Preperation

In order to make sure that Valentine's Day was a success, I had a few things to accomplish Friday morning. I stuck to our goal of homemade gifts, even though Chancho broke those rules. I had Friday off so I woke up early and began my gift making. It started out with baking. I chose to make heart shaped brownies. With a quick trip to a very crowded Stop and Shop, I was back home with my box of brownies.

This is the pan that I used to get the heart shapes. It's really a muffin pan, but it worked just fine.

Mixing up the ingredients

And ta-da! The finished product!

I was able to make 10 of them with the entire box of brownies. I "accidentally" broke one so I had to eat it. 

While the brownies were baking, I had started my next homemade gift. I had collected a bunch of pictures from the previous Yankee season games that we had went to and put them into a collage. I bought a black floating frame and on the frame Puffy Painted this:

This is what it looks like from above:

I finished both projects just as Chancho was arriving at my house for him to take me to my surprise....


Listening to: "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by AeroSmith

Sneezes

I was reading through The Fierce Beagle's Blog when I stumbled across BookSneeze. It's a website that will mail you books for free. The catch you ask? Well you have to write a review of the book on your blog and a consumers website such as Amazon.com. I'm thinking about it. I don't have much free time already, but I do like to read so it's tempting. I have a feeling I'll do it anyways. It can't hurt any. I just don't want it to seem like it's homework doing book reviews. If it does come across as that, screw it, I'm done. 

Valentine's day seems to be sneaky up around the corner. It will be a month away tomorrow. Chancho and I decided only small gifts and they need to be homemade. My gears are turning already in my head. I have a feeling that it will have something to do with pictures. Last year I made him a book it was called Chancho A to Z. It obviously began with A and I chose a word that described him starting with the letter of the alphabet and then I wrote why I chose that word. In between letters I pasted a picture of us. So it was every other page, letter, picture, letter. I loved it, I'm not so sure he did though. I think it was more of a girly gift than anything. My gift from him was 2 dozen roses and a visit from 8 hours away. I was at school at the time so he mailed me a dozen roses and then he showed up at my door step with a dozen roses. Hopefully this year I'll come up with something better. I'll have to brainstorm later.

Sleep is in order as I need to be up at 430am to drive a coworker to the airport. A thank you drive since she drives me home from work when I'm too lazy to walk home.

Christmas Day 2 & 3

Coming home so late from Chancho's house, I forgot to put up the stockings for Santa to fill. Therefore waking up Christmas morning, I didn't have anything to open up. We skipped the opening of stockings and headed straight to Connecticut to my cousin's house. Chancho joined the family this time. We spent the entire day there. We opened up presents and Chancho handed out his PBA cards. He decided that he would only give them to the adult relatives rather than everyone in the family. They were of course a huge hit. My aunt jokingly said that this was the sign she was looking for that allowed her to be naughty this new year. Everyone loved my M&M trees. Almost everyone opened them right away to get at the candy. It was a good Christmas Day, very enjoyable.

The day after Christmas, this is when my immediate family gets together and celebrates Christmas all together. We go to my brother's house. It is midway for everyone now. Chancho got sick from eating something at my cousin's house, so he sadly did not make it to my brother's. I was finally able to open up my "real gifts" as I like to call them. I know that these are the gifts that I want off of my list and that someone put a lot of thought into these ones, not to say that my other relatives did not put thought into theirs, but these gifts won't be re-gifted for sure. Here are few pictures of what I got:

 Here is my scanner from Chancho. It scans photos and negatives. 

This a Coach wallet from my sister and her husband.

My new camera from my brother and his wife.

Now on to New Years. Chancho got the call. He has to work. I am so bummed out about it, but I am slowly letting myself adjust to the idea of having another New Years without him. Hopefully by then I'll be alright. I really do need to learn how to not get my hopes up. That is where I go wrong.

Listening to: "So What" by Pink
Quote of the Day:  "Happiness is a place between too little and too much."

Part I

Just a quick post to let you all know I made it through the holidays alive. A lot has gone on in the past few days. A lot of traveling and working. I am beyond exhausted at this point and still have to wait til Wed. to get a break. A quick preview: I got a few great gifts. Here's a picture of one of the gifts that I'm in love with. It's a PostSecret book. The link to the left will bring you to the website, but a brief summary of what it is: A man, Frank, decided to ask people to mail him a postcard with their secret on it. From there he has posted these postcards online for everyone to see every Sunday. He has also published 4 or 5 books with all of the postcards. It's pretty neat.

I took this picture with my new camera! The battery in my camera was coming to an end. Guess I took care of that problem by replacing the whole thing. I'm still learning about it, but so far, I like it!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and was able to enjoy themselves! Hopefully, I'll be able to post more on Wed. Tune in then.

Quote of the Day: "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'i will try again tomorrow'."

10.5 hours

I am so happy to have today off. Yesterday was a draining day for me. Coming off of a night shift of unloading the truck at work, which I usually don't like to do because it actually requires effort. We run, sweat, lift heavy boxes and work very quickly. (Not my style for working late) I decided that I would be a nice coworker and pick up another coworkers hours because he had some other thing he had to do and couldn't find someone to cover for him. At the time I thought it was a good idea, low and behold ten and a half hours later, not such a good idea. I have come to realize that staying in a location for more than 8 or 9 hours is too much. Especially when it comes to dealing with the public.

Chancho on the other hand has been at work for probably 48+ hours now because he got 4 arrests and it wasn't worth his time to go home and come back. He loves it though. It isn't something that he needs to take a break from afterwords. (If it wasn't for my day off today, I'd be going nuts!) I was able to see Chancho when he picked me up from work last night. A quick 6 minute ride, but it was enough to hold me over until today. We're going to my brother's today to get his Christmas presents embroidered. He has about 7 items that need to be done. It will be nice to see him and my sister in law and their dogs. Then on the way back we get to eat at Red Robin. I love that place! We don't have one in any close proximity to our house so this is a treat for us.

Chancho also received his PBA cards for this year. He's deciding how to distribute them out. How do you guys figure that out? Do you only give them to immediate family members or do you give them to anyone that you feel deserves them?

Listening to:  "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey
Quote of the Day:  "Seek joy in what you give... not in what you get."

More Presents

I sadly have not finished my Christmas shopping. I was doing so well with it too. I did however receive my dad's xmas present in the mail yesterday. I think I may be more excited about it than he will be. It's a personalized frame from 1stframe
 Inside the frame I made a collage of pictures ranging from the day all of his kids were born up until today. I included a few pictures of my mom and him from the earliest that I could find until now. I'm in love with it. I should have made it for me. I'm not sure if the icons on the side are big enough to see, but the one on the left is of a guy in a canoe, and the one on the right is of a deer. The bottom saying is "From Great Oaks, Little Acorns Grow."

The next gift I got, which I don't think will be here in time for Christmas is a personalized tub from Personal Creations. It's a pretty big tub and I think it's neater than using a cooler to hold drinks. It's for my brother and his wife. They are always having people over to hang out, I figured it'd be a cool thing to have in their back yard. I didn't realize though that the personalization would delay the day of the shipping so it will probably arrive a couple of days after Christmas.

Speaking of shipping. The US Postal guy today arrived in front of my house and slid open his door, threw our package from his seat to our front door (which is probably a good 35 feet), slid the door shut and drove off. I was shocked to see that! How can they treat packages like that? I know that most packages are marked fragile when things are obviously fragile, but still. That is just rude! I wonder if he would have done that if he knew I was sitting in front of the window watching.

All I have left to shop for is my mom and Chancho's mom. I know exactly what I'm getting for Chancho's mother. However, my own mom is still a challenge. I'm still waiting for that "ah ha" moment to come along.

This is also the season where everyone is putting up lights on their house. There are always those few houses that you know are going to put up the same lights as last year and you expect it, well without fail the house on speed, as we like to call it, is up and flashing away. Every year as we drive down the bottom of our hill and look across the highway there is this one house that has multi-colored lights that are flashing like crazy. I swear if someone with epilepsy drove by they would have seizure. Anyways, I made Chancho drive by the house last night. He didn't want to because it was going slightly out of our way and why would I want to get that close to something so obnoxious? As we got closer there was a sign all lit up and on it it told the driver-byer's to tune in to 107.7fm. We did as we were told and low and behold there was Christmas music playing. The lights on the house were flashing to the tune of the music! I was shocked, amazed and sat there smiling. Here I was hating this obnoxious house for years and now that I finally understand it, I love it! I think it is just the coolest thing that they could do. I'm glad that I took the journey over to see the house up close and personal.

Listening to: Silent Night by Trans-Siberian Orchestra  
Quote of the Day: "One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly." -Andy Rooney

Candy Galore

I started to fill my candy trees and well my plan has changed a bit. They didn't have just regular M&M's in red and green. So I went with the holiday mix of chocolates. I figure everyone loves chocolate, can't go wrong there. It has Reeses mini cups, Hershey's milk chocolate, and Hershey Kiss'. They all are wrapped in red, green, silver and gold. It met my criteria so I got 4 huge bags and they didn't fill them all! I also had to take the bag of peanut M&M's in the red and green to fill the smaller trees. I was mad that I wasn't able to fill the rows with a separate color, but I think this way is a lot easier. It doesn't look bad so I can be okay with it.



I took this next section from Because of Love, she posted up some quick questions about Christmas and we all know I love Christmas so I couldn't resist.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definitely wrapping paper. The only time I use gift bags is if it's way too awkward to wrap.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real tree, I love the smell.

3.When do you put up the tree? We don't have a day per se, we just put it up when we have the time. Last year was Christmas Eve. I'm hoping for this weekend this year though.

4. When do you take the tree down? Again, that depends on when we have time, but some time in the week after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, very much so. My sister-in-law makes some really good eggnog.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The only memorable one that I have is a sleeping bag or my American Girl doll.

7. Hardest person to buy for? I'd say my brother. I can never tell what he'll like. I also feel like he has everything.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Chancho.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? I have a few.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Everyone lives so far away and I feel like mailing them is more personal.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't think I have ever gotten anything too bad. I would probably say some sort of jewelry or something like that.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I have two. Elf and The Family Stone.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I will start in August if I see something I'll get it. Otherwise it really begins Dec. 1st.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, I have.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My grandmother's homemade Grunkohl.

16. Lights on the tree? I love the big lights that are multicolored, but these past few years it's just been simple white lights.

17. Favorite Christmas song? This is a hard question. I would say my all time favorite would be Silent Night, but I also love A New York Christmas, Baby It's Cold Outside and All I Want For Christmas Is You.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? All traveling. Four different homes in three days.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Nope, that's one thing I can't do.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, we have a Santa. He holds a candle in his hand that lights up.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Well I do open presents Christmas Eve, but they are from my mother's side of the family. The rest of the presents get opened Christmas Day and the day after.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The people who are scrooges.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Red and White or the mixture of everything from all the years.

24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? The same as the other question, Grunkohl!

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I already got what I wanted, it came today! A scanner for my pictures. I am hoping for a battery for my camera though.

Now it's your turn. Go ahead and fill out your own answers and post on your blog!

M&M Trees

We had our first snowfall! and it actually stuck to the ground and all of the cars. While I was at work yesterday it snowed all day long. Only 2 inches stayed, but still there is still snow outside. I finally feel like it's winter time. In the spirit of it feeling like winter I actually went out Christmas shopping. Instead of buying something unique for every individual in the extended family I decided upon something very simple and inexpensive. The Container Store sells these wonderful jars in the shape of trees. They come in two different sizes. A large and a small. All of my cousins will get a small one and my aunts/uncles and grandmothers will get a large one. I'm going to fill them with M&M's. Each "branch" will be a layer of red and green, alternating. Sam's Club will be a huge help in providing me with a bulk package of the two colors and for a great price. The great part about these jars is that the tops have a suction piece to them so that when you open the jar all of the M&M's don't come flying out at you.

I'm going to wrap them in cellophane so that they can see them and I won't waste boxes or bags. I'll be tying them off with this ribbon. I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Now that I have the extended family shopped for, all that is left is the immediate family. For some reason I always find them harder to shop for.

Listening to: "A New York Christmas" by Rob Thomas

Christmas Surprise

I ordered Chancho's present today. I hopefully will be receiving it in the mail within the usual 7-10 business days. I was right, he did snoop around to try and figure out what I got him. My only hint, it has to deal with the Yankees. The price actually crept up on me and I spent a little more than I wanted to, but it is definitely worth it. I am tempted to give it to him early. I am just very happy that it's ordered and on it's way to my house. I can check his name off of the list and move on to others in the family. I always find it hard to buy something for my brother in law and sister in law. It's not that I don't feel like I know them, because I do have a good sense of what they like, it's just in my family we are very open about our gifts. We put a list out and we each write our name down next to what we're getting one another. There isn't any surprise to it. It just makes it a lot simpler for us. There are 7 of us in the family, not that big, but big enough to make it confusing when it comes to who is buying what for who. It usually goes something like this: "What do you want?" "A red large duffel bag from LL Bean" "Okay you're getting that from me". Or you say what you're price range is and they'll tell you something from their list that fits that. Now for the brother and sister in laws they want they're presents to be a surprise, which means I have to figure it out myself. Yes, I know, that requires me to do some extra thinking. I'm getting a head start this year. At least for when it comes to me, I have my birthday in November so I make one list and hand it out to everyone and I'm done. And this year I have to come up with presents for Chancho's family as well. The list just keeps on growing. I'm glad I love Christmas and I'm not someone who finds it all to be a "Hallmark" holiday.

Quote of the day: Shakespeare wrote: 'Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds.' When life gets hard, when things change, true love remains the same. -One Tree Hill