FA LA LA LA LA......

'Tis the season to bake goodies!!!

Yesterday, my sister Debbie invited me over to make Tarts together! We had so much fun!! Dough, Fillings and a few glasses of wine. Her house looks so beautiful, like a warm Winter retreat, And her tree is absolutely gorgeous!

It was the oddest thing. We were both following the same recipe, yet, our batches came out looking so different! How could that be? Was it because we used Light and Dark Brown Sugar? was it the placement in the oven? Did one of us use more Nuts in the mixes?? Who knows, but it was funny looking at how different they looked!
I now live just 1 1/2 miles from her, and I love that we're so close now! She's coming over next Tuesday, and we're going to make my favorite Crescent Cookies together. Those are my favorite Christmas cookies ever. The smell, and taste, bring me back to my childhood (just a few years ago!....... hahah!!!) It's just not Christmas without them. I tell my kids that "this is What Christmas tastes like!"

So, I got out of work at 11:30 yesterday!!!! I work in Catalog sales, and once people realize they can't get their orders by Christmas eve, it gets very slow, so they send people home. It was hard saying no, when they offered. It was a perfect opportunity to finish Christmas shopping, and getting all the food for Christmas Eve. So... I think I'm done!!... unless I forget some stupid little thing like salt or something, I think I got it all.

So as I probably mentioned before, it's going to be a pretty quiet Christmas. My sisters are all staying home with their kids. So it will just be me and my kids, and my Friend Gloria. The kids get bored quickly, so, I came up with a game for us to play! It's called "The Family Know-it-All Game" I found a "game box" and I created a Cover for the box. I designed and printed "Sassy Bucks" featuring a really silly picture of me when I was about 8 years old! Question cards, and even have little touch lights they can hit to answer the questions. I'm also going to make a "Trophy" that the winner will get, and have the bragging rights as being "THE FAMILY KNOW-IT-ALL" Sounds fun right??? I hope they think so! I'm not done with it yet, but here are a few pictures of it so far. I think it just might be something we could do every year! Just write up new questions. I'm still working on things like the "BONUS ROUND" and "LIGHTNING ROUND" So I'll let ya know.

The other photo, is of my Daughter Allison, holding her and her sister's dog Lucas AKA: "The Beast", with her boyfriend Andy, and their other dog Cody. They went to an animal shelter Charity event and had this fun Christmas pic taken!

We had some Freezing Sleet yesterday, which always makes me worry about my kids driving in it. Luckily, it didn't last very long, and the road were just wet in the morning. Now, there's yet another Winter Storm on it's way. If we're lucky, it will just stay along the shore line of Cleveland, If not, it may dip further South, and we could "Be in trouble" as the Weather guy said. We still have months of this White crap yet to come. But we are one day closer to Spring right? And...Sunday is the Winter Solstice.. the shortest day of the year...The days will start getting longer after that! YAY! I think I do suffer from that Light deprivation thing. I'm doing it again....talking endlessly about the weather! sorry! It's just so hard not to, it's always the topic of conversation for Clevelanders this time of year. It's already Thursday!!! Wow... the week went by sooo fast! And...I'm off the rest of the weekends in December. I'll get to finish my projects this weekend, and finally finish decorating the tree! I'm sooo bad!!!

What are you doing New Year's Eve?