House Progress

Living room floor installation is complete and we love it! My eyes have adjusted (not happily) to looking at ugly cement so when the floor was completely in, I was stunned at how amazing it looks. I can't wait to see the remainder of the cement covered in our lovely hardwood.

Mad props to my husband for installing this all by himself. I handed him a hammer and the glue and a rag when he needed it but he cut, glued and installed all by his lonesome and I very proud of him.

Christmas Music Time

The day after Thanksgiving, as I drove to the grocery store, I searched around on my radio dial for the Christmas music station. Nothing gets me in the holiday spirit more than Christmas music. I enjoy a variety of Christmas songs from traditional to silly. But there is one song that I can't stand.....

Holly Jolly Christmas. When I was in elementary school, each class was assigned a song and had to perform and sing at a Christmas show. I can't remember what grade I was in but we were assigned Holly Jolly Christmas. I had never heard of this song and was quite jealous of all the other classes who were assigned REAL Christmas songs like "Up on the rooftop" or "Oh Christmas tree." Plus, there is a lyric about kissing someone and for a young person, that is weird to talk about. Unless you are a slut and already were making out with people under the teatherball pole but that was not me.

Ever since that time, I have loathed that lame Christmas song. I turn the station when it comes on because it brings out Christmas depression rather than Christmas joy. Perhaps I should see a counselor about this.

A few of my favorite Christmas songs are Oh Holy Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, The Christmas Song, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas and many, many others.

What are your favorite Christmas songs? Do you listen to them on the radio or only when baking or gathered around with your loved ones on Christmas?

Website of the Day

Click HERE for at least 3 minutes of entertainment.

Also, have you mailed a holiday card to the Red Cross Holiday Cards for Heroes yet? NO? Why not? I mailed 10! Get to work!!

Cards for Soldiers

Add another name to your Christmas/Holiday card list this year: Recovering Soldier.

It will just cost you a bit of time, .44 more cents for a stamp and an additional card.

But it will give a soldier who has been injured while fighting for the safety of our country a smile and some hope. Say "thanks." Say "we appreciate you." Say "I hope you get to be with your family soon."

Say something this holiday season to a stranger who needs it.

www.redcross.org/holidaymail

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Do...
Sign all cards
Entitle cards “Dear Service Member, Family or Veteran”
Limit cards to 15 per person or 50 for school class or business group
Bundle groups of cards in single, large envelopes (there is no need to include individual envelopes and postage for cards)

Don’t...
Send letters
Include personal information such as home or email addresses
Use glitter – excessive amounts can aggravate health issues of wounded recipients
Include inserts of any kind as they must be removed in the screening process

The website says cards are being collected through Monday December 7. Cards must be postmarked by December 7th or they will be returned to the sender. Take a few minutes while sitting and watching tv tonight to write out a card. Take an extra few minutes to go buy a stamp and mail the card. Think of what these soldiers have done for us. What is an extra trip to the post office?

There is no "leave him alone"

Sometimes I wonder if people in this country understand what the job of the media is. They report news. It isn't always news that 100% of people care about. Some people could care less about politics so they don't want to see massive coverage about the President and legislation. Some people could care less about sports so watching football highlights would be boring. Some people could care less about celebrities and think news outlets should only focus on the "important" topics.

But news is news.
1. a report of a recent event; intelligence; information:

By this definition, any event is news. Michael Jackson dying? News. President being elected? News. A cat stuck in a tree? News.

Tiger Woods crashing his car and then not talking to the police about what happened causing the insane media in this country to speculate for 4 days? NEWS.

The media is CRAZY. This is what the media does best. They speculate and dig and guess and talk about an event until something else comes along.

And yes, this is a news event. Reports are that Elin beat homeboy with a golf club. That is a story people!!!! He is a huge personality in this day and age and the media IS going to report it. You really think the media, the American media, would just shy away from this and say "we are going to leave this story alone. It is a private matter."

REALLY?????

No. It is a story. A news story. Tiger Woods is famous. He is a public figure. And when a public figure crashes into a fire hydrant, his wife runs out of the house with a golf club and he is taken to the hospital at 2:30 a.m., people are going to talk. The media is going to report the incident.

The world will speculate.

TV and Real Life

"Do you respect wood?"

This was the line mentioned several times during the season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which has become a favorite in our house. We watched this episode Sunday night and found that line hilarious.

Then our new furniture came Wednesday night and as I was sitting on our new couch, my husband was wandering around while talking on the phone. He was opening and closing the drawers on our buffet and closed one of the doors on it with his knee.

"Do you respect wood?"

When we sat down to eat at our new (wood) pub table, he put his glass on the table without a coaster or placemat.

"Do you respect wood?"

Respect wood, people.

Dessert, Dessert, Dinner

I baked a couple of items to bring to Thanksgiving this year and boy, were they yummy!!

Brownie Candy Bites
I found this recipe on my cyber-friends blog, Heather Drive.
Heather, if you don't mind, I'm just going to copy and paste your instructions!

Ingredients:
- 1 box brownie mix
- eggs, water, and vegetable oil (in the amounts listed on your brownie package)
- 25-30 mini Reeses cups, frozen, then unwrapped
- 1 Box Reynolds 2-inch aluminum foil mini cups for muffins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place approximately 30 foil liners on baking sheet (I used a mini cupcake baking pan)

2. Combine brownie mix, eggs, water and oil. Stir with spoon until well blended. (about 50 strokes)

3. Fill each liner with 1-2 tablespoons of batter. You want them to be about 3/4 of the way full.

4. Push a peanut butter cup into the center of each "brownie cupcake." (I also used cut up York Peppermint Patties)

5. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven.

6. Cool 5-10 minutes in pan and then move to cooling rack to cool completely.

These bites went very fast at Thanksgiving dinner. I made 24 and when dessert started, I think they were all gone within 10 minutes.

The second item I made was geared towards non-chocolate lovers. I don't understand those types of people but I know they are out there. Sadly, I think I threw away the recipe for this pumpkin cake but it took a lot of eggs, a lot of sugar and a lot of oil. And some pumpkin. The recipe was in the special edition magazine called 100 Best Cookies: Love on a sheetpan. I highly recommend getting this magazine!!!

And lastly, dinner!!! I went through a set of recipe cards for the slow cooker and found this wonderful soup. I was excited when I realized it is the same soup that my boss has made for work functions several times.

1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
16 oz cans of tomatoes, ranch style beans, whole kernel corn, kidney beans, black beans (undrained)
Picante Sauce
tortilla chips
sour cream
shredded cheese
**I also added a whole pack of taco seasoning once everything was in the crock pot. This added a nice seasoned taste to the soup**


1. Brown meat and onions; drain
2. Combine all beans, tomatoes and picante with the meat and onions in the slow cooker
3. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours (ours was ready in 4)
4. Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream and cheese on the top

You can get 6-8 servings out of this recipe so enjoy leftovers the next day!! Or make it for a large group and watch the smiles!