Bah Humbug!

I was doing just fine with this holiday season until I had to go out on a Friday night, during the peak Christmas season, during a "wintry mix," and fight the crowds in order to find Emily shoes for her costume in her Christmas play at church this weekend. Ugh! Have I told you I hate shopping?! I'm so glad Barb has volunteered to be my personal shopper! And Barb came to the rescue! After hitting 3 or 4 stores and driving all over God's country (well, it felt like it at least), it turns out Barb has the same size foot, and the only shopping we needed to do was from her very own closet!

It wasn't all a lost cause. I did "accidentally" pick up a few Christmas gifts AND hit the Kohl's giant Friday night sale. I got these cool plates:



to go on my new Pampered Chef 3-tier shelf:

Okay, maybe shopping isn't so bad sometimes!

Minty Fresh!

I LOVE MINT! Peppermint, spearmint, you name it. People used to joke that it was because my maiden name is "Mintman." A teacher of mine even nicknamed me, "Minty." I love mints all year round but Christmas is a time when we see it most. The frosty coolness, the "ah"ness of it all! My mom even grew mint in the backyard. I remember she would snip it and add it to her iced tea.

Unfortunately, the best mint cookies in the world (Girl Scout cookies) alas are only available once a year, but they wouldn't be so special if they were available year round.

Here's my favorite Christmas cookie recipe:

2 boxes Junior Mints

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking soda

2 eggs

3-1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

Cream margarine and sugar. Add vanilla, salt and eggs. Mix well. Blend in flour. Shape into about 1" balls. Press 1 mint in center of each. Bake at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes.

One of my favorite stores, Bath and Body Works features this:

Gotta stock up now before it's gone for another year. YUM!! (Can you smell the mint yet?!)

Let's hear it for mints! YAY!!! (High-fiving my sibs!!!)

Fa la la la la.....la la la LAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Another new tradition at our home is round the clock Christmas music provided by one of my favorite radio stations here in St. Louis.

Here's my top ten list of my favorite belt-it-out holiday music!

* Hey Santa - Carnie & Wendy Wilson.......I absolutely LOVE this one, but I can't find it on CD or iTunes! :o(

* O Holy Night - Josh Groban........The man sings like an angel. What else can I say?

* The Gift - Jim Brickman .......Quickly becoming my favorite!!

* Last Christmas - Wham! ..............Okay, it's a little smarmy, but this takes me back to the early 80s before I knew George Michael was gay and I thought he was IT (now I think he's EW!)

* Christmas Canon - Trans Siberian Orchestra...........I LOVE Canon by Pachelbel, but the kids in this one kind of ruin it. Still I like it!

* Christmas Eve - Trans Siberian Orchestra.............Well, I like everything by TSO. This makes for good housecleaning music!

* You Make It Feel Like Christmas - Neil Diamond...........Somewhat cheesy, but very romantic!

* All I Want for Christmas is You - Mariah Carey..............Good music to decorate by!

* Santa Baby (any artist) ...............This is the first year I like this. It's just plain fun!

* Little Drummer Boy - Josh Groban............The man sings like an angel and he's singing about drums (what could be better except if maybe he was playing the drums!?) ;o)

Procrastination

Darn! All day yesterday I thought of cool things I could blog for yesterday's entry. Then I got home and got busy (well, see paragraph below) and fell asleep looking at the Christmas tree and there went my great blog entry for the day! ;o)

I'm really enjoying this Christmas season, even if I'm procrastinating! Kids don't procrastinate. They daydream, play, get sidetracked, have fun, enjoy life. Why do we as adults have to label that as a bad thing?

I did get my Christmas card pictures printed! Thanks for all the votes. No one picture won, so I just printed a variety of all four and will give them out randomly.

I haven't bought *one thing* for Christmas yet! And guess what.......I don't care! It will get done! (I say with a big grin!) I like this new attitude I have this year. I am ENJOYING the season. I hope you are too!

MJ's holiday advice for the day:

Take care of *you* - We get so caught up in the hustle and bustle. Take a half hour (or even just 15 minutes), set your timer, put your feet up, and just let your mind drift for a time. It will give you more energy and make you feel refreshed and renewed to get back into the hustle and bustle.

New Traditions

As promised, here's our new tree! I love the built-in lights! I also love the idea of no pine needles and no crabby soon-to-be-ex criticizing me while trying to set the tree in the stand, putting on the lights, etc. .......Change is good!

Another thing that will be different about this Christmas is that it will be the one-year anniversary of Mom's passing. Christmas morning will be at our house instead of hers. I thought I would feel sad in hanging her decorations, but it only brought warm, fond memories of my childhood and an excited anticipation to new traditions.

We've been elfed!!

Katie designed this virtual Christmas card.......from our family to yours! (hee! hee!) It takes a minute to load but it's worth the wait!

24-Day Blogging Challenge

Okay, I'm up for a challenge! I got this from my AOL scrapbooking loopie, Susan.

Pics to follow, but my Emily assembled our new artificial Christmas tree all by herself and "only had to look at the directions twice" - Wow! She certainly didn't get that from my side of the family! ;o)



Tonight was my company's annual holiday party at the Ritz Carlton. It was very nice and I had quite an enjoyable time!