No red suit here. Santa came in hazmat.

A picture is worth a thousand words, yes? At pretty much 12 AM, I had just crawled into bed. I was enjoying the warmth of my electric blanket when I heard an awful sound. I had no idea what it was, but I knew I needed to get up to check it out.

"Mommy? I just puked." Yes. Yes she did.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. I just had a bad tummy ache. Mommy? Can we still go and do presents at people's houses?"

"No baby. We'll just have Christmas another day."

"Mommy? Will Santa still come?"

"Certainly."

Surprisingly, she missed the bed and while she hit the floor, she did get to the garbage can that we leave right next to her bed.

So, I gave her some Oscillococinum as I figured that it couldn't hurt. She did sleep until 6:45 AM, when she got up ill again.

I felt so bad for this kid!

She decided that she wanted to open gifts and she did that between bouts of illness. No, we did not videotape that part.

Hubs felt bad because after doing K-'s stockings with her (yes two, because the fingerpaints wouldn't fit in the other) we realized that in the hub-bub of illness, Hubs forgot to put my gifts under the tree!

So long story short, we've been home. We've peeked out from under the hazmat tent, but it hasn't seemed like Christmas. I didn't get to give out the gifts that I had purchased. No Christmas breakfast with Hubs' family. No Christmas lunch with mine. No brothers were there to pick on me. I didn't share dish duty with my sister.

I ate shredded wheat and 4 packaged chocolate chip cookies today. I didn't want to cook anything and make K- sick to her stomach from the smell. (That always happens with me when I'm digestively ill.)

Mom would have dropped off a dinner plate, but my siblings ate everything. :( (She scaled back her cooking knowing that we weren't going to be there and my sister's clan wasn't going to eat, but they they ended up eating, leaving mom with just enough food for those in attendance.)

We were able to open our gifts together. We spent the day together. I've taken a few naps. I normally don't nap, but I got no sleep last night. I ended up shaking, cold and feeling as if I were going to be ill. I would fall asleep and be up literally 5 minutes later. K- napped today, too. Hubs worked on making a cape for Darth Vader.

Right now, K- has perked up and is finally playing with her Christmas loot. I hear the doggie park right now. She is laughing, up and functioning. Hubs has run off with the DS that he bought me, playing the Over the Hedge game. (He bought me the Brain Age games and I've played those all day. Hopefully, I will improve my brain age, as it definitely doesn't score at 36.)

So this year we will run alternate Christmas celebrations. We'll be having breakfast dinner with my in-law's on Tuesday evening. We'll be having New Year's dessert at my parents house. We are thankful for the ability to move the holiday, as we have our health and family.

A Merry Christmas to all of you!

Merry Christmas to All!

Tales from the Trenches: A break is necessary

It was a busy weekend. It's a busy week ahead. Given this, I'll be in and out periodically, but I'm not making post promises.

We celebrated K-'s 6th birthday this weekend, as well as a run to Oglebay to see the lights (I crammed a 2 1/2 hour drive into an hour and 45 minutes-- shh! My foot was heavy.) After K-'s birthday party, I had my Festival Choir Cantata. That meant that I left the house on Sunday at 9:20 AM and returned at 7:30 PM.

The birthday party was a hit!

The Festival Choir was a huge success!

Work has been so busy that I come home a wet rag. I tried to give myself a little pick-me-up with Excedrine Migraine this afternoon and it only backfired and made me fuzzier and slightly nauseated. (I know if I reach past a certain point of exhaustion, it may do that.)

So, I'm going to hop off here tonight and keep crafting K-'s homemade Mommy Christmas gift. I'm making her a bunch of new necklaces. She loves wearing them and I enjoy making some fun little girl stuff for her that is uniquely hers. I have glass beads, Swarovski crystal, freshwater pearls, some great Fimo millefiori type beads, silver beads and some cut glass. Let me see what else I can make for her!

So I'll be in and out. I'll be bouncing in and reading up on all of you when I can. I promise to post about the birthday party, lights and all that. I want to do a nice post instead of slap'em hap'em. You understand, I'm sure!

Have a great week!

Our birthday wish for you . . .

. . . May the force be with you. Have a wonderful 6th birthday, baby girl! Happy, happy 5th anniversary of your adoption, too! We are so glad that you are ours!

Riding the wave that is leading up to the holidays

So much going on.

So much to do.

I'll be scarce for a few days, as there isn't enough of me to get everywhere I need to go and be all sharing on the blog at the same time.

I'll return on Monday.

Have a lovely weekend!

Christmas Angels

My Christmas Angel is the one with the brown hair. She did a great job singing with her angel friends. What a lovely smile for my day!

WFMW: Christmas cookie recipes and gift wrap tips

Good Christmas countdown week! This week, I'll be updating my cookie recipe list with the new things that I tried this year. I'll also include this post, which was last year's cookie post and this one on wrapping tips. I've worked at art galleries for nearly 12 years, doing anything from flat wrap with bows to nesting in tissue and tying bows onto packages. Let me share my tips with you! In the meantime, shall we bake?

Ginger Kisses
(called Chocolate-Kissed Gingerbread, but I like my name better!)
3 c flour
2 t ground ginger
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t salt
3/4 c butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
3/4 firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c molasses (I used full flavor)
1 egg
1 bag Hershey Hug candies

Beat butter, egg and sugar. Add molasses. Add spices, salt and baking soda, mixing well. Add flour little by little until well incorporated. REFRIGERATE FOR 4 HOURS OR OVERNIGHT. I did overnight, as I figured that they probably didn't suggest it for nothing.

Shape dough into 1" balls (a Pampered Chef small scoop is perfect for this), roll in granulated sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges of cookies just begin to brown. Immediately press an unwrapped Hershey Hug into the center of each cookie. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Made about 4 1/2 dozen.

Butter Crisp Cookies
(recipe from Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer)

One box yellow cake mix (I used French Vanilla, because that is what I had)
1 egg
3/4 butter, melted
1 cup Rice Krispies

Blend all ingredients together. Dough will be crumbly. Form into tight 1 inch balls and flatten slightly. Bake in 350 F oven for 10-12 minutes. Mmmm. Delicious.

Made about 4 - 4 1/2 dozen cookies.

Red Hot Sugar Cookies
2 3/4 c flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I always use more, so I think I did 1 1/2 t.)
Box of red cinnamon candies

Heat oven to 350 F. (They called for 375 F, but I found that 350 F was a bit more better tuned to my oven.) Mix butter, sugar, egg and vanilla together. Add baking powder and soda. Mix flour in little by little until well incorporated. Pour red hot candies in and allow to mix in well.

-- This recipe calls for rolling and cutting. I'm not a happy roll and cut kind of girl. Cut-out's drive me batty. I decided to bake these using my Pampered Chef Small scoop and they turned out beautifully. Just make sure that after you've placed your scoop of dough on the cookie sheet, give it a little pat to smoosh it down slightly. It'll be happier that way. So will you. You've just saved yourself the hassle of dirtying the kitchen table with flour and whatnot for cut-out's.--

Follow my adjusted directions just above, baking the cookies for 8-10 minutes (I lean on 8, as I don't like crispy sugar cookies) and allowing to cool on a wire rack.

Made 5 dozen.


Fondant
My friend, Rachael, did a rockin' step-by-step post on making fondant. She makes the fondant that you eat like candy. This isn't the slick stuff that goes on cakes. Just check out her post here. You'll see that she has quite a helpful assistant!

On tour:
I'm on tour with the Christmas Tour of Homes. (Or in my case, work and home.) Come on by for a visit!

Smiles in my day:
- Meeting with K-'s teacher this AM to talk about the Christmas party. She was so excited that I bought plates and napkins, instead of using the generic yucky white stuff from the PTA. She was so funny! :)
- I switched shampoo and my hair seems to be behaving better.
- Hubs got up and got rolling at 5:00 AM this morning. He called at 7:11 AM to make certain that we were up. (We were, but it was nice to have him remember us!) He had a conference to attend today.

Have a great day!