Christmas Tag

I've been tagged by Sandi at Holding Patterns to name 12 random things about me that has to do with Christmas. Now I know there's rules but I never play completely by the rules so if anyone wants to play along please do so. It's a fun little game to learn more about each other. So here goes:

1) Growing up, we always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve.

2) My Mom would leave a trail of cotton (which was suppose to be Santa's beard) to our tree.

3) We would leave to go pick up my Grandma and when we returned, Santa would have been at our house.

4) When I got married, my sweetie and I celebrated on Christmas Day.

5) Every Christmas morning, I would make Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for my kids, you would have thought it was the greatest thing in the world the way they looked forward to those rolls. My daughter plans on making cinnamon rolls with Maddie this year.

6) Before anyone could open their presents each Christmas morning, my sweetie would read the Christmas story from the Bible so our kids would know the real reason for celebrating Christmas.

7) My son Jimmy would try to stay awake all night to see of Santa came. He never made it through the night and then it became we would have to wake them all up as they got older.


8) Each Christmas Eve we celebrate with my whole family and then we go to my sweetie's side with all his cousins and kids. It's great, they are all Italian and make the best food.


9) On Christmas Day, we have a open house. Sometimes there's close to 50 people who come in and out. It's crazy and I am tired by the end of the day. But it's fun.

10) It's so much fun with Maddie(my granddaughter). Seeing Christmas through her eyes is just fun.

11) My sweetie and I do not usually give each other gifts on Christmas Day. Sometimes he surprises me but usually we agree to use that money on something else. Like going somewhere warm in the middle of winter. :-)

12) Our church does not have Christmas Day services. They have a Christmas program the weekend before to give the many volunteers time with their families.


Okay, now that wasn't so hard. So feel free to tell 12 random things about your Christmas either past or present or both. And let me know if you do it so I can read all about your traditions. Merry Christmas and thanks Sandi for including me in the fun!

Mr. Magoo, Peppe' Le Pew and Woody Woodpecker

Peppe' Le Pew
Mr. Magoo
Woody Woodpecker
And the woodpecker who thinks my aluminum siding is wood. Really bad photo, but you try and take a picture of a woodpecker from a closed window. LOL




Anyway, this morning as I was getting ready I heard this woodpecker trying to do his woodpecking stuff on the side of my house only there is no wood there, just aluminum siding and brick. Do you think that the phrase birdbrain came because of woodpeckers? Anyway, it got me thinking about my favorite old cartoon characters. We've been talking about a few of them lately. My daughter had never heard of Mr. Magoo. How can a child grow up and not know about Mr. Magoo? My granddaughter Maddie has been making a face that I call her squishy Mr. Magoo face and my daughter keeps asking me, "Who's Mr. Magoo?" HELLO How did you grow up not knowing Mr. Magoo. Wasn't there even a Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol show.?And if you try real hard I bet you can remember Woody's theme music and how it went. But my all time favorite was Peppe' Le Pew. I loved that skunk and how he thought he was a wonderful french lover and always tried to romance the black lady cat with the stripe on her back. So tell me who was your favorite old cartoon and don't tell me you don't remember any of these guys because you will just make me feel old. Have a great weekend and don't panic because there are only 11 days left until Christmas!

Christmas Memories

These are photos of my kids at Christmas over the years. I know the last photo was one that I used as a Christmas card from 1981. Christina was just a newborn baby and couldn't even hold her head up yet. I remember those overalls Melissa and Jimmy wore because I used to dress them in Osh Kosh overalls all the time. I really wish I would have marked the dates on my photos because it's hard to figure out the exact year. It's so much easier now with digital photos. We are giving my mother in law one of those digital frames for Christmas and I've spent the day going through photos trying to pick out some for the frame and came across these and thought they were cute. Brings back memories and don't worry my mother in law doesn't use a computer so she won't read this and find out her gift. :-)

Pizzelle Making

My daughter Melissa and granddaughter Maddie came over to make pizzelles yesterday. Pizzelles are Italian wafer cookies. You'll need a Pizzelle maker, I got mine from Sur La Table. It's very easy and fast once you get started. It can be messy at times with the powder sugar but so yummy and don't think your Pizzelles will turn out all perfect because they don't. Just take them out of the maker and top with powder sugar. They taste like the waffle cones you get at the ice cream store.
Here's the recipe for the Traditional Italian Pizzelle, but you will need a Pizzlle maker. I don't remember how much mine was , but I looked one up on the Sur La Table website and it's $39.95.

3 eggs room temperature
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of butter or margarine, melted and cooled
1 tsp. of vanilla
1/2tsp anise
1 3/4 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar. Add the cooled butter or margarine, vanilla and anise. Sift the flour and baking powder together and add the egg mixture. The batter should be stiff enough to be dropped by spoon. The batter can also be refrigerated to be used for later.
These are our version of Christmas cookies. The trick is putting the right amount in the maker, too much and it goes out the side but the results are wonderful. Wish you guys could reach right in your computer and take one! Happy Wednesday!

Travel Tuesday - Christmas Travel Gifts

I thought I would do something a little different for Travel Tuesday for the next two weeks before Christmas. I thought I would show you a few travel gift ideas from Travel Smith, we always had their catalogs at work. These are just a few of their items, but ones I thought were fun. They do have items that are not as expensive and maybe I'll try to pick out a few next week. Anyway, check out their website if you love to travel. Have a great day!

Everyone needs a camera and I thought this waterproof Pentax was a cool little one. It is priced at $349.00.

Here is a travel alarm with a digital photo frame, which I thought was a great idea for travel. It prices at around $49.75.

I really like this Florentine duffel rolling bag. I love anything on wheels. I cannot carry anything when I travel, it has to roll. The price on this is $59.00

And I am a globe freak. I love globes, I have one that lights up in my office. This one is $45.00.
This little GPS is expensive but people who have them tell me they love them. This one is $499.00

Giveaway!

My friend Maria at Me at this moment is giving away this great book. So if you would like a chance to own it, jump on over to her blog and enter. But do it soon because I think this ends Weds. night.

Hilton Head Snow!

This is a picture of one of my very favorite places to go. This is Harbour Town, Hilton Head Island on December 23rd, 1989. I don't think they see much snow in Hilton Head. My sweetie and I received this print as a gift and I framed it and put it in my office. You can see the lighthouse in the background. They really did have a white Christmas that year, but I bet it didn't last long. I'll be back later on, I've been really busy with work so I need to get a few things done. Have a great Monday!