BLOGMAS 2015 – DAY 20

I’m a Virgo and as such tend to make lists and be over-prepared. So, the only last minute gifts I tend to need are a couple extras for those surprises that come up like a surprise gift from a neighbor.

A few of the “things” I keep on hand (with a festive ribbon already tied to them) for those occasions are:

  • Dutch Brothers coffee gift cards
  • Homemade applesauce
  • Homemade jam
  • And closer to the actual day a plate full of homemade goodies

Here are a couple of recipes I made last year that are great to have around and NEVER EVER go to waste.

CARAMEL BUTTERSCOTCH FUDGE
1 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1 1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup Kraft caramel bits
1 can Eagle-Brand sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup Fisher’s Cinnamon Pecans

  • Line a 9×9 pan with heavy duty foil leaving enough foil overhanging the edges to use as handle to lift the foil out of the pan after the fudge has set.
  • Using a double boiler over medium heat melt the chips, caramel bits and condensed milk together until smooth.
  • Immediately pour into the foil lined pan.
  • Top with pecans using a piece of wax paper to press the pecans slightly into the fudge.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 can Eagle-Brand sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup Crushed Honey Roasted Peanuts

  • Line a 9×9 pan with heavy duty foil leaving enough foil overhanging the edges to use as handle to lift the foil out of the pan after the fudge has set.
  • Using a double boiler over medium heat melt the chips and condensed milk together until smooth.
  • Immediately pour into the foil lined pan.
  • Top with peanut pieces using a piece of wax paper to press the pecans slightly into the fudge.

BLOGMAS 2015 – PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS

The packages are all wrapped and those that need to be shipped are on their way or will be by Wednesday.  So, now it would normally be time to turn to the kitchen and start preparing the plates for the neighbors. This year with no kitchen, it was appetizers for a block party on the 17th.

This is truly my favorite holiday to cook for.  I try to add a few new goodies each year that I bake for “Neighbor” plates.

Last year I added:

  • Lemon Oatmeal Bars
  • 4 Layer caramel crunch nougat brownies
  • Chunky Monkeys
  • Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with chocolate.

Here are a few of our favorites from year’s past:

This recipe is sooooooooooooooooo simple, but messy! Have fun making them. They are quite rich though – be forewarned!  The centers will turn to a clear sugary liquid in a day or so.

CHOCOLATE COVERED CHERRIES
1 cup butter, melted
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 pounds confectioners sugar (about 8 cups)
3-10 ounce jars maraschino cherries(about 120 cherries), really well drained
1-2 pounds milk chocolate candy coating, chopped (I used almond bark)

  • Combine butter and milk until smooth.
  • Gradually add in confectioner’s sugar until a soft dough forms.
  • Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten into 2 inch circles.
  • Place a cherry in the center of each one.
  • Wrap sides around cherry until cherry is completely covered and roll into a smooth ball.
  • Melt chocolate until smooth and dip each ball into the chocolate.
  • Place on wax paper until cool and sprinkle with sprinkles.
  • Cool well.
2008 Neighbor Plates

OREO CHEESECAKE BALLSYUM YUM GOOD!
1 regular package Oreos
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
Almond Bark
Candy Decorations

  • Crush Oreos in food processor
  • With hand mixer, mix together the Oreo crumbs and cream cheese
  • Roll into small balls.
  • Put balls into freezer for 5 minutes.
  • Melt Almond bark in small batches.
  • Coat each ball in almond bark.
  • Immediately decorate.
  • Let harden.

BUTTERFINGER COOKIES
Ritz crackers
creamy peanut butter
almond bark
sprinkles

  • Spread peanut butter on ritz crackers and top with another cracker. 
  • Melt almond bark in the microwave. 
  • Dip each cookie in the almond bark and set onto wax paper to harden. 
  • If you’re using sprinkles do so before the almond bark hardens.

BLOGMAS 2015 – DAY 18

Stuffing stockings is one of my favorite things to do.  I’m always on the look out for special little items that I tuck away all year long waiting for just this day. Since the kids are grown hubby gets my full attention and he hates it (sort of) because he isn’t as good at it, but he tries hard and is getting better every year.

This was last year:

  • 2 new Wii U games (Amazon had an awesome Black Friday sale I could do from home in my PJ’s)
  • fun snacks – M&Ms, cashews, pistachios and DILL peanuts.
  • some camo carbiners
  • some camo notepads
  • an Army magnet
  • new winter gloves
  • Mason jar shot glasses so he’ll quit using my REAL mason jars
  • a couple of additional watchband choices to accessorize one of his gifts from mom
  • .50 caliber pocket knife
  • lottery tickets

This year I still have to find the stockings, but his will be full of ALL sorts of fun stuff again including some of his new favorite flavors of Dr. McGullicuddys!

BLOGMAS 2015 – DAY 17

I thought about this category a lot and decided that since we are still in transition our “local” traditions are still fluid so instead I am going to tell you about a holiday tradition of the locals. I have to say that these are from last year.  I have just been so busy with 14-16 hour days since we go here and hit the ground running that I haven’t been able to much in the new community.  We did go see the “Messiah” by Handle at a local church and it was wonderful.  I have noticed that the pageantry seems more a norm here in the city than when we lived in the country.

The Festival of Lights is now 20 years old and a great way to kick off the holiday season. It’s ALL Volunteer and NON-Profit.  It began as a fundraiser sponsored by the Rotary Club to help get the city out of debt and then took on a life of its own and now helps with scholarships and special projects. The festival runs every night from Thanksgiving to New Years.  You can drive your own car or take a horse drawn carriage ride through the displays.  They have also coordinated a local radio station to listen to as you view the displays.  The night we went through the fog was moving in early so a few of the pictures look a bit “smoky”.

As of this year they have the world’s tallest (41 feet, 16,000 pounds with  working jaw) nutcracker built by a local company, 500,00 lights, 90 animated displays, 3D displays, horse drawn carriage rides through the displays and a Holiday Village with Santa, hot cider with a bake sale and a synchronized light show in the courtyard.  The displays depict fairy tales, the military, patriotism, the local logging industry, local vineyards, local fishing and the traditional Christmas songs and scenes.  People come from all over to see it. Unfortunately for locals, it doesn’t change much, but is still fun every few years.

Three of my favorite munchkins from next door were coincidentally there the same night we were so had to snap a few pictures of the discussions with Santa.

Even the lights with errors turned out cute.  It was difficult to get great pictures or continuous pictures of the animated scenes since there were so many cars behind us.

This snowman is on a corner in our neighborhood hugging a light standard.

BLOGMAS 2015 – DAY 16

Before I show you my tree, let me just say

A neighboring town always does their tree right in the middle of main street. My granddaughters dwarf next to it.

 Our tree LAST year – not our best, but it is homey and growing on us.

This year we are just happy to have a Charley Brown tree.

One of these years I REALLY want to try this:

I’d been wondering about the upside down Christmas trees and decided to search and see what I could find out. I found several places offering background on the upside down tree. One was, ChristmasCarnivals.com which also has many other links for Christmas history to check out too.
“Christmas is associated with many traditions, of which the Christmas Tree is an inherent part. The history of the upside down Christmas Tree has its roots in the 7th century. It is during this period that St Bonafice journeyed from Devonshire, England to Germany to preach the message of God. He engaged himself in religious as well as social work and spent a lot of his time in Thuringia, a town located in Germany itself, which is the birthplace of the industry dealing with Christmas Decorations.
It is believed that St Boniface, while staying in Thuringia, took the help of the triangular fir tree to represent the Holy Trinity made up of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. As a result, the converted people started to [consider] the Fir tree as God’s Tree. Then St Bonafice, using this triangular shaped tree tried to introduce to the pagan tribes the paragons of Trinity.
By the 12th century, it became a custom, especially in Europe to hang the Fir trees upside down from the ceilings to symbolize the Holy Trinity. The Upside down Christmas Trees was also considered the symbol of Christianity. However, the real history behind the hanging of the upside down Trees remains vague. Presently the trend of hanging a Christmas Tree has changed, because nowadays the tip of the Christmas Tree is made to point towards Heaven, as many think that an upside down Christmas tree is a sign of contempt.”

TWO STEPS FORWARD AND TEN STEPS BACKWARD and RAUL LIED AGAIN!

We have REALLY been trying hard to move forward in spite of ALL the obstacles we have been jumping over the past 49 days.  We are so close to having at least a bedroom and feeling like it is somewhat livable and then WHAM! 10 steps backwards we go.  I did get the pantry (short of the floor) finished though. The overall theme (eventually) will be farmhouse chic. Hubby and I both love this shelf paper – eventually when the floor and door molding are in the cohesiveness of our ideas will show through. Imagine a Tuscan green old fashioned screen door on the pantry and it will be done LOL.

We received a call yesterday telling us that our carpet was in and they can install it Friday – SCORE.  All we have to do is finish painting the bedroom, no problem. Hubby finished framing the window yesterday and we only need to paint now.  What a difference a brighter color makes. I can’t wait until we can change that window!  Foundation people said we have to wait 3 months to allow settling so I finally put a sheet over it!

I also called the plumber yesterday to come fix the the leak caused by the foundation guys.  We now know why the foundation guys were in such a big hurry to get out of here.  Raul lied AGAIN! Raul told hubby the leak was in the wall above the foundation and asked if hubby would mind fixing it after he tore the wall off because they were late to their next job because of the rain delay day they had to take during our job.  We tore out the wall and found that the leak is in and under the foundation and should have been repaired at the same time they repaired the other leak they cause when the jack hammered into the washer drain.  Now they have closed the holes and in order for the plumber to fix it new tunneling from a different direction is required taking out a tree in the back yard so hubby and I spent an hour moving all the pavers and things that will be in the way of the digging.

The bottoms of the cabinets were rotted, but today we learned just how badly.  Good thing we’d already decided that they needed to be changed because we couldn’t get them clean enough to paint. The electricians were also scheduled to be here today to fix a splice area and some funny wiring.  Hubby and I intended to have the sink and the rest of the cabinetry out of the way, but ran into a stumbling block when the leaky 40 year old garbage disposal was hard wired in behind everything.  So everyone decided to get in on the job.  My question is how many men does it take to move a sink?

Garage disposal bottom

No wonder the garbage disposal was leaking. Don’t you just love the dumbing down of the wood industry that they have to paint construction grade 2×4’s flourescent pink?

Hubby also found good and bad news yesterday when he finished tearing out the bathroom drywall.    The good news is that the mold was only on the front of the wallboard and the vanity.  The bad news is that he had to rip out the wall board out of precaution to realize it wasn’t on the back.

BLOGMAS 2015 – DAY 15

How I decorate each year changes based on my mood, weather, etc… so it will never be the same twice! EXCEPT for the 1st picture the other pictures are Christmases past.  The remodel on the new old house this year is really putting a crimp in our style.

Snowman Family then
Snowman Family now

We made the candle yule logs for Advent craft night at church one year and they were a HUGE success and soooooooo easy to do.


These are a few of my new favorites from 2014.

My cousin that passed away in 2014 made this ornament for me.  From now it will always be hung by my shooting stars in her honor. That is after I get done being mad at her for leaving me this mess to deal with.

And our new handmade ornament by the Design Chick.  I can show you this now that both DIL’s have received theirs in the mail.

And of course the Christmas cacti decorate themselves.

FAVORITE CHILDHOOD CHRISTMAS MEMORIES – BLOGMAS 2014 – DAY 14

WOW there are so many! My very first personal desk when I was 9, my aunt coming to visit from Texas around that same time and sitting on the floor in a leather dress playing Barrel of Monkeys with the younger kids or maybe the year I got my first bike, whoops wait that was the birthday before Christmas.

My grandfather worked for General Electric as an X-ray technician of sorts (he oversaw the installation and calibration of X-ray equipment) and one year he brought home a GE Snow tree and ornaments (I still don’t know the correlation between between being an X-ray technician and Christmas trees). Anyway this tree had a HUGE cardboard base and once the tree was up and decorated you filled this base with thousands of tiny Styrofoam balls and when you turned the switch on the tree would make it’s own snow.  As a kid I thought it was pretty cool, but as an adult I look back and realize what a MESS it made!! Especially when the wind was blowing and static electricity was high – those damn balls stuck to EVERYTHING!

But wait, that is not my favorite memory.  It turns out that my favorite memory is of trying to stump my dad each year with his gift – it became a mission of sorts to be the first to stump him.  I swear the man was Carnac when it came to knowing what was inside a box. We tried EVERY year to stump him and I don’t remember ever being able to do it.  We tried adding bricks, taping a silver dollar with duct tape to the bottom so it would flip back and forth to make noise when you shook it, adding a pair of shoes… but he ALWAYS guessed!  I don’t know how he did it.

HAPPY HOMEMAKER & MENU PLAN MONDAY

Good morning my friends.  I’m getting an early start this week.  Seems like my 14 hour days are just not enough to get it all done!  I hope you had wonderful weekends.  We had wind and rain and I loved it! I had plenty to keep me busy, so it was wonderful to watch out the window.

WEATHER OUTSIDE
We had tons of rain and wind over the weekend, but today is gorgeous! The rest of the week is supposed to be clear and nice also.

TO DO FOR THE WEEK

  • MONDAY – Contact plumber about the leak caused by the foundation people, finish the Christmas shopping, grocery shopping, prep the boxes for mailing, finish hanging the clothes in the closet, 2nd coat of paint in the pantry, 1st coat of paint in bedroom and build framework for the kitchen sink so we can finish ripping out the lower kitchen cabinets.
  • TUESDAY – Electrician will be here to fix the problems in the kitchen and finish  – PROGRESS!, paper back walls of pantry, cut shelf paper for pantry shelves. Finish removing the vanity and sink in master bath to determine where the leak is coming from.
  • WEDNESDAY – If the plumber is done I want to tile the laundry room and refrigerator area as well as the pantry.
  • THURSDAY – PAINT!!!!! Make appetizer for the Holiday party at the clubhouse
  • FRIDAY – Carpet installation? 
  • SATURDAY – If carpet is done, finish the molding and move into OUR bedroom FINALLY.
  • SUNDAY –  FOOTBALL!!!

HOUSE PROJECTS

  • MASTER BEDROOM
  • PANTRY
  • LAUNDRY ROOM

KITCHEN WISHES

  • FLOOR 
  • LIGHTING
  • CABINETS
  • COUNTER TOPS 
  • BACK SPLASH
  • RANGE & HOOD
  • DISHWASHER

 MENU PLANS FOR THE WEEK


MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
BREAKFAST
YOGURT & FRUIT
SCRAMBLED EGGS & CHEESE
FRUIT SMOOTHIE
YOGURT & FRUIT
MAPLE OATMEAL & RAISINS
WAFFLES


PANCAKES & BACON
LUNCH
FRUIT &  CHEESE
SOUP & CRACKERS
SANDWICH
??


MEAT & CHEESE
?? ??
DINNER
EXPERIMENT NIGHT
C.O.R.N.
OUT


DESSERT




CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE


HOMEMAKING TIP
As you know we have been doing a ton of painting around here.  A tip that REALLY works is to place a glass of vinegar in the room you are painting and it absorbs the paint fumes!

I know you have all seen this, but I’m actually doing it!  Turn ALL your hangers backwards at the beginning of the year. At the end of the year, any hanger that is still backwards should be donated.  I already filled 2 bags just hanging the clothes that had been in storage.

THINGS THAT ARE MAKING ME HAPPY

  • FINISHED PROJECTS!!!!

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA

After 47 days here I can FINALLY begin hanging clothes in the closet!

INSPIRATION

Be sure to link up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for Happy homemaker Monday and with Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

We didn’t get as much done today as we originally intended, but we did get some of the “bigger” thorn in our sides things done.

My uncle had a charity come to pick up the pain in the butt display case, freezer from the garage, 40 year old trash compactor, oven and microwave that could not be donated because the 2 questions thrift stores asked were 1) Do they work? 2) What condition are they in?  LOL In the end he ended up paying the guy to remove the items.

Hubby got the molding in the closet finished so I can hang the clothes tomorrow.  He also started the door molding.  I can’t wait for the finished room!

We had to have a tree too.  We don’t have room for much so we did a “Charlie Brown” tree that’s alive and can be planted after Christmas is over.

BLOGMAS 2015 – DAY 12

So far this year we are very warm and dry and last year in Oregon we weren’t very white or wet for Christmas at all.  In 2013 we were VERY wet and white yet so I’ll show you the pictures from Winter 2013.  This was our first snowstorm of the season, just before Christmas.

Hubby made this for me to wake up to in the back yard before the snow got too bad.
The house across the street usually looks horrible, but NOT when it’s under a blanket of snow.

Unfortunately, being in a cul-de-sac, delivery tracks leave MANY tire tracks at this time of year to mar the beautiful snow cover.
Even Rudolph was shivering!
The first day after he storm was absolutely gorgeous though!
The duck pond behind the neighborhood was truly a work of art.
Obviously we hadn’t gone anywhere – no tire tracks!
The fish ladder was like glass with the cold and ice.