Bacon Perfume

Christmas was great this year, with plenty of food, no one terribly sick (Jim was recovering from a cold,) and the usual delicious treats. TOO MANY treats this year!




One of Jim's birthday gifts was a Snuggie.










Darrell set up some race cars in the family room, that was fun.



Razor scooters were the big hit with all 5 ambulatory grandkids. They took them out right after we ate our Christmas brunch.
Later, as Aubrey and her girls were packing up their things to leave, 4 yr old Whitney asked, "Mom, can I ride my scooter all the way home?" Aubrey laughed hard over that, it's about 20 miles.

Favorite quotes from Christmas and a few days before: Dani said it was nice waking to the smell of bacon cooking, it reminds her of my dad's house - I find that a great compliment somehow. I suppose it's not so much a complement to me, it's actually a way of expressing great memories of staying at my parents' house. We LOVE my dad's great breakfasts!

While dressing, Chelsea said to Dani, "Great, now we are going to smell like bacon at Church." "Yeah, doesn't it smell great! Mom started cooking early. You know, I bet if we'd had some Bacon Perfume, we'd be married by now!"

The grandkids have a game. "Jonah, we are going upstairs to play Lazy Teenagers... what do you want to be? "
As he followed them upstairs he said, "I'm the oldest brother!" We think it's basically the 'Family' game they always play, but they've renamed it for some reason.... we aren't sure where Lazy Teenagers came from; anyone out there know?

Me, while trying to use my Cutco scissors to cut something awkward,
"Yikes! Ow, ow, OW! I cut my finger!!"
Jemma asked calmly, "Off?"
(luckily I was wrong, it was just a pinch.

Jemma and Brenda had a girl night, and watched The Sound of Music all the way through. Jemma asked about the naughties. "Oh, you mean the nazis? Yes they were very bad. " "Well, what did the Naughties do that was so naughty?" Brenda gave up, she wasn't going to explain all the atrocities the Nazis did that made them naughty.

As brunch ended, we were groaning that we'd eaten so much... We always celebrate Jim's birthday (the 24th) with a big dinner. Then we do even more feasting Christmas morning. We were definitely stuffed!
One of the girls suggested they do some sort of juice cleanse in the coming weeks, and I threw out there that I was having a 'medically induced' cleanse myself.
I told them, "And when the doc said, 'We are scheduling appointments for January', I was like, "That would be just PERFECT after all the holiday food."
So Dani cracked up the whole table when she added,
"And Doc, don't judge me for what you find in there."

Decorating the Yard

When we first moved here to AZ from Massachusetts a decade ago, we were 1) NOT really feeling all the Christmas spirit due to the fact it was NOT COLD enough to be Christmas! And 2) we were further put off by the daffy decorations in front yards. We had moved from a lovely street where virtually every house decorated in white lights and icicles, which reflected angelically in the snow. We were missing the snow and icicles.

The first lawn decoration we saw down the street was a plastic blow-up cactus with these fake red and green lights strewn on it. We were NOT impressed. Next we saw a few houses down a big Winnie the Pooh - obviously an integral character to the Christmas story. (The following year, Tigger joined his friend Pooh bear.) Snoopy and the Peanuts gang seem to be another popular group, but we still haven't figured out just how they fit into the Nativity.



Year after year we've seen all the different plastic blow-up toys, you've all seen them too. And some yards are tastefully decorated with lights, while others are CRAMMED with displays in Disney-like proportions. (Yes, that IS the USS Enterprise.)



Just the other day I drove past this one, Santa sitting in an outhouse. A full-sized, inflated OUTHOUSE, and Santa is in there hoping for a little privacy, and the door swings open and shut. This TOTALLY brings out such warm, Yuletide feelings now, doesn't it?
Perhaps this is how some people feel when it all gets really crazy












This last one needs no explanation.... for actually, I have no words. My neighbor saw it in Phoenix and just had to snap a pic. It's apparently a decorated palm tree gone wrong.

Very wrong.

"The Bees are back in town"

Today a beekeeper came to my house to take care of a bee infestation in our wall. It's the second time bees have taken up residence in the hollow wall of our entranceway. One can't just spray up some Raid to kill the little buggers, it has to be done by a professional, and that would be Kevin. He poked around first looking for where the hive/honeycomb could be, but didn't find anything really. We are guessing they only just started, they may not even have a hive in there per se, just hiding out for now, keeping warm.
I was sad they had to die. He said when he can, he saves them. He keeps hives on farms and in his backyard - in Gilbert it's legal to have a hive right on your lot! But this new little family found the wrong place to take up residence.

Kevin, and our mutual friend, Chris, sell their raw honey, too. Raw honey has it ALL OVER the honey sold in the grocery stores. It is chock-full of healthy goodness - my friend, who is diabetic, had a horrible sore on his leg that just refused to heal for MANY months, despite plenty of attention by the medical community. Finally a naturopath had him put raw honey from Australia on it. He and his wife saw results the very next day, and it healed right up.

Read more about its wonderful benefits here
http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/raw-honey.html

Tis the Season

Okay, so last week I started getting out my Christmas boxes and began decking the halls. The stockings are all hanging down the stair railing.
The tree is getting put up today (we can't all be the Russon family, getting theirs up and trimmed while they were pretty much still digging in to Thanksgiving pies.)
I had started early getting out the nativities, since we had a wonderful RS dinner and there were SO MANY awesome nativities on display there!! (serious creche envy on my part.)
And so now I'm putting the many nativities around the house - I think I have like 3 dozen currently - I realized there a couple that simply just stay wrapped up, I don't think they're worth getting out.

They'd most likely make it to this gem of a blog about the WORST nativities. (Yes, those are S'mores in that nativity.) I laughed really hard at the Zombie one, and nearly puked over the MEAT nativity. No kidding! They made it entirely out of meat and it's sitting in the roaster, ready to pop into the oven. *shudder*

You people just have to see for yourself, because most of these are NOT jokes, they are commercial endeavors and made by sincere (albeit possibly twisted,) folks out to make a buck. Go look. Worst Nativities

But first, a pic of a couple of OUR favorite nativities; The nesting dolls were the best Aubrey could find to bring me back from her mission in Russia, we all treasure them (and Nana reluctantly lets little hands play a little with them.) Дeд Mopoz (Deeyed Morroze) and Снегоричка (Sneg Orzhka), who are Grandfather Frost and the Snow Princess, and a little pine tree to complete the trio.

In front of them is our littlest nativity, it's really tiny and the little kiddos just have so much fun with it every year. (I contend every home should have at least one hands-on nativity for the toddlers - although I crack up when I find barbies and star wars action figures in among the shepherds.)

So Happy Christmas everyone!

Love in a Cup

I know they say Money can't buy Happiness, but I've found it does buy this, Hot cocoa!! I am glad it finally got cold enough to have some. I'd have it night and morning if I could get away with it calorically.


Tonight it was Stephen's mint. In the cupboard there are also some flavors of Land o Lakes - like caramel, Irish mint, and raspberry. Rumor has it even Santa deals in hot cocoa (when his assistant runs across a good sale.)




So while the Beatles made a lot of money singing "Can't Buy Me Love", I'm pretty certain that's 'cus they drank tea and never had some luscious cocoa smothered in real whipped cream... basically LOVE in a cup!