Twenty Five Days of Christmas!!

So with all the hustle and bustle of the Holiday Season, I really try to stay positive and focus on spending time with family and doing the little things that really matter this time of year.  It can be so easy to get caught up in the commotion and forget to just STOP and ENJOY the holidays instead of being stressed.  You know, especially when some jackhole infront of you cuts you off so he can get into the same store you are going!!! 

(sigh)

Last year was rough.  Even on Christmas Henry was sick and in the ER a few days before Christmas and then again December 30^th AND 31^st.  He was sick for EVERY holiday or special occasion for about 8 months.  (This is no exaggeration) 

This year I think I am trying to make up for so many days where Henry was sick instead of doing fun things with his family and friends and even just T & I getting to relax and enjoy this time.

So, I have decided to try to do something fun every day during the 25 Days of Christmas!! 

Yeah, I know some of you are laughing to yourself….”Oh, you want to enjoy yourself and relieve stress and you want to do something EVERY day.”  Yeah, my logic isn’t always sound.  And lets be honest, not every day is going to be elaborate and I know I will miss days….but we are trying!

Here is what has been done so far (most of the stuff is with Henry, but some things just me):

1^st – Put up and decorate the tree. It spins. Go ahead...be jealous.

2^nd – Watch a cheesy Christmas movie and drink hot chocolate – Santa Baby 2 infact :-)

3^rd – Order Christmas Cards – DONE and RECEIVED! (Thank you 1 hour photo from Walmart.) 

4^th – Put up decorations around the house.

5^th – Terry’s work Christmas Party. OK, this one is more of an obligation but still festive and fun!

6^th – Family in Town!!  We found ways to be festive when we were at Levis Commons!!  (Henry took the picture of me!)

7^th – Watched Love Actually…I actually Love this movie.  (See, see what I did there.)

8^th – Go look at Christmas Lights in the car while drinking hot chocolate and eating snowman cookies! (from Starbucks of course)

9^th – Call Santa.  We left a message, he was busy.

10^th – Christmas note from Santa!! (Yeah, move over Elf on a Shelf, we have chalkboard on an end table!) 

11^th – String popcorn for the tree and make snowflakes.

12^th – Christmas Concert at school

13^th – Mailed (nearly all) of our Christmas cards!!  Still have a couple I needed addresses for, but they will ALL be out by the 17th!  Henry go to his friend’s house for some Christmas fun!  Made handprint dough ornaments.

14^th – Gingerbread house & Christmas list to Santa!

15^th – Henry & I went shopping for gifts for his friends & some family

Here is a list of all the possible stuff left to do before Christmas!  We won’t do them all, except on Christmas Eve we will get in PJ’s, have popcorn and watch a Christmas movie!  But these are all possibilities!!

Ø  Make cookies for friends and family.

Ø  Send a card to a stranger

Ø  Buy a small Christmas tree/Wreath

Ø  Paint nails a festive color

Ø  Hang a string of colored lights somewhere unexpected in the house.

Ø  Donate toys & clothes to local charities.

Ø  Make Christmas crafts

Ø  Pay for someone's coffee in line behind me in a coffee shop or drive through.

Ø  Buy a toy for someone

Ø  Make treats for neighbors, co-workers & friends.

Ø  Henry make Christmas Cards for friends with treats and deliver them

Ø  Lights Before Christmas at the Zoo (We did this in November)

Ø  Go to a Christmas Tree Farm

Ø  Grandparents take Henry shopping to pick out gifts for mom and dad.  Mom and dad take Henry shopping to pick out gifts for family.

Ø  Wear Christmas pajamas Christmas Eve and watch a Christmas movie.

Ø  Christmas card for a solider

Ø  Read Christmas books

Ø  Call Santa at the library

Merry Christmas!!!!

Wordless Wednesday.....Fun With Words?!

Found this on Facebook.  While I don't put any value in these, they are still fun to do and to see what others pick!  And be honest, don't go looking for different words to add your list!  Mine have to be my honest answers....see below.

The first four I saw in the order I saw them are:

- Witty

- Peaceful

- Honest

- Sweet

Ok, maybe this is 100% true ;)

Please share yours

I Love - Farmers Markets!

So I am a big fan of a Farmer’s Market, or really any outside local produce store.  It can be a small shop with just one farmer’s amazing produce, it can be a small Farmers Market with a handful a vendors, or it can be a large one with tons of vendors and local businesses.  I love them all.

Now I grew up basically in the heart of Amish country (it is our next door neighbor that lived only about 5-10 minutes away).  So growing up we would make many trips out to Amish country for good produce, cheese, trail bologna, baked goods….whatever!  And it was always delicious, homemade, and of course locally grown.  AWESOME.

In/near BG we have a few small stands that are on the side of the road that sell great local items.  We go to this one stand multiple times a year to get our corn, tomatoes, and any other special fruits and veggies.  We go to two other shops to get cider & apples in the fall as well as they have an arrangement of nuts, baked goods and other seasonal fruits and veggies.  However, there has been no one place where many of these farmers go (like a farmers market) to sell their products.

So you can imagine my surprise when I just happened to drive through downtown BG on a Wednesday after work and see what appeared to be a Farmers Market! WHAT?!  When did that get there?!  After a little research and asking, apparently this Farmers Market had been going on for some time on Wednesday evenings during the Months of May – October. Again….WHAT?!

 How did I not know about this?  Well probably because I avoid downtown BG during most months because of all the students and just take the back way home from work.  But a Farmers Market, albeit a small one, in my town is totally worth taking a look.  So Wednesday night, when it was a beautiful 75 degrees outside, I stopped by to take a quick look.  Basil, tomatoes, baked goods, freshly made breads, corn, flowers, even candles….all so lovely and available for me to purchase.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I didn’t really know what to expect so I didn’t bring much cash with me, but I did have enough to get a few things.  I got some large tomatoes; I can already taste the basil, tomato, and mozzarella salads I will be making this weekend.  I got these extremely sweet yellow cherry tomatoes….seriously they are almost like candy!  I got some sweet local corn – YUM.  And I got some homemade salsa from Willy’s Famous Salsa in BG.  I have had this stuff many times before and it is SO good.

Overall there were around 10-15 different vendors out selling their products.  So it was by no means a huge Farmers Market, but had more than enough to get what you would want/need all in one place.  The hardest part was choosing which of the 4 places that sold tomatoes should I pick….seriously, I felt guilty and wanted to buy from ALL of them and of course they all want you to come over and buy from them.  Now that I know what to expect and what vendors are there, I feel I won’t be so overwhelmed and I am totally going back next Wednesday, with a little more cash in hand to get some more items.  There were these homemade breads that looked amazing.  And do you know how hard it was to walk past the baked goods and not even buy ONE cookie!! 

I absolutely love supporting local farmers and small businesses and think this is such a great way to get the community out to not only support the farmers but also the local businesses in a small downtown like ours.  There was a good crowd of people there and I hope they do really well at this so it can continue and grow.

YAY for Farmers Markets!

Terry and I even already decided this would be the perfect place to venture out and visit after Henry is born this fall!

Tastefully Simple Open House and Special Drawing for $50 in FREE Products!

Ok, yes.  I am shamelessly plugging our open house on this blog by offering a special drawing.  But it is only because I like you all so much!

Next Saturday, March 5^th my sister and I will be hosting a special Tastefully Simple Open House!  This is a casual event to introduce the new Spring/Summer line that starts March 1^st while also giving you one last chance to taste and order your favorite items from the Fall/Winter Catalog that expires on March 6^th.  

My house will be open to all of you plus your family, friends, children, whoever - my house may be tiny…but we all like each other so the more the merrier! Feel free to come when you want during the hours of 1:30pm – 4:30pm and stay for as long or as little as you want.  No pressure or formalities.  It is simply a chance to try some food, hangout a bit, oh yeah and enter to win a big raffle prize!

You can enter the raffle in a few different ways: 

1)      Everyone who shows up to the Open House on March 5^th will automatically be entered into the raffle.  All you have to do is show up and voila, entered!

2)      Anyone who places an order at the Open House or online* between March 1^st – March 6^th will also get entered into the raffle.  (So if you attend the Open House and Place an order that would be two entries!)

3)      If you sign up to host your very own Tastefully Simple Catalog OR Tasting Party  between the months of March – June you will get TWO entries into the raffle.  (You could be up to 4 entries!)

4)      Finally, I know some of you may not be able to attend the Open House and others may not be interested in the products. So for every person you refer to us and who either attends the Open House or purchases products online* between March 1^st – March 6^th YOU will receive one entry into the raffle.  So if you refer 5 people to us and they all make a purchase, then you will get 5 entries!  Please email me if you are referring people so I can make sure to give you your entries.

And what could you win?! 

Over $50 in FREE Tastefully Simple Products!    

This includes but is not limited to:

- Bountiful Beer Bread

- Your choice of either Perfectly Potato Cheddar Soup OR Creamy Wild Rice Soup

- Your choice of either Awesome American BBQ Sauce OR Honey Teriyaki Sauce

- The Trio which is a sample of Garlic Garlic, Bacon Bacon, & Onion Onion

- TWO Tastefully Simple Recipe books

- Twisty Grahams

- Absolutely Almond Pound Cake

- And a variety of other samples of various products that I want to throw in for your tasting pleasure!

The winner will be picked randomly and announced Monday, March 7^th!  Your awesome prize will be shipped later that week!  And depending on the number of participants, there could be a few small other prizes passed out as well…just because we are that nice!

If you are planning to attend please email us a few days prior at jenn.kristenTS@gmail.com or at my personal email if you know that one.  You can also just comment on this post if you are thinking about attending, but please leave your email address.  We are just looking for a rough count for the food plus I will give you directions to my house at that time!

So here is the breakdown:

WHAT: Tastefully Simple Open House

WHEN: Saturday, March 5th

TIME: 1:30pm – 4:30pm (come anytime during these hours)

WHERE: I will email directions to you when you RSVP

RSVP: jenn.kristenTS@gmail.com

HOST: KRISTEN WALTZ is your host*, so please remember to add her as your host when you check out online. (More information below)

WEBSITE: www.tastefullysimple.com/web/jhoward4  

This event is open to everyone!

*Online purchases can only be made for this particular event / give-a-way between the dates of March 1^st – March 6^th.  All other purchases made after March 6^th will not be included in the give-a-way.  Please list KRISTEN WALTZ at the checkout as your host for this event when you place your orders online.  If this is the first time you have placed an order with us online, please click HERE for more information on how to do so.  If I have your email, an invitation will be sent shortly with additional information.

 

P.S. Tastefully Simple is having their own Give-A-Way that ends tomorrow, Feb. 25^th.  Click on the link for your chance to win!

Tis The Season For Giving.....

So did you here that our friend over at Two Pretzels is having a Give-A-Way!! 

Check it out on her blog HERE!

I love all this holiday spirit and fun give-a-ways!  First Couple More Hours had a lovely contest (check out the winner HERE) and now Two Pretzels.....love all of the giving!

Nice job ladies :)  I have been thinking of my own as well for some time....who knows maybe a give-a-way from me will kick off around the first of the year!  Stay tuned....

I Have Said It Before....

.....the people at Google are people I think I would want to know and be friends with.  I love all the creative things they do with their logo on their homepage!

I just had to say that, now please feel free to continue to my previous post that I also posted today. :)  Two in one day...wowsers!

It is Pumpkin Pick’n Time!

So every year T & I have a tradition (hey Mickey D, I thought of a non-Christmas tradition in our family!) of putting on warm sweatshirts and jeans and going over to the Pumpkin Peddler on Route 25 the beginning of October and picking out our pumpkins. I have to say we take pumpk’n pick’n very seriously in our household. We are usually at the farm for no less than 30-45 minutes walking around and looking at all the pumpkins available. It is SO much fun! Honestly, we can’t wait till we can do this with our kids someday! (We are seriously the only adults without kids every year, but I think we have just as much fun as the kids that are there.) We make it our mission every year to find the most perfect pumpkins for each of us; I think mine are the better ones but this isn’t a competition…but if it was I feel as though I would win.

After we pick out our pumpkins we like to get hot coffee or apple cider and then we go home, listen to music and get all our fall decorations out and decorate our house! This year we had to postpone decorating our house as T. had homework for his class to work on, but I think we are going to get all the decorations out this week!

But we did get our pumpkins and here are our pumpkins in their wagon at the pumpkin peddler, they are HUGE! (these are very lucky pumpkins to be coming home with us)



Here are our pumpkins at home. T’s is the shorter round one on the stand as he likes to go with a more traditional round pumpkin and mine is the taller one on the porch as I go with taller ones with more room to carve. Since K. was out of town for our trip to the pumpkin farm, we picked hers out for her. It is the one in the middle behind ours. You may have to enlarge the picture to see it. We thought it was perfect for her.



At the pumpkin peddler they also have hay rides and a little place that sells some cute Halloween decorations. We got this cute Halloween door decoration. It has little metal bells in the pumpkins that jingle when you open the door. I LOVE this!



I saw this one and instantly thought of A Couple More Hours! Do you see it has a button eye? (I was going to get it for you but the side had a big scratch, sad)





And if you are looking for fun Halloween decorations, go to this site HERE. I love the stuff they have. The vintage decorations are my favorite, but they have many other types of Halloween stuff as well and stuff for other holidays. (Don't get me started on Christmas!)

Here are a few things I feel would add to our halloween collection!












So have you got your pumpkin yet? Are your fall/halloween decorations out? Do you have any favorite fall decorations? Have you heard me mention I LOVE this time of year?

Please Excuse My Excess Use of the Word Awesome…But This was Awesome.

MSN article & Article here.

So this weekend we were in Cleveland to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Concert!! We were excited that it was going to be in Cleveland (where it belongs EVERY year instead of New York) AND that this was the first time they opened it up to the public, you know the FANS. Besides it being in Cleveland, what made us really want to attend, was that Metallica was getting inducted!

Overall we had a really good time. The things that were annoying had to do with the set up of and execution of the event itself, and believe me a courteous but also informative letter/email will be making its way to the Rock Hall. Even though our seats were not the best, they were almost but not the worst, but I think (and maybe this is the event planner in me) they need to rethink the layout for when they have it again in 3 years.

But the performances themselves were great. It was so fun to be a part of something like this and to see this kind of activity and support in Cleveland is wonderful…..Cleveland needs this event. I thought all the performances were wonderful, Little Anthony and the Imperials surprised me…they still got it. Of course my favorite performances of the night had to go to Jeff Beck and flipp’n Jimmy Page – um AWESOME!!!!!! The two of them together were just great and to see Jimmy Page play was amazing. He is wonderful. Of course the Metallica performances also just rocked. I was SO happy to see that they included Jason Newsted (their bassist for many a years) not only in the induction part but also had him play on stage with the current Metallica line up. That was Awesome. I wanted them to just keep playing, two songs were just not enough. They also played a finale at the end with Metallica, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Flea and Joe Perry. Again I say it – AWESOME!!!

Additional Favorite Moments from the Concert/Weekend:

- Flea’s speech was incredible…what a great speaker.

- Loved when J. Hetfield said in his speech “Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Rush, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Iron Maiden, Motorhead. We'd like to invite them through the door," Totally agree and one of my biggest problems with the Hall of Fame is these people, along with others that they leave out of the HOF. Politics?!?!?!

- It was cool to see Run DMC and Eminem. I would have loved to see them perform, but understand why they didn't.

- Oh, we are now BFF’s with Eddie Trunk. Yeah, that’s right. Click on the link to see who he is, but we watch That Metal Show every Saturday. It was funny because we were walking through a building and we walked right past him and K & I both looked and said That was Eddie Trunk! We wanted to say something but didn’t. THEN, as we were leaving the concert and walking back to our hotel we saw him again. We were thinking of what to say and Dad said welcome to Cleveland and hope you come back. He was very gracious and then the dork I am said We loved That Metal Show (to which he said thank you) and then the bigger dork I am said So Old Metallica or New Metallica (which was something they did on their show). He then proceeded to talk to us for the remainder of our trip back to the hotel (a few blocks or so). I think Terry could have just kept talking to him, he was so easy to talk to. It was cool.

- I loved seeing the middle aged white people trying to rock out to Metallica. It cracked me up! Because who got inducted it was a unique mix of people but it was pretty easy to recognize the Metallica fans.

- Terry and I really want to go see Metallica in concert and are looking at tickets for this fall.

- We stayed in room 1408….creepy.

- Another fun concert with my family. Seriously, I feel very lucky to be a part of a family that really has an interst in good music and that brought us up listening to everything.

(I could keep writing about the evening, I will stop now)

Oh that Google...

...They are some clever and funny folks over there! I always love their special Google Homepage designs! Thank you Google for keeping me smiling.






GO VOTE!

Polka + Pink Floyd = AWESOME!

So tonight at Howards in BG we are going to see our favorite Pink Floyd cover band - Polka Floyd!! I couldn't stop talking about how great they were before and I am really excited to see them tonight!

So like their name suggests they play polka versions of Pink Floyd songs! See their site here. You don't think it should work, but it does! They are just great, I mean really great!

I think they go on at 10...maybe later....I foresee a LOT of coffee in my future!

Fun For All

Visit http://www.yearbookyourself.com/ to make up your won yearbook pics!

Thanks Quiet Oasis and Athena's Bee's for this site!!
I can't stop with the pictures :) I even did one of Terry!

Sonic Is A Mystery No More.

So according to a couple co-workers who waited for 30 minutes for lunch, the new Sonic Drive-in is open in Perrysburg. Now instead of seeing the commercials and going "what the heck is a Sonic" or "where is the closest Sonic" or "why are there Sonic commercials when the closest one is over an hour away". Now we can go "oh, that looks good, lets go to Sonic right now!"

I have never been to one, but I think I may have to be taking a trip up there sometime in the next couple weeks to check it out!

Menu

Side note: Not like Sonic is exactly the same, but we have an old fashioned rootbeer stand back home. I love it! They serve the best rootbeer and shredded chicken sandwiches ever! It is such a fun place to go in the summer! Small towns are always great for these types of things...we also have a drive-in movie that still gets tons of business.

No Stopping Me Now!!!

I just found this weekend on our Oxygen On Demand Channel that we get Karaoke!!

HELL YEAH!!!

Yep, you pick the song you want (there are maybe 30 or so) and then it plays on your TV just like Karaoke! Of course my friends and I HAD to try it out! A little Whitesnake, "Here I Go Again", Some "Hello" by Lionel Richie, and a few others!

Oh, there is nothing like butchering classic Karaoke songs with your friends to make for an awesome evening!

What we do in Our Spare Time

I know this post is corny, deal with it.

So last night Terry & I managed to get three eggs to stand eggs-actly straight up on our counter without the use of any tricks. It was an egg-trordinary feet thanks to the Equinox. The time where the sun is directly over the Earth’s equator and only 1 of 2 times you can get an egg to do this egg-ceptionally cool trick!

I have never seen this done before and always thought T. was eggs-aggerating the details, but once we got the first one to stand up I was really egg-cited and we just had to keep trying to more!

T & I had an egg-cellent night! :)

What is the Equinox: An equinox in astronomy is that moment in time (not a whole day) when the centre of the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year.

More technically, at an equinox, the Sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator (i.e. declination 0) and ecliptic intersect. These points of intersection are called equinoctial points—the vernal point and the autumnal point. By extension, the term equinox may be used to denote an equinoctial point. *According to Wikipedia.com

Way Cute!

I think these retro aprons are WAY cute! I really want to order one!

The website is bellapamella (Click here). They are $40.

I saw them in a magazine, and I just think they are totally cute! And as I do cook and enjoy cooking (yes I do dad - hehe) I think it would be cool to own an apron, though this may just be my special occasion apron to wear. Like I put it on before I serve dinner to look cute - I wouldn't want to get it dirty ;-)

Because you asked Two Pretzels!!

Because you requested this I thought I would post a picture of what happens when you bring your stuffed animal to work on “Bring your Pet to Work Day” and leave it alone with your friends! See the story behind this over at The View From My Fishbowl’s weekly “Feast”!! I am totally going to find the other pics and send those around to the "Captors"!!

Yes, you are seeing that right. Her hands are tied together with a rubber band, she has a bandana over her eyes, and she is sitting in an overhead cabinet of a fellow co-workers. NICE)

Snapple "Real Fact"

Real Fact #160

One alternate title that had been considered for NBC's "Friends" was "Insomnia Cafe".

HAHAHA! Some how I don't think the show would have taken off with that title!!

Delicious & Educational!

I got a Kiwi Srawberry Snapple today (yum) and saw this fun “Real Fact” on the lid.

Did you know that Beavers can hold their breath for 45 minutes.

So my curiosity got to me and I went to their website and saw they have another other 672 “Real Facts” on their site!

I read through a few and they are way fun! Check them out!

Click here to find more fun Snapple “Real Facts”!

This is most likely not new at all, but this is the first Snapple I have had in years so it is new to me!

I'll try it as well...

So I followed turtle parade and tried this as well...it was fun! I tried with a bunch of different pics and this was the one with the highest percentage of "closeness" to my pic. (80%) I don't see it much, maybe in the smile/cheeks...but I have to tell you some of the results I had with other pics. Lance Bass, Maggie Smith (who is pretty but it was an old pic of her), Cher, and wait for it.....Manuel Noriega - hahahahahaha! Talk about a shake to ones self-esteem!



The names got cut off some: Greta Garbo 80%, Charlotte Church 76%, Christina Applegate 75%, Kaley Cuoco? 71%, Sophia Loren 71%, Heather Graham 71%, Caprice Bourret?70%, & Delta Goodrem? 68%.

Talk About Being on AutoPilot

So this morning my husband woke up to go in to work on his one early day a week. He got ready, kissed me goodbye and headed off to work. As he was leaving I got up to proceed with my morning routine. I run on autopilot in the morning. I got ready, headed down stairs to pack my lunch, got my shoes on, and glanced at the clock before I headed out the door.

However, when I looked at the clock I noticed something strange. It said 7:03 a.m. That is funny, because I don’t have to leave the house until around 8:00 a.m. hmmmm…..I checked another clock and the same thing.

Yes folks, I got up an entire hour before I had too. Boo. So of course, I did what every sensible person who has a bit of extra time on their hands would do…..I squeezed in a 45 minute nap! Clothes, contacts and all…I just curled up and took a nap a mere 45 minutes after I had gotten up for the day!

I need a vacation!