Over-gifting

Do you see this box?  It's filled with books for Christmas for me and only me.  Seem a bit excessive?  Well, you should know my loving husband went overboard because of a slight misunderstanding.

If you know me you know that I absolutely love reading.  I borrow books, check them out from the library, and get them super cheap on amazon, but the books that tend to be hardest to get that way are some of my favorite LDS authors.  (Just a side note- some are over the top cheese and I can't take them, but I have a few authors that I really like).  For some reason the stars aligned and every author that I love had a new book out this Christmas.  I couldn't decide which ones I wanted (since I wanted them all), so I circled them in the catalog mailing and told Joel to chose whichever ones he wanted, so there would be some element of surprise for Christmas.
I thought he would buy 2, maybe 3 if I was really lucky....and then the box arrived yesterday.  Joel asked me if it was ok if he wrapped them in front of me, and I said I wanted to be surprised.  He looked a little confused, and I asked, "Joel, um, how many did you get?"  In the most pathetic voice possible he said, "I got all of the ones you circled.  I thought you wanted ALL of them."  Apparently he missed the whole selection process.  I couldn't believe he spent that much money!  When I asked him if he thought it wasn't a bit much when he was ordering them, his only reply was that he thought if I was ok with it then it must be ok. (I'm usually the penny pincher in the family).
So the long and the short of it is that we may have to live off of beans and rice for a couple of weeks, but I am stocked with LOTS of reading material for the winter.  Joel claims it'll only last me 3 weeks at the most, but I'll spread it out. :)

More Holiday Goodies!

 I had a few more people I wanted to give something to and they have little kids, so I decided to do a fun little variation for cupcakes.......  Meet the edible Rudolph and his reindeer!  They're quite yummy- um, not that I tried one to make sure they were alright or anything.......



(the ears are tootsie rolls- in case you were wondering)

Challenge Completed

Back in the summer I talked about the challenge we were given to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.  Well, this morning I completed the book and thus, the challenge.  I have to say that it was really enjoyable to just read it straight through.  I'd been studying topics and such for a long time, so it had been a while since I read it cover to cover.  It gave me a broad scope of the magnitude and over-arching themes that run through out the book, and renewed my love for these scriptures.
Joel and I are also on the verge of finishing the Old Testament together.  We should be done by the first of the year.  It's the first time we've read it together, and even though it's taken us a while to get through it, I feel like I've learned a lot.  We're moving on to the Doctrine and Covenants next- that shouldn't take anywhere near as long. :)

Edible White Trash

Want a simple holiday recipe?  Every year my mom would make this for our neighbors (by popular demand/request) for Christmas, and it's become a Stuetz Family tradition.  Since this is my first year with actual neighbors I thought I would spread the white trash love.  (My dad claims it's named after our family, but I'll let you be the judge).
Simply mix together:

2 c. Wheat Chex

2 c. Rice Chex

2 c. Corn Chex

2 c. Cheerios

2 c. Pretzel Sticks

2 c. Peanuts (unsalted)

2 c. M & M's

Melt 2 lbs. of Mercel's White Chocolate and coat the mix.  You can microwave the chocolate, but I like to use my double boiler.  I just have to say that any time I use one of my "luxury" kitchen items I have to mention it, because when I first wanted to get a double boiler (and just about any other non-essential appliance or gadget) Joel said, "What's that?  Are you actually ever going to use that?"  Well, I just did.  Wahoo- I'm justified!  But I digress.......

Lay the mixture out on wax paper-covered cookie sheets.  

When the chocolate has hardened again you can break it apart and serve.  I got some nifty, little boxes to use, but my mom always put it in tins.

 It's not exactly holiday baking, but it gets the job done.  Now if only the snow storm would stop, so that I'd actually want to take them to my neighbors.......

Done and Done

Yesterday I finished the binding and slip cover (for the rod) of the playroom quilt.  My husband was nice enough to put up the curtain rod in the wee hours of night after he got home from work.  (For some reason if it's a "quilt" rod 30 bucks gets added to the price tag even if it does the same thing as a curtain rod, so I went with the fun and cheap curtain rod variety).

(The Boston Red Sox blanket doesn't exactly go with the Dr. Seuss motif in the room, but it makes my husband happy, so it stays) :)

Christmas Cookie Sugar High

I hosted a mini-cookie exchange today, and it was a lot of fun.  I decided to try a new recipe- Oreo Truffles, and they are delicious!  Crushed Oreo mixed with Cream Cheese covered in chocolate.  How can you go wrong?

I also made a more traditional cookie.  We always referred to them as Snowballs in my family, but they're called all sorts of things- Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Swedish Teacakes. 
The kids played for a while and then went on a sugar binge.  It was like Christmas a little early for them with so many options.  Here's a little sampling of cookies......

In case the sugar in the cookies wasn't enough we had a little hot chocolate station for the liquid sugar fix.  I know Nathan was in heaven although he wasn't much into the hot chocolate.  He just wanted cookies and more cookies.

And here's a look at the Table Runner actually on the table.......

 

Project Table Runner Completed!

My task for the week was to finally make a Christmas Table Runner.  About 3 years ago I made a couple of Christmas Star patches with the thought that a table runner would be nice.  Of course, I had no idea how to make a table runner back then, so it got stuffed back in the closet.  As each Christmas would roll by Joel would ask, "What ever happened to making that table runner?"  My reply was always, "Um, next year?"  Well, I took out the patches (they were actually too large to work for our table), and I suddenly felt the urge to start over and make a real table runner.  Here are the results......

 (that's my coffee table- not kitchen table- to give you an idea of size)

Baby Thompson #2

Here's a hint as to the gender...... this is the quilt top I made for the baby (yes, I had a feeling for a while, so I went ahead and started a quilt).

 Yep, we're having a girl!  I figure that I did my duty to perpetuate the Thompson name with Nathan, so now we can have a girl. :)  As of right now we're going to name her Emma Irene Thompson.  (Irene was my Grammy's name).  She may not end up looking like an Emma, but for now, that's what we're naming her.

Fenced In

Nathan is now free to be master of his own domain, because our fence was installed yesterday, and I'm very happy and relieved to have it.  I felt bad for the workers because it was so cold out there and it was snowing.  They also had to hand dig a lot of the post holes because of all of the roots from the trees.  They did a great job though and actually got it all done in one day.  You can kind of get any idea what it looks like from a second story window.  Now all I have left to do is bundle all of the remaining tree limbs.  Bleh.

Haiku by Jo

My friend Jo Kemble recently started a business and had an open house last night.  It was fun to chat with the girls and I also got myself a new diaper bag (Nathan has done a number on the current bag), and a couple of rosettes for my niece since she's celebrating her 3rd birthday this week.

 Joel made me promise not to make it too feminine since he uses it as well.  He was good with everything except the flower.  We'll have to do Rock Paper Scissors on that 'cause I think it makes the bag. :)

  Happy Birthday, Mellie Bellie!  You're growing up way too quickly for your own good.