BLOGMAS 2024 ~ day 21 ~ WINTER MUST HAVES & TAG ?? ~ BLOG 366.354B

What I CANNOT live without in the winter is many, many things, but these are my top items! Then again, SNOWMAGGEDDON 2019 proved there are things I CAN live without, but choose not to. 😀

The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that if I have a sore throat, dry skin, cold feet or hands, cold food or catch a cold I am NOT a happy camper so I go out of my way to prevent that. I like to try and not go out unless the temperature reaches AT LEAST 40°, but I don’t hibernate well either so that is just a pipe dream of a rule.

I try and drink a cup of green tea every night and try to make very balanced comfort food meals to warm up my family from the inside out.Though I openly admit that comfort food wins every now and then when it’s bitterly cold and wet.

I also have a newer and occasional favorite hot toddy, a Lemon Aval Pota Hot Toddy courtesy of McMenamins one of our local favorite resort chains.

LEMON AVAL POTA HOT TODDY

2 ounces Aval Pota Whiskey
2 bar spoons QUALITY honey
Juice of 1 small FRESH squeezed lemon

  • Pour ingredients into a coffee glass or mug and top with hot water.
  • Garnish with a lemon zest twist.

Here are the links to a few of our favorite soups and stews for you.

Top 2 Winter Beauty Essentials?

  • A NICE HOT SHOWER to relax and clean out the pores.
  • A super moisturizer to keep away dry skin!

Top 2 Winter Fashion Essentials?

  • I wait ALL year for it to be cold enough to bring out the boots & UGGS!
  • Turtlenecks and flannel layers!
  • Scarves and gloves.  I have color combos to match anything AND everything.

Favorite Winter Accessory?

  • HATS, GLOVES & SCARVES of course!!!!

Favorite Winter Nail Polish?

  • Red for Christmas with glitter of course, but normally a pinky, purplish mauve. I just have too much red in my complexion to wear red all the time.

Hot Cocoa or Apple Cider?

  • Homemade hot cocoa and MUST have marshmallows and or whipped cream!
  • Apple Cider if it is made into a AVAL POTA TODDY!

Favorite Winter Candle?

  • Apple and Cinnamon, though that seems to be waning for me and I’m liking more mellow marshmallowy scents.

Does it snow where you live?

  • Yes, but after the SNOWMAGEDDON of 2019 with a week long power outage that left us freezing or the SNOW/ICE storm of 2013 that left the cul-de-sac as an ice skating rink, we hope for more moderate levels of snow this year.

Have you ever made a snowman? Snow Angels?

  • Absolutely! And a snow woman and snow kids!

What is Your Favorite Holiday Movie?

  • IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE tops the list! Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street and they never get old either. And a Hallmark sucker every year for their new movies each year. And yes, Die Hard is a Christmas Movie 😀

What’s your favorite holiday drink? 

  • Coffee
  • Hot Tea
  • Hot Cocoa
  • Hot toddies – never been an eggnog fan

Candy cane or Gingerbread men?

  • I like the chalk style peppermint, but I’m not real keen on actual candy canes and I like soft gingerbread men and sugar cookies.

What’s your favorite holiday/Christmas song?

What is most important to you about the Christmas holidays? 

  • That it is genuine and homemade for the most part. Christmas is not a commercial holiday for me. I believe in trying to remember the real reason for the season and keep the Christmas spirit in my heart and life ALL year long. I LOVE hosting little get togethers and dinners with friends and family. A favorite girlfriend came for dinner last night and the table looked absolutely gorgeous and then I served bacon cheeseburger balls with mac and cheese 😀 so it’s not about fancy food just time together to enjoy each other’s company.

BLOGMAS 2024 ~ CHILDHOOD & FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MEMORIES ~ DAY 4 ~ BLOG 366.337B

WOW there are so many! One of my earliest favorites was when I was 5 and I got my tea table and chairs – my uncle sure looked silly sitting at that table drinking tea with me 😀 I LOVED that table and planned to keep it forever eventually passing it down to my daughter, but when I was in college my dad gave it to my aunt who said it had only been on loan from her all those years 🙁 

But wait, that is not my favorite memory. It turns out that my favorite memory is of trying to stump my dad each and EVERY year with his gift – it became a mission of sorts to be the first person to stump him. I swear the man was like 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 actually 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, the box inside a box trick, adding a pair of old shoes… but he ALWAYS guessed!  I still don’t know how he did it. Sadly 🙁 this will be the 31st Christmas without him. He died so young, but I have so many wonderful memories of him and Christmas from when I was young.

There of course have been many memories since, but for some reason the childhood ones are the most memorable at times.In more recent years the memories are not about things, but more about times. There was an arctic storm a few years back that blew in and all of a sudden everything turned white. This was our first snowstorm of the season and 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 looked horrible, but NOT when it was under a blanket of snow.Unfortunately, being in a cul-de-sac, delivery trucks leave MANY tire tracks at this time of year to mar the beautiful snow cover.
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.

JSDBFJHSFJKHSD

HAPPY HOMEMAKER MONDAY with MENU & RECIPES week 48 of 2024 ~ BLOG 366.337

Be sure to join Happy Homemaker Monday with our host, Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

WEEKEND RECAP

WOW, what a whirlwind weekend! I’m glad it was a long one! I hope your Thanksgiving was as relaxed as ours was full of yummy food, family and friends. I didn’t even leave the house except to feed the neighbor’s cat and still managed to do over 12,000 steps on Thursday alone!

On Friday we met my girl friend and her mom at our local family owned and managed Christmas Tree Farm to help her with her tree and buy our wreaths for the holiday season. I’m so glad we did it when we did because sadly, the wreath room and flock room along with multiple pieces of equipment were destroyed in a fire early Saturday morning! I was impressed that with all they lost (power, water, wreath making abilities, flocking machines…), they were open again on Sunday for trees only. Small towns rally together to take care of their own.

Saturday was a flurry of activity that started by meeting with the ladies helping our “Angel Tree” gift program for the holidays because we received the names on Wednesday evening and need to be done shopping and wrapped by the 11th so I can deliver them on the 12th. It’s a super quick turn around this year.

Sunday was just as busy meeting with a friend to design flyers for her bar and grill’s Christmas party, shopping for the Eagle’s lodge since we skipped last week with the Thanksgiving crowds, helping my mom pack to finally leave on Monday for her snowbird run, laundry and cleaning. Sadly, a close friend lost her son suddenly on Sunday afternoon 🙁 My heart aches for her and I’ll be picking up as many meal prep and chores for her that I can while she’s away.

Don’t forget that BLGOMAS 2024 has begun. I hope you can join in!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE

Layer season is here! In fact it has become MULTIPLE layer season 😀 It’s cold, but sunny with highs in the mid 40’s and lows in the high 20’s or low 30’s for most of the week until the weekend when it is supposed to start raining again. UGG’s, turtlenecks and flannels have become my best friends again!

TO DO LIST, APPOINTMENTS & PROJECTS

THIS WEEK’S TO DO LIST, PROJECTS & APPOINTMENTS
  • LAUNDRY & CLEANING Laundry is up to date, but will be deep cleaning today so I can go full on decorating mode tomorrow. We had decided to do a live tree this year and planned to go get it tomorrow afternoon. With the fire at the tree farm, we’re rethinking it and probably going to do our artificial tree again this year.
  • GROCERIES & ERRANDS I have a hair cut appointment in town on Wednesday and will do the grocery store on the way home.
  • PROJECTS I’m hosting a “GIRL’S NIGHT” next week so am concentrating this week on finishing ALL my decorating and getting some baking done. “GIRL’S NIGHT” will be a BYOB, SNACK, PIZZA and project night. Some will finish Jewelry trees from last year, some will be making an adorable painted stacked wood project we just found, some will do both, some will just eat and drink… 😀 the whole point of the night is just to have some fun together. As for the BYOB some will definitely drink, but the BYOB is mainly for making homemade flavored vanilla.

DVR/TV TIME

WHAT’S ON THE DVR/TV
  • STREAMING Have been watching or should I say re-watching BONES which is now 20 years old! Where did that time go? We’re in season 5. Also re-watching late night HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER which is almost as old.
  • CABLE Trying to get caught up on everything on the DVR. The Hallmark movies will be something I’ll have on while decorating this week.

READING TIME

Yesterday was book club (SOCIETY of LIES by Lauren Ling Brown) and sadly I didn’t finish the book in time. I was only 75% done, but fortunately neither did half the others. We did pick the next book (The LAST ONE at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak) though and I got it ordered. 😀

FUNNIES

MENU PLANS

BREAKFAST is always a work in progress for me – it will generally be hot water and a fruit yogurt 😀

12/2 MONDAY
12/3 TUESDAY
12/4 WEDNESDAY
12/5 THURSDAY
12/6 FRIDAY
12/7 SATURDAY
12/8 SUNDAY
DINNER
 BEEF & SHORT RIB LASAGNA (COSTCO)
 TACO TUESDAY with FRIENDS
OUT
 ROAST CHICKEN
 PIZZA ROLLS (homemade – recipe soon)
 GERMAN MEATLOAF
TURKEY NOODLE CASSEROLE
DESSERT
 NONE THIS WEEK
 
 

FAVORITE PHOTOS FROM THE CAMERA

In case I’ve never mentioned it I have thing for barns… 2 of these may not make it another year if we have a heavy snow as they are barely standing on their own now.

INSPIRATIONS

I probably should have shared this one LAST week, but I live by this ideal, so I guess anytime is a good time to share it! In fact, I have only ever done 1 black Friday sale when I was in my early 20’s and have NO intention of ever doing another.

LIFE TIP

HOMEMAKING / COOKING TIP

RECIPES COMING UP THIS WEEK

  • LEGENDARY POTATOES
  • MEAT LOVER’S SAVORY BREAD PUDDING
  • SLOPPY JOE SLIDER BAKE

RECIPE LINKS FROM LAST WEEK

WEEKLY FEATURED PARTY LINKS