My husband thinks that blogs are largely narcissistic.  I have to agree somewhat.  I try not to be narcissistic.  What I would like to get across about the things I do and blog about is that if I can do these things – trust me – anyone can do them.  Having said that, the projects below are some of the things that I made for my family for Christmas.  See if I can do it, you can do it!

Here is a chapstick cozy that I made for my sister (I actually have made one for myself and my aunt but we already have our’s).

I know it doesn’t seem very exciting, but since I have been carrying mine on my key chain I wonder how I ever lived without it.  I love it since I cannot be without my lip balm.  I have at least 10 hidden all over the house so I can always find one (except that I can’t always find one).  I love it.

I made my favorite MIL my favorite apron  – the Emmeline Apron.

I made my SIL some owl pajama pants (she likes owls):

I made a few people some purse organizers.  I made myself one and I do like it and I really do use it in my own purse:

I made my stepmom and my mamaw a crotchet hook holder and bag:

And I made my daughter a kitchen mat and various other felt foods:

I had about 7,000 other projects I wanted to do, but I had to cut it off somewhere.  Now, please share with me what things that you made for Christmas.  I would love to know.  I have also decided that this year, I am going to make a present a month so I am not starting my projects on December 14, 2010.

I am sure I have written about this before.  In light of some comments I left on Facebook I feel I should clarify the reasons I do not go to Wal-mart.  First, I do not think today’s Wal-mart is what Sam Walton had in mind when he created Wal-mart.  My main reason for not liking Wal-mart is there is little to no customer service.  My second reason is that everything (almost) is made in China.  I know, I know most everything now is made in China.

A big reason I do not go is to me (again this is a very PERSONAL opinion), Wal-mart is a small glimpse into the degradation of society.  As pointed out by some, people wear their pajamas to shop.  Some people barely wear shirts.  “Parents” (and I use that term loosely) leave their children in carts in front of the TV section while they shop (that actually happened to a two-year old that my dad witnessed), barely dress them for the weather, scream at them, ignore them and various other things.  I do not watch the news anymore because the stories about neglected and abused children make me so sad that I cannot get them out of my mind for days and days and months and months.  So when I see this behavior first hand at Wal-mart I also can’t stop thinking about it.  I feel helpless and I really do not know what to do.  So I do not go there.

Now, I am sure these people shop at Wal-mart because Wal-mart is easily accessible.  You can get almost everything you need there.  They have relatively cheap prices.

I just think that Wal-mart has contributed to the lack of self-respect and decency that is our culture today (www.peopleofwalmart.com).  As my dad stated, “It is not Wal-Mart’s fault.”  I do not blame a store for the lack of our cultural morals, I am just saying most of these people seem to show up at Wal-mart.

So those are my reasons for not shopping at Wal-mart.  I am not saying I will never darken the door of Wal-mart.  But I am saying I go out of my way to avoid going to Wal-mart if at all possible.  And when I do go there, I just verify my decision for the many reasons that I do not go there.

I hope this helps clarify the reasons I do not go there.  This post is my personal opinion.  You are welcome to disagree.  If you know of a classy Wal-mart that I should visit, just let me know and I will go there and I may change my mind.

I should disclose that I do go to Sam’s Club (an affiliate of Wal-mart) because the shoppers there are somewhat different from the shoppers at Wal-mart and it is a different atmosphere.  So I am not against the whole Wal-mart empire, just the Wal-mart stores.

This is Jordy, my nephew.  Jordy (Jordan) is one of the cutest, sweetest little guys you could ever meet.  He also has some hilarious habits.  He definitely is a rough and tumble boy.  He loves to wrestle with my son and fish with his dad and be outside all the time.

But there is another side to Jordan.  We will call it the clean side.  I love having Jordan over because he cleans for me.  He loves cleaning supplies and dusters.  My dad and stepmom kept Jordy overnight and they wanted to take him to get a toy.  So they asked him what he wanted – GUESS what he said (you won’t believe it) – he wanted a duster.  And when they got to the duster aisle my stepmom said he stared in amazement at the many colored dusters.  He said, “Wow, Grandma T which one should I pick?”.   Yes, that is our little Jordy.  I do have to say that my stepmom said that my brother (Jordy’s dad) always liked to help her clean when he was little so I guess he comes by it honestly.

So the picture above, that is what Jordy got for Christmas.  He got a cleaning caddy with cleaning supplies.  And he had to take them everywhere he went.  Seriously.

Jordy also loves office supplies.  So another gift he got was a dry erase board and post it notes.  Seriously.  He loved it!

There is also another love that Jordy has – garden hoses.  He loves them.  He is obsessed with them.  This summer my dad bought him 3 different ones and he actually slept with them.  The boy cracks me up.

I just had to share a little bit of Jordy with you because he always brings a smile to my face.

Christmas this year was somehow the most wonderful one yet.  I don’t know if it was because my children are getting to the very fun ages.  This year my husband and I actually woke up before our kids (I kept them up late the night before).  So my husband told me to get the video camera and so I did and then we woke up our son.  I should explain that we do allow the children to believe in Santa.  I know there are many people who don’t and I respect their decisions not to so hopefully they will also respect my decision to allow my children to believe for a few years.

I did not put one present under the tree until about 1 am Christmas Eve.  For two reasons, one – Santa and the other, because my daughter would unwrap them all as she did with her birthday presents.  Anyway, we woke my son up and the expression on his face was one I will always remember.  It was such excitement.  It was so so so so sweet.  I loved it.  I soaked up every minute of it.  My husband “Santa” left some cookie crumbs and a bite out of one cookie.  He pointed it out to my son and my son said Santa must have gotten hungy because he ate some of our cookies.  It was so fun!

And I ran out of wrapping paper so I wrapped one of my son’s gifts with some streamers.  It was so funny watching him open it that I was thinking of doing that every year to at least one gift.

And here is my daughter and her loot.  Poor child, she got lots of homemade things.

And we didn’t even wake Caleb up for Christmas.  We didn’t get him anything either.  I don’t think he will care for at least another year or so.

We went to Missouri this past weekend and had Christmas with my in-laws.  We had a great time.  Every year we always do a family picture.  My father-in-law sets up the tripod.  It is usually entertaining watching him get it set up and then watching him push the button and run into place.  This year, we decided to do a silly picture in addition to our regular one so I am going to share that one with you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Here are a few things I have been up to:

Looking at Christmas lights

Here's the back - Go Colts! Isn't it awesome?

Making oreo truffles

Having an indoor "snowball" fight with tissue paper

Sewing a kitchen playmat

Here is the playmat rolled up

Making peppermint crunch cookies

Going to the church Christmas party

GOING TO THE COLTS GAME!

Well, I have been a bit busy, but good busy – loving.every.minute.of.it.busy.

Hopefully I will try to post more this week, but then again who knows.

*The playmat instructions can be found here.

**The house is not my house.  It is an awesome house in my neighborhood that I had to take a picture of.  I did not want to mislead anyone.  Everyone was stopping at it to take pictures.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

I really like peppermint and any mint type things.  I have been making these Andes peppermint crunch cookies for a few years and they are one of my favorite things to make and eat.  It is really hard to find Andes peppermint chips.  I usually buy a lot and freeze them because they seem to only have them around Christmas.  They are worth buying though.  Anyway, here is a list of food gifts I am going to try this year.  Some I have made and some I have not.  Whatever you do you HAVE to do the oreo truffles.   Here is my list, please share what you are making this year too!  I am also excited to try the peppermint popcorn.

Andes Peppermint Crunch Cookies

Easy Oreo Truffles

Cowboy Cookie Mix in a Jar

For the pet lover – Peanut butter dog biscuits

Chocolate popcorn

Peppermint popcorn

Peanut butter popcorn

Microwave carmel popcorn

Carmel popcorn

This post is listed at:

Tasty Tuesdays at Beauty and Bedlam

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace

My initial plan of having people over every Sunday failed miserably. With the kids being sick and other things going on, we didn’t get off the ground very quickly.   Were you sick of hearing me drone on and on about it?  Well, we (I say we because without the cooperation of my wonderful husband it would NOT happen) had a Sunday dinner again today.  We won’t be able to have another one until the new year because next weekend we get to go to a COLTS GAME!  The next few weeks we will be having family and Christmas get togethers.

Today we invited my brother and his family, my dad and stepmom and my Aunt Julie and mamaw.  Today was Aunt Julie’s birthday and my brother’s birthday is in two days.  The menu was the usual thing I fix – roast, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, rolls, salad, brownies and pear crisp.  I would rather have too much than not enough.

With the New Year coming, we hope to be consistenly having Sunday dinners.  I hope to be discussing more menu ideas in the coming weeks.  We had a really good time of fellowship and I think everyone had enough to eat.

Now onto my menu plan for the week:

Manicotti, salad and peaches

Easy Grilled Chicken (baked in the oven), baked potatoes and green beans, grapes

Cheeseburger Soup and homemade bread

Pizza and salad

Bacon pasta, salad and oranges

Leftovers!

For more menu plans, please visit Org Junkie!

I found this recipe for Zesty BBQ Chicken.  It is so easy and delicious.  Here is the recipe for those of you who don’t want to click the site:

Ingredients

Now onto my OAMC:

My OAMC day was halted on Tuesday.  I went to pick up our beef.  We order from a local farmer.  I picked up a quarter which is 180 lbs. of beef people!  Well, I split it with 2 other people.  But they couldn’t pick up the meat from me until next week so my freezer is literally stuffed completely full of meat.  I don’t think I could get anything else in there.  So I will have to save some of my freezing for next week.

Here is my original list:

Breakfast:

Quiche in a Bag (but made in muffins – using muffins and muffin liners)

Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins from Deceptively Delicious

Doughnuts from Deceptively Delicious

Breakfast cookies

Lunch:

Corndog Muffins

Pita Pizzas with spinach puree (from Deceptively Delicious) – DONE

Popcorn Chicken

Dinners:

Day 1:

Chicken Mix and Broth (use 4 roasters) – DONE

Master Beef Mix (5 lbs. of meat)

Day 2:

Chicken Bombay (2)

Chicken and Dumplings (can be done in the crock pot as well) (2)

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken – another crock pot recipe

Brown Sugar Chicken – another slow cooker – DONE

Zesty BBQ Chicken – DONE and delicious!

Dump Maple Mustard Chicken – one bag no cooking

*With the chicken mix, beans and the chili garlic paste I can make these meals on the day of:   Sour Cream Enchiladas and Burrito Pie and quesadillas and Creamy Chicken Casserole – make like sour cream enchiladas try it?.

*With the meat mix I can make sloppy joes, bacon cheeseburger roll up, cheesy beef and rice casserole, taco mac, Mexican stuffed shells

Desserts/Snacks:

Peanut Butter Honey Bars (I am going to add flaked coconut and I had to bake them about 5-10 minutes longer to get them set)

Chocolate Chip Cookies (I do use all whole wheat flour and coconut oil instead of shortening)

Lynn’s No Bake Cookie Bars

Mixes/sides:

Alfredo Sauce (can be used with pre-cooked chicken and some pasta and broccoli)

Rice – make 10 cups and portion into 2 cup portions and freeze

Chili Garlic Paste – DONE

Black eyed peas – DONE

Brown Beans – DONE

Black beans – DONE

Baking:

Pita Pockets – DONE

I also made some whole wheat pumpkin scones and cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole, but it will all be gone tomorrow since I have play group at my house.

So I did not get everything done.  I will hopefully do that next week when my freezer is a little less full.

This post is listed at:

Life as a Mom’s Ultimate Recipe Swap

Dining with Debbie’s Crockpot Wednesday

My cousin had a baby last year.  She delivered 9 weeks early.  We were all pretty shocked when she went into labor.  Well, she had a baby boy and he weighed about 2 1/2 pounds.  He did very well fortunately.  So she decided that this year she would put together goody bags for moms whose babies are in the NICU during the holidays.  She has gotten quite a few donations.  My contribution is preemie hats.  I found this free pattern online so I thought I would share with you how to make one.

First, go here and print off the free pattern.

Now, fold the fabric in half with wrong sides together and cut out the pattern.  Make sure it is stretchy where the fabric indicates.

Now fold the material with the right sides facing each other.

Now sew the material as the pattern indicates.

According to the pattern you should: Roll one end up around the outside of the other so that
the wrong sides are together and points are matching.  I find a picture to be helpful in understanding exactly what that says (it could just be me).

Adjust opening so that all of the seams match up in the middle top. Serge/sew a straight seam across the top through all layers.

Turn top seam to inside of hat.

Roll up bottom of hat to make brim.

And here is my daughter’s baby doll modeling the hat:

This is a really easy sewing project and very worthwhile.  I would advise calling your local hospital to see what their policies are regarding donations.

It is the tiniest little hat and so sweet.  I can’t imagine what those moms go through watching their little ones being so tiny and struggling.  I am very thankful my cousin’s son came through very well and is now a healthy 11 month old.

Also, if you are in the Indianapolis area and would like to donate something please leave me a comment and I will e-mail you with the details.

To see what others are tackling today, please visit 5 Minutes for Mom.