ROUND ROBIN

Have something to share?
Head on over to Amy's and join in the fun!

Well if you need an appetizer I found this one Pinterest at The Curvy Carrot. It's for Savory Spinach Bites and they are delicious if you ask me. We had them on Christmas Day and everyone loved them. They were easy to make. I used more stuffing, maybe doubled it! Since I had some egg whites from a recipe that used the yolks I only used 4 eggs and than the whites. We are a Pepperidge Farm stuffing family so we love the flavor. I normally use cubed for my turkey but I bought the loose one for this recipe. I also don't keep garlic or onions in the house so I used the dry kind and let them sit in the melted butter for awhile. It worked out great.

I will definitely make these again!
YUM....

So head on over to The Curvy Carrot to get this recipe.

ROUND ROBIN

I joining in with my friend Amy and her monthly Round Robin. I am going to show you just how crazy I am. The picture you are about to see is not my decorated tree! The ornaments you see are not in their normal place, they have been placed here to take a picture for this post. I am showing you what it is like to be a die hard ornament collector from Hallmark. I will also share some tricks of the trade! But before I do that I will show you two items that I have made recently since we usually come here to show you some craft or tasty treat.

So this is a Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake that I made. I had seen it on Pinterest and it was delicious!

I am making these for Christmas for the children I give little gifts to. Of course they are for making S'mores and I have directions on the back for putting them in the microwave. I made these for my friends little boys when we went to visit their new baby girl.

Okay, back to my ornaments. She this picture, these are the new ornaments I got this year. I actually did this for my benefit more than years. I cannot believe I bought this many ornaments but this isn't the first time. Sure I have always loved Hallmark ornaments but years ago I made a point of not going into a store until the day after Christmas when they were 50% off. That is pretty much how I control myself because I am an impulse buyer. If I stay out of the malls I don't waste my money. Of course that worked a lot better before the Internet came around!

Back around 2000 I started working in a Hallmark Gold Crown store and that's when the true obsession started. Not that it matters but I do know people who are worse than me. Hallmark makes over 200 new ornaments every years. When I was working in the store I would buy about 75 each year. No wonder I have well over 800 ornaments on my tree. I actually thought I was doing pretty good since I left but I seem to still be getting about 50 each year. It is crazy, I can't keep this up. It takes me at least a week to put the ornaments up. I will work several hours each day on it before I have to stop. My arms get tired. So I am going to put up a picture from my tree last year so you can kinda see what it should look like when finished.

Now when you have this many ornaments you have to be creative in how you pack them up each year. For years I had been opening each box to take out the ornament and then returning it to its box after Christmas. Not only is this time consuming but storage for that many takes up tons of space. A few years back I bought some awesome ornament cases at the Container store in LA and they have worked out great. So since then all of my ornament boxes have been opened and flattened. That is a huge space saver and a great way to keep the boxes in excellent condition compared to opening and closing them each Christmas.

This is a public service announcement: Don't get caught up in the insanity of Christmas. Jesus is the Reason for the Season! It's too late for me to be saved. Not by Jesus but by the OCD ornament bug!

I am going to try to stay off my computer today and tomorrow. (Sunday is Wicked)I have got to get my trees decorated and my cards in the mail along with the out of town gifts but don't be surprised if you see me around your blog! It is next to impossible for me to stay away but I am really going to try. I know I sound like a broken record. I will however be reading my emails and responding to them.

ROUND ROBIN

Click here to visit with Amy and join in today's Round Robin.

Can you say P.I.N.T.E.R.E.S.T.? I have been finding so many goodies to make and the easier the better. Well this one was super easy with only two ingredients. That's right, just the cake mix and the can of pumpkin! I didn't have the yellow cake mix in the house but I had a spice mix. Well they were awesome, the family loved them and I made a cream cheese frosting which only made them better. (I love cream cheese frosting)

Then I tried them with a yellow cake mix. I also put cream cheese in the middle which I saw on another recipe. I made a streusel topping for them also. They were good but I liked them better with the spice cake mix and the family agreed with that.

Amber made these cute little mice for Open House last weekend at Hallmark. They each made something from a cookbook that was on sale for Open House. Here is a link to the same recipe that I found online. We never really tasted them but they were the first to go.


I want to say thank you to our son-in-law Dylan for his service to our country as a Marine. For those who have served, those who are serving now and those who have given their lives for us: THANK YOU

New Post at Debby's Tree today. Your just one click away!

ROUND ROBIN

I am joining my BFF Amy today with her Round Robin.
Link up a post today.

MY MINIATURE ORNAMENTS

Remember when my Internet was out and I mentioned that I took the pictures of my miniature ornaments. Thought I would share them with you. I am taking these pictures so I can do posts on my Debby's Tree blog showing each one up close and personal. I am doing this for future reference for my children. Also wanted to show you the little boxes I picked up at Michael's to pack them away in. Several years ago I bought my red canvas ornament holders to store my ornaments in. At that time I flattened all the Hallmark boxes which makes storage a lot easier. It also makes it easier to put them on the tree each year and also pack them away after Christmas. Each year I use to put each ornament back in its own little box which took a whole lot of time on my end. Also, now the boxes stay in better shape because they are not being handled and opened year after year.

For those of you who are new here today visiting from Round Robin I have over 800 ornaments on my Christmas Tree. I will post a picture of last years tree for you to see.

Click to enlarge picture.

This is how I store my ornaments each year.

Don't forget to check out Debby's Tree today for a new post!

ROUND ROBIN - PICTURES FROM FLORIDA

Decided to join my friend Amy today
with her Round Robin.

Click on the button to join in!

As it turns out I really didn't take a whole lot of pictures.

My great-nieces and great-nephew.

My niece Michele has Amanda, Ashlynn & Garrett.

My niece Melissa has Amber. (lower right)

A few family shots.

My dad with my nieces.

Ashlynn with her cake.
Melissa & her husband Joe.

My dad in his usher coat for church.

Mark with Garrett.

Amber, Debby, Melissa & my brother Raymond.

My sister Darcy, Dad, Raymond & me!

This was at the restaurant on my phone.

Some buddies of mine.

New Post at Debby's Tree.

~The Royal Family~

P.S. REMEMBER TO CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS THIS WEEKEND - SPRING AHEAD!

ROUND ROBIN

I am joining my friend Amy at Keeping Up with the Schultz Family in her monthly Round Robin.

Playing a little catch-up here with some pictures:

This is what happens when we get rain in the Winter. We get to look at the beautiful snow capped mountains from our backyard.

This is what Miss Skye B did on her birthday. If you remember the post I did about her called "Nobody puts Skye in the corner" she is still pulling her bed out to the middle of the family room!

Here she is with her haircut that she got on Wednesday. If you missed her birthday post where I talked about her needing a haircut you can see it at "Miss Skye B is two."

Here she is outside enjoying the sunshine yesterday!

For those of you who are visiting from Round Robin I wanted to show you my Christmas tree. You can see the whole post "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" here.

Just want to say Happy Birthday to my Mother Dorothy. She has been in Heaven for almost 29 years. She would be 84 today. Here she is with my Father Ray who will be 88 this year. (I think I may be visiting him in February in Florida) I was thinking that this picture looks like a prom photo but then I saw the beer bottles behind them so I am guessing they were at a wedding.

New post at Debby's Tree: I LOVE LUCY

P.S. I just got off the phone with friend in Minnesota. He said that since early this morning the snow has been nearly waist high and is still falling. The temperature is dropping below zero and the north wind is increasing. His wife has done nothing but look through the kitchen window. He says that if it gets much worse, he may have to let her in! (hehe)

Julie if you are reading this I almost called you to see how your family was after reading this email from Mark!

ROUND ROBIN

I am joining in with my (best) friend Amy from Keeping up with the Schultz Family with her Round Robin. This month it is about the Holiday's.

The best I can do is my post from last year because I am no where near ready yet for this Christmas. Christmas tour 2009 I will eventually get some recent pictures up, hopefully before Christmas. I seem to be moving in slow motion this year! Go over, take a look and then hit HOME to come back over to leave your sweet comments.

Since we live in California we do not have any other relatives nearby. We did have my aunt and uncle for the first 18 years of living here but they have both gone to Heaven. Our family consists of my husband, me, our son, his best girl, our daughter, son-in-law and of course the dogs. It has been perfect that our children celebrate on Christmas Eve with their significant others family leaving Christmas day for us. We stretch the day out as long as we can.

Christmas music must be playing and you can only open one gift at a time. After all the hard work that goes into getting ready I want to see everyone's reaction to opening their presents and I also like to see what they received from each other. Yes it can take 5 hours to do this but it is so worth it. We take breaks, snacking and eating as we go. I don't think there has been a year yet where our daughter hasn't said "This is the best Christmas ever!"

I believe in celebrating every Christmas as if it were my last one, I give it my all each year! My father always says "One thasen't ever lose the spirit of Christmas."

Love,

MY FAVORITE PICTURE FROM OUR TRIP

Today I am joining in with my friend Amy at Keeping Up With The Schultz Family for Round Robin. I wanted to share my favorite picture from our trip to Chicago. You can read about Huntley Lake at Part One. There are three parts to our recent trip back home. If you are new to my blog and want to read more you can also read Part Two and Part Three. It was one of the best trips we have ever taken.

HUNTLEY LAKE, IL

CHICAGO TRIP OCTOBER 2010

(near Antioch, IL)

Isn't it a peaceful picture? Definitely screams Fall!

(I guess screaming Fall doesn't sound so peaceful but you know what I meant.)

NEW POST AT DEBBY'S TREE !

(CHECK IT OUT)