Signing Off!!!

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year! I hope everyone has safe, wonderful holidays! My blog will be back bright and early on Tuesday, January 5th. I'm sure you'll ALL be waiting with baited breath until then! Be safe.

Lara

First Glimpse of Twilight Saga's Eclipse!

Ahhh, that hair...(no, not Bella's!) Can't wait until June!

Photo courtesy of Popsugar

OKAY.

PLEASE tell me that some of you have (with the best of intentions) baked and cooked and made plates of cookies at Christmas time, only to get around to delivering about HALF of them. (Devon, you don't count, because I know this has never happened to you!)

I stink. I still have ten plates of cookies to deliver to church friends, and have I delivered them??? NO!!! I ran around so much yesterday, and today it's snowing and I Just. Can't. Get. My. Lazy. Butt. In. The. Car.

Yeah, I stink times two. I should just throw up my hands and toss myself into the nearest empty grave plot.

I AM FINISHED!!!!!

WOOOWEEEEE!!

It's the best feeling in the world, being finished with Christmas present shopping. Thing Four (who is my little buddy/trooper) and I dropped the kids off at school at 8am, and after trips to Subway (for giftcards), Target, Kohl's, Walmart, Home Depot, the grocery store and the dry cleaners, we are finally home (he just went down for a nap) and we're finally DONE!!!

*Lara collapses*

Now we just need to clean our whole house and pack for our vacation. Boo.

Oh, and how did I/will I achieve all this???

Pepsi Max. Yeah, you really think *I* have natural energy???

;-)

PRICELESS.

If you are a LOTR fan, you MUST watch this! How could I have missed it???

I Bought Alcohol. (*Giggle/Snort*)

Okay, so I folded and went and bought a TEENY (with a stress on teeny) bottle of Brandy at the liquor place next to my usual grocery store. Don't laugh, it's the first time I have been inside a liquor store in my life. MY ENTIRE LIFE. She had the perfect little size (just a bit bigger than airplane-service size) and I hid it in my handbag. I will use it in the cookies and all will be well.

Just got back from Round One of Sibling Shopping. Since I was shopping for my two-year old (who wanted to buy just about everything) I pretty much picked out the presents for his siblings. And we found this FABULOUS "Space Ship" tent for his room, to play in. I had to get it. Now that he has his own room, it's a little bare, since his brother took all the furniture out when he moved. After the Holidays are over, I will pay some attention to making his room "cute." No time now.

This weekend should be good. We're making cookies and delivering them to friends, and the kids are doing The Nativity at a nursing home with other kids in our church, and other than getting hair cuts, we will be able to relax and get packed for Christmas vacation. The kids don't have school on Wednesday, so we're going to have pancakes in the morning and stay in our jammies and watch Christmas movies all day. :-) On the menu is our favorites: SCROOGE (the 1972 Albert Finney version) POLAR EXPRESS, A CHRISTMAS STORY, THE SANTA CLAUSE, and yes, I'm forcing them all to watch IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Because Christmas isn't complete without at least one viewing of that great film.

I'm bummed because our DVR decided to eat last week's episode of BONES. The one where Zooey Deschanel guest stars. DARN IT!!! We were having our snow storm, and the Directv went out. I am seriously sad. I guess we'll have to watch it online. It's not the same, though.

Time to get my little cherub down for a nap. Have a happy safe weekend, everyone!

Mission Impossible. Seriously???

I have this recipe I've loved for decades (loved them when I was a kid!) and I broke it out the other day. We call them "Brandy Balls," but they are also known as "Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes," etc. Those yummy cookies with nuts that are heavily coated in powdered sugar. YUM.

Anyway, I was looking at the recipe, and it calls for 2 tablespoons of Brandy Extract. (Hence the name "Brandy Balls," heh heh.) I looked in my extract tub, and no bottles of Brandy flavor. Pretty much everything else, but not Brandy.

So, my next trip to the store, I looked for Brandy extract. They didn't have any. Not that they were sold out, but they didn't even CARRY it. I thought it was strange, and the next time I went to a store (this one being a "boutique-y" store) I figured they would have it.

Nope.

Perplexed, I went to another store, the same one I get my essential oils. They have extracts, but no BRANDY.

Cut to yesterday, when I really wanted to make these cookies, I started calling stores. I called Sendiks. Nada. Albertsons. Nope. Fresh Market. No. World Market. Nope. Penzey's Spices. No luck. WTHeck???

The crazy part is, these stores weren't sold out of Brandy extract, they simply DON'T STOCK IT! Isn't that crazy? Is my recipe outdated? I finally found Brandy extract online, but I don't have time to wait for it to get to my house, because I am going out of town.

My mother, bless her, suggested I go and buy a "leeeeeeeetle" bottle of REAL Brandy, but I'm nervous about that idea. Yeah, I'd probably run into my bishop or something. A Mormon in a Liquor Store. Yeah. HA HA.

Anyway, I just may fold and go for that tiny bottle of brandy, just for the sake of the cookies. I really want to bake them for my cookie plates!!

Making Hay While The Sun Shines...

You think I would realize, by now, that me running around flailing my arms and yelling, is NOT constructive. Well, I know it. I know that raising my voice to make a point is not necessary, but it SEEMS to be the only thing that gets results. So, I yell.

But not this morning. I didn't yell. I calmly reasoned. I was cheerful. I set the timer. (You have eight minutes to eat your oatmeal, etc.)

It sort of worked. Go figure. We'll see how long THAT lasts.

I can't believe next week is Christmas! I'm already getting the Sads in a big way, because I only have eight more days to enjoy my festive house. Then I'll be off to visit family, and when I get back, Christmas and New Year's will be over, and I will have to take down all my beautiful green and red and everything will be clean and plain and...cold. At least, compared to how it was before. *sigh* The window is closing, people! Enjoy it while you can! I do keep white lights in my ficus trees after Christmas, so it's "somewhat" cheerful at night, but the long winter months can be tough. Unless we have sun. Sunny and cold I can handle. Gloomy and overcast and cold can be brutal.

Well, now, I'm depressed. I need to stop that. The Christmas presents are bought and shipped to where we're staying, now I just need to take the kids shopping. They have so much fun picking out presents for each other. I tell them what the $$ limit is, and let them "have at it" at fun places like Target or Walmart. This way, the whole "gift-giving" thing will have more meaning for them. It's a win-win.

So, other than the "Sibling Shop" we're done and ready to go. We have to be, in order to save money on airfare (we have SIX plane tickets now!) we fly in on Christmas Eve day. So, no time to run out and purchase anything last minute. It all has to be DONE.

You think I can pull it off?

;-)

If You Would Indulge Me In A Little Rant...

I'm a little annoyed this morning. One of my children (who shall remain anonymous), I swear, this child needs me VELCROED to his side every morning or he'd wander off and play with his legos instead of getting dressed, brushing his teeth, packing his lunch, etc. etc..

Sure, I've complained about this on the blog before. And sure, some of you commented that I need to "let him" go to school half-ready, unprepared, so he'd learn, etc. But the truth is, he wouldn't care. This kid is the most CAREFREE kid ever. It's just not in his nature to be motivated to do anything, unless *I* threaten him with a swat on the butt (he's ten!) or priveleges taken away.

Every morning is like this. Every morning I have to yell at him to stop daydreaming/playing/piddlyfarting and GET GOING. If I wasn't on his rear end about the "timeline" for getting ready in the morning, he'd take 40 minutes to eat a bowl of oatmeal. This morning I forgot he was in the shower (I got distracted and forgot to set the timer) and he just stood in there for 25 minutes and when I realized he needed to be told to get out, he said he hadn't even washed his hair yet. And I specifically tell my kids to wash their hair FIRST THING, when they get in, and do everything else afterwards. And yes, I remind him every time, just before he gets in the shower. I was ready to tear my eyeballs out!!!

It really makes me agitated in the morning. And I feel like I'm singling him out because his other siblings are pretty responsible and self-motivated. So he probably feels picked on.

FRUSTRATION. I've tried everything. The kid has been grounded, yelled at, swatted on the rear-end, had privileges revoked, and he is usually "okay" for a day or two and then it's back to his old routine of DAYDREAMING/PIDDLYFARTING/PLAYING in the morning. It's enough to make me want to shoot to the moon. I know its the ADHD he has, but GOOD GRIEF!!!!

Sorry, I just have to rant this morning. Usually I can handle it. Not so, today. Grrrrrrrr...

Busy.

Mondays are always crazy for me. But look at the post below for a laugh!
Must dash.