It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

The tree is up and with Xaviers help, maybe even Brock we will start to build our town today! OK, put the Christmas Village that hasn't be up for a couple of years. Kylee thought it was a buffet, it was at the right height and fences and light poles started to disappear! I have so many beautiful pieces I know the boys will love, so we will give it another try!

Last night we went with the girls and their families to see the light display put on at the Jackson Fair Grounds. It was awesome, Xavier loved it, Brock bounced up and down on his Mom's lap looking at all the colors. After that we stopped at the main building and visited with Santa, went on a train ride, looked a cool trees, made a Reindeer out of a candy cane. Yup is was good, then we all went to dinner and ate entirely unhealthy food. It was fabulous!! LOL

A Grand Suprise happened this week!! I got an email from Todd & Erin and was instructed not to open it until I had hubby with me and they were on the phone line with us. I opened the image and this is what I saw!

What a wonderful suprise. I am so joyful that Todd and Erin had this moment together before he is deployed. We could actually count that time in hours now. I pray and will keep my fingers and toes crossed that he can manipulate his RandR to be here for the precious event of the birth of his first child!

Well I am sure you all wonder what it is like to live with two very large dogs. Spectacular most of the time, so much love from them, and they makes us laugh and they make us smile all the time. However Christmas does present a problem with all the goodies I won't give up on putting up. So maybe the beauty of Christmas is hampered just a little by the things we have to do to make thing safe. But, I would rather do those things than live a day without our four legged family!

So a Merry, Merry Christmas to you all!
Dilly

I am busy, busy, busy getting ready for Christmas how about you?

My goal in changing my blog was to share items I was working on and how to make them. Well, heck this is a lousy time to do that because everything I am working on is a Christmas Present and most of the people who read this are people who will be on the recieving end! LOL So I guess the how to's will have to wait for a couple of weeks.

I got the basic tree up, this means my foo-foo color coordinated, beautiful tree is decorated, now the big box of very special ornaments comes out and we put all the memories up to make it the very special tree it is! Here are a few ideas to make your tree even more special. Find something Red,White & Blue to put at the toop with your star, Angel, or bow. Remember our troops serving here or over seas. I put a piece of RW&B ribbon on our tree back when Desert Storm was active. Each year I thought about taking it off, but it has remained there, never thinking it would be on the tree to represent my support and love for our son, who will be overseas for the next couple of Christmas!

For fun, tie a couple of cinnamon sticks together with some pretty ribbon and hang them on a branch near a light. Good smelling. Xaviers favorite and cheap kid decoration is putting white glue on the edges of pinecones and rolling them in glitter. Tie a pretty cord around the top and you have a very nice ornament!

I still have one package to go out to the East Coast for my Neice and her family. I am working hard to have everything ready to ship so it makes it there on time! I of course am at the typical fill in the holes stage of my list for a few people, but mostly I am comfy of where I am with the whole "present" thing. It will be cookie and goodie time next week. Probably fudge on Monday with Xavier or maybe I will go down to Heathers and we can all make goodies together! I'll have to figure that one out.

Since we are celebrating Christmas Day at my house, I am pretty sure a couple days will be dedicated to cleaning also, maybe even turn the oven onto the clean cycle!! Hopefully it will be chilly enough for that next week!! Right now they are calling for 50 some degrees tomorrow at least with falling temps!!

So I am off and running with hubby to run the treasure trails of Kalamazoo today! You all have a wonderful day!

Dilly

Time to start sharing some goodies with you all!

OK, it’s time to get to work on this blog. I had promised some tutorials of things I attempt and I am even adding in recipes from time to time. I wanted to start out with a project that I fell in love with, but then I realized I was making a few for Christmas Presents, so DUH that wouldn’t work. I will post that info after Christmas. So I guess I will start with a recipe I had promised a few of my friends that I would share.

The family is doing fine. Today we went with the daughters and their families to pick out live Christmas Trees. We went to a local Christmas Tree Farm and Heather, Kirk and Xavier found a tree and cut it down. Shannon, Shawn and Brock finally found their tree already cut up by the office. Brock said, Yup that one will do!!! I know I heard him whisper that to his Mom! LOL

While we were out looking for trees, Erin and Todd were sharing their time packing him up for deployment. Ok, so Erin said Todd was packing and she was checking his list!! No I can’t share when the window is of his deployment but I will give you a sign when he leaves, don’t worry you will figure it out!

So here is the recipe and I am doing it two ways, healthy for those who want to do that (ingredients changed in parenthesis), and I am sure, tasty for those who want to live on the edge!!! LOL

Cranberry Walnut Scones
2 cups Flour (whole wheat pastry flour)
1 tbsp baking powder
5 tbsp sugar (brown sugar)
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp margarine (1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)
1 egg (1 tsp egg replacer)
3/4 cup dried cranberries
½ cup walnut pieces
¾ cup milk (soy milk)

Combine the flour, baking powder, ¾ of the sugar and the salt. Cut in the margarine (add applesauce) until crumbly.
Mix in egg (egg replacer), cranberries and walnuts. Gradually add the milk (soy milk) until thick dough forms. You may need a little bit more or less than ¾ cup milk.

Place on a lightly floured surface and knead lightly a few times. Roll out to a ¾ inch thickness and cut into triangles or use a cookie cutter. Brush the top of each with a bit of milk and sprinkle the remainder of the sugar.
Bake at 450 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes on a lightly greased (sprayed) baking sheet. Remove when lightly browned and place on rack to cool. Brew some coffee or tea and enjoy!

Although Erin and Todd's presents are safely on their way, I am still working like a madwoman on the rest of the goodies for the local family. Christmas is at our house this year, so I have all the decorating to do for that too! But for me I am actually ahead of the game this year!!

Have a great weekend everyone and pass some smiles and Happy Holidays around!

Dilly

Sorry for the mess!

I am making some changes and hoping to improve my blog. I am working toward some changes in my life and want that to be reflected on my blog. So stay tuned and once I am up and running maybe you will enjoy the changes and share some of the info with friends! There will be more how to's and sharing of whatever goodie I am currently busy doing!

I walked into a small store/studio and the first thing that came to mind other than WOW was that I wanted a store like that. So my goal is to work on all the things I enjoy, share my experiments and know how with all of you!

Of course you will still see the goings on from all my family thrown in regularly. After all they are the main reason I live and breath, the rest is just the frosting on my cake!!

So standby for the changes. Until I am done, have a Happy and Wonderful Holiday!

Dilly