Merry Christmas

Yesterday I wanted to write this great post about how I have one corner of our house that is the peace and joy of Christmas, in the tidal wave of a mess that the rest of the house is.  But then the mess consumed me. . . it took me an hour to figure out that reason my SD card wouldn't read from the reader in my printer was because the printer and the computer weren't connected.  Then we went to get my phone and it took us and hour and a half to drive a 30 minute drive because EVERYONE was trying to get to Target, Best Buy and ToysRUs, by the time we finally got there we discovered that not only is the iPhone 4S on back order but  I need super Verizon national customer service to separate me out of my parents plan, not just in store Verizon dudes.  Epic Christmas fail on our part = no gift for me until the new year. 

Did I mention that Bruce spent the day drilling a giant hole in the chimney? He did. Then he had an anxiety attack that the wouldn't finish and sent me to Home Depot and after a phone call about deciding what I need my phone died so I missed the call in which he would have told me to just come home he had completed the hole.

Then I took this photo.

And remembered that: We are all happy and healthy, we have jobs, an awesome dog, and a warm house to live in.  Yesterday our (and my extended family's) gifts were delivered to the medical day care unit at Franciscan Hospital for Children. (Learn more about FHC here they are awesome!) I remembered that these are the important things, the embodiment of the holiday. So slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy the season.

Merry Christmas!!!

Poor Kenny

Kenny Puppy has been having some lameness in his back legs, so we finally took him to the vet.  She couldn't find any glaring problems so she recommended doing a set of orthopedic x-rays to check out what was going on in his joints.  This required putting him under anesthesia. Bad news; he had one crappy looking hip and both of his knees don't look great either, probably partial tears in his ACL's.  Good news; he's super cute with the post anesthesia sleepies.   

S'mores Popcorn

I made this s'mores popcorn for a late night snack after my cousin's wedding.  It was so good.  I had to adapt the recipe a little bit because I only had one package of popcorn.

 It's pretty easy.  Pop the popcorn, put in a bowl.  Measure and mix in marshmallows and cereal. Because I changed the ratios I ended up using 2 3/4 Cups of cereal and 2 1/4 marshmallows.

 Melt the chocolate and lay the dry mixture on a sheet pan.  Drizzle the melted chocolate over the dry mix.

I made a huge mess with the chocolate trying to find the best tool for drizzling.  I'll save you the trouble and tell you that it was a whisk but you'll still get some big clumps.  

It was a huge success and a great sweet and salty bite for late night snacking!

Lumberjack

We just purchased a wood chipper/leaf vacuum.  Bruce had Columbus day off and was planning on breaking it in.  I left the camera and asked him to take a few progress photos.  When I came home I couldn't really tell the difference accept the the wood rack was full, there is just so much brush and lumber on the ground!

This pile was left-over from last fall. Plus three new stumps.  Maybe next year the garden will have enough sunlight.

 This is the pile from Hurricane Irene it's three times as big as last years pile plus there are still some random branches all over the place.

 This is woodrack number two, there is no photo of number one but it's equally as large. Yes that is a pile of trees.  Some of them we've pulled from our neighbors yards who are too old/don't care to deal with half-down trees.  We don't want to look at them so we're doing them as we go.

 Another pile of tree trunks, some already pieced up.

Lumberjack Dog.

Logs to be split.  Bruce splits everything with a maul and wedge.  Look for the "How to Split Wood" tutorial coming soon!

Fall Garland

I saw somewhere on pinterest a fall garland of gourds and twine.  I had a few coupons to Michael's so I used them to pick up some fake gourds and hemp.

The hemp was not as thick as I wanted it to be so I decided to braid it.  I unrolled a lot, then draped it across the mantle.  Once I was happy with the length I cut three of them.  I tied a knot in one end and put a large safety pin through it and used the safety pin to hold it to the couch.

 Then I braided.  I hate this couch.  We need new furniture.

 Once I was finished braiding I used scotch tape to hold the ends together.  This not only served to hold it all together but it also gave it some strength which I would need to thread the gourds onto the twine.

I used a drill bit which I thought would be the same thickness of the twine and drilled holes through all the gourds, not all the same or right through the middle.  I strung them onto the twine using a knot on either side to keep them in place.  

This currently is the only fall decoration we have up.  There's a whole box in the basement of decorations just haven't gotten to it yet.

Pot Stickers

I don't remember what inspired me to make pot stickers.  I pinned it, so I must have seen it somewhere. I used this recipe and it was great.  Nothing compared to what we had at the rehearsal dinner last Friday but for my first time they turned out pretty good.

This recipe makes way more than a single meal for us but they freeze great.  As I made them I placed them on a sheet pan, once they were all done I stuck the whole sheet pan in the freezer overnight.

 Once they were frozen I used a room temperature spatula to loosen them and tossed them in a freezer bag.

 The best part is that they go straight from the freezer into the pot and are ready in 15 minutes

I spent around ten dollars and this will yield three meals for us.  It probably took me an hour an a half start to finish to construct them.  But taking into account that it will save me a lot of time after a long day of work it was worth the effort.  I suppose that I could have purchased won-ton wrappers to save some time but the dough was simple to make and pretty much free.

So I Bought a Point and Shoot

It was 100% an impulse buy.  I didn't want to lug my Kodak around with me to my cousin Amy's wedding last weekend.  I missed it BUT I wouldn't have used it.  Moral of the story: the point and shoot may take half unfocused photos like this one.

But it's small enough to take places and not feel like the paparazzi.