♫ It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ♫

We put up our Christmas tree today, decorated the house a little bit and wrapped a few presents...and the all important letter to Santa was crafted.  Spencer was all secretive while writing it and then proudly handed it to me all smiles.  He is so stinkin' cute!

Thanksgiving 2009

For someone trying to learn a new camera, I sure didn't take many pictures on Thanksgiving.  What's was up with me???
Mom, Lucy and I met Holly for lunch, then I finished up some cooking and we all had a great dinner together. Spencer loved having Baylee over for an afternoon playdate.

Thanksgiving meal was wonderful-- I drank some of my Canadian ice wine for dessert and we listened to the rain and storm roll in.  Very relaxing.

I met Will, Jimmy and Lucy at Target at 3am for Black friday shopping-- then Will and I had breakfast and then I came home at about 830 and worked some on Friday.  Later on Friday, Mom, Dee and I met for dinner at Chilis and then went to the movies to see Old Dogs--it was a cute movie!

Spencer is sooooooo ready to put up the Christmas tree so I guess that's what we will do tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thankful

As for me....I am very Thankful....

Once upon a time....

Once upon a time, a group of chicks from the east coast decided to gather for a Girls Weekend Away. They had common interests, common experiences and most importantly, bottles of good wine and great senses of humor.

On Friday night all the girls gathered at Chez Drescher, a beautiful home in Fort Mill SC.  Girls from New Jersey, Florida, Ohio and all over of NC/ SC gathered for this prestigious occasion. The Friday night kickoff was a wine tasting by a professional consultant---followed by wine guzzling by unprofessional hoochies. 

The evening started off calm.  After all, these ladies are all professionals in the corporate world, right?

As the evening progressed and the wine flowed freely....well....nevermind.  I can't even begin to describe it or show most of the pictures.....

The next morning, the New Jersey princess made a wonderful blueberry coffee cake despite being a wee hung-over.  Or maybe a lot hung-over.  Most guests; however, chose a breakfast of the medicinal variety....

P.S.  Did I mention that Chez Drescher was in a subdivision built on the old PTL land?  Her neighborhood still has the old amusement park castles  from Jim and Tammy Baker-land.

Late morning/early afternoon was devoted to the fabulous Mrs. Sherry and her extraordinary Mary Kay prowess. She gave all of us facials, hand treatments, lip treatments and makeovers.  I think she used an entire jar of anti-puffy eye stuffs on our hung-over eyes !

Later that evening, we had the Murder Mystery Dinner Party. Everyone dressed their parts and stayed in character all evening. It was fabulous and the dinner was wonderful!  There was a model, rap star, fortune teller, rich heiress, sports star, beauty queen, musician, and a gothic artist.  I was the Goth Girl and actually won for best costume!

The dinner party was a riot--once the murder happened and the clues were flying, everyone was glued to the story! 

After the murder mystery, the party continued on with general craziness and fun.  Here are some of the pictures safe to share.  I love how the girls play Guitar Hero in stilettos.  We really are divas, huh?

We left on Sunday tired, hung-over, loaded up with wonderful gifts from each other--and we were incredibly happy. That was the point of the entire weekend:  to laugh and reflect on how we really are living happily ever after.

Turkey craft that"s totally nuts!

I teach the kids craft class on Wednesday nights at church.  (K - Grade 5)
This week we made turkeys out of a walnut, a filbert, some felt scraps, beads, autumn leaves, chenille stems, and a little wooden heart base.  Aren't they cute??? 

Manly Man Day

Well, if Saturday was girly night, Sunday was all manly man day.  Football, brake repair, dirty, grime covered hands and lots of trips to the auto parts store.....Regardless of all the glitches, it was a great day to be outside.

P.S.  Click on the collage to enlarge and check out my Mom's "dude, your feet stink face" in the top left of the picture!!!

Saturday Night's Alright for Slumming

Saturday night was "Girls Night In" for me and Laura.  Although everyone expects us to be rival-ing up because of the Duke-Carolina game--we both had very long weeks so no football smack talk was on the agenda. Instead, Laura made up some apps and peach sangrias, I made a chocolate cake, she rented a movie for her girls and then she and I vegged out on the couch and watched Gilmore Girls.  Perfect, relaxing night in, huh?

Infomercial by me!

Yeah, I don't do many product pitches on my blog; but I am so impressed with my Pampered Chef Covered Baker (aka The Magic Pot) and my Pampered Chef Salad Chopper (aka Choppy Choppys).  Here is a picture of me making chicken salad this morning.

Boneless, skinless chicken boobs are on sale at Food Lion this weekend $1.87/pound so I have been making lots of chicken dishes! I was making chicken salad for "Sit on the couch and drink Sangrias and watch Gilmore Girls" night with Laura but she just informed me that she doesn't eat Chicken Salad.  Hmmmpf! Oh well-- that isn't an integral part of this blog post now is it?
I drizzled a little oil in the bottom of the magic pot, seasoned 3 chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and herbs and microwaved the pot for 12 minutes.  And the chicken comes out of the microwave juicy and not rubbery.  Seriously!
I let it cool for about 10 minutes then used the choppy choppys to dice it up for chicken salad. Spencer stood there with a little croissant ready to make a sandwich.  He was glad Laura didn't want any!

Foxy Lady!

My friend Laura (of Mama Laura's Chocolates) was on Fox 8 News again this morning!  More yummy chocolate recipes-- here's the link cause I know you want to see it!

Wanna see a picture of my nuts?

When I was a little girl, it was a special treat for my Dad and me to eat a bag of pistachios together.  Remember back in the late 70's when they were dyed red?  You would have a pistachio bellyache, red fingers and a huge pile of shells everywhere that would totally freak your mom out if any touched the carpet, upholstery, clothes, etc....  I would take the red shells and smear them across my lips and give myself "nutty lipstick."  Yeah, I was a dork even as a kid. hahaha
Now, pistachios are somewhat of a comfort food for me.  I was feeling crappy tonight (still healing from the surgery) so I got a little bag of pistachios.  They don't dye them red any more.  I had to Google why--and this is what I learned:

Until the mid-1970s, all pistachios sold in the United States were imported, mainly from the Middle East. The traditional growing and harvesting methods used by pistachio farmers in countries such as Iran, Syria, and Greece often left blemishes on the outer shell, which American importers would mask with a red vegetable dye. But with the growth of the domestic pistachio industry, the days of the red pistachio may be numbered. About 96 percent of the pistachios currently sold in the United States are grown in California. These nuts are harvested without blemishes, which makes the red dyes moot.

And since I can't smear pistachio shell lipstick, I guess the next dorkiest thing I could do is blog about it.......

Who's your buddy?

I was checking Spencer's homework the other day and found his phonetically funny spelling of  "nobody"-- poor little guy, but it made me giggle.....

Looks like love?

Check out this picture:

This is an enlargement of a phone pic Will sent on Halloween.  He was in his ruffled tux--spiffied up for his party and giving me a cheesy grin.....I have not altered this pic at all. Can you see the heart-shaped reflection in his pupils?  Seriously--that's how the picture came to me.  Weird, huh? 

Halloween 09

Another fun Halloween! Spencer and IV were cute as Super Mario and Luigi. All of us did our usual meet up at the church for Fall Festival and Trunk or Treating--then to Chilis for apps and drinks--then back to my house for a little social time.

Mom's black cat at trunk or treat was a huge hit! Kids were lined up across the parking lot. Back at the house, Bowser got LOTS of attention--and loved every minute of it!

P.S. yes, I realize that Spencer was wearing his Mario mustache upside down....

Ouch!

As if I didn't have enough scars, I had surgery last Tuesday the 27th. I thought I was just going to have a D&C on Wednesday, but Dr. Louk moved up the date, added a hystoscopy and fibroid removal--and I went ahead and had a tubal while they were at it since I had to have it laproscopically anyway. It was a little rougher than I expected...but then again, nothing ever goes as easy as the doctor makes it sound. Words like "discomfort" and "moderate pain and bleeding" should be stricken from their vernacular and replaced with "you're gonna whine like a sissy and pop Percocet like M&Ms"...

On the plus side, I got several days of rest, magazines and movies from Laura, flowers from Will and lots of calls, emails, etc. from friends and family. Everyone pitched in and helped with Spencer--It's nice to have family so close!

What's up Uncle Buzz?

Spencer chose Buzz Aldrin for his 3rd grade biography project.  He had to research, create a project board and then dress up in character for a "living wax museum" night at the school.  He was adorable--and I was so proud of him for his hard work and research.

As we were walking around the Living Wax Museum, we came across this gem from one of Spencer's classmates (which was quickly removed by a teacher)... Evidently Terrell Davis was white as a child.  I bet this shocked his parents....