I'm sorry I'm doing an awful blogging job. I had a whopping one post in November. This is what has been consuming my life.
I mailed the majority out on Tuesday, and since I subbed yesterday I am a bit behind in finishing. But I can say for certain that they will be done and mailed on Monday.
The cough from hell that I had last year for the entire winter is back. I'm going to get someone out here to test the air quality in case it's something like mold. I don't feel sick, but I sound like I have the plague and I'm sure that's bad for business.
We went Christmas tree shopping the week before Thanksgiving in order to beat the fake Christmas tree rush. We checked out Kmart before heading to Big Lots where we got a sweet deal on a 6' pre-lit tree.
I intended to take silly pictures like my family does when picking out a real tree. I got this one shot in Kmart and completely forgot to take more in the midst of all the excitement at Big Lots.
(This is a side note that Theo is currently running laps around the living room. Poor thing, but I really don't feel up to walking him in the cold and cloudy weather. The Puppy 500, as we call it, will have to do for now.)
Theo was pretty excited to put his new personalized dog bone on the tree. This picture was taken before he tried to eat it. The ornaments start about a foot and a half from the bottom of the tree. Oh, Theo.
We missed the community tree lighting this year. Michael was working overnight and I had signed up to chaperone a dance put on by Parks and Rec for 5th and 6th graders. Two straight hours of rap. If I had attempted to dance in such a way I would have surely blown out a knee and not been able to walk the next day. Then again I'm sure I wouldn't have been allowed to go to a dance at that age much less walk home after. Things you keep in mind when they're trying to drive you crazy in the classroom. Not everyone is as blessed to grow up in the home that I did.
Oh well, back to happy thoughts. Here are two custom dog bone ornaments I made for a friend.
I am so happy how they turned out. I used different greens for the holly leaves and I think it really jazzed them up more than Theo's (which can be seen in my Etsy shop). I have two more orders for custom ornaments and I will be starting those as soon as the invitations are done. (And here I am blabbing away on the blog with errands to run and lots of Christmas presents waiting to be crafted.)
And speaking of Christmas presents, here's my
wish list on Amazon. Maybe it's tacky, but at least you know :)
Hungry? If you are in the mood for some serious comfort food and have 2 hours to spare
Ina Garten's Chicken Stew with Biscuits will not disappoint. It might disappoint your post-Thanksgiving pre-Christmas diet. But it is amazing. I didn't use those tiny onions and I used half and half instead of heavy cream. Don't be intimidated by the biscuits. Make them. You will not be sorry. We are so sad that the leftovers are gone.
Earlier this week I made pasta primavera. I used this
recipe, but subbed green bell peppers for red and I also roasted the tomatoes. I used whole wheat spaghetti instead of bow tie pasta because that's what I had on hand. I bought herbes de Provence since I'm not a huge fan of Italian herbs. And let me tell you.... yum yum yum. Fast and easy. Sorry no picture. Plus my pictures of food usually make the food look gross.
Tiny goose likes to lie underneath things. He's under the couch as I type.
So long for now. Time to be productive.
Our duplex neighbors knocked on our door around 11 this morning to see if we wanted to walk with them to the shopping center near our place in order to go to the grocery store. This sounded like an adventure so we suited up to join them. It was still snowing. We helped another neighbor get his jeep unstuck. I say "we", but I mostly watched. 
We saw a fallen tree, stranded cars, and mountains of snow in the parking lot.
When we made it back home we ate lunch then headed to McGrady's Irish Pub to join more neighbors for beer and shuffleboard. 
Nice and toasty we walked back home around 4:30. Michael and John went to Washington Park to sled before it got dark and I took a nap. We are so grateful that we lost power for only 15 minutes and we weren't even home for it.
After dinner we spent an hour and a half digging my car out of the snow. Michael borrowed a shovel from the neighbors and I used our dust pan which I preferred to the shovel.
My face is defrosting as I type and I am about to do some last minute packing. We think we should be able to get out tomorrow. The temperature won't get warm enough to melt the snow but we're close enough to main roads to be able to leave. We're keeping an eye on things and we're not planning on doing anything stupid.
