Dec21

Longwood Gingerbread Christmas 2011

Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 by Dianne

Lighted trees on the way to the Conservatory

Longwood Christmas gingerbread tree, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Sean and I went over to the gardens today as we figured it wouldn’t be that crowded mid-week and also that it was raining. We were right, though surprised to see how many people there were anyway. The theme was all about gingerbread. I still have more to upload-so enjoy as I do so. Of course no work today, even though I called this morning. I had a bad night with my knees and ankles hurting (I worn new shoes with a small heel).

Gingerbread house of DuPont Home

Main Conservatory

Dec21

Unique natural decor

Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 by Dianne

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Sean had off on Tuesday, so we decided to go out to lunch as I had a gift card for a Chinese restaurant. I try to eat salmon when I see it on the menu, so that’s what I got on brown rice. Sean had chicken and almonds. We both had egg drop soup. We went over to Pier One and I bought a few sweet things. I didn’t even take anything out of the bag as I had to go to work from 5-10. We then went across the road to Terrain and I took some photos with my camera phone of their unique display:

Gorgeous red Amaryllis

This was a two tiered tin planter with tiny white Poinsettia around the bottom and dainty Narcissus

This is real cotton in a display. They also pulled it apart to look like a snow covered tree. You can see it in the first photo well.

Sunday and Monday I dedicated to making cookies. I made Chocolate chips, Sour Cream Drops, 7 layer cookies, Peanut butter swirls, Cinnamon chip oatmeal and Rum balls.

I am on call again in the morning, so hoping not to have to go in, but I’m doubting that. Then they get me again on call Thursday and I work Friday morning. I mainly need to clean the house now.

Dec18

Cookie love

Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2011 by Dianne

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Well… I finally got around to whipping up a few batches of cookies. I started with chocolate chips and did some 7 layer (Sean’s favorite) and some with a cookie press. That cookie press didn’t work too well. I got a Martha S. one I found for $1 at a resale. I think my dough got too warm. I squeezed out about 2 dozen and forgot the sprinkles on the first batch. I will do a few more tomorrow. I’m happy to be getting this done. Cookies are a special part of Christmas to me.

Sean is bringing me home ingredients for Rum balls (update-he got the wrong kind of cookies-I needed Nilla wafers and he got those rectangular vanilla wafers) . And I love Chocolate Swirl Peanut Butter cookies too. I hope I have enough peanut butter! Opps.

Sean and I went to Walmart and Peebles in Parkeburg (near Lancaster) after church last night. He had given me a gift card for my birthday and I got Monkees (they were my brother Don and my favorites as kids for a time) and Christmas karaoke cds. I bought myself a little karaoke machine and Brian hooked it up to a tv Sean used at PSU. The lyrics are right on the screen. I ordered popular music and Beatles cd to use. I do like to sing (I have a soprano voice and have sung in choruses and choirs in the past), so this is for me to blow off some steam or pretend I am a popular singer. ; )

I went in the Peebles and it has half the merchandise that our store has here! But believe me, I used that discount for some shoes and clothes at this store too.

I am placing an order at a place near Brian’s work for some meat and cheese platters, tea sandwiches or fruit. I got a voucher from LivingSocial for $40 worth of food for $20. I have to give them 48 hours . It’s near where my uncle lived and mom said their sandwiches are great. What’s nice is that they give you half orders, so I will probably order a few things.

I hope everyone is taking time to relax. I was on call today, they didn’t need me. I work two days (one morning, one evening) and am on call two more days. They are having a little party on the 24th (I don’t work that day) and I only heard about it through the lady at the cosmetics counter. I haven’t signed up to be in the ‘Secret Santa’, but I do have a gift for it. I just can’t believe not one manager mentioned the party to me. I guess I’m stuck in the back of the store and they all talk up in the front. I was talking with a young lady in the ladies’ clothes (she’s about 19-20) and probably her parents are my age. We were laughing about something just when the manager came around the corner. It was 8:40 pm and they were closing at 9. He couldn’t let it go and asked if I had something to do in my department. I did a lot that night and I guess he was still peeved that I didn’t notice I was on call Thursday. Sean gets his schedule online-much easier. Oh well…nice to have some spending money!

Dec16

Cheers

Posted on Friday, December 16, 2011 by Dianne

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I’m around, but incredibly busy between work, home and shopping. I’ll try to stop by when I take a few more photos. I plan to wrap a few gifts before work. I was ‘on call’ yesterday and forgot to call as I saw my name on Monday and didn’t go down the rest of the page assuming you are ‘on call’ once a week. He got me this coming week as I’m ‘on call’ 3 days. Brian and I went in last night to get him much needed shoes and got a terrific buy on Nunn*Bush. He got bogo for 50% off and then with the discount and buyer’s pass-he got both for $64 (leather). The one assistant manager had to check me out and said sarcastically that I ‘was in trouble’ as I didn’t call in. She kind of took away all the joy of buying Bri his shoes. For some reason a few of these a.m. think they are way better than the newbies. They are around my age and I don’t take crappola from them. I simply said I didn’t see my name further down. As I recall, when I had taken the schedule to my checkout, another a.m. came along just as I was writing down my hours and almost grabbed the paper and told me to tidy up. They are good at that. Anyway, the discounts are helpful to my family and me and that’s a big thing.

Sean and I took my mom to BJs Wholesale on Wednesday and then to Bertucci’s where we had a great waiter and great food and drink from start to finish.

This was amazing-white Sangria with Peach Schnapps.

We had white pizza with shrimp and an eggplant, tomato, basil and mozzarella appetizer. Sean and me had salad.

Have a great Friday!

Dec11

Getting in the spirit

Posted on Sunday, December 11, 2011 by Dianne

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View of tree with bay window and alpine tree scene. I have a trio of these trees. I added some underlit ‘snow’. Then because I think it needed a little more, I added some little birds, icicles and snowflakes to the tree. The Santa gardener is probably 15 years old. I just found the gnome. His sign says ‘I’ll be gnome for Christmas’. This is before I added my grandfather’s manger scene to the table in front.

I used different kinds of little trees and my collection of Belsnickles as the main decorations. I added a few nutcrackers too. The little white cake dish had three lead Santas and a little silver bell tree.

Update-we tried a different setting as suggested on a website and Bri took this. You can see the ornaments pretty good.

Dec9

It’s not a Grinch tree

Posted on Friday, December 9, 2011 by Dianne

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But wouldn’t the Grinch like this. It’s hard to catch it all light up, I should make a video! Part of the top gold went out and I had to find the flasher-not easy. It’s mostly favorite decorations. I want to add a few more to it.

The gold lights on the bottom happen to not be on right at this moment.

My favorite Mr. Moon ornament.

I hope to set up the tripod for a clearer shot tomorrow. Also finish the mantel, the window and tables. Wow, maybe not all tomorrow.

Dec9

Sneak Tree Peek

Posted on Friday, December 9, 2011 by Dianne

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This isn’t a great shot as I still needed more lights on the bottom (think there are 500 on it now) and taken with the cellphone. I’ll get around to more decent shots. The lights are green and gold and the gold blink (Sean’s request). I have mostly new things on it and only went through one box of older decorations. There’s a red and green adorned angel on the top and I added some of those red and white berries. The decorations are mainly red, white and green. It looks neat when all the gold go off at once.

Dec7

Ina strikes again!

Posted on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 by Dianne

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I took my mom home today and after we dropped off her packages, headed up to my hometown for lunch. It’s been a rainy, miserable day and is still raining and miserable. This is up near the courthouse (Media is the county seat of Delaware County).

This is Veteran’s Square (can you tell where I was parked from the one photo? You can see the courthouse too).

Our tree is up, but not fluffed or anything and the living room looks like a bomb hit. I will work on it the next few days as I don’t work until Saturday night. I only got 9 hours this week.

Dec6

Shopping!

Posted on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 by Dianne

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Just catching up!
Monday I went down to my hometown to get my hair done and picked up my mom so she could do some power shopping where I work. She was actually very selective and we were in the store a bit over an hour and she did well. We are doing a ‘pollyanna’ and I got gifts for two people. We grabbed lunch and then had to go back to the store as something was the incorrect size and looked at the 65-75% off ladies’ clothing racks. With my discount and the 50 plus day we saved 40% off on the totals. Mom then wanted to go to ‘lots’ of junk. After 4 hours of shopping, I brought her home again and as the weather is also rainy-stinky, she is staying over again.
I am way behind with decorating. Shopping isn’t too bad. I found a flat tree wreath at a thrift shop and took off the ugly fake bright red bows and added new ones. I’ll show you soon.

My mom doing a little embroidery work.

Cosmo is getting snazzy for the holidays.