Merry Christmas!!

I helped decorate my parents house last night (until 10:30) and went home and made three trays of mini cinnamon buns (about 80 - 90... I didn't count), and then came to work this morning.  We decided that the few of us that were here would all bring in Christmasy foods today since we had to be here all morning (and no one else is here).  The other cinnamon buns went to Jared to take to his company Christmas breakfast. 

 

I was just informed, by text message, that I bought Jared three ties for Christmas.  Really?  I bet I have good taste and have picked out ties that are perfect for Jared.  ha ha. 

 

I am pretty sure that after Christmas I am not going to want to bake anything or see sweet things for a long time.  I am really craving some fresh veggies and fruits!!  Come on summer!!  My favorite season comes after Summer.  YAY, Autumn! 

 

Oh, Jared bought me an early Christmas present.  He bought me a little 3 foot tree for my kitchen table.  I have really been wanting one.  It is so adorable.  I was going to decorate it all cute and pretty with little ornaments, but Jared got to it first and has decked it out with all sorts of random ornaments that aren't good enough for our real tree.  hmmm.  It is ugly cute.  Anyhow, it adds cheer to my kitchen and that is what I wanted (not that trays and trays of christmas cookies and chocolate covered pretzels don't add any cheer). 

 

Merry Christmas!! 

I'm dreaming...

... of a white Christmas!! 

snow

It is snowing.  That makes me happy. 

I will see Michelle tomorrow.  That makes me happy too. 

It is almost Christmastime!!  This also makes me happy.

 

*insert picture of snow*

Please, use your imagination.  :)

 

Oh, and my darling husband put the turkey in the oven for me yesterday and so it was finished by the time I came home from work.  I picked the whole turkey clean and taught Jared how to make gravy.  He is really a big help in the kitchen.  Then we had open face turkey sandwiches for dinner.  yum yum yum.  Guess what I am having for lunch today? 

I finished one of my quilting projects last night!!  Yay!!  While Jared was at the library and choir I quilted the whole thing, trimmed it, and started the binding.  I finished about half the binding last night.  I will finish it tonight right after I go grocery shopping.  We are out of milk.  This is the largest amount of fabric that I have ever quilted before.  It was a beast to quilt, especially in the middle.  I never think of the sewing machine as being little until I try to quilt; when I quilt there is never enough room, even for small jobs.  There was only one minor flaw that I had to seam rip out (twice).  This one area on the back wanted to keep scrunching up even though I pinned it many times. Seam ripping in a quilt takes forever because of the amount of stitches that are laid down.  I hope to take a picture soon and post it, but I have said that before and failed.  It is so hard to upload photos when your labtop is broken.   I don't think SU wants me loading pictures on to their computers... Whenever I have kids I am going to need to purchase a laptop (or desktop) simply for photos. 

 

Last night I made pizza again.  Tonight we are having Turkey (thanks to Harvard/Labinal/Safron/Labinal Salisbury).  I am trying to decide on the sides... sweet potatoes and green beans and maybe biscuits and/or stuffing too.  I really want to have open face hot turkey sandwiches.  YUM!!  Those remind me of my Dad.  He and I would eat them together with the leftovers.  I don't think the others in my house like them.  I need to make some bread.

 

Do you have any ideas what I should bring to my office Christmas party?  I have been asked to bring chili again by some people, but I really want to make something else.  What else is one pot and easy to keep warm?   I was really thinking of making rolls or cookies this year.  But if you have any suggestions... I might change my mind. 

This weekend I opened up one of my birthday presents that I have been hoarding since June.  It was just as delicious and incredible as I dreamed it would be.  Anna gave me two jars of Grotto's pasta/pizza sauce and I have not wanted to open them (because then they would be gone).  I finally convinced myself to open a jar telling myself that I still would have one jar left to look forward to.  The sauce was supposed to make it on to the pizza, which it did, but I was also eating the sauce out of the jar with a spoon last night while I waited for Jared to come home from the library. Is that bad? Even though Grotto Pizza doesn't use mozzarella cheese, I was dunking chunks of that into the sauce as well.  I love that everything on the ingredient list is something that I recognize.  I love the flavor.  It is wonderful.  I just need to figure out their pizza crust flavor and I will be set for life (well, maybe a pizza oven and a few other things would be helpful...). 

 

I am planning on making spaghetti with the extra sauce this weekend (if I don't eat it all with a spoon before then). We are having pizza again tonight.  :)   Yay! 

 

I might try to make my deep dish pizza again soon because it turned out incredible last time.  I loved the crunchy, crispy edges. 

 

Today during lunch I ran/drove over to Hancock Fabric (were the grumpy people work) and bought needles for my sewing machine.  After fighting with it for a long time last night, I read the instruction manual because I had tried everything I could think of and my machine was still skipping stitches. This was taking place at 10:30 last night.  It reminded me of life.  For the most part I try to solve problems on my own, but if I just look at the instructions it would be so much easier.  :)  God knows how to solve every problem and has blessed us with his word to read.  I just have to do it.   In the end, I think I figured out the problem (thank you frequently asked questions).  I read the whole instructions book last night.  I have never done that before.  I learned a lot.  Tonight my sewing machine will be taken care of in ways that it has not been ever taken care of.  It is going to be oiled, shined, and cleaned out.  I do clean it out, but tonight I am going to really clean it out.   How am I expecting it to keep working if I don't take good care of it?  Again, just like life, I need to take care of my relationship to God or life doesn't go as smoothly.  My thread will keep skipping spots.  :)   In case you are curious, I was using the wrong size needle for quilting (hopefully).  I will find out tonight when I give it another go.

 

Do you ever learn lessons from little things like a sewing machine? 

I signed up for all my new health benefits today.  I am pretty excited because I will be visiting my eye doctor this year.  :)  YAY!  You don't understand how happy this makes me, yes, I have perfect vision right now (thanks to my parents paying for lasik), but my eye doctor is the sweetest person on the planet.  I am also hoping she can write me a prescription for glasses to wear some of the day while I stare at this dumb computer.  It has been giving me dull headaches recently.  Grr.  I have frames that I really like.  I bought them two years ago when all I could wear was glasses (because my eyes reacted to contacts). 

 

This weekend I am hoping to do a lot of resting.  I feel like I have been running a marathon for the last two weeks.  It will be so nice to relax.  Jared and I made chocolate covered pretzels last night (for the second time this year).  I made checkerboard cookies Tuesday night (as a trial run for this Saturday for the Christmas shop) and took them to work.  They were amazing!! Last weekend I made over 400 gingerbread cookies and 7 dozen gingersnaps.  Also, Anna came over and cooked for us last Friday and we watched a Christmas movie!!  YAY!! 

 

I really want to make a jelly roll.  That is one my list of next things to make from my 1930s cookbook.  I love that cookbook.  I spend most of Wednesday night while Jared was at school reading through it cover to cover yet again!!  There are some really great recipes in there for basic things (I mean, there are over 1400 pages to the book -- how can there not be some goodness in there?).  There are also some really disgusting things, such as, squirrel and possum, and a sandwich loaf smothered in cream cheese (made to look like a cake, I am assured that it looks extremely elegant).  Egg salad, bread, chicken salad, all pressed together and spread over by cream cheese does not sound good!!

 

P.S. Spell check is wonderful.

 

Do you have any exciting plans this weekend?  I hope to head over to my parents house this weekend for some good food. Otherwise, it is all about resting this weekend.