It's beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas!

Don't you normally do the chicken dance in front of the tree?

Even the light fixture is dressed for the holiday :)

Watching the Grinch, of course!!

Handmade Garland!!

Ta Da!! The garland is finished, and up! It was surprisingly easy to make...and it's so much prettier than my old plastic stuff!!

..and so far it's still green, thank goodness for cold weather!

Speaking of cold weather...look what happened tonight!

SNOW!!

Ok, so it's just flurries...but to us it's a blizzard. Do you see T. in the background trying to fashion a snowball? PLEASE Mother Nature...can we get some real snow this winter...pretty please?

Buck, Doe & Skunk

As promised, our extra special Christmas visitors....

Meet Buck...

...and Doe...

and skunk..he's hiding out there behind Doe.

Today was T.'s Thanksgiving Feast at school...he was dressed as a Pilgrim (in his paper hat and collar). No pictures, I'm a bad mommy and forgot my camera.

I bit the bullet and started decorating for Christmas...what's the harm in getting it done before Thanksgiving anyway...Target has had Christmas decorations up since Halloween! For whatever reason I got the idea in my head this year that I was going to make my own garland out of the Leyland Cyprus trees we have in the back yard. I started this afternoon and completed two sections...tomorrow I will **hopefully** finish the rest and get them all up. So far, so good - I just hope they stay green until Christmas! ...not really sure about the Leyland Cyprus...guess we'll find out!

Get Ready!!

It's time to decorate for Christmas!



T. & I had mucho fun decorating our Gingerbread House...we decided that if we were Gingerbread People, we would totally want to live here.



...and it's not finished yet! We're working on some extra special Christmas visitor's.....stay tuned!

School Picture!!

T.'s School Picture - 2008

A Lazy Post

I have two new favorite things, and because I am lazy and do not feel like getting the camera right now we will be sans photo...even though the apple butter looks really cute all dressed up in the jar. Maybe tomorrow I will not be so lazy. Geez..I can't even think of an interesting title. Anyway - I am rambling (another sign of lazy..and tired)...so here are my two newest favorite things.

1. Homemade apple butter, deeee-licious. It all started whe my delightful neighbor brought us a bag of freshly picked apples from Carter Mountain. There were so many I knew they were destined to be more than just sliced up apples.. thus started the search for apple recipes. I found an apple butter recipe in an old issue of Gourmet Magazine that was really simple, and thought..I can do this!! I've never canned anything before, and I must say - once you have all of the necessary tools (and a great neighbor who lends them to you so you can try it out) it's really no big production. Our bag of apples turned into 3 lovely jars of Apple Butter.

2. Trader Joes. It's new to the Richmond area, and now I see why people love it so much! What's not to love? It's inexpensive, there is a great selection, and the Trader Joes Pancake Mix is the best I've ever had. Serve the pancakes up with homemade apple butter on a chilly fall morning with a nice cup of chai...yummm!!! This is exactly why I have to keep running...I love food WAY too much.

Here's what I got...

...when I asked him to get his "night-nights" on...

I didn't know tonight was a full moon.