Merry Christmas!

Wrapping paper is too loud for Dash...a little frightening.  But he liked what was inside.

We wish you a merry (frightening) Christmas!

Dash with cousin Megan

he thought he could eat or slobber his way through the wrapping paper.

Christmas morning.

Thus far

I've been sitting for the last 4 hours at my first yard sale. First that I've taken part in as an adult and that I remember.

Luckily, the weather's been perfect. Our driveway is still partially shaded and the gentle breeze is wonderful. I've been listening to birds chirp as they chase each other and I've watched the yellow balloon tangle and untangle itself from around our mailbox as it is slowly deflating from the sun. The sky is a beautiful blue (made possible by low humidity) and the field of yellow wild flowers (weeds) across the street gives you something to stare off into.

I've waved, smiled, and said hello to many a passing car and driver as they slow down to survey the treasures I rounded up last night (and just so happen to neatly fit on one folding table).

I've only had 3 people get out of their cars and walk up. One woman commented that I had good things, but she was looking for baby items. Yup, not gonna find that at my table. She seemed certain that I would be able to sell my things, but still 4 hours later, here I sit withnot a thing gone :).

I have enjoyed the morning though. It's kind of nice to just sit outside with your thoughts (or mindless Internet surfing and blog reading). I don't get to do that so much -especially during the work week. Dash is out here chilling with me because I made him. If he has (been blessed?)Bryce's personality, he's hating me right now and that's why he's been punching and kicking so much this morning. I've been playing it off like he really just wants to be outside my belly to enjoy this beautiful weather and play with us.

2 more hours to go and everything will be driven to Goodwill and donated. This yard sale helped me clear out a few things and get them out of the house instead of out of hiding and then placed on the floor in a meaningless pile. So, i will not allow them to go back in. That's another positive out of this. Maybe Bryce will make me Mac n cheese for lunch and bring it to me. That would make 3 positives and it hasn't cost me a thing. It hasn't earned me anything either...

Well, at least they didn't put me in charge of the turkey...

Last night (really only about 7 hours ago) I finished my worst night of cooking probably.  Not that I cook a lot, but I've made a few pumpkin pies and none have been so ridiculous as this.  I'm actually writing this at 3:00 in the morning because I've startled myself awake 5 times since 10:00 with nightmares of burning my house down....stupid pies! You'll understand how these are connected.  It is worth noting here that I am this wide awake because Bryce is waiting for the Android tablets to go on sale online through Best Buy.  It's such a good deal that it's worth refreshing the page between spats of Battlefield 3.  I know you're interested so I'll tell you - that yes, the price has changed, but they're still not available for purchase...hence the waiting.  continue.

First, I thought I'd make a dinner with some sauted greens, pasta, and garbanzo beans.  While we were at Wal-Mart for tomorrow's (today's) rolls we grabbed some garlic bread to accompany.  The pan we spread it out on had small holes - ok it's some sort of pizza pan Bryce had from his Bachelor days for his frozen pizzas, so it's not like we didn't know the holes were there. Some of the garlic juices managed to drip on the bottom of my oven and as I'm finishing up the pasta I see smoke rolling out the top of my oven.  We open it up and it rolls out filling our house. 

Bryce took his station waving the broom under the smoke detector so it didn't go off and we opened windows and doors and turned on the fan. (totally brings back memories of this broiling experience)

I threw salt and on it and we continued on in a slighty more smokey atmosphere.

After dinner was cleaned up I jumped right into my pies.  Everything was going fine - the filling smelled declicious! - until I started pouring the filling into the crusts.  I probably went wrong with the store-bought crusts, but I just wasn't in the mood for making the crusts after slaving over dinner. :)  and at this point it's too late anyway.

One seemed a bit more lopsided than the other and I attributed it to the pan balancing on my oven funny.  No, the cookiesheet was warped and my crust defective...

I put the pies in the oven again, smoke started appearing again and I opened my oven - face right in the door for all the smoke to sting - to find the said defective crust disinteigrating.  It was just melting off in a systematic way like it was supposed to do that.  I don't know how many pumpkin pie's you've made in your life folks, but I'd say I've make at least close to 10, and this is not supposed to happen. Is bad. 

I decide to beat the crust at its own game and took a spatulat to stick in my 450 degree oven (seriously it's only been in the oven for like 5 minutes out of the 10 at this degree to set the crust.  We're not even at the real baking yet!) to knock of any more of it that wanted to go and pushed it down a hole at the bottom of my oven. I was not feeding it something else to burn. 

As the cooking time moved along the pan was not enough to catch the drips, so I put in some aluminum foil to catch anything else before it hit the bottom.  Idea previously utilized with the dripping garlic bread.

That makes me, what, 0-2.  Losing to food on Thanksgiving.  What is wrong with this picture?

Now, usually I put aluminum foil on the edges of the crust after the initial 10 minute crisping session so that they DON'T look so bar-b-qued as they do in the picture.  However, my  time was being spent on drip and melting crust control and I said, "Forget it Pie.  Bring it - I don't care if your crust is burnt and I'm still going to share if you're ugly.  Guess what, I don't want to deal with the hassle of putting aluminun foil on your crust.  You don't deserve to be a pretty pie.  Take that, Pie."  I think this pie learned its lesson - next pie will behave much better.

So, my short nightmares are due to these dripping-causing-serious-smoke experiences.

To the pie in the background - I'm sorry you had to suffer extra crispy crust because of your fellow pie's actions and decision to not cooperate. 

**You bet Pie is going to be delicious -just cut off the most outter crust and feed the birds.**

Happy Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful they didn't put me in the charge of the turkey.

Little Bits of Fall

Thought I'd share the other little bits of fall I have around my house.

 I love my "BOO" Ghosts and so does Awzker.  They keep him company during his afternoon naps.

I love his giant nose.  Maybe I'll make more him, out of 2-littler bottles and then have a grouping in all sizes.

I messed up RIP so I used CHILD instead

I saw some DIY foam tombstones and wanted to make some for our Trunk or Treat since the YW are running it up and we're trying to decorate around each game since big rooms with high ceilings are hard to decorate.  One of the games is Ring around the Graveyard (ring toss) so we were going to put some tombstones by it. 

I found two small pieces of gray foam at work and brought them home to carve.  I have no skills in this I've found, but they're fine for what we're using them for...however, on the first one I was going to put RIP and I centered the I in the middle, then wrote the first line of the P to figure the spacing and then moved to the R and drew a line...at the wrong side of the R...so it was too close to form the rest of the R.  But I did a good job of drawing three lines the same distance apart...go Cec. 

I had to think of something that was spelled with the same amount of letters on each side of an I. I thought maybe I could do a last name so the first one I thought of that met the criteria was CHILD...please don't judge.

"More exciting than when the hogs ate Granny!"

Need some new traditions for your New Year's Eve party?


courtesy of Bing images (New York's Time Square)

  
In Greece, St. Basil fills the children's shoes with presents at midnight. (use boots and you could fit more presents probably - like a second Christmas)
 
In Denmark it is a good sign to find your door heaped with a pile of broken dishes at New Years. Old dishes are saved year around to throw them at the homes where their friends live on New Years Eve. Many broken dishes were a symbol that you have many friends! (I probably wouldn't do this if you're not in Denmark.)

For Extra Luck in the new year try one of these:
 

• In Puerto Rico children enjoy throwing pails of water out the window at midnight. Some believe that this rids their home of any evil spirits!
• In Spain when the clock strikes midnight the people eat 12 grapes. One grape for every stroke of the clock to represent each month in the year. Each grape is said to bring good luck in the new year.  My brother spent 2 years in Spain on his mission so he and his wife count down to midnight with the 12 grapes - 1 each second.  Now that's a mouth full.
• Switzerland believes good luck comes from letting a drop of cream land on the floor New Years Day.
• The French eat a stack of pancakes for luck and good health.
• Belgium farmers wish their animals a Happy New Year for blessings.
• In parts of Portugal children go caroling from home to home and are given treats and coins. (Can you confirm this Mat?) 
• A Romanian tradition is listening to hear if the farm animals talked on New Years Day. If the animals talked it was considered bad luck so they are relived when they do not hear any talking animals. Do they ever have years of good luck without drugging the animals?  I'd like to meet some quiet chickens or a quiet cow.
• In Bolivia families make beautiful little wood or straw dolls to hang outside their homes to bring good luck.

(Information provided by the world wide web: http://www.essortment.com/all/newyearsevetr_rllr.htm)



courtesy of Bing images (New York's Time Square aftermath)

Whether you make it all the way to 12:01 1/1/2011 or not.  I wish you and yours a Happy (and safe) New Year!

Maybe for next year you could plan on attending the Opossum Drop in Brasstown (Opossum Capitol of the world!), NC  Population 240 and holding steady for the last 100 years.

"If New York can drop a "Ball", Georgia can drop a "Peach", then we can lower the Opossum."  - clay's corner

"More exciting than when the hogs ate Granny!"
The Carringer Chronicle, Jan `99

Say What?!: Holiday

While visiting family in Arizona we went in the Fryes grocery store and this display made me to do a double take as I walked by.  I stopped, tilted my head, and asked myself, "Did that say poop?" 

Yes, it did, but not just any poop - Snowman poop! Say What?!

fa ra ra ra ra

Finished and showing them off outside.  Here's how they started.

Tis the Season



Chigedy ching

An I-talian Christmas favorite.  Bryce and I have watched a couple differnent videos, here's my favorite.  Warning: It gets stuck in your head!

Please to enjoy the following link.

Dominick the Donkey



It's officially Christmas Season

It's the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations and music are fair game. We got our tree up and stockings out. Little by little I'm adding bow to everything :) I have a couple projects for next Christmas. I'll get the stuff on sale when Christmas is over and you'll get to see how they turn out later. I know you're looking forward to it...ah, ah. I know. Jamba's got her wild eye on you - watch out. Darn flash. We've found out that she likes to bite fake Christmas trees and knock low-placed ornaments off. Anybody want a cat? That's a joke Bryce. One thing I like about Georiga is the serious supply of evergree/pine needles. I just cut some low sprigs off the small trees and stick them in my decorations. I added the bows on everything, pillows, card holder, towels, chandelier, as a tree topper, on a lamp... Also, adding more evergreen sprigs. Yes, the 'Christmas' card on the left says Welcome. It's from Delta, and we like it there. This is my project for next season. drum roll for a year.... It probably will not go in front of the fire place (can we say fire hazard. I like my house thank you.) I was imagining it up behind the couch where the camel and other things are. I'm still keeping my eyes open for a Nativity set I like, I hope to add one to the decor soon!

Watch out for those Boobees

Yes, I'm flyging and I'm a boo bee. My whole face is cut out b/c you can't have you face covered at Trunk-or-Treat. Bryce was supposed to my companion on this but got disapproving looks from someone when he was talking about it so he changed his mind - I didn't care so I still went as a boobee. Oh well. Bryce's costume was great - no one recognized him until he talked, or if I was standing next to him they figured it out. He told people, "I'm me in 10 years." Everyone expressed their concern for me and he reassured them that he had warned me before we were married so it's fair. :)

I had to add this one b/c I thought it was so funny how he was buckled in. As he opened the garage door and was walking around the car some kids from the neighborhood were walking by and started laughing. They stopped and waited at the end of our driveway for us to pull out so they could look at him some more. Probably just trying to figure out if it was real or not. :) I had some good laughs.

Let this be a lesson to all you pumpkins!

High of 67

I love Fall. Let me type that again. I love Fall, Autmn, the chilly temps. Today was our first day out of the 70's. The high was supposed to be 67 I think really it did end up being a little warmer than that. Being out in the fall weather made me really want to decorate the house. I too have pulled the boxes out of attic and closet and rearranged some things and added leaves and berries to other things. I have the Boo ghosts out as well - of course! The pumpkin things I've got sitting out are actually for the baby shower but will take up residence on my coffee table for now. I've got a little bit of holiday spirit in each part of the house downstairs - good start for me.

Lil' Pumpkin Baby Shower

Three girls at work are pregnant and due within weeks of each other. The first one is having their baby shower the end of October so we decided to do a take off Halloween for her shower's theme. Good thing she loves Halloween :)

I tried and tried to find party invites that didn't say Happy Halloween on them and didn't have a skull and crossbones on it. Apparently, there's not a big demand for that kind of invite or for Halloween Stationary. :) I put these together to hand out. I had to start doing the wrapped thread since I ran out of the ribbon. I bought the 4 rolls they had left at Hobby Lobby, but it wasn't quite enough. Just thought I'd share my weenend project with you. I've made 25 of these so far. I've got to count again and make sure it's enough.

There's gonna be a full moon on Halloween!