"String too short to use"

10) When you have a small boy around, 5:30 in the morning is about the only quiet you get. So here I am, blogging in the wee hours.

9) It snowed all day yesterday. We now have about a foot of the white stuff. It is beautiful, but driving is treacherous. I had to go out for a bit in the morning and HOLY COW! I was raised in snow country so I know how to drive when conditions are bad. Constant vigilance! I took the 4-wheel drive and did just fine. Almost got crushed by a semi who couldn’t stop when the light changed, but otherwise fine. I find other drivers to be irritating most of the time, but when the roads are bad I find them to be absolutely terrifying. From now on I’m only going if everyone else promises to stay home.

8) I spent yesterday afternoon baking. Cookies. Cookies. Cookies. It was fun, but my feet were sure tired at the end of it all. I still have to make peanut brittle. Learning how to make peanut brittle from my grandmother’s recipe has been my contribution to Christmas since she passed away. Makes me sad this year though, cause it was Dad’s favorite.

7) Christmas cards are in the mail. Enjoy the pic of Liam. We loved it, although I think it makes him look older than he is.

6) This is Umatilla School District’s third snow day this week. They have now used up all their extra days and any more they have to take will extend their year. It has been nice having Chris home most of this week, but I don’t want them to have to push out the end of the year. That would cut into our vacation plans. Grrr!

5) I have to drag out the wrapping paper for the last time again today. My final gift is complete and I can wrap up the late comers and be done! Usually I am finished long before now, but this year has not been ideal.

4) Liam is walking more and more each day. He loves to take a hand and walk with Chris or I all over the house. He will walk on his own, but he would rather take someone with him. Last night he took both of us. That was a first for us, and I think we were both a little choked up. It is the little things that get you.

3) I’ve begun work on “Ordinary Time” paraments. This is so much fun. I love to design and create when I am given free rein to do so. For those who don’t know: “Ordinary Time” is most of the church year, and it is green. I am very excited about these as well. My goal is that by the time the sanctuary remodel is done, the paraments will be ready. That means I’d best get hopping. The destruction starts the first of January and I believe it is scheduled to be complete by the end of the month. I’m going to really have to move.

2) I’m afraid my house is going to take precedence over everything else today. What a mess! I told Chris it looks like animals live here. Chris calls it “bears with furniture,” I call it “maximum density.” I can stand the clutter of things not getting to their proper homes for just so long, and then . . . maximum density is reached and I am done. That’s today.

1) I need to put some more current pics of Liam into the little photo album I carry in my purse. Unfortunately, it is full. I looked through it, thinking I could take some of the older ones out, but I find I can’t. There’s that sentimental nerve I’ve been looking for in myself all these years. I didn’t think I had one, but lo’ there it is.

0) I ordered our new windows this week. You will all be so proud of me: I opted for the bay window in the family room. It is terribly expensive, but I found I just couldn’t resist. Plus when we sell the place someday, it will be a good selling point. Right?

Bing said it best

Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Snow
I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

Where it's snowing
All winter through
That's where I want to be
Snowball throwing
That's what I'll do
How I'm longing to ski
Through the snow-oh-oh-oh-oh

Those glist'ning houses that seem to be built of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a mountain covered with a quilt of snow

What is Christmas with no snow
No white Christmas with no snow
Snow

I'll soon be there with snow
I'll wash my hair with snow
And with a spade of snow
I'll build a man that's made of snow
I'd love to stay up with you but I recommend a little shuteye
Go to sleep
And dream
Of snow

It's Chili weather

We woke up to snow this morning. Only about 2 inches, but for us it is unusual. Our normal weather for December before Christmas is just cold with the occasional freezing rain incident.

Therefore, this morning I am borrowing a page from my friend Maggie's blog and posting pictures of food.

This is my much perfected Chili. It is a recipe I have been working on for years and is now just, oh so close to, almost perfection. It all started with a couple packages of dry red beans about a week ago.



It should be ready to eat at about 4 p.m. this afternoon.

Come on over!

Taking Christmas pics

Chris and I spent some time this morning attempting to get a good picture of Liam in his Christmas jammies to send in our Christmas cards. This year it is all you get. Neither of us feel up to a letter.

This is one of the rejects. It was my favorite of the bunch, but the focus is just a bit off for reproducing prints from.

"String too short to use"

10) Liam is a clandestine walker. I will catch him walking out of the corner of my eye and if I turn my head to look right at him, he quickly sits down. So we know he can do it, most of the time he just chooses to crawl instead. It is much faster and he feels more secure that way.

9) Banana Spice Bread, yummy. I needed a recipe for banana bread that had good flavor but contained no rum or nuts. I made it last night. Liam loves it which is good as he was the reason for no nuts or rum.

8) Christmas cards are going to be late this year, they are waiting on a picture of Liam which has not even been taken yet. Most likely there will be no letter to accompany. I started one, but it is such a downer. My father’s death pretty much overshadows anything else we did, and I don’t want to bring everybody’s holiday down.

7) I still have flowers blooming in the pots on my front porch. Unbelievable as we have had temperatures in the mid-twenties. But, there they are, my petunias, still blooming.

6) As of yesterday, my Christmas shopping is complete. I paid for the last item on ebay yesterday. Now, as long as everything gets here in time, I am in good shape. Hurrah!

5) We need to replace the window in our family room. I want to put a bay window in there. I just think it would look so cool and I have always wanted one. Problem is, a bay window is more than three times the price of just a plain ol’ window. I somehow want to justify this, but so far I can’t, but I really want to. A bay window would just be so neat. Help!

4) The shopping is done, the sewing is not. I am making new jammies for Liam and myself. Liam has almost outgrown the ones I made in October, so he needs new ones which will hopefully get him through the winter. All my flannels are faded and worn, no holes, but so ugly now. I want something bright and new for Christmas.

3) Liam likes to unload the kitchen cabinet that contains all my stock pots and sauce pans and colanders. Chris snapped a picture of him awhile back. He looks so sweet, but believe me when I tell you those curls are the perfect cover for the little red devil horns he has on his head. He is one busy boy.

2) I am starting the traditional end of year file fight that all bookkeepers fight. I have to find a home for my own, and help nine clients pull theirs and stash them away somewhere for safekeeping. Yike! Just kidding, I actually love it. It satisfies my type A jonesing for organization. Besides I can’t resist file folders, paper, pens, paper clips, staples, erasers and all manner of office supplies. I can spend an extraordinary amount of time and money in Office Depot, Office Max and Staples. Those stores were made for me!

1) If you could eliminate one hereditary characteristic from your family, what would it be?