The Anticipation Grows

5 New WordArt packs, 3 of which are Christmas themed!!! woohoo! Click HERE to go to my store :)

Layout by Sharon

Hey there! Did I tell you about my itchy chin/throat last night? I can't remember? Anyway, I took benadryl to get the itching under control, and yeah, I was OUT. LOL! It's been here since about the 10th of December. And I don't know why. Somedays it's not too bad. Somedays it drives me crazy.

My mom told me today that she thinks it's eczema. That she has it on her face too, and that cortizone cream helps. Hmmm. I wonder if the pool water is irritating it.... I don't know. I looked up pictures of ringworm, and it doesn't look like what I have. More like heat rash, but it's not going away so fast. I don't know. My mom's explanation of eczema sounds plausible...

Anyway, I slept in. WAY slept in. hehe. It was the drugs. I think I finally crawled out of bed around 10:30am. I KNOW! I just couldn't get myself going. I contemplated an energy shot to counteract the effects of the benadryl, but settled on a Diet Dr Pepper. I got some food, and Captain America stayed with the kids, and Eme and I went grocery shopping. Because we were OUT of food.

I like to go grocery shopping 4 times a month, once a week. Like clockwork. And get the same things each time. And it's about $200 each time I go. But I haven't been regular grocery shopping in AGES. So I knew that the bill would be a bit higher today...

I was a bit worried about going to the commissary on the day before Christmas Eve, but Captain Americaassured me that it would be fine. "Half of post is gone for the holiday", he assured me. Well, guess what, sweetheart? The other half of post was at the Commissary - ROFL! It was SO crowded! I was glad that I didn't have anything pressing to do.

Eme and I got all of the stuff for the week, and all of the stuff for Christmas (Tacos), and all of the stuff for Christmas Eve food. And headed to the check out. And yeah, we didn't make it too far, because the line was backed up to the dairy section!!! Holy cow! There were probably 20 people in front of us! But it was moving super fast. The commissary has everyone in one line, and when you get to the front, THEN you go to the individual register. It controls the line much better.

Anyway, it only took about 5 minutes in line. Because they had SO many cashiers open. Smart. Very smart. Here's our mountain of groceries :)
I let Eme pick out a treat at the check out, and she picked bubble gum. She seemed real pleased with the choice, and showed me how she could blow bubbles all the way home :) We got home, and I told her that because we shopped for it, that someone else had to carry it inside. She liked that idea a lot - ROFL!

So she went to the backyard to play with Boxer, and the boys carried in the groceries, and I put them away. It was a great system :)

And it was a pretty lazy day from there. I know that both Eme and Tom spent some time at the park playing, and there was a lot of Wii and computer time spent. And I baked. And the dog napped. ROFL!

I made rolled out sugar cookies, and they really turned out pretty good! I used to not have much luck with them, but this batch turned out SO yummy :)

1 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups white sugar

Mix with beater until creamy.

Add 4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

and mix until very smooth.

Add 5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Mix until a soft dough is formed. Split into 5 chunks.

Place one chunk in between two layers of waxed paper, and roll out. Repeat with remaining chunks. Place in the refrigerator to chill.

Cut out with cookie cutter, and bake in a HOT oven at 400 for 6 minutes. I made my cookies kinda thick, and they turned out PERFECTLY.

For frosting, I used:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk

Blend together, and color as needed. I made some red and some yellow, and left the rest white. My cookies were starts and snow men and candy canes and bells. It made close to 5 dozen cookies. A little less.


I also made fudge today. It wasn't a milk chocolatey one, because I can't resist that, and was afraid that I'd eat it all. Plus, I can't keep milk chocolate chips in my house. The temptation is WAY too high. Semi-sweet? Yeah, not so much - hehe.

Anyway, here's the recipe for this one:

1-1/2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Place in a medium sized sauce pan, and heat until smooth. Add:

A dash of salt
1 and a 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix well, and pour into a waxed paper lined 8x8 baking pan. Chill for a few hours, then cut into small chunks. It was actually pretty good. But you didn't wanna eat more than a square - hehe. Mom, you'd LOVE it :)
I also made a Pecan pie today. Because I LOVE them. I used a frozen pie shell, and the following recipe:

1 cup of broken pecans, placed in the bottom of a pie crust

Combine:
3 eggs
1 cup caro syrup
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup melted butter (or margarine)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix with beater until smooth, then pour into the pie shell over the pecans. Bake at 350 for about an hour. Mmmmm!

And I ate WAY too much of what I baked. I'll tell you this much, come December 26th, I'm BACK ON MY DIET. Because I'm up a few pounds, and I can tell. My pants are a bit snug. And I don't like it - hehe. But I"m eating my yummy food Christmas Eve and Christmas day, that's for sure :) hehe.

I loaded my store while sitting on the couch with the family watching "The Tale of Desperaux" or however you spell that... It was a pretty good movie. I'd never seen it before.

After the movie, it was about 8pm, and we put the little kids to bed, and let the bigger kids stay up and watch another movie. And Captain America and I took stock on what Christmas presents we had for what kids, and which were lacking. And made a mental list of who and what we needed.

And we headed out to the store. I'd forgetten the BBQ sauce for the meatmalls, and the taco shells for the tacos. Yeah, that's kinda important for tacos, right? hehe.

First stop, Bassett center for the Jewelry Box. Eme had drawn my name, and she told her dad that she wanted to buy me something from there, or something for cooking. And Captain America thought that we had a $5 cap, so the Jewelry Box would have been perfect. But I told him that it was a $10 cap, and that changed things. I could get something baking related for that much. So we went to Target.

And found the COOLEST frosting gun. For only $4.48. And headed to the front of the store. HOLY LINES, Batman! Yeah, I wasn't gonna wait in that long of a line. So we ditched the frosting gun, and headed out.

We drove to the Pirate Walmart (because it's on Yaarrrrborogh) for the last few things on our list. And it was busy. Very busy. Sigh. Oh well, I guess everyone else procrastinated till the last minute, too!

You'd better watch it, or I'll get you with my light saber!

And Captain America bumped into a guy from Basic Training in the toy isle! How cool is that - hehe. We chatted with him for a few minutes then went about our business. We found a few toys for a few kids, and I got a set of 3 spring form pans (cause I didn't have any yet) for only $9, and we got the last few food items we needed, and headed to the front of the store. O.....M.....Gosh.......


This is the check out. It was SO crazy! I counted and there were 11 families in line with us. Families. Not people with one or two things. People with carts full like ours. BUT, the dude from basic just happened to be in line behind us, so we spent the time visiting with him. We had about 30 minutes to catch up - hehe.

And then we headed back to the car. And yeah, we'd parked in the garden section, so it was a VERY long walk back to the car - hehe. Because all of those entrances were closed. Oh well. We walked fast. Because the temperature had dipped into the 50's, and the wind had picked up, and my flip flopped feet were FREEZING - hehe.

We got home around 11:30pm, and Boxer was excited to see up :) He'd been sleeping on the couch. What a good boy! The kids were all sound asleep, and we started wrapping things. And I grabbed my computer, and here we sit. Me blogging, Captain America wrapping presents, listening to Christopher Parkening, a classical guitar player, on Captain Americas phone. Such a nice, relaxing time :) We needed it, after the super madhouse that was Walmart on Christmas Eve's Eve.....

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Layout by Sharon :) Thanks, hon!