A really great Christmas!

Hello all!

I hope everyone is recovering nicely from all of the festivities! I always love the Christmas season but am always glad to see it come to a close as well. Our house was very successful this year in that we all got most of what we were hoping for and extras that we didn't ask for but still were glad to receive. That is a great bonus! My favorite gift this year came from DH. He got me the most beautiful royal purple bathrobe. It is the softest thing I have ever felt! DH got an insulated hoodie from me along with some hand cream that is super spectacular if you are someone whose fingers tend to split in the winter. It healed all three of his split fingers in less than 12 hours!! He was thrilled! And DS got a Razor scooter that he was soooo excited about. He hasn't stopped scooting since he opened it.

With all of the snow we've had, I haven't driven anywhere in almost two weeks! Needless to say, I'm going stir crazy! Today is the beginning of the great thaw though, it's supposed to get up into the 40's. The roads are looking better and we're in desperate need of some food staples like milk, eggs, and produce so we are venturing out for the first time in a long time. I feel like a hermit and am super glad to be emerging from my cave. I might even peek at the clearance Christmas items and see if there are any deals too good to pass up.

I've already taken down all of the decorations with the exception of the lights outside because those are still frozen in most places. It feels nice to have the house back to normal.

Hopefully everyone is well and enjoying what's left of the season! For now, I'm off to take a shower and head the the store. Wish me luck!

Here's what's happening in our neck of the woods.

Here's what it looks like outside. And just so you know, we don't usually get this much snow in Seattle. We're known for rain in these parts. Someone must be filling in for mother nature while she's on vacation or something. Whoever it is has us sorely mistaken for people who like this white crap!

It's supposed to snow more tonight! UGH!

Seriously cruel....SERIOUSLY!

So after being stuck inside for almost a week, digging my way through piles of laundry, and trying to get the house clean for Christmas morning, one of my favorite bloggers, Brenda from Seriously Mama tagged me for this GOTCHA meme. Cruel and evil, seriously (pun intended!). I'll admit that for a moment I contemplated submitting a picture of my socks but thought I might get razzed too much for it. Anyay....nice to meet you.

This is it...

1) Take a picture of yourself right NOW!
2) DON'T change your clothes, DON'T fix your hair... Just take a picture.
3) Post that picture with NO editing.
4) Post these instruction with your picture.
5) Tag 10 people to do this..

Now, who do I get to tag????

Mama Neena
Paisley Penguin
Financial Diva
Beans n taters Mama
Penny Pinching Diva

Super duper easy fudge!

I found the BEST recipe for EASY fudge! I didn't think it was possible to find an easy fudge recipe, but it is and I have!

Here's what you do. Are you ready? Do you have 5 minutes (literally) to spare? Here you go.

1 16 - 18 oz container of peanut butter smooth or crunchy, you choose.
1 16 oz container of chocolate frosting.

Dump both items into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for ONE minute! Mix well and pour into a lightly greased 8x8 pan. Put in the refrigerator until set. Viola! That's it!

The finished product resembles that of a peanut butter cup candy!! YUUUUMMMMY!

If you want even easier clean up, line your 8x8 pan with aluminum foil before pouring the fudge in, then all you have to do is lift out the foil/fudge and the pan is still clean!

I hope your family loves it as much as mine does.

It's snowing here...a lot!

The past few days have been downright BORING! We've been stuck inside with colds and paralyzed by the fact that outside is covered in snow. I don't mind driving myself in the snow, but I really don't like to take my son as I don't trust the other drivers. We typically don't get a whole lot of the white stuff here in the greater Seattle area, but we do get a bit. This past week I would venture to say we have had more snow that all of last year combined. Don't quote me on that though, I didn't do any research. :)

We started the week off on an ok foot, we did our normal activities on Monday. Tuesday we had school and although it was only 25 degrees or so and snow was on the ground, the kids had a great time. Wednesday school was cancelled because of the "threat" of snow and wouldn't you know it...nothing fell. It was 35 degrees and the roads were better than the day before but we didn't have school. Late that night, the powder fell and fell and fell and fell. We didn't have school the next day or the rest of the week. We officially started winter break almost a full week early!

Why are we not taking advantage of the hills and going sledding you ask? Well, that's because we aren't prepared here in casa de la smalltowncitygirl. We haven't been boot shopping this year yet, we haven't purchased any of the sledding equipment that we promised ourselves we would be getting this year, and we have colds! YUCK! I have it the worst of everyone. I haven't been sleeping well because I cough myself silly and wake up DH. So, I've been sleeping on the couch...yippie!

As I'm typing, we are having more snow fall. It really is beautiful out and I love the quiet that the snow brings with it. It's as if the world is being insulated. It's really something. I'm hoping that this lovely virus that is infecting my body will pass with the weekend...keep your fingers crossed for me. Then we're off to shop for boots and sleds. Hopefully the stores still have something!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

"It was cheap"....YEAH RIGHT!

Yesterday I was snack mom at preschool and I forgot! I walked in the door and it dawned on me, whoops! It was also my work day in the classroom so I was unable to go to the store and pick something up. One of the other moms who didn't have to stay, offered to run and pick snack up for me. Very sweet! She came back with 4 pounds of bananas, 8 string cheese sticks, and a bag of gold fish crackers. When I asked her what I owed her she replied "the reciept is in the bag, it was cheap...like $10."

Now, to the normal person that might seem cheap. But to me, that was a fortune! I have been couponing so long now that I forget that I'm in the minority and most people spend much more than I do. My DH laughed at me when I told him this story because he thought I was going to pass out at the thought of spending regular price on anything. Love you honey!!

Just to give you an idea as to what I could buy with $10 take my trip to Walgreens last night.

Here's what I bought:

6 bottles of Arm & Hammer Laundry Soap (regular price $41.94)
4 boxes of Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil (regular price $6.76)
2 boxes of Sugar Free Jello brand Gelatin (regular price 2.38)
1 Loreal Face Wash (regular price $6.99)
1 Loreal Eye Cream (regular price $16.49)
1 Maybelline Lip Gloss (regular price $5.79)
1 Maybelline Lip Liner (regular price $6.49)
2 Sure Deoderents (regular price $5.98)
1 bag of bows (regular price $.99)
2 4 packs of Scotch brand gift tape (regular price $7.98)
1 Pedi Paws dog nail trimmer (regular price $19.99)

Here's what I spent: $28.65, and I have another $5 off my next purchase!

Overall I received $121.78 in products for just under $30. As you can see, $10 for snack is not cheap for me!

The moral of the story is...DON'T FORGET WHEN YOU ARE SNACK MOM!

Santa Claus is coming to town.....

Today I received an email from one of the Mom's at preschool with a link to a site that you can print free letters from Santa off of. http://www.freelettersfromsantaclaus.com/


I had to share because it's really a great site if you have little kids that are in the full swing of believing in Santa. We haven't gone to see "Him" yet this year, but are planning to in the next few days. I already know what will be asked for and we are prepared for Christmas morning with the highly anticipated gift! This year at our house, it's an army set that has guys the size of GI Joe and it comes with a boat AND a helicopter! It's super great if you are a four year old boy!

Anyway, I went tonight and printed our letter off and then printed a matching envelope in Word. My plan is to take it with me to the mailbox tomorrow and mix it in with the mail so he'll have no clue. hehe. This is so much fun!!

We also have a nursery locally that brings in reindeer for the month of December and you can go get your pictures taken with them. We are planning that very soon as well! I love all the fun family activities this time of year!

What fun things do you all have planned for the coming weeks?

And then the cat cried...

It's taken me a day to get over this, and I apologize in advance for no pictures. I just couldn't bring myself to take them. I was too mad!

After my joy filled post on Tuesday about our lovely little Christmas tree, we awoke yesterday morning at 4:30 am to the sound of the same tree crashing to the ground with a thud accompanied by the pop and clank of broken ornaments! What followed was not a pretty sight. The cat went flying through the house because she scared herself silly. I went flying into the living room because I, being awakend from a dead sleep thought someone was breaking into our house. Much to my dismay, it was just the tree....JUST the TREE! I was so mad, I seriously contemplated throwing the cat outside so she could find a nice racoon family to live happily ever after with. I was that damned mad! She was lucky it was cold and she's spent every day of her eight year old life inside or I just might have gone against my better judgement. She did however know how ticked I was at her and she NEVER left the laundry room (she sleeps on top of our water heater) yesterday and she has yet to come out and see me today.

It took me until 3:30 yesterday afternoon to relax enough to re-put up the tree. At 4:30 in the morning, I just picked it up and set it on the table. I had to remove all the ornaments that survived and pick up the broken glass. Then I had to cover the carpet with the tree skirt and lock the dog in her room so she wouldn't cut her paws because I was NOT about to vacuum at 5 am! I did finally decide that we do need a tree and I would put it together one more time. So it's back up.

I did have a heart to heart with the cat and let her know if she so much as comes close to it again, I will not be so kind. She might just find herself looking for a nice racoon boyfriend!

And to think, I was worried about the dog knocking over the tree! The cat has never done anything to it to make me concerned. Frickin' Trojan Cat!

Happy Holidays! BAH HUMBUG!

Our goofy little tree.

After trying and trying to rearrange our furniture to fit our tree in the same place we had it last year, I gave up!

Here's the problem: I made curtains over the summer and blocked off about half of the light from our front window by doing so. But I made up for it when we moved the couch away from said window and put it agains the brick red wall as seen in the picture. We have space for the tree in front of the window now, but i was afraid that the dog would knock the tree over every time she tried to look out the window. I didn't want to deal with that. I tried to combat this issue by moving the couch back in front of the window so I could put the tree against the red wall like we always do. When the furniture was all in place, I went out to get the mail. When I came back inside, it was like walking into a dungeon!

Here's the solution: I decided to put my furniture back to it's original position and just get a smaller tree! So, I hopped myself and DS into the minivan and headed to Walgreens where we purchased ourselves a very sweet 4.5 foot artificial tree with lights already strung. I put that little guy up right on top of our endtable and we LOVE it! I think it's one of the cutest trees we've had yet.

Here's the outcome: What do you think?



I still have to put more presents under it, but not too shabby so far.

Do you all put up a real tree or do you go the artificial route like me?