Ho ho ho!

Christmas is almost here, are you ready? :)

I'm telling you, after losing almost two complete weeks due to illness, I thought I was really going to be in trouble this year. But low & behold, we kicked it into high gear, & we got it all done! Actually, we are ahead of the game - figure that one out!? I don't know, but I'm not complaining! ☺

Last Sunday was our first family Christmas w/ hubby's family, but the girls & I had to stay home because we weren't feeling well, & we certainly didn't want to expose anyone to our stomach flu. The boys went & had a grand ol' time. I made chocolate truffles for them to take, & they were a hit! Too sweet for me, so next time I do believe I will use Milk Chocolate versus Semi-Sweet. Tomorrow is our 2nd family Christmas w/ hubby's family (every year we celebrate twice because his parents are divorced) - we even have our food prepared & ready to go! Typically we are making our dishes the morning of. Not this year! Yippee! I still have wrapping to do, but I can handle that. It's a nice & calm chore to have. And I can watch some HGTV. ;o)

This year we chose to take sausage balls! Boy howdy, we can make some rockin' sausage balls. They are so addicting! I think I've already had like 8 too many. ;o) Good thing we made 70! Don't they look delish?

I also decided to make my grandmother's "Special K Bars". I don't have a great memory, but I sure do remember those puppies. I decided to google them, just to see if someone, somewhere knew about them, & good gracious I found tons of recipes. LOL I guess I just thought they were her best kept secret. ;o) Anyway, I actually found a recipe almost identical, but it yielded more, so I just used the internet's recipe instead. Again, I used Milk Chocolate versus Semi-Sweet - maybe I shouldn't have done that. They are still fab - but don't taste just like my grandma's. And I'd love to savor those sweet memories. My grandma was one classy, beautiful lady & I loved her to pieces.

While @ Target yesterday, I happened upon these cute little mugs. Thought my little people would be thrilled to drink hot chocolate from them, so I bought four. Very festive. ☺

You know what aggravates me about shopping? Finding an item I purchased a few weeks ago, for full price, on sale! LOL Grrrrr! I bought the most precious, bright green, sparkly Christmas tree (I should photo that - I ♥ it!) decoration & I'll be dadgum, that sucker was 30% off yesterday. For a brief moment, I thought about buying another one @ the sale price & returning the one I paid full price for. LOL But I didn't. The thought was good. ;o)

(Not to show my anal side, but you do know to look thru all items before deciding on the one you want, right? For example, my bright green, sparkly Christmas tree I should photo. ☺ Don't ever choose the first one - go thru those suckers until you find the one with the least damage. Almost always you run across an item with a blemish, a tiny scratch or something, & if you look thru all of them, more than likely you can always find one in better condition! Yes, I am the fat, honky woman sprawled out on the dirty Wal-Mart or Target floor searching diligently thru every item to find the one in the best condition. You betcha! I have some mighty fine, damage-free items to prove it, too. ;o)

Carrying on. My master closet threw up. ☺

Usually we go to great strides to hide all gifts so our tiny people can't and/or don't locate them. My first shopping trip, I just chunked everything in our closet. Temporarily. Numerous shopping trips later, heck, I just added to the pile! Our children are not allowed in our closet & as far as I (we) know, no one has discovered anything! And you can see, I didn't even cover up the bags! What a sly dog I am. ☺

Merry Christmas! I wish you many wonderful moments with loved ones, & lots of fun to boot. Savor your time & enjoy. And don't forget to wish Christ Happy Birthday!

Much love,