Just a Little Bit.....

Well we started the process of dragging all the Christmas tubs out of the closet in the guest room this past week.

After going through the tub with the boxes of Xmas cards in it here is what I found........

 This above are FOUR stacks of boxes of Christmas cards, TWENTY FOUR BOXES(not all of them full)of unused Xmas cards.

I blame Rite-Aid....well I can't blame them since we moved but before then, since I was always in that store after Christmas poking through all the discounted Xmas merchandise, and the boxes of cards always seemed to be in great supply once things got discounted to 90% off(and I'd conveniently forget that I already had many, many boxes of unused cards at home in my stash, I'd pick up a few more boxes for 10¢ on the dollar.  sigh
I am sure my kids won't be fighting over who gets what is left once I die.  More like they'll fight over who has to take them so they can pitch them in the garbage once I am gone. lol

Hi, I'm Sluggy and I am a Christmas Card Hoarder.  If there were support groups for such people, this is what I'd said at the meeting. 8-)

It's too bad sending physical Christmas cards are going out of style.  This younger generation(pick whichever one you want)isn't into writing in a physical card and mailing it when they can email, text or call.  More's the pity....

Sluggy

The To-Do List.......October Update

Let's take a look at how the October To-Do List turned out.........

* Pay Bills  DONE  Always the top of the list, always my priority.

* Read 1,2 Books  PASS  I didn't get the 2nd book finished before October was over(and traveling got in the way of getting #2 finished)so I get a Pass.

I read this book..........

"Letters to America" by Tom Blair

An interesting and highly readable book.  Mr. Blair has written a collection of stories about everyday Americans, from the 1600's immigrants to Virginia, to the 1990's which was the actual authors life story.(None of the other stories are of real people, but anonymous ictitious  people who lived through certain times and struggles in our country's history.)
Some of the stories didn't seem fully fleshed out (the young girl who worked in a sewing factory at the turn of the 20th century and the Jewish youth with an Uncle named Mordecai)and some just went on and on and on(you can tell that Mr. Blair is an aircraft/aeronautics and WWII fan).
Could have been better but the good parts were excellent and worth the read.


* Purge Inserts and Q Envie  DONE  If I don't do this one it makes like difficult as far as shopping goes so I do it monthly.

* Hold Giveaway  DONE

* Mail Giveaway  DONE  Mailed and received

* Make Tomato Sauce for Freezer  DONE  Well I made the sauce but I didn't freeze it.  We used it up in October.

* House Train Puppy  IN PROGRESS  Still working on this one.  A bit of a setback due to Dixie going into heat.  Not fun.

* List Items on eBay  DONE  I got about 5 more items listed and 3 items sold n October.  Nothing to write home about but I'll take it.

* Put Garden to Bed  DONE  Hubs did this mostly while I was in Ocean City.

* Work on Christmas Gifts  IN PROGRESS  I got Kim, her Sissie's, my brother and sister in-law's gifts wrapped and packed up.  Everything was delivered to the recipients in October.  I've got the rest of the folks I buy for to wrap up but that can wait until after Thanksgiving.

* Pack for Oct. Trip  DONE  I packed it all up and filled my car.

* Go on Oct. Trip  DONE  

Craziness in OC

And warehouse stores in VA

* Have FUN!  DONE  Fun was had and merriment ensued............
It was a good month.

Onward and upward to November!


Sluggy

This Past Week at Chez Sluggy

Christmas prep continued last week, ready or not.
Tuesday was spent at home, recovering from Monday's excursion to Hub's eye doc. Daughter helped me complete 2 large pizza for dinner and I got a few more ornaments on the Xmas tree.

Tuesday also found me deep into cookie baking.

  Italian Ricotta Cookies. This recipe sure made a TON of them!

I don't usually make so many kinds of cookies for Xmas but A-I had to be close to home more than usual, due to Hub's and B-this year I have 5 people here(plus 2 more on Xmas Day)to eat all this stuff, so why not get "into" cookie baking this year.

      Coconut Macaroons cooling in the snow.

I had printed off 7 cookie recipes I wanted to do(plus 2 usual varieties I make). I also had some mint chocolate chip cookie dough that I bought Nov. 30th at the store on clearance that just needed putting onto a baking sheet and running through the oven.
This potentially gave us 10 different cookie types for Xmas...yikes!

     Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies. Good but a PITA to make.

I didn't get to all of them(either due to lack of energy/time or special ingredients-who knew the grocery store would run out of white chocolate chips!?)but I did make the following 7.......

Lemon Gooey Butter Cookies
Coconut Macaroon Cookies
Peanut Butter w/PB M&Ms Cookies
Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Italian Ricotta Cookies
Butterscotch Cashew Cookies
Chocolate Chip w/M&Ms Cookies

    The Cookie Tree, the best kind of tree.

I had to resort to this to keep the kids out of the cookies until Xmas.....

Yes I am that mom! 8-)

Also on Tuesday we spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with paperwork for Hubs' disability claim.  Not only does he have to submit paperwork to his work's HR, but also the disability board AND the FLMA folks.  His boss was suppose to handle some things with all this but she was wrong about it, Hubs had to do all this and he didn't jump right on it due to his boss saying she'd handle some of it and then she was on vacation this week.  So the paperwork is already late and he was freaking out that he'd not get it taken care of before the window closed and he's lose some benefits($$).
But we got everything back on track and the paperwork is in the pipeline now.

Wednesday, while I was out doing a Rite-Aid and grocery store run, a package arrived.

A bounty of unexpected Xmas gifties from buddy Kim.

MORE Cookies! lolz

Hubs even received a package...........

Homemade CANDY! *drool*
Thankfully the tag on his gift said he had to share it.  Score! lolz

My present said to open immediately.

And indeed I did because the next day I began the pie baking marathon.
And this lovely ensemble Kim sent me came in very handy..........

It's a Maxine apron(complete with ginormous rick-rack trim)and matching pot holders.
I posed for a photo with one of the pecan pies I made for Daughter.  Photo bombed by the dog too....how nice.  ;-)

On Thursday I made 3 pies-2 pecan and 1 mincemeat(for Hubs).  I bought 2 cream type pies at Weis(PMITA)Markets last week for $3 each.  One pie was for the BF and the other for the Nephew and me(Key Lime).

I also moved some stuff in the family room and found this.....

...a bag of items that were supposedly taken up to the food bank last month.
sigh.

On Friday, at least I think it was Friday, I made a quick shopping run to 4 different stores at the ass crack of dawn while the weather was good.  I was still in search of something for Hubs for Xmas(a style of shirt he likes that NOBODY makes anymore), plus some odds and ends for stockings and such.
The shirts were found at Kohl's and I used gift cards to pay plus got $10 in Kohl's Cash for later.
I also saw this sweet Xmas decoration........

A Xmas tree made from a plunger. 8-P

I found a Sara Lee pumpkin pie on clearance at Walmart(in there looking for Hub's shirts).  The pie was $3.50 for which I had a $1 off Q and there was a $1.50 rebate so for $1.00 OOP I didn't need to make College Boy his pie of choice for Christmas. Woohoo!
I also saw this at Walmart.......

I picked up 2 containers of 18 count eggs at Dollar Tree for $2 but my trip to Family Dollar netted me nothing.
A run to Weis later that day for a bottled water stock up and Christmas candy for 50% off and using coupons may have also been purchased. ;-)
I found this at Weis.....

Zitner's  is a Philly area candymaker.  I knew they made Easter confections but I'd never seen a Christmas one.  Ok, so it's just a peanut butter Easter egg in a red box. lolz

Saturday was pretty uneventful here thankfully.  I didn't need to go anywhere, just fill stockings and do some last minute wrapping.
My cookbook from the giveaway I won did arrived Christmas eve...........

I haven't had a chance to do anything but glance into it but something Anne didn't tell anybody about this book is that she was one of the editors for it!  It looks to be interesting and chocked full of recipes from famous chefs and/or restaurants throughout the country.
Thanks Anne!

Sunday....oh Sunday!!!

Santa came!

The kids arose about 10 am....finally!  Daughter made Sausage Gravy and Biscuits for breakfast.
The biscuit took twice as long to bake.  The oven just wasn't heating up for some reason.  Come to think of it, my cookies were all baking "weird" the other day....taking longer to bake and spreading out like crazy due to that.
After the oven cooled off I took a close look in there with a flashlight and noticed that there were a couple of places on the lower element that were deformed, like they had super heated and melted a bit.
Sigh.

But onward to the gift opening, which commenced around noon.

Daughter not thrilled with having to play Santa first.

Cinnamon hugging her new toy from her other grandparents in Louisiana.

Who invited this lumberjack to Christmas? lolz

My new slippers, purple of course!

The BF grinning about his Teletubbies wrapped gift.

If you haven't guessed by now, we have OLD wrapping paper we still use, that has been collected over many, many years.
The Daughter excited for her Justin Beiber paper.....

We had a new Santa's elf this Christmas.  Everyone takes a turn in the Santa hat.

My "Precious" giftie.  A robotic vacuum built specifically for pet hair.  Hmmm, I wonder why I now need this? lolz

The BF confounded by massive amounts of tape.  The tape monster(aka me)strikes again!

Daughter loved this tie-dyed psychedelic kitty head shirt that was a last minute purchase at Walmart on Friday.

The doggy chilling out.

College Boy with his obligatory AXE gift set.

The BF seemed to like his lined work pants we got him.

Even Hubs got festive and decorated his "boot".

And he really liked the authentic Viking chain and pendant Daughter gave him.

And likewise, Daughter was thrilled by her WOW(aka World of Warcraft)wallet and Firefly hat that the BF gave her.

WE followed gift opening with stocking emptying.  I think everyone was well taken care of by Santa this year.

I think the doggy sums up my morning on Christmas.  Happy but tired.  8-)

So I warned Hubs that our oven may be shot and our Roast Beef and Mac & Cheese Xmas dinner may be in jeopardy.  I had him call his brother to let him know we may be bringing a hunk of meat, mac and cheese and pans of rolls to his house to cook off.  I had done the Green Beans in a crock pot so that was one thing I didn't have to worry about.
After punching down the dough and making it into rolls at 1 pm I tried the oven again.
Nothing.
It barely got warm.

So Hubs called his brother to have him preheat his oven and Daughter and I headed out to brother in-law's house to cook the food.
When the food came out and hour and 15 minutes later, we called home to have College Boy bring over the pans of rolls and take the roast and mac back home.
20 minutes after that all 4 of us heading to our house with the rolls and got dinner on the table.

The hungry diners.  We ate about 3 hours later than planned.

And me, silly with hunger trying another failed selfie.  8-)

After dinner we exchanged gifts with brother in-law and the nephew.

Afterwards the youngin's sat and checked phones, vaped and checked out their gifts.

On Monday I didn't go out and hit any after Christmas sales.  I was too busy with Hubs and digging out from Christmas(cleaning out, dishes, etc.)and getting the garbage ready for Tuesday morning's pick-up and locating a heating element for our oven.

I think I can just replace the element and get the oven up and running again and not have to go buy a new appliance. Spending $16 as opposed to $500+ would be much better, right? ;-)

And those are the highlights of our week here at Chez Sluggy.

So what's up in your world lately?

Sluggy

Monday Morning Christmas Quarterbacking

Like that quotable giant Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over until it's over."
And it's over.
Officially.
Christmas that is....
It was lowkey and simplified.
I never set foot in a Mall or WalMart beforehand so I am calling it a Successful Holidays!lol

#2 son loved his Beatles CDs....

Daughter oohed and aaahed over her 'fake' Uggs I picked up at that ridiculously great sale at 6pm.com for $9.99!.....

And #1 son seemed to gush over the Jack Daniels Zippo lighter his SECRET SANTA gave him.....

And the belly laugh award does to Daughter's SECRET SANTA, who packaged her $20 bill inside an Austin Powers Penis Enlarger.....

Yes, it was INSIDE of the gag gift enlarger and she had to 'extricate' it, all the while voicing her protest with many "ewwww"s.lolol

Here are a few of the gifties Sluggy received.

From my SECRET SANTA(who turned out to be #1 son)

And from the Hubs......"the book that is not to be named"....lol

If you are real nice to me McVal, I'll let you read it. ;-)

And also from #1 son/Secret Santa, I got this....

And I'll be sharing these pearls of human stupidity every day on the blog in the coming year.
I know all you readers are shivering with antici.......pation!

The BIL and Nephew came over for dinner mid afternoon.
I set out appetizers of crudities, cheese and sweet bologna cubes, crackers, chips, tortilla chips, salsa, 2 kinds of dip and a fruit plate.
After everyone mowed through that spread, I served Ravioli with Italian Sausage and Meatballs and homemade Sunday "Gravy", along with a very elaborate Salad and those TMF Pepperidge Farm rolls.
Many cookies and 2 kinds of pie followed later.

And here's the very full and happy crew.....

The day after Christmas we said goodbye to #1 son as he headed back to western PA on the bus.  He has a job for the 3 weeks before school starts up again so he was only home 1 week.  I miss him already.....

We basically just relaxed after he left and did a little cleaning up here and there.  Hubs knee was paining him, Daughter is still sick with some sinus-y crud and my sinuses aren't feeling very clear either so we took it easy.
We ate more pie and watched as the Blizzard of '10 headed up the coast toward us.  The snow started around here at approx. 3pm.  At around 6pm I realized I didn't get out and get my Sunday papers(coupons)yet!  So silly me headed out in the snow at 6pm to the newspaper box to get some papers.....but they only had 1 paper left, I had to drive 1 mile further and go to Rite-Aid!ack


Needless to say, Rite-Aid was empty except for me and the employees.
I quick grabbed a paper and a few other things and headed back home.
Hubs thinks I have lost what was left of my mind going out in that mess for coupons.

The roads were a mess and it was probably the worst part of the storm for us, since the plow trucks weren't out because it was a Sunday evening.
No other After-Christmas shopping for me on Sunday.  

We only received about 3 inches Sunday night and by late morning on Monday it was bright and sunny, but still cold as a witch's teat and windy.

East of us got dumped on, upwards of 2 feet of snow!  Even south of us in Philly got a big helping of it.
We got 3 measly inches.
My brother in southern VA got 18 inches.  That's a very rare thing down there.  He should have come up here to the mountain for Christmas to avoid it....crazy talk, right?lol

So what did everyone else get for Christmas?
Was Santa good to you??

Sluggy