The Christmas Tree is Up

We got our tree up. The pictures were kind of blurry, but believe me it looks better in real life. Not bad for a tree that we got at Home Depot for $2 when we were newlyweds and $7 worth of filler ornaments that I found on Amazon a few years ago. I love putting up the tree and all of the stories behind my non-filler variety ornaments. :)

You can tell that my kids were helping because we have one "very well decorated" corner.

I'm sure at some point I'm going to learn something from this.

 This morning I was supposed to work, but there weren't enough sick children, so I was put on-call. Hooray! I love being put on-call, it's my favorite. Especially on the weekends, because then my whole family is home. Yes, being on-call I make less than $3 an hour, but I get to be with my family, so it's worth it.

 Today I had marvelous plans. I did some small grocery shopping and rented a carpet cleaner. (Earlier this week when I tried to rent one there weren't any available, even though I called to verify beforehand. :S) Then I took my turkey carcass from the fridge, and threw it into the crock pot to make stock. Thing 2, who generally doesn't take much interest in my housekeeping activities found this to be very interesting. As I was chopping vegetables to put in it, he pulled up a chair and kept trying to convince me that we needed to put some purple grapes in the mix. :)

  Then I cleaned my house like some kind of crazy person. There is probably something wrong with me that I find it magical when my house is clean. I love it. But really it is fairly magical that I happened to have both the time and the energy to thoroughly clean my house. And looking at my carpets really makes me feel like singing. They really, really needed to be cleaned. Renting the carpet cleaner and buying solution came to $41, whereas paying someone to clean my carpets would cost at least $150. Hooray! Thing 2 also found carpet cleaning to be very interesting, for most of the cleaning he crawled along on the floor next to me watching the brushes. Silly boy.
  So my house is smelling like yumminess and my carpets were clean. When I was done I had more magical plans of pulling out all the Christmas decorations and bake cookies, maybe even do a little bit of shopping. The only thing left was my closet. Now for the past few weeks something has been amiss with my closet. There has been a musty odor, and it appeared about a week after I cleaned out and organized it. I had not the foggiest idea what it was. So my husband and I pulled everything out of our closet. Near the door we found a very moldy crayon. Thing 2 has a terrible habit of pouring water on the carpet. Why he enjoys this so much, I don't know, but we thought this was the cause of the problem. Then we kept pulling stuff out. Against the back wall sits our suitcase, and underneath it was more mold. (Shows how often we travel.) This had spread to 3 of my shoes (from 3 separate pairs) and my non-washable purse that I bought for $1 in Argentina. (I'm pretty sad about the bag, it was awesome.) When we pulled that away we discovered that there was about an inch of water damage along most of the baseboard. (Also of note my closet is inside my bathroom.) An inside wall mind you, which can only mean one thing. Plumbing issues. Murg. That totally puts a damper on the Christmas spirit and definitely no shopping.
  I cleaned everything with hydrogen peroxide and called a plumber. If he comes out today (Saturday), it will cost $130 per hour. If I wait until Monday it will only be $60 per hour. I can wait until Monday. Yes, this is a big pain in the neck that I need to address soon, but it totally can wait til Monday. I'm also thinking that putting my husband through school would have been a lot easier if I had been a plumber instead of a nurse. I'm sure that I will learn something useful from this experience and probably be able to get a blog post out of it with some helpful information to save someone else some hassle. And as I write this Thing 2 is shredding Styrofoam on my freshly cleaned carpet. That's my cue.

Christmas Traditions: Christmas Books Advent

I found this idea in a magazine years ago. Assemble 24 Christmas (or winter) children's books, wrap them up and every evening from December 1st to Christmas Eve, the kids get to unwrap one book. It helps them with the "IamsoexcitedandifIdon'topenapresentrightnowIamgoingtoexplode" phenomenon. Of course over the years I've collected more than 24 books, so now we start reading books on the night after Thanksgiving. Here are some of our favorites. Most of my books I have gotten at Seagull Book or at 'after Christmas' sales. I have also gotten a few good deals through Scholastic book orders. The vast majority of my books I have bought for $4 or less.

1. A Christmas Dress For Ellen by Thomas S. Monson
2. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
3. Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
4. Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner
5. I Spy Christmas by Jean Marzollo
6. Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate
7. The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats
8. And Then In A Twinkling by Becky Kelly
9. The Very Smiley Snowman by Jack Tickle
10. What Santa Can't Do by Douglas Wood
11. Mary Engelbreit's A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate from A to Z
12. Today Is Christmas! by P.K. Hallinan
13. Christmas Pea Coat by Richard H. Schneider
14. The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale by Angela Hunt
15. The Little Drummer Mouse by Mercer Mayer
16. Fear Not, Joseph!: A Story of Christmas by Julie Stiegemeyer
17. There Was No Snow On Christmas Eve by Pam M. Ryan
18. Silent Night illustrated by Thomas Kinkade
19. The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
20. Bear Noel by Olivier Dunrea
21. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
22. Christmas for a Dollar by Gale Sears
23. A Cricket's Carol by Mark K. Moulton
24. A Christmas Stocking Story by Hilary Knight
25. Merry Christmas, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff
26. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
27. The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

My blogging friend Jocelyn also has a list of 24 favorite Christmas books plus she has a simple craft or ornament to go with each one if you're feeling ambitious. They're worth checking out.

Food Storage Ingredients That Made Their Way Into Our Turkey Day

Sometimes I hear people say that using your food storage is difficult, time-consuming and unrealistic. I beg to differ. Having the following items on hand makes my holiday that much easier. Plus when I snag these items when they are really cheap it saves me money, too. Obviously these are not the only things that we are eating, but combined with fresh ingredients, once again my food storage has reduced the stress in my life.

1. Evaporated milk- in the mashed potatoes
2. Canned potatoes- Precooked, and easy to mash, plus they taste much better than potato flakes
3. Apple pie filling
4. Stuffing- I have many talents, making stuffing from scratch is not one of them.
5. Bottled gravy- ditto
6. Cranberry sauce
7. Peanut butter- I make a fabulous peanut butter pie that I serve with hot fudge, I'll have to put the recipe up here sometime.
8. Green beans- Green bean casserole, of course.
9. Cream of mushroom soup- ditto
10. Sliced almonds and french onions- ditto
11. Canned crushed pineapple- Dumped it on the ham and let it roast.
12. Canned pumpkin- in the cheesecake 
13. And last night I am made Taco Soup using black beans, kidney beans, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, canned chiles, canned corn, and dried carrots. It's fast, delicious, warm and the kind of meal that I feel like preparing after I've spent all day cooking.

 Does anyone out there have any great holiday recipes that include your food storage?

Things I am Grateful for Today

Things I am grateful for today, in no particular order:

1. My husband. He's handsome, brilliant and my best friend. He balances and supports me in so many ways. I am so glad to have him.

 2. Thing One- She's sweet, sassy and often downright goofy. She brings so much laughter to our home.

3. Thing Two- I love, love, love that multiples times everyday he says in his sweet, yet stern voice "I need to give you a kiss", then plants one on my cheek. And of course I have to steal a few from his sweet soft cheeks myself.

4. Lotion- To say that I wash my hands a lot would be an understatement. At least a few dozen times everyday. Good lotion is important, and it's nice that is smells good too.
5. My neighbors- They are amazing. I could be happy living next to, across the street from and around the corner from them for the rest of my life.

6. My food storage- I could probably go on for years about the ways food storage has blessed my life and I probably will.
7. Online shopping- Black Friday, meh.  I don't like cold. I don't like crowds. I don't like stupid or inconsiderate people. Cyber Monday in my pajamas is what I am looking forward to.
8. Christmas decorations- Looking forward to pulling mine out this week.
9. Fresh produce- So satisfying and good for you too.

10. Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake- And weather permitting it should arrive at my house with my in-laws this afternoon.
11. My In-Laws- And not just because my mother-in-law has some made cheesecake making skills. Many people have "in-law issues". I don't, really. They're fantastic. They're fun to be with and involved, without being "too involved".

12. My health- My body's not perfect by anyone's definition, but for the most part I am healthy. When I see people with real health problems, it makes me that much more grateful for how well my body functions. I remember once when I was in nursing school I spent a little time with a woman with ALS. Despite her problems had a phenomenally long list of things that she was grateful for.
13. Mint hot chocolate- It makes me happy.
14. Breakfast- It really helps the day go better
15. My dishwasher- I have experienced life without a dishwasher, then with a dishwasher that flooded my kitchen, followed by a dishwasher that spewed filth into my sink and lastly a nice one that is shiny and does a descent job considering our really hard water. I think I'll keep it.
16. For all of those people who do the jobs that I have no interest in doing, that make it possible for me to do mine- unit manager, nursing administrator, ER doc, food services, pharmacist, house keeping, medication manufacturer, security, the night shift, I could keep going.
17. My parents- So many lessons learned.

18. Fireball- My husband, siblings and close friends bond by playing catch with a ball that they have started on fire. Mike, Cait we totally need to play when we come up next month. It's going to be awesome.

19. My job- So glad to have employment in these times.
20. Being in the right place at the right time- Last week I was floated to Mother/Baby. While I was taking my break someone was cleaning out the break room. She almost threw out two good sized pads of coupons for $5 off Nutramigen. 1-2 day old infants almost never go home with Nutramigen, but our pediatric patients do fairly often, and I'm certain that their moms will be grateful for those coupons because that stuff is pricey.
21. Coupons- They help me build my food storage for less.

22. Ordinary average good people- They're everywhere and I'm so glad every time I encounter them.
23. Modern medicine- Oh wow we have come a long way.
24. My crock pot- It can't count the times it has made my life easier.
25. St George weather- no blizzard here!

Utah County City Deals

Have you guys checked out City Deals yet? There are a hundreds of discounts available on gift card and certificates that will make good stocking stuffers. I love giving gift card/certificates for Christmas. Especially when I get them for less than face value. Here are a few of the Utah county deals that sounded good to me. (Didn't see much that's near me, but there were plenty that I can use when visiting family.)

• Heritage Piano in Orem, UT- $100 gift certificate for 60% off
• Spanish 8 Theaters in Spanish Fork, UT- 2 movie tickets and a large popcorn for $10 approximately 50% off (Ah, memories. :D My husband and I used to go there when we were dating.)
• Wandering Wardrobe in Springville, UT- $25 gift certificate for 50% off (It's super cute consignment store that I have actually shopped at. I wish it had been there when I was in high school. Really good stuff.)
• Maggie Moo's in American Fork, UT- Ice cream! $20 gift certificate for 50% off
• Gandolfo's in Provo, UT-$25 gift certificate for 50% off (This place has fantastic sandwiches. I miss them.)
• Los Hermonos in Provo, Ut- $50 gift certifate for 20% off (My husband and I went on our very first date here and have been back several times since. The fruity drinks are AMAZING.)
  

Thanksgiving Helps

I think I'm almost ready for Thanksgiving. In the past week I finally took down all of the Halloween decorations, bought a ham, found a Thanksgiving tablecloth on clearance for $1.75 (Wahoo!), and have been clearing space in my fridge to make room for pie. Today I'm going to rent a carpet cleaner (My carpet it looong over-due) as well as a couple of last minute produce items.  And I think that's it. Probably forgetting something. In the interest of not stressing about things that don't matter that much, I decided that I am not cooking a turkey. There will only be 6 adults and most of my family prefers ham anyway. (There will be a small turkey breast.) And ham can be cooked in my crock-pot!
In my internet searching I have found the following ideas that can help you make a great Thanksgiving meal.

• How to Slow Roast a Turkey in a Paper Bag- Someday I am going to try this.
• How to Carve a Thanksgiving Turkey- They make it look easy enough I feel like I could do it.
• How to Make Perfect Gravy-I'm going to try this. Making gravy is not a talent that I posses.
• Tropical Sweet Potato Casserole- This is my sweet potato recipe that turned out pretty well.
• Printable Thanksgiving Party Favor

And here's the post I wrote for Thanksgiving last year.