My mom had seen ‘buffalo snow’ in a catalog with the lights attached. I decided to do it myself. Buffalo snow doesn’t melt unless the temp gets to 450 degrees. I was careful not to put too much weight on the lights, I worked around them. Also, I left a glass platter in the middle, (under the snow) where the big glass mushroom is to alleviate some of the weight on the lights too. I plan to turn them off every few hours-they get warm, not hot.

I think the little snowscape with my collection looks cute!

I have some of those ‘bases’ that change color

I like this photo! This is my newest Snowbaby-the little ice skater with the penguins. I added some snowball and little tree candles and iridescent grass.

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

Did you feel the earth move a few hours ago? Brian and I ordered an awesome new and expensive Canon camera with two lens as a gift for ourselves for Christmas. So I hoping to be taking even clearer and closer up photos to share with you all! Can’t wait to get it and try it out.

I did go to BJ’s Wholesale Club with my mom on Tuesday. I think we are both fighting colds. We even bought some Zicam and split the package. My tummy is a bit wonky, so I’m hoping that calms down. It’s my overdoing it time of the year. I need to do so much in the next few weeks. In a few hours I hope to be mailing some packages. Anyway, I got some neat stocking stuffers and gift stuff for the guys at BJs. I just need to get my mom a few more things. We stopped at Pier One and I found some nice things in there for our hostess for Christmas eve. I hope she likes them.

Can’t wait to get the tree up over the weekend. : )

And Works for Me for Wednesday (I’m updating this early Thurs morn).

I buy split chicken breasts (like 2-they usually come packaged that way) and boil them in a pot filled with water. I add celery, carrots, onions and seasoning like S&P and thyme. When the chicken is cooked through, I remove it to cool and then strain the broth. I use the broth for soup and the chicken for one of my fave dishes-chicken salad. Save some meat for the soup! You can use it for a zillion dishes though. So you are really getting more bang for your buck.

I feel so good to have 6 things ordered for Bri and Sean. The only thing is they are each coming from 6 different places. So I am crossing fingers that the sellers who all have great feedback will be on the ball and get them out within the next few days. I ordered most of Sean’s wish list on Amazon-$60 for 4 things-can’t beat that. I’ll have to get him a few little surprises. We promised to cut back because of the expense of the kitchen. Bri is getting a cool surprise too. I’m afraid he’ll read this, so I can’t tell.
I am tossing the coin-it’s between going out or decorating a bit. I want to hit Tuesday Morning and TJ Maxx one of these days. Mom and I want to go to BJs Wholesale Club. (Update-went to TJ Maxx and only need to get a few more gifts now-yippee!)
My sister-in-law wants us to come to her house for Christmas eve instead of us eating out. She said we could bring some sides, so I’ll be checking out my cookbooks for good ones. Any suggestions?
Sean is now bothered by a plugged ear. I was using a syringe at 11:45 last night. I’m afraid to hurt his eardrum, so he better go to the doctor to get it cleaned out. (Update-when he came home from classes, ‘Dr. Di’ cleaned it out and it worked this time! He was so relieved. That’s mom stuff for ya). I definitely have tinnitus. I think it’s mostly from my sinuses, but as I was reading up on it and saw where it said a loud noise may ‘bring it on’, and we walked out of the Lewis Black concert a few months ago to fireworks-just wondering (seems to be when it started up). I found a herbal remedy for tinnitus, so may order that, we’ll see.
When I start to decorate more, I’ll post photos. At least most of my Christmas cards are filled out and just need postage.

The wind was fierce, it blew all day and even knocked down my big plastic garden bench. But it was the warm weather-close to 70 degrees that was so unusual. It got so warm in here, I turned on the air conditioner for about 15 minutes to cool the place off! Yes-in December. It was a jinx as the power went out for a few minutes right after that. I don’t like warm weather in December. It throws me off like you wouldn’t believe! And we were expecting ‘severe’ rainstorms all day-it went through about 7 and lasted about 10 minutes or so.
I went down the basement to look at the jumble of Christmas decorations and picked up one basket and a cloud of dust erupted from it! Ugh! I think it’s the kitty litter settling on everything. I asked Bri to switch to the crystal stuff-looked in the box and it was the sandy stuff again. That means I have to be like a bandit and cover my nose and eyes everytime I go looking for something.
So I did pack up the last of the Thankgiving/Autumn decorations first (opps-forgot my hutch!) I’m getting the decorating itch!

I decided to go to mom’s yesterday as she was begging me to put up some new dining room curtains for her. (I don’t like them-they are a sand color-very plain. She did get some metallic copper valances too).To make a long 3 hours short, I cleaned the kitchen, raked leaves a bit, picked up flower pots and branches scattered around her yard and took out at least 6 bags of trash, many from the kitchen! She really needs to get a new side counter as the one she has is only good for surface space-the drawers are mainly all broken (Ikea is calling me). She has a small dining room with the following: 3 china cabinets (2 open, 1 with glass doors); a bookcase, a tv on a tv cabinet and 100s of cassette tapes and lps, a rectangular table and 4 chairs. No, you can’t move around out there. I am going to talk her into getting rid of the tv and cassettes first.
After all the above, mom took me to the mall for dinner at Carrabba’s, an Italian restaurant where I got my usual-Rigatoni Martino-with sun-dried tomatoes and grilled chicken. Mom got Chicken Piccata and spaghetti.
We went into Macy’s and they were having a mother of a sale. I had a gift card and got a few lovely tops plus their big plush Snoopy(and radio). Mom bought me a chenille robe and eye makeup for my birthday. I wish I could have really ‘shopped’ but I was too pooped.
I went home being accused by Jim of throwing away his ‘heirloom’ fry pan. He even went out in the trash to look for it! He said that that ‘cast iron’ pan meant a lot to him. I didn’t even toss it! It was in the oven and it needs to be seasoned. I was a bit peeved to say the least.
A lady we talked to while going through the 75% racks at Macy’s said she had open heart by-pass surgery two weeks earlier! She was about in her 50s, hard to tell. She said they didn’t even think she had a problem, but she woke up with arm pain and had to get the surgery. She smoked and now she says she can’t even stand the smell of cigarettes. She said she learned the hard way about how smoking can effect you. She also said that she works at a nursing home and was going to see the patients as she loved them and spending time with them even though she was in housekeeping. I guess she is an angel to those people.
So I went home achy, stuffed up, ears ringing and with what is left of my grandmom’s good china. A few pieces are chipped. All I have are a few bread plates and some cake plates. But they were my grandmoms, that’s what counts.

Not too much exciting happening lately. I am trying to get in the mood to tidy up before my brother Don comes up from Florida. I’m running out of time-he arrives Friday. I’m not sure if he will make it out here though. I have a feeling he’ll pick seeing our Uncle Don over seeing the new kitchen. That’s okay. I am probably going to my mom’s to do a little cleaning today if my head clears up some. My sinuses are so stuffed they are making my ears ring! Blah.
Birthdays don’t usually bother me, but I’m not crazying about getting that much closer to 50. Brian is only 4 months from 50, so I feel a bit better for me. ; )
I was down in my finished basement room(aka as storage room) looking for something the other day and decided to clear it out as my winter project. I happen to look down and found one of those fake wood shelves propped up against a plastic box. This is the room where the water comes in and the floor gets wet when we get too much rain. Well didn’t that shelf have mold growing on it! I was totally grossed out. Makes me wonder what is under the paneling in there. Brian had given his childhood desk to Sean and when Sean gave it up, it ended up taking up space in that room. I would really like to put up our old rectangular dining room table so I have somewhere to craft and make a mess. Sean gave me the okay to get rid of his old toys (he is 20 for goodness sake) but to keep the Hot Wheels and Micromachines. I only have a handful of my old toys. Brian kinda pulled a face (and he calls me a pack rat!). That’s what I plan to do-after the holidays. I want to get some super duper dust mask first too!