Merry Christmas

Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas!

The Lights Before Christmas - Toledo, Ohio

It is tradition. My husband and I have visited the Toledo Zoo's Lights Before Christmas since 1996. I think we have only missed one or two years since then, but it is one of my favorite Christmas activities.

We traveled to Toledo Wednesday night to see The Lights Before Christmas. It wasn't too cold or crowded. I really loved the blue and purple lights this year. Besides seeing the lights, some of the zoo animals were still out. We saw eagles, a polar bear, otters, wolves, tigers, penguins, snow leopards, elephants and many birds.

Christmas items

I started Christmas shopping weeks ago. And I'm still not done. I really tried to finish it up last night. I was uncertain on what to get my niece and nephews. I decided to wait until my husband is with me.

Besides the young ones, my brothers and sisters are pooling together money to buy my Mom a gift. We have yet to pool our money together. I hope I can exchange cash later this afternoon with my sister who came up with the idea. Once that's done, I have to pick up a small gift for one of my brothers. Slowly, but surely it is coming along.

On another note Christmas related note, last year my husband and I received probably close to 20 Christmas cards. This year our total is seven. Seven? Our people just not sending out cards this year? I can understand if people don't want to spend the money on stamps. They are getting pricey.

Christmas is less then a week away. I hope everyone's holiday is merry.

Merry Christmas

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

My husband and I standing on the corner of Prince Street in New York City.

Black Friday

After lunch my husband and I joined the other people at the stores. We weren't there for Christmas shopping. We were looking for a $3.99 DVD of Hot Fuzz.

The first store, which had the DVD on sale, we didn't find it. Looked at all of the DVD bins and the DVD section. Nothing. Since we were in a store, I went to the book section. I was close to finishing reading the library book, Wicked, and I wanted something else to read. I looked for something to read but came up empty handed. My husband and I walked back out to the truck and headed across the street to a different store.

At store number 2, we had the same results. Nothing on both ends. No DVD and no interesting books to read. I think the busiest section of the store was the DVD's and electronics. People were walking around with multiple DVD's in their hands. I'm glad they found some, because we didn't.

At store number 3, we didn't find anything. The DVD selection was horrible. In fact their wasn't a selection. It was basically a shelf. A shelf of crap. The book section was the same as the first two stores. All three selling the same crappy books. Before we left the store, I did buy something for myself. A six pack of orange Crush. I have stayed away from Crush, because I stopped drinking pop many years ago. I read the bottle. It said orange flavored drink. And what really put me over the top. There is no caffeine in Crush. I did my part on Black Friday. I paid $3.59 for a six pack of Crush.

Finally we went across the street to the mall. We noticed not many cars in the parking lot. I was glad I wasn't out trying to shop for Christmas. The stores had nothing that I wanted to buy. I have a gift certificate left over from my birthday. I went into the store it was for to look for something to buy. I ended up walking out of the store with nothing. None of the clothes caught my attention.

We did go into the bookstore. My husband found a bargain book about the Civil War. A sticker on the front of the book said buy one get one free. My husband and I looked around the bookstore for about 20 minutes to find another book. Nothing. I didn't even find anything that I wanted. I was disappointed.

We went to three stores and a mall, my husband and I bought a $20 book and a six pack of Orange Crush for $3.59. That will really help the economy.

O Come........

At Christmas mass Monday, my brother, sister and I couldn't help but laugh when singing, O Come, All Ye Faithful. The reason for the laughter is from a scene in the terrible TV special of A Very Brady Christmas (1988).

Mike gets a phone call to go down to a construction site on Christmas because of some problems. Our question always is, "Why are they working construction on Christmas?" He walks into an unstable structure and it collapses on him. Word reaches the family and they all come down to the construction site. Cindy talks with her Mom, Carol, and asks if she remembers when she had throat problems and couldn't sing at church. Cindy asked Santa to give her mom her voice back and at church Carol magically sings O Come, All Ye Faithful. It was a Christmas miracle! Cindy and Carol thought it would be a good idea to sing that song. As soon as they start, the entire group of onlookers join along. Once Mike, who is stuck under rubble, hears the singing, he magically has the strength to get up and walk out under his own power.

Bad acting, bad movie. But every year it is on TV, we all watch it and poke fun at it. It has been 19 years since it first aired and every time we sing O Come, All Ye Faithful we always laugh because it will be forever associated with A Very Brady Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
May the holiday spirit
find a home in your heart.

Angel hanging from the stairs - Adrian, MI

Random things

In downtown, people act like its almost Christmas. While driving to work this morning, Christmas was as far as the eye could see. Christmas lights in the trees, wreaths, bows on light poles, downtown businesses with lights in the windows. Do they realize Thanksgiving is a couple of weeks away? Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, I consider it too early.

Anyone have suggestions for Thanksgiving appetizers? My husband and I are hosting for my family this year and I would like to make something different. In 2005 we hosted and I made fried ravioli, which turned out well. They all disappeared from the serving tray in record time. I want to make something that is quick, easy and won't hog up oven/stove space from my husband when he is cooking the rest of the dinner. If I get no suggestions then I will make my awesome fried ravioli again.

As of now, I am 16.5 miles away from my goal of running 500 miles this year. Around 5 pm I will be running 4 or 5 miles on my treadmill. So that will knock it down to 11-12 miles to go. Its only early November too, I will be finishing the year with high number of miles.

Friday the weather is supposed to be in the 50s. It will be a nice day to go on a photo shoot and start my new project. I'll keep it under wraps until I think I will have enough photos to make it into a great series. If I don't it's back to the drawing board. Which I hope won't be the case because I need it to be completed by late February.

Christmas day

This was the last family photo of the day, Mom, her seven children, their spouses and children. Even though some of us have our eyes closed or looking in another direction, this picture is special because all of the siblings are in the photo. Christmas 2005 is the last time we were all together under the same roof.

Back row (left to right): Diane, Mike (my husband), Deloris, Daniel, Dan's son Carter, David and Mom.
Front Row (left to right): Deanna, Denise, Dennis (Debbie's husband), Debbie and their son Jack.

Getting ready

Thursday my husband and I are hosting a Christmas dinner at our house. That will be Christmas dinner 1, Christmas dinner 2 and 3 will take place on Christmas.

After returning from the grocery store with the supplies that we needed, I started to get to work. First I made a dessert for everyone to have, marble brownies. I got everything mixed, placed in the 8x8 glass dish and put it in the oven for 35 minutes. While that was baking, I mixed up an cheese spread for an appetizer. I got the ingredients from a co-worker this morning. It was really easy to make and it tasted really good. If you make it, Ritz crackers taste great with it.

What we have left to do tomorrow before the family comes over is mix the salad, stick the ham in the oven, make the mashed potatoes, green beans with portobello mushroom saute and fried ravioli before everyone arrives. It won't be hard to do, just still alot to do.

Cheese Spread
(adjust portions if needed)

5 cream cheese blocks
1 package of beef chips (chopped fine)
1 green onion (chopped fine)
3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

Mix together and place in the refrigerator to chill

Its the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas is almost here.

Last night I put all away of my Christmas card crafts. I don't need my rubber stamps, card stock, ink, rulers, paper and utility knife out on my office desk anymore. I'm done making all of my cards for the year 2006. My husband Mike and I have five, let me say that again, five Christmas cards yet to mail. I'm sorry if you haven't received your card yet. We probably lost your address when our hard drive crashed earlier this year. We didn't recover any addresses from the address book.

While I was trying to sleep, or tossing and turning was more like it, Mike was buying wrapping presents. At this point in time there are five presents wrapped under the tree. What is with five in this post? I think I might gather the presents for my mom, sisters, nephews, in-laws and wrap them before my photo assignment tonight.

The Christmas dinner that my husband and I are hosting is a couple of days away. My sister who lives in Toledo told me she won't be able to make it now. Her boss changed her schedule and now she has to work until close. My brother who lives in Kentucky will be missing as well. But missing two out of six siblings isn't bad. I hope we can all see each other on Christmas day. Besides a couple of missing siblings, my husband and I are slowly getting the supplies we need for the dinner. Mike bought the ham and plenty of green beans last night. The day before the dinner I plan on making brownies for dessert and the day of I will be making a big supply of Fried Ravioli for an appetizer.

Besides worrying about dinner, I have yet to finish my Christmas shopping. I get paid this week, but I have to save money for bills, i.e. car payment, student loan, second of third oral surgery bill, mortgage payment and car insurance. I'm thankful that Mike said I didn't have to get him too much this year. I still feel bad but he will still get three nice gifts, that I will buy probably Saturday morning.

It sucks that life (bills) gets in the way of my Christmas plans.

Green bean choices

My husband and I are hosting Christmas with my family December 21. We are going to have ham for the main course. As for a side dish we both agreed, to skip the green bean casserole. We both love green bean casserole, but are kind of sick of it right now after eating it three days in a row due to Thanksgiving. We wanted to try something else instead.

I found a bunch of recipes on Food Network. My husband and I have narrowed the field down to two: Green Beans and Portobello Mushroom Saute and French Cut Green Beans with Almonds and Fried Onions. Both recipes come from the awesome Rachael Ray and her show 30 Minute Meals.

Green Beans and Portobello Mushroom Saute
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

1 1/4 pounds green beans, trimmed and cut in half
Coarse salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
2 portobello mushroom caps, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry sherry

Simmer green beans in salted boiling water 5 minutes. Drain green beans and return skillet to moderate heat. Add oil and butter to the pan. Add onions and saute 2 to 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Saute mushrooms 3 to 5 minutes with onions, add green beans back to the pan. Heat green beans through and add sherry. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer green beans and mushrooms to a serving plate.

French Cut Green Beans with Almonds and Fried Onions
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

1 pound fresh green beans or frozen French-cut green beans
Salt 1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds (2-ounce package)
1/2 lemon, juiced
Ground black pepper
1 can fried onions

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a high-sided saute pan. If using fresh beans, cut them lengthwise while you wait for the water to boil.
Add salt and green beans to boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain beans and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Return the skillet to medium heat and add the butter. When butter is melted, add the almonds and cook until golden brown.
Return the green beans to the pan, along with the juice of 1/2 a lemon, add salt and pepper, to taste. When warmed through, top with fried onions.

Before the big dinner, we'll make samples of both to see which one we like better. Right now, they both sound good enough to eat.