blah day

Today has been such a ho-hum, blah sort of day. The hubby has a nasty cold and isn't feeling up to doing much. So we've vegged all day. Of course, being the mom, vegging for me included 4 or 5 loads of laundry. Where does it come from??? And working on a Christmas calendar and wrapping some things. I finished and wrapped a calendar and a photo of the Boo that we had made over the summer.

I also wrapped a white elephant gift for Boo's church party tomorrow night. Last year she took some of those controllers that you plug into the tv directly and then play video games. Since she's got a DS and we've got a Wii, those old games were collecting dust. It was one of those gifts that everybody fought over. It was her first white elephant exchange and she got a kick out of it. So how do you top that?? That's been the dilemma. So we scrounged around the house for something 'fun' yet pretty useless at the same time and decided on this little pop gun thing she's got that shoots out foam 'bullets' with little plastic nubs on the end of 'em. Since it's multiple pieces and it's bound to get passed around, I wrapped everything in a large, clear baggie and tied it together with curly ribbon and a tag...and placed that in a box and wrapped it. I printed out a little tag that says "Don't shoot your eye out!" which we all think is funny since we watch A Christmas Story evvvvvery year, multiple times since there is an annual marathon on one of the cable channels. It's sort of an icon, so I hope the phrase doesn't draw stares. WE think it's funny. We'll see.

While I did all my work today, the Travel Channel was running several shows on going to Disney World/Land over Christmas. It was fun to see things on TV that we just saw 'in real life'...the very photos I was scrapping on calendars while I was watching. It made us smile on a blah day that didn't have very much going for it.

the big debate

My daughter has a debate today. Can you believe it?! I don't think she even knew what a debate was before this assignment rolled around. And it's not just for the sake of debating. It's her semester final! Um.. yeah. She's confident in the info she knows, but a little freaked out at the thought of standing up in front of 'evvvverybody' and talking about her stuff.

I don't blame her. I would have thrown up if I had to get in front of people and talk at her age. Shoot, I would probably be sick to my stomach NOW if I had to do that. I've reminded her that she's prepared. She knows that. She's confident in what she's wearing today as they had to 'dress up'. Her primped and flattened hair is very pretty. She cracks me up. She wears her hair in a ponytail every single day. So today she decided to wear it 'down' and was just marveling at how pretty her hair looks. I was telling her she could see her hair more often if she'd leave it down every once in a while. (the hairdresser raves about her hair and tells her ladies pay big bucks to have the perfectly colored hair she was gifted with... blonde with auburn and brown highlights) But having said that, I'm thankful she doesn't care that much....that she's not one of those girls that spends forever in front of the mirror worrying about every little detail. Just slappin' it into a ponytail is much healthier, in my opinion.

I also reminded her that her team's debate only lasts nine minutes and it will be over. And then she can watch everybody else instead. Just today and tomorrow and then she's out for the break. We can't wait!

She wore a ponytail thing on her wrist though, just in case.

it's getting close!

This is the time of the Christmas season where I realize it's getting close and begin to make mental note of what's left to do and tie up any loose ends. And along the way, it brings to mind things that I do regularly that make the season a little easier.

Sometimes I have to send presents in the mail. And what happens when things get sent in the mail... the bows get squashed. (and yes, as I sit here, I realized I forgot to wrap a gift I put in the mail yesterday. DUH) Anyhoo... how do you send a pretty gift in the mail without a bow??? A friend of mine taught me this one and I think it's pretty cool. She (and I) use plain colored wrapping paper. It can be found, but sometimes it's harder. I stock up when I see it. And I buy cute Christmas stickers (I can get cheap ones from Current) and decorate my wrapped gifts with stickers instead of bows. It also looks very elegant under the tree. (hint hint.. I've used this same technique for other things like birthdays as well. Saves me from having to buy a little bit of 'birthday' paper) Love. IT.

Another thing I did this year is use some old Christmas cards as gift tags. I had some gift bags and since I try to be frugal with them and reuse them, I hate to put a sticker on them. So I cut out the pretty part of the card, punch a hole in it and tie it on with twine or ribbon and presto... a fancy gift tag. And it's cheap.. and it's kinda like recycling.. one more use before it hits the dumpster.

Anyway, those are a few easy things I do at Christmas to make things a little easier. For other tips, visit Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Christmas is upon us.. and so is the food that goes along with it. I'm not the baker/candy maker that my Mamaw was. That kinda gives me the grins to say her name, as she's been gone from us since I was in high school. I was talking to somebody today about Christmas candy and I remembered Mamaw making fudge and divinity every year. She kept a metal tin that would appear in one of the spare bedrooms every year.. and I'd dig in and snatch myself some goodies. I'm sorry but I don't have a fudge or a divinity recipe. I couldn't make either one of those if my life depended on it. I *am* thinking about trying out a divinity recipe possibly though. I've just got to find one first. And order a new whisk for my stand mixer. Anyhoo...

..in the meantime, I can always make some yummy quick bread. And my favorite is:

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce 16 ounce
1 can solid pack pumpkin 15 ounce
3/4 cup chopped pecans.. at our house, nuts are always optional. I leave them out myself.
2/3 cups oil
4 eggs (I've used Egg Beaters and it turns out fine)

Glaze ingredients:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup orange juice concentrate - not diluted
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In another bowl, combine the cranberry sauce, pumpkin, pecans, oil and eggs. Stir into dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Pour into two greased 9 inch by 5 inch by 3 inch loaf pans.

5. Bake for 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool for ten minutes; remove from pans to a wire racak to cool completely.

7. Combine glaze ingredients (conf. sugar, orange juice concentrate, and allspice); drizzle over cooled loaves.

This bread is delicious! It's super moist. It even freezes well. I slice it when it cools and put it in a big zip top freezer bag and just pop off a piece when I want one. It reheats well in the microwave. Soo good! For other yummy Christmas treats, hop on over to visit Donna at Way More Homemade!

some thoughts on WDW

I know I've gone on and on about our trip... and well, yes it was very wonderful. But there were other aspects of it too. I noticed that everybody was in a hurry.. including ourselves. And yes, there were a lot of people there, even when it wasn't 'crowded'. And that we tended to look past the faces of those people in those crowds as just a nuisance that we must get around. A faceless, soul-less mass of humanity that was only in our way. In so many ways, that was constantly with me during our stay. I enjoyed the few moments we actually talked to people while we were there. I talked to a family in line with us. Their daughter has the same name as ours and we discussed spellings of their names and just generally chit chatted with them. You know.. treated them like they were people.. not just something to look past and get through. There was the family at the bus stop too. They were late for a character breakfast and were really anxious for their bus. Which was also our bus. Which we had been waiting for as long as they had. But when it arrived, I gestured for them to get on the bus first.. because they had to be somewhere and at that point, we were just goofing off. I felt sorry for them. And as things go, we were able to squeeze on the bus right after them. I think we even got to sit down. Score! There were the Wish families I saw. I didn't talk to any of them, but I definitely noticed them. They broke my heart a little bit. And there was the family we saw on a bus one day who's (almost?) adult son has some sort of handicap. His parents were completely patient with him as he passed them notes and they wrote notes back to him. He had a teenaged sister too. The son was the only one that smiled during our whole bus ride. I wonder what kind of life they have taking care of a child in an adult's body.

I could go on and on, as we were constantly with people for all those days. And we aren't exactly people people, if you get my drift. My husband declared it a people free weekend when we got home! (if my husband had a blog, it would be called Notes from the Behind the Wall.. oh yeah.. much more quiet/introverted than me!) Anyhoo... it was sad in so many ways. I would wonder how many of these people know Jesus. Statistically probably not very many. That huge mass of people that we'd sometimes get annoyed with are still loved by God and He longs for them, even when they don't care or even know who He is. When I think of humanity and His love for them, it's overwhelming. And that was the saddest and most beautiful part of all.

the fifth and final day

The fifth day was our last day in the parks. It was Wednesday.. the day before Thanksgiving and the traffic inside the parks was picking up. And we were tired. We decided to go back to the Hollywood Studios place. But we could barely walk. So we took in a live Beauty and the Beast show. Boo had never seen a live show with costumes etc so this was quite a treat for her. It was very sweet. After the show, we just couldn't take the crowds any more and left.

We ate lunch at the counter service place at our resort. They made really good (fancy-er) sandwiches and they were HUGE. We were basically just 'killing time' for most of the day. Which was fine. It was nice to not be in a big fat rush to get somewhere. We just piddled. After lunch, we went to a place to ride a boat to Wilderness Lodge. A friend stayed there when they went and urged us to take a peak at it, if we had the time. So we did that. It was an indoor HOtel... nicer than where we stayed. But we've 'done' the lodge look resort at Big Cedar Lodge before, so this was nothing new to us. But yes, I did have to say 'wow' at the vastness of space in the open common area of the hotel and of course, the Mickey Mouse totem pole.

After that, we went to Downtown Disney, which is a small-ER area with shops and places to eat. We had fun look in all toy and gift shops. There is a Lego store there and we all had a blast looking at the Legos. Yes, we are all little kids at heart. They had little bins where you could built your own people, so Boo built some people. That was fun. Mixing and matching heads, bodies and accessories. And the hubs bought a Lego Star Wars Darth Vader. Boo was jealous because he HAS A CAPE. Evidently this is big stuff. She has an old set and HER Vader is minus the cape. Oh well. I bought a Mrs. Puff (from Sponge Bob) key chain. She cracks me up.

We had reservations at Planet Hollywood for dinner. We were seated quickly and our food came quickly. It was an 'interesting' environment, but we were glad to leave. Too loud. Dang, I sound like 'old people'. Oh well.. maybe I am! LOL The girl that waited on us is from our area, so we chatted with her for a bit. And then we walked around some more and camped out on a bench for a while. It was fun to people watch. And we were tired of walking.

Then it was time for our final 'fun'. We were able to get tickets to see Cirque du Soleil. And it was amazing! If you are a fan of Jon and Kate plus 8, and you've seen the 'cutting room floor' episode, it features when they got to see Cirque. There just aren't words for how incredible it was. We loved it! It was a nice way to end our stay at Disney. It was chilly after the show was over. That was our latest night out. We couldn't wait to get on the bus and head back to our little oasis for one more 'sleep'.

We woke up bright and early and got ourselves together. The Disney people came for our luggage and us around 8:30 am. We checked out of our room and checked our luggage IN at the counter at our resort. Yes, we checked our luggage at Disney. Crazy, isn't it?! It made getting through the airport much quicker. Except for the dumping of everything but your undies into a bin security thing at the airport, that is. That waddle away from the xray scanner barely holding onto all your belongings and your ticket and your driver's license is just a blast.

We made our flight without a problem and were home by early afternoon. I had just about all the unpacking and laundry done before nightfall. We were tired and happy and so glad to be home. And we didn't want to be in a crowd again for a long time.

day four, WDW

On day four of our trip to Disney, we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. It was a fun day.. some of the things were quite memorable and others.. not so much. We arrived over a half an hour before it opened. As with the other parks, there is the early 'let in' and then everybody walks on ahead to a roped off area. But the fun part was, we were near the front of the line and they put on a little 'show' for ya before they let you in. There was a guy standing in the back of the truck like thing with an old time movie camera and another guy in another vehicle acting like a director. The director guy also had a 'family of the day' with him and he put them through their paces of doing things for 'his movie' and it was all very cute. And then he included 'us' in his 'movie' and told us we had to walk when the ropes went down. We thought it was a clever way to keep order. And yes, he even hollered into a bullhorn at people that did not walk. Cute.

The first thing we did was ride a Toy Story ride thing. It was one of the coolest things we did all day. It was an interactive arcade kinda thing and Boo and I competed shooting things from our ride. Pretty fun stuff. When we got off, the line just to get a fast pass was crazy long. We weren't able to ride that one again. But it was a lot of fun.

We rode a thing called The Great Movie Ride. The funniest part of it was before the ride. They put a group of 'us' in a queueing area that looked like a movie theater with a screen and it showed clips of different movies of different eras. One of them was an old movie where the ladies all swim in sequence with each other. I have no idea what the name of it is. Anyway.. what does this bring to mind to Boo and I.. but that birth control commercial.. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Everydaaaaaaay. Yep, Boo and I sang that song to ourselves QUIETLY while we waited in line. LOL The ride itself was a snooze. A bit of a disappointment.

After that we did a back lot tour. That was pretty cool. They showed how they do explosions, gunshots and fire in water environments. They also took us through a storage area for props for different movies. We saw some old muppets stuff and some of the stone creatures from The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. That was pretty cool. (and gobs of other stuff too) We rode a tram for the rest of it. It sprinkled a little, but by the time we got off, it stopped. That was our only wet weather for the whole trip. We saw a Herbie VW and Walt Disney's private plane. There were lots of interesting little tidbits on this ride.

Then we went to a car stunt show. That was pretty neat as they 'filmed' it live while it was going on and we could see parts of it on a big screen. They talked about how cars 'go fast' and spin out and all kinds of crazy stunt-y stuff. There were also motorcycles and some jet skis too as there was a moat kinda thing in front.

After that we went to a Muppet 3D show. That one was a lot better than the other 3D show we saw at another park. Very clever and funny. Not scary at all for little kids and it made everyone laugh. Then we grabbed a fast pass for a Star Wars ride thing and ate lunch. Lunch was awful and I was hungry a lot that day. lol Then we did the Star Wars thing, which was ok, not great. There was also a little 'show' they did live outdoors on a stage with little kids from the audience and Darth Vader and some good guy in a brown outfit.. can't remember who-LOL- and that was cute with the little kids and their light sabers and all. Funny. We watched that for a little bit.

Then we saw an Indiana Jones stunt show. It was fun watching them perform stunts 'live' like that. And there were a couple of unexpected little elements in that one too, which made it fun. There was a Prince Caspian character greeting and a small attraction with that.. we skipped the character thing and did the movie clip thing.. not much to it.. lots of movie clips strung together creatively and no place to sit down.

There was a big exhibit on Walt Disney himself. We found that nostalgic and interesting. We spent a lot of time looking at that stuff and really this was an education for our daughter. She didn't grow up seeing Walt Disney every Sunday night when The Wonderful World of Disney came on. See.. didn't I just make a bunch of you nostalgic just by saying that?! There was a movie about his life there too, so we watched that too. Fun and interesting.

There was a live show about animation which we did. It was ok. And there was a 'show' about sound work/foley art. All we did was listen to some stuff on headphones in TOTAL DARKNESS.. a great move for the kiddies.. and then it was over. Not a favorite. Then we ate supper at a buffet called Hollywood and Vine. I wasn't expecting much, but it was quite delicious.

And then we did the evening show called Fantasmic. It was interesting in some ways. They figured out how to make a movie screen on a sheet of water sprayed into the air. That being said, they showed movie clips on that thing for waaay too long.. and villains too.. they dragged out every spooky character they could think of.. scared the little kids to death. There wasn't much pyrotechnics to speak of. There were more characters at times.. floating by on a boat or something..but mostly it was just very dark. When we left, I wasn't feeling very fantasmic about it, lemme tell ya. (I was feeling more bummed that we missed the REAL fireworks show at Epcot! LOL)

The funny part was waiting to go into this show... they had a previous show of it, and the lady that kept coming over the loud speaker saying things about where the strollers had been moved to etc for those exiting.. but with a northern accent (no offense if you are from the north!) and for some reason, it just made us laugh. So sadly that was our cheap entertainment while we waited in line.

That ended Tuesday, which was day four.