Merry Christmas to all. . .

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. My children of course got too much stuff. They had a wonderful time at both grandparents. We are still at Moms and I have eaten entirely too much good food this wonderful Holiday season.

We did the Christmas pickle this year. For those of you that may not know, the Christmas pickle is a German tradition where the pickle was the last ornament hug on the tree on Christmas Eve. When the children woke up on Christmas morning the searched for the pickle and the one that found it got an extra present. Thomas got the extra present this year. He was so excited! We then opened our gifts from each other and played with what Santa had brought.

Jack picked out the cookies to leave for Santa and he left a snackie cake and a peanut butter cookie. Then he also left a sign in pad for Santa to sign after he ate the goodies. We had new tree lights this year. Seems our tree lights don't last very long so Mark bought the new LED lights. They are really bright! They glow neon purple. I don't really like them that much but, that is not my job.

We have had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did too.

What a great kid. . .

Ok, I am going to brag a little but not on my child but my sisters' youngest. She is such a good kid. She is very smart and from the time she was in the 4th grade when you talked with her it was like talking to an adult. She is far more advanced than her years. She is in the 8th grade and has never made below an A on anything. She took the SAT as a 7th grader and scored in the 99th percentile. Which is wonderful. My sister called me today and was telling me about a raffle that was being held where her other daughter works. The oldest daughter is also very smart and has yet to make below an A as well, she is a junior in High School. She wants to be a Pharmacist and works in a pharmacy after school. The pharmacy was holding a raffle to raise money for a little girl that needs a kidney transplant. She has had one transplant and it is failing and she has been put on dialysis. For the raffle, you bought tickets and they were giving away $500 to the winner and of course the ticket money went to the little girl. I will give you three guesses who won. Yes, my sisters' youngest. She got the call yesterday that she had won the money. I am sure you know where this is going, but I feel the need to brag anyway. Most kids age 14, 15, or 16 would say yeah, I can buy . . . well you know what they would say. This great kid said, "Mom, do you think we should give the money back to the little girl to help with the transplant?" My sister of course said it was up to her because it was her money. It only took a split second to decide. She and her dad took the money by today. How cool is that? This is what Christmas is all about. I don't think at her age I could have made that decision so simply.

Here's to my sister her husband and great kids!!!!!!!

Holidaze. . .

I started out really good this year with buying for Christmas. I had my tree up before Thanksgiving and actually had some gifts wrapped and under the tree. Wow!! I have never done that before. I love Christmas so I keep getting started with gifts and decorations earlier and earlier each year. It drives Mark crazy! The kids are all excited they have seen Santa and given him their grand list of wants. I started some baking yesterday. I love to bake at Christmas, now baking, is different from cooking. Baking means sweets. I try to bake and give things to my neighbors at the Holidays. I bake an assortment of goodies from cookies to bars and cakes and Jack makes fudge. He does a really good job too. Me, I don't do fudge. I have tried a few new recipes recently to try to change up what I give. I don't want people to get bored with my goodies.

My sister used to make the best butter cookies. She made them a lot when she was in college. They were the best! So I have been searching for the recipe. I had one written down and I thought it was hers but this one was terrible. It ran all over the place. So I began my quest for the perfect butter cookie recipe. I searched the net and called a few people ect. . . I think I may have found the one. I am going to try it tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. I did make a really easy Pampered Chef Holiday recipe. It is a Toffee Praline bar. I think I will do it again, it was so easy and good. The kids liked it.

I guess I will start full throttle tomorrow with my baking. I am going to of course make the Hello Dollies and Pecan Sandies my Mom always makes. They are a favorite, and it just is not Christmas without them.