whew!

well, its the last day of the year, i see.

ive complied a list of things i did this year.

im going to say it really fast **deep breath**

i:hosted a giveaway, made fresh OJ, shoveled snow, sang the praises of cream cheese, thrifted, sewed, re-awakened my love of lego building, dreamed of summer, became good real life friends with one of my blog friends,  lamented what i hate about winter, taught D knock knock jokes, planted flowers, hugged all my siblings, kissed my neice and nephew, took Ken to see Xmen, sustained a wii baseball injury, read all of the harry potter books, learned to grill, went to a street fair, got a piano, hosted the WHOLE family for a weekend, ate nachos for breakfast, grew peas, went on a school field trip, consumed many lattes, watched my brother in law at the batting cage, ate free ice cream, went to the jefferson county 4-H fair, took D bowling for the first time, roasted marshmallows and made smores, hiked, got on facebook, saw UP and made peace with the walmart pharmacy.

there was alot more but at the risk of making this post not worth your while to read, i will spare you.

heres to making this year at least as good as last *cheers*

the goodies

these little babies were a total hit at the family christmas party.

im sure someone somewhere has made these before but i have never seen it so im going to go ahead and claim that this was my idea, inspired by my sweet 4 yr old boy who will do anything at the promise of marshmallows.

he enjoys eating/playing with marshmallows and pretzel sticks, pretending that he's roasting the marshmallow on the pretzel stick. add chocolate and ...viola, a christmas treat.

we did get creative after the first few and put peanut butter at the bottom of some of the cups and peacns in others.

The boy named them christmas bells, yep, he was "ringing" our finished product like a little hand bell.

knead some dough?

last weekend i learned how to make real bread. it was really, really good. and. it took a long time. all afternoon. there were  *gasp* timers involved. i dont cook with timers. but my wise baking teacher does, so we did it with timers. im more of a put it in the oven and check it when i start to smell it kind of cook.  but the bread turned out perfect.

this is a picture of the hostess at the cracker barrel. i know we look llike sisters, right? how weird is that? we are even the same height.

wow

what a GREAT God we have! he made this.

more  outer space than man could ever imagine with our pea brains..

God is good.

not a creature was howling

the christmas music program was tonight, all the practices and rehersal was a little stressful for the boy.

when i picked him up from school he was on the verge of whiny and had already long past argumentative. he fussed about dinner (pancakes!?, who argues about that?) he cried when i closed the garage door (he wanted to do it) and let me add that on top of this i was faced with one of my least favorite weather patterns cold wind and flurries.

i managed to get him inside the house, dressed in his chapel uniform (navy pants, white button up shirt, navy socks, black shoes, belt) and back out the door without incident.

i found his teacher and a few minutes later the program commenced.

with not a howl to be heard.

randomania part 2

i was inspired by my amusement at search results that land people at my blog to post some random facts that include key words that may in fact, land folks at my blog...for no good reason.

you can make muffins using mayonaise if you are out of eggs, it doesnt work with corn bread.

although alot of people have seen the movie "Bedazzled" with Brendan Frazier, im apparently the only person who would list it as one of my favorite movies. if youve seen it leave me a comment and tell me which Eliott is your favorite, im tossed up on sensetive guy and basket ball player.

my brother claims that the best way to know if your spaghetti is done is throw a piece against the wall, when it sticks, its done. i just fish out a piece and bite it.

my most commonly used word on facebook is "you".  you gotta love that, you know it?

i would love to learn to knit.

you just know

you know its going to be an interesting evening when the teacher tells you your kid sat in time out for howling in music class when he should have been singing.

are we there yet?

stitching up these little guys is so much fun, i love giving them personality, next in the series will be a little grey mouse and last ...a little boy. these will be one of  The Boy's gifts.

every day, and i mean every day since we put up the christmas tree The Boy asks

"is it christmas yet?"

no, not yet, and thank goodness because i still have about a half a gift list to complete.

i know i have only been showing you the kids' gifts but i dont want to give away any surprises for the adults, i will say however that there are  baked goodies involved for a couple of the guys on my list