Bleah Humbug

The present opening and tamale eating on Saturday was fun, but things fell apart from there.

Of the three little ones, two of them started throwing up first thing Sunday morning.  This did not make for a fun day for their parents.  Whozat tells her saga here. 

Meanwhile, as I mentioned before, we have not been feeling too well at our house.  My daughter caught it first.  She is back to feeling pretty much normal, although she still has a nasty cough. 

It hit me next on New Year's weekend.  I am much better than I was last week, although I am still feeling generally lousy, and still have a pretty serious coughy, wheezy thing going on.

My son was the last to fall.  It started hitting him late last week.  He spent a few days feeling kind of yucky and telling me that he didn't think he had it as bad as I had.  I would answer that I hoped so, but I was thinking, "Yeah... that's how it starts."

By Saturday, I had rallied enough and he was still feeling well enough, that we headed on over to my parents and enjoyed all the festivities.  By evening we were both wiped out though and headed on back home about 6:00; I think we were both sound asleep before 9:00.

Come morning, I was just so exhausted I couldn't see straight and the worst part of the crud had hit my son like a ton of bricks.  I was contemplating calling my mom to let her know he was not going to make it and I wasn't sure I would either, when she called to tell me the little ones were sick.  (With a totally different bug!)

At that point I went back to bed.

Since the big turkey dinner was pretty much already prepared at my parents, those that were there went ahead and fixed themselves a plate, whenever they had a chance.  The plan for a nice sit down dinner, with the fine china, was totally scraped.  My daughter did make it over, so she brought a ton of leftovers home, which we are still working on.

One would think that was the end of the story, but my mom told me this morning that my brother had been feeling poorly during the weekend.  He had it checked out when he got home and it turns out that he had developed an abscess on an old incision from a surgery he had a number of years ago.  He was admitted to the hospital today to have it dealt with.

Aaaaand Happy New Year!

"Christmas" Eve!

We had a wonderful time.  Pictures to follow!

Today is the Day; It's Finally Here!

I know most of you good people think that Christmas weekend was two weeks ago.  Then there was that whole New Year's thing last week.  After that most people seemed to think the whole holiday thing was over.  Not at our house!

Unbeknown to most of you, this is Christmas weekend!  Well, for our family, at least.  My sister, Whozat and her 3 year old daughter, Peeper, came in from out of state yesterday evening.  This afternoon, my brother, his wife, and their two year old twins will make it in, and the festivities will begin!

Today is "Christmas" Eve.  Which means we will open presents and eat tamales.  Tomorrow is "Christmas" Day, when we have a big turkey dinner.

I am excited to see everyone; we haven't gotten together for several months - which is forever with the little ones.

I'll try to get some good pictures and I'll tell you aaaaaall about it later.  Merry Christmas!



(Then, then, then, later  in the week - I can put away all of the Christmas stuff and my house can return to normal!)

Chili's Coupon - Free Chips and Queso!

Hey, look to the side --->  Adsense is showing a Chili's coupon for free chips and queso!  Go Adsense; now we're talking!  Click on it people!

Chili's Chili's Chili's  Queso Queso Queso  Chips Chips Chips

Way to pick up the good words Adsense!

Update:  Lol, maybe I overdid it, now it's showing Wolf Brand Chili.  It does seem to cycle back to the chips and queso coupon though, so if you are looking for it, keep trying.

Cough, Cough, Wheeeeeze. Repeat.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel.

One Last Thing, Then Goodbye 2011

I've mentioned before that I collect dated ornaments each Christmas.  This was the very first one.  I received it as a gift in 1977, the year I moved out of my parent's house.  I've gotten one every year since. 


1977


Now here we are, 35 years later, with my 2011 ornament.


2011


Happy New Year - Welcome 2012!

Something New and Finishing Up

It seems like everyone on the Internet is doing a retrospective of the 2011 to celebrate the New Year.  Since I have only had this blog up and running a few months, that doesn't really work for me.  I do have a few stray things I have meant to post about though, so I thought I would tie up these loose holidays ends before 2012 hits.

Over the last several weeks we have made a number of Christmas goodies and treats, some of which I have shared with you.  One of the things I made was something new.

New Stuff!

I took Nilla Wafers, laid them out on a baking sheet, and topped them with Rolos.

I put them in the oven at 200 degrees, for 5 minutes, to soften the candy.

Then I topped each one with another Nilla Wafer.

You have to be really careful when you place
the top cookie or it squishes out the side.

When I got them all put together, I put them in the fridge for 10 minutes to help them start setting up.  After I took them out, I let them sit for several hours, until they were completely firm.

Next, I melted a package of vanilla almond bark.

In my spotlessly clean microwave...

Apparently I didn't get any pictures of the dipping, but here they are all laid out.

Tasting.  Yummmmmmmmm.

All packaged up.

Here are a few other things I made.



Pretzels dipped in almond bark.  We had chocolate,
drizzled with vanilla; and vanilla, drizzled with chocolate.

 I also made almond bark crispies, in both chocolate and vanilla. 
 

These are reeeeally tough to make.  Melt almond bark, stir in Rice
Krispies, spread out to cool.  Once it's cool, break into small pieces.


We have several family cookie recipes that I love, but it just wasn't coming together this year to fool with scratch, so slice and bake it was!  I did dress some of them up by adding M&Ms and such.  One of the best was chopping Butterfinger up and adding it to peanut butter cookie dough.  That was seriously good!



Peanut butter cookie with M&Ms.


Here's the assortment.
 

Almond Bark Crispies, Dipped Pretzels, White Trash
Candy, Dipped Nilla Wafers, and M&M Pretzel Treats.


The White Trash is easy peasy too, just mix up Crispix, pretzels, M&Ms, and vanilla almond bark.  I got the recipe from Cooking With K.  It's pretty yummy.


We had lots of cookies too.

Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter with M&Ms, Peanut Butter with Butterfinger, Chocolate
Chip, Chocolate Chip with M&Ms,  Sugar Cookies, and Peppermint Sugar Cookies.


Last but not least, Chex Mix!

I've lost track of how much I have made this year!