Merry & Bright

I feel like I'm in a dream and the holidays just creeped up on me. Wasn't Halloween just last week? Time has a way of marching on, whether I'm ready for it or not.

I tend to panic the day after Thanksgiving, thinking about the sheer magnitude of things I need to accomplish before Christmas. It can be overwhelming. That is, until I make my lists. 

I got a jump on my holidays last week when I decided to make this banner. My friend, Lisa, helped me.

Lisa is contemplating putting a Cricut on her Christmas list, and I like to corrupt others with my evil crafting, so I peer pressured her into helping me. We had so much fun that we made four. Lisa is keeping one and giving another to one of her lucky peeps.

I'm also keeping one and giving the other away to one of my lucky readers. Are you feeling lucky?

If you want a chance to win one of these, leave me a comment telling me what the biggest stress of the holiday season is for you. Let's just call it my Comment Confessional. Feel free to exaggerate. I love embellishments.

Plus, you get to feel better getting it off your chest, and I get to feel better when I see that we're in the same boat.

Row, row, row your boat. We have 25 shopping days left until Christmas . . .

And because I know you're thinking it, I'm just going to answer your ESP-Internet question right now. Yes, I have been making a lot of these blasted banners lately. I think I'm fixated on them.

I've decided that I want one for every holiday. And if I'm making one, it's just as easy to make two, so stay tuned.

Oh, I should probably mention that I'm picking a winner Friday night. Sometime Friday night. I can't be nailed down to an exact time because I'm so flighty.

Zombies and Diversity

I know. Before you even ask I'm just going to say, yes. Yes, I know you probably did come over here wondering how in the heck a comic book site got tangled up in my RSS feed. Stranger things have happened.

For example last night I accidentally set my blog to private and no one could get in for about an hour. There was some freaking out in my in box over that one. Oopsie.

Sorry, I was just playing around with a new blog I started, Controlling My Thighs, and I'm not ready to unveil it yet so I accidentally privatized the wrong blog. My bad.

There really is a point to this post. Somewhere. And I promise I'll get to it in my usual roundabout way.

I actually just want to share a little story about Peanut Head educating the troops. Our troops. Since he can't yell at sweaty Grunts anymore, he has to impart his wisdom somewhere. Since we had kids, they naturally became the recipients of his vast wisdom.

Not unlike the little orienteering lesson with the girls, this particular lesson made a bit of an impact. Not necessarily a positive impact, but an impact.

I'm going to have to sidetrack a little bit before I show you what I'm talking about. I know. That never happens around here. I'm always succinct.

Sidetracking . . . we have a little routine for Sundays. Part of our Sunday routine is Family Movie Time. Peanut Head pops popcorn and we settle in and watch a movie together. Well, a couple weeks ago I bought the movie "Seven Pounds," with Will Smith.

I love Will Smith. He's so sweet.

I couldn't wait to watch the movie, I was so looking forward to it. Peanut Head kept asking me what the movie was about, and I kept telling him "I don't know. I've heard from a lot of people that it's really good, but they couldn't tell me what it was about or else it would give it away."

A plot surprise movie.

I thought we were good with that explanation. I kept telling Peanut Head how excited I was that I was finally going to be able to watch "Seven Pounds."

I excitedly got settled in for the movie. All the while, Peanut Head didn't say a word. But then Peanut Head doesn't talk a lot, so this wasn't unusual. I think it's a Grunt thing.

The movie started and imagine my surprise when this movie came up on the screen."

Seriously.

I felt betrayed. Tricked and betrayed. 

How could my beloved do this to me?

I don't think it was a stretch for him at all. He didn't even laugh. He just acted like it was the plan all along. I kept looking at him, and looking at the movie, and looking at him, and back at the movie. I was confused.

And tricked and betrayed.

I was huffing under my breath and thinking to myself "I should get up. I should get up and stomp off. I have better things to do than watch this drivel."

Except I didn't.

And I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I sat there through the whole thing and watched it.

Hey, the popcorn was dang good and I was cozy under that blanket.

And while I didn't love the movie, it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen. The girls thought it was most excellent. Especially Stinkerbell. She liked it a little too much. Disturbingly so.

But then if you'll remember, she wore this for Halloween last year.

I was not pleased.

I'm trying to focus on the positive here. Against my nature as it is. Perhaps we can use this movie somehow to impart a little educational lesson.

I know.

Diversity. By watching the zombies and respecting the way they choose to live, we are embracing diversity. 

Yes. Bad Parenting Choice save. Never mind calling CPS. We're good now.

Except that The Stink went to school the next day and wrote about the experience in her weekend journal.

Just in case you cannot read the literary masterpiece, here's what it says:

This past weekend I wathed (spelling errors are left alone, even though they are causing my left eye to twitch) a really, really SCARY MOVIE!!! it was called ZOMBIE LAND!!! It made me and Zoe hide under our covers at night time and go with each other to the bathroom! My favorite part was when a huge, fat, wide, round ZOMBIE was standing right in front of the last human's. Then one of the last human's said . . . I'M JUST GOING TO TAKE A LITTLE OFF THE TOP! and cut off his head!

I know. WE'RE SUCH AWESOME PARENTS!!!

I especially love her little smiley face at the end. And her excessive use of punctuation marks. She has her Mama's enthusiasm. Er . . .  exaggerating tendencies.

The problem with exercising bad judgment with our kids and letting them watch such educationally devoid movies, is that they tell people about it.

Dang it.

"Zip, zip, zip it, Sister Girl. Not telling. Not telling the people about the baaaaaaaad movie."

And dangity, dang dang. I still haven't gotten my ESP-to-the-kid messaging system up and running. Must make that a priority.

So now Stinkerbell's teacher, her teacher whom I love as much as cupcakes, probably thinks I'm a Cretin now.

Dang it.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I have a quick recipe to share with you today. It's one of Peanut Head's favorite dips. He pretty much likes anything with artichokes and cheese. I know, kind of girlie of him with the artichokes, but it really is good. It's one of those dips that's better hot. Also, just a word of caution, go slow with the addition of the red pepper flakes, because they tend to increase the heat after they've had a chance to hang out in the dip and permeate the rest of the ingredients. Does that even make any sense? Anyway, you can always add more if you want more heat, just do it carefully.

Enjoy!

Give Thanks Banner Winner

The winner of the Give Thanks banner is Randi. Congratulations, Randi! Send me an e-mail with your address and I'll pop it in the mail Saturday. 

Thank you to everyone who left comments. I enjoyed reading through them. We have a lot to be thankful for, don't we?

Give Thanks Banner

I'm popping in super quick to share a little banner that I just finished this evening. I'm feeling very prepared with Thanksgiving more than a week away. Normally I would finish something like this the night before, but technically it has been on my To Do List for over a year. Better late than never though, right?

Target didn't have any glitter paper in the color I wanted for this banner, so I had to resort to glitterizing my own letters. I chose to just outline them in glitter because it took forever already. It was not my favorite part.

Plus, it was super messy.

And yes, that's because I'm a disaster when I create, but I don't like to clean as I go. I like to destroy and create side by side. 

I'm not cleaning it up until this weekend either. In fact, I'm going to bed right now.

But first, I wanted to tell you that I made two of these. One for me, and one for one of you lucky readers out there. I'm giving you until Thursday evening at 9:00 p.m. mountain time (as in Idaho), to leave a comment telling me what you are thankful for.

I promise to get it mailed out to you by Saturday at the latest. That way you'll have it in time for the big day. Good luck, Peeps!

Harvest Potatoes with Apples

I realize that it's been two weeks since I've posted, and I apologize for that. I don't have a good excuse, so let's just suffice it to say that I lag.

I do have a sweet recipe to share with you though. Call it make up food if you'd like.

This is one of my favorite fall dishes, and I discovered it at a church potluck several years ago. I never did find out who brought the dish so I couldn't wrestle the recipe from them, and I was forced to try to recreate it through trial and error. I think I've got it now.

Here's what you need: yams, Granny Smith apples (or any firm baking apple), cinnamon sugar, butter (of course), water, cornstarch, brown sugar, and salt. And while we're on the subject, why do we call yams sweet potatoes when sweet potatoes are not the same? I don't get it, but I cave to peer pressure so I'm calling the yams potatoes too. Sue me.

By the way, do you like my new counter tops and back splash? Oh, oh, oh! There's an excuse. My kitchen has been torn apart. And okay, that was three weeks ago, but I've been recovering.

Yeah, that's it.

I'm actually going to do a before and after post, but I've got to clean the cabinets first and put the new hardware on. It could be January before that happens. Or summer. I did get my Christmas letter for last year out in August, so it will happen, it's just a matter of when.

Anyway, enough of the blathering on about nothing, here's the recipe card. I think you should make this. The world needs more beta carotene.

Enjoy!