I really am. I was vegging on the sofa at 7 pm last night. In the last 4 days, I baked 6 kinds of cookies, made fudge, peanut brittle and a 20 pound turkey. Almost messed up the last few things I made. Actually the first batch of peanut brittle has some waxed paper stuck to it and wasn’t quite crisp enough. I thought I’d make it thinner brittle and put unoiled waxed paper on it to roll it down. Live and learn.
The fudge was easy and taste good. Whew.
My peanut butter pinwheels almost got tossed. I put the rolled up dough in the freezer and forgot about it! The chocolate inside was too hard to slice. I put the ‘log’ in the microwave and the dough started to melt with the chocolate. After a half hour back in the frig, they could be sliced and baked.
I needed to really tidy up more, but I really couldn’t muster up the energy to do so.
I better go to bed soon as we will be going to midnight mass after we come home from spending Christmas eve with my mom.
Have a lovely holiday.

Sean and I went shopping for last minute gifts last night. The bargains are amazing! Wish I was loaded. ; )
We ate in Ruby’s Diner (this burger wasn’t as good as the last one) and headed into Borders (where I bought 4 magazines!) and something else. I wanted to run into Pier One. They were having a 10% off sale. I believe the Christmas stuff was already on sale. This little gold metal tree was near the door and I told Sean I thought it would be perfect for my Cross stitch ornaments until I get a big feather tree (whenever that will be). It had a price of $20 on it. I knew I’d get $2 off. So when all was said and done, it was $12! It was the last one they had, so the guy had to take their decorations off it. It’s on top of the computer desk. The other decorations there are a Santa in a fur suit, a funky birdhouse, a candle I decorated a few years ago, and a Snowbaby using a computer.

I was telling you about the pretty basket shown in the Best of Christmas BH&G magazine. I just had to make one! Mine’s a little different. I used an oval basket similar to what they used, but more greenery and dowels for a trellis. It’s on my front step landing to the left of the door. The first photo is inside where the basket is in front of my rolltop desk. The three candles are lit and the camera shutter is slower.

Though I did not stitch for this sweetie boy Brian, I just think this photo tells it all. I hope Vicki doesn’t mind that I ‘lifted’ it from our group…

I just had to wait a long time to be able to post. It was slower than the dial-up. Perhaps when all the AOL stuff is removed, we’ll see a difference. The videos looks good, just like watching tv!
We had our share of problems, which I anticipated. Brian and I were both on the phone with tech support. He couldn’t get online and I couldn’t get to the email. Now they are figured out. They didn’t hook up the voice over internet, so that will be another service call on Jan. 3rd for that.
The cable guy complained about getting the cable up through the attic, but to me it didn’t seem like it took that long.
While they were here, I made chicken corn chowder (not bad, could have had more of a chicken taste to the broth-I had to add veggie broth to my homemade broth to stretch it out a bit) and some cranberry orange muffins (from a mix). Wow-I’m cooking a lot lately!
More tomorrow.
~Update!~
Comcast is running much faster today. I was looking at my email within seconds, same with webpages. Maybe we just needed to get our account ‘verified’. ; )
I noticed that ‘8’ AOL things startup when the computer starts up. So when we lose that, getting booted up to use the internet should be much faster!
The only thing was a weird http addy in the address line that no one looked at. Hmmm.
Today I get my hair done, so I’ll truly feel ready for Christmas!

I made about 8 or so dozen cookies today. I didn’t count, but filled up a huge tin with chocolate chips and a smaller tin with Russian tea cakes. Doing the above wore me out. Bummer. I’m going to bed after I tell you that Sean got a 3.6 for his first semester in college. Nice to have a smart kid.
Maybe I’ll be posting after the Comcast guys hook us up tomorrow. I am not looking forward to to having chain smoking strangers in my house (most reek).
Take care….zzzz….good night!

I’ve been really busy today. Brian was nice enough to go to the grocery store with me in the late afternoon as I knew I’d have a big order. The local Superfresh had 12 packs of Coke products for $1.69 with a coupon (if you bought 4). I rather drink cold green tea from Wawa, but I need the caffeine at this time of year to keep me going. I only drink a can a day and will quit in January. I also bought a spiral cut ham for Christmas dinner.
Anyway, yesterday and tonight I wrapped all the gifts we had. I have a biggie for mom to wrap and I’m waiting on an eBay item to arrive for her. That was serious wrapping-like 4 hours worth. I actually put the radio on tonight and listened to Delilah on the radio. Sean was out with some of his old friends who are home for Christmas. They saw King Kong (he said he’d give it a ‘B’-too overdone).
We went to Ruby Tuesday last night and then Kmart. I bought two magazines-The Best of Christmas by Better Homes and Gardens and Country Sampler Decorating Ideas. I read ‘Best of’ from cover to cover. What a beautiful issue. It’s full of how I like to decorate if I had the products, (some greens are hard to locate or pricey though I have holly and evergreen) space and stair railings. There is something I think I can make from the issue by next weekend-a basket with artificial greens and candles tucked into the the top. There is a trellis coming out of the top-not sure if I can swing that. I may have a metal trellis somewhere. It was something that really caught my eye. Hope I can get around to making it. Tonight I will read the other mentioned magazine. I love Christmas magazines!
Tomorrow is cookie day, well the first of probably two days I will put aside for cookie baking. I have to cook the turkey on the 23rd. I may cook it at mom’s, but not sure if I will if the cookies aren’t finished.
I forgot to tell you about the stocking that I bought at Tuesday Morning last night. It’s quite long (about 2 feet) and mostly tapestry. At the top is faux fur and then the various tapestry fabrics and large green rosettes. I told Brian he could load it up if he wanted. I debated about buying it, but it goes well with the Victorian theme. It was priced at $80, they wanted $40 and I got it for another 40% off. I’ll have to take a photo as it’s quite unusual.
I am working on cross stitched ornaments too. I have a kitty half completed. My brother found stuff at a thrift shop and included a large white piece of evenweave which had some rust stains on it and had to be cut up into small squares. I tried over one, but it looked to bunched up as the fabric is soft. I actually want to do the puppy that is part of the designs in this book. Since I finished Nate’s train, the little bear for Johanna is due in March and is more than half finished. I want to spend some time on my RR project and continue a few other projects. I committed to a Liberty Bell or Independence Hall as a special quilt design (all landmarks). That’s due in the summer.
Hope everyone is well and that things are wrapped and under the tree. Tomorrow, think of me up to my elbows in chocolate chip cookie dough!

Man what a hassle! We cleaned out half of the closet (I found a lot of gloves and cute hats plus a few coats I haven’t worn in a while) for the cable guy. Brian was up in the attic last night and said if the guy looked for the light fixture up there under the insulation he could drill a hole and drop the cable right through next it (top of closet). There’s already a hole in the side wall of the closet for the speaker wire. The guy showed up about 3:15 and I showed him where the computer was and he asked where the cable was. I reminded him we don’t have cable, we have a dish. You guessed it, they are coming back on Tuesday and it’s a long drawn out process of running a few hundred feet of cable to our house, through the attic and to the computer. I could kick some butt!
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I heard from my friend Karin who is in Nice, France on a cooking school trip. She is disappointed with the hotel but loves the scenery and the cooking school’s creative student chefs. She went to Monaco and blew some Euros at the slots. I guess she is also going to Cannes, but over the weekend she’ll have free time to sightsee. What a neat trip. I can’t wait to hear all about it.
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Tomorrow I’ll probably wrap gifts. Our bedroom is the storage room and I am running out of room to walk around. It looks so bare under the tree anyway.