughter Tara and her fiance were on vacation in Tennessee with her fiance's family members. They were in a cabin near Pigeon Forge and having a great time.

As for me, I had a pretty darn good Christmas after all!



Several people have asked how I am healing. I am doing pretty well. I was able to get out and do some very quick Christmas shopping on Wednesday, and also drove to the grocery store and did grocery shopping with the help of my youngest son. The latter was not my best idea as I was pretty sore. Today I am feeling great with minimal soreness. I only took pain meds the first four days I was home from the hospital. I see the doctor on the 30th, and that's when the staples (26) come out of my belly. It's a good thing I wasn't travelling this Christmas. I would probably have set off metal detectors!

I hope everyone else had a blessed Christmas day filled with family and love!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As of this morning, the turkey was stuffed, and now so are we. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by your loved ones. I had my usual holiday dinner with my children and my brother in attendance.


Here's a little table vignette. I wish I could say that I had a beautifully set table that would just dazzle you all, but this is about is good as it gets. The candle smelled darn good though, and lent a certain ambiance. The glass pumpkin with pumpkin potpourri smelled lovely also. I should probably have left the lid on for aesthetics, but then we couldn't smell the potpourri! Don't you know that if you don't cook the pumpkin pie you have to have something in the kitchen to smell like pie?

I bought these little pilgrims on sale after Thanksgiving a couple years ago. They came with a votive, but one got broken and the other is lost. I thought they were so cute, but after photographing them and looking at them more closely, they seem a little creepy with no mouths. At least they were quiet at the table. They didn't give us any sass, unlike the dog who shamelessly begged.

I am no Suzie Homemaker. Seriously. I hate to cook and clean. The following has been my solution for the past few holidays...turkey dinner in a box from Chief Supermarket! See it has everything: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry salad, pumpkin pie, dinner rolls, and green beans! So this is how we roll.

Of course, it came with a turkey too! All I had to do was heat everything up.


This is how we all looked after we had decimated the dinner table. We look pretty satisfied and satiated! My single brother is the fella on the left. My son Sean is in black, son Jared is in gray, and that is my daughter Tara and her fiance Mike on the right.


Here are my boys eating dinner rolls. I think that is their favorite part of each holiday meal as they had at least 3 rolls each.


Jared decided to change into a different shirt after dinner so we could take the family photo. I think that he is looking all GQ here. What a cutie!


Unfortunately, we had to wait while the camera charged as Tara ran down the battery while taking pics of herself with others. Here she is with Sean.


And here she is with her sweetie Mike. Pretend that there is a nice denim slipcover to cover up that butt ugly couch. It had been washed, and we ran out of time to put it back on.


My brother took pictures of us in the backyard. It is actually just above 40 degrees here and we are pretty cold.


I think I like this pic the best though. This will probably be the one that I use in our Christmas cards. I like that you can see the river in the background of this one.


My daughter and her fiance have moved to a town well over an hour away, so it was sure great to have them spend a little time with us, and it was also wonderful to have my brother come over as he doesn't often get the chance.

Time spent with loved ones...the perfect holiday!

Open Mic Night at the Coffeehouse

There is a wonderful coffeeshop in my town called Cabin FeverCoffee. The first three pics are from their website.


Isn't it pretty? In the summer, there are tables and chairs out front so you can have your coffee and sandwiches al fresco, and the window boxes are full of flowers. You can even buy gift items inside including candles.

There is also a second location on the north side of town near the mall. This is where they have a Friday night Open Mic night. My oldest son Sean decided to play his guitar and sing some songs he wrote!


I settled in with a nice cold mocha frappe, minus the whip cream and sprinkles.


Here is Sean with his guitar, singing his heart out! He loves being on stage! My mother's heart just swelled with pride even though he said a couple rather dorky things in his intro. He told everyone that he had named his guitar Sir Charles the Galdiator Eater just because it sounded cool. Uh hmmm, okay. Sometimes you just have to laugh.


We had a lot of fun listening to the other people play their guitars too, including some people that were in established area bands. There was a poem performed by one young lady about women and how they are seen for their appearance instead of their real selves,and I thought it was pretty awesome. Ironically, all the performers were younger folk in their 20s, then two were in their 50s. Maybe the coffeehouse concept missed the 30s and 40s population.

On Saturday, Sean went away for the day to visit with his girlfriend Lauren. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of them as I haven't met the young lady yet! It's a fairly new thing. I didn't have to sit home alone though. My daughter Tara came to visit!

I thought she looked really pretty yesterday and I told her so. She is a bargain shopper and found this wonderful navy and white striped top and her white capris for less than a dollar at a thrift shop. They could fill up a bag for $10 and were able to put 12 items of clothing in the bag! I'm so proud of her money stretching skills!


Here she is with her sweetie Mike. There are no more wedding details at this time as Mike is out of a job. They might have to settle for less than what they were hoping for, but I pointed out to her that even if they go before a judge or have just a small wedding, they can still be married.


Of course, my daughter had to snap a picture of me since I was taking so many of her! Mike spent most of the time inside sleeping on the couch, while Tara and I sat outside sipping raspberry lemondade in the sun and talking.

It was a very relaxing, peaceful afternoon.

I hope everyone else had a satisfying weekend!

Family and friends BBQ, Fireworks, and s'mores making party!

I invited my daughter and her boyfriend, and my friend Stacy, her daughters, and her boyfriend to come over for a barbeque before going to the park to watch fireworks. It was a lot of fun! Stacy has been one of my best buddies for several years now. We worked in the same factory and sometimes spent more time laughing than working. Her boyfriend also worked there, but he didn't come into the picture until about a year and a half ago.

My daughter is usually a camera hog, but today, the only picture I was able to get of her is in the group photo above where she is standing in the center.

Here is the cast of characters:

Here is Stacy and her sweetie Brian. Aren't they cute together?



Here is Stacy's oldest daughter Sydney. The grill I was given is right behind her.

Here is her middle daughter Shaelyn, or Shae-baby as I have always called her. Love the face

And here is her youngest sweetie pie Symantha, or Sam for short, also making a face.

Here is Brian, sans sunglasses, eating my very awful hamburgers. I had never operated a gas grill before...seriously! And I did not do a very good job on the hot dogs and hamburgers, but they were eaten anyway. We also had potato salad, baked beans, chips and dip, and cookies.

And here I am in my newly painted chair. This was right before I got all hot and sweaty from grilling burgers and hot dogs. Just a moment before this, Brian was giving me bunny ears.

After dinner, we all went to the park to watch fireworks. We staked out a spot, which turned out to be partially blocked by a tree, ugh, but we all had fun anyhow. Here are the girls with their glow necklaces on. I think they had more fun with those than they did with the fireworks! I took some pics of the fireworks, but they didn't turn out.

Afterwards, we came back to start up the fire and roast marshmallows for s'mores. I got the fire stoking!

Here we all are roasting our marshmallows. Some fell in the fire. Some got flung into the yard. Thankfully, none were blazing when they went flying off the skewers. Some actually got eaten!

Tried to take a pic of my son, but he covered his face, the little stinker! I heard from my youngest son on the 4th, and he said he had a fun day in Texas where they spent it with his step-mother's youngest son and his family. I have met them and they are the sweetest, and I was glad he got to spend the holiday with them.

Here is Mike, my daughter's boyfriend. Not sure where she is. Maybe in the bathroom. Ha!

Stacy is really enjoying her s'more. Not sure what was said that got her so tickled. Maybe Brian goosed her.

Here is Brian mesmerized by the flames, and Shae toasting her marshmallow.

Here is Sam below, contemplating the zen of S'mores.

All in all, it was a great night, and we stayed up until after midnight around the fire, listening to neighborhood fireworks still popping and banging. The girls had great fun poking around in the fire.
Eventually the evening died down, just as the fire had. The glowing embers looked almost alive! The girls thought it was very cool.

We ended the evening with the warm glow of friendship and time spent together! Hope you were all able to spend time with family and friends this holiday too!