Feeling Festive

We spent Saturday night with both J and A decorating our artificial Christmas tree. As much as I would love a tree with white lights and only silver, red and green ornaments, it is jut not possible when you have two kids at home and only one tree. We have to put their memories up, and I am perfectly OK with that.


Here is Alexys, fluffing the branches of the fake tree (we all can't wait until we can have a real one!)Here are the girls putting up their ornaments. They always pick out their own first, and then move on the the family ones.
Alexys, giving me a smile, with Jamie concentrating REALLY hard on hanging ornaments.
And C, putting up our star (I want a new one!). This is his big contribution. Notice his leprechaun hat...he said, "At least it is green."
The girls, after completing the decorating!
Our tree :)
After decorating and making a batch of pizelles, we headed to Blossom Music Center to see the Festival of Lights. This is in the car on the way there.
It was late and both girls were really tired but once we got there, they had a blast. It was two miles of lights and scenes and we stopped for a cup of hot chocolate (overflowing with marshmallows, of course). After leaving, both kiddos fell asleep in the backseat and it was a literal whiteout once we got near home. Both kids crashed as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

I am so glad we waited until we had both kids to set up the tree. Since Alexys does not live with us, it is super important that we involve her as much as possible in the family events over the weekends she is here.

Now I am REALLY in the Christmas spirit!

Saturday's Game Plan

1. Complete flashcards for Ed Law
2. Kids laundry
3. Load of towels
4. Dust/vacuum living room/dining room
5. Sweep and Swiffer wet mop kitchen
6. Batch of pizelles (with the kiddos)
7. Plan cookie making/grocery list of ingredients
8. Create menu for Christmas brunch/grocery list for brunch
9. Clean big bathroom
10. Put away clothes in bedroom
11. Get Christmas decorations from garage
12. Re-bin odds and ends in garage
13. Decorate!

Planning for the Weekend

I am feeling stressed to the max. Here is what is coming up this weekend:

-Progress reports are due at 8 AM on Tuesday. I have literally a box of things to grade.

-I have two papers due for my educational law class on Wednesday at 5 PM

-My educational law FINAL is on Wednesday, and I have yet to do anything in the way of memorizing the terms for the exam (which is matching, so *hopefully* will be easy)

-Have to get started on stuff for my internship! ugh!

Not to mention baking for Christmas, wrapping, and all that stuff.

We have both girls this weekend, so we are putting up our tree and decorating on Saturday night. I am also hoping to either go downtown or to a local light festival with them. I want to get started on some baking prep, even if it is just making my list of cookies and ingredients. I have been picking some up as I go along.

New bathroom!

Yes! They came and retiled our main bathroom floor today because it was rotting and the tiles were breaking. The floor looks so much nicer now! Tomorrow I am putting in my brand new shower curtain, so I will post pics of that too!

Pizelles

I often wish I was able to be a room mom for my stepdaughter's school. Because I can't, I volunteer to bake or bring things in for all of their parties. This week, J sprung it on me that they were doing some sort of ethnic food fair, where they could bring in something that was a part of their heritage to share with the class. I told her I would make pizelles.

Stupid.

I have not made pizelles in a REALLY long time, but from what I recalled, Grandma's recipe made a HUGE amount of batter and it took for-ev-er to finish, because you only do two at a time in the iron. I went to my mom's, scrounged around in the basement until I found Grandma's pizelle iron, and brought it home and got to work.

The batter amount was not as large as I remembered, nor did it take as long. Thank goodness, because I am feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to accomplish by the middle of next week (but more on that in another post).

By the end of the batter, I still was not getting the hang of the correct amount of batter to put in the iron. I was either adding too much or too little, but they were still yummy and looked festive! They have always reminded me of snowflakes and Grandma.

Random sidenote: I also am playing around with my camera and trying to take pictures of just about everything. This blog seems to have been reinvented, and now no longer just focuses on my weight, but about my attempt to regain control of all aspects of my life.

Tackle It Tuesday

This is my first Tackle It Tuesday, hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.  Unfortunately, I did not tackle much today, as I had grad class and was exhausted.  I did "tackle" a few things today...

• Picked up the cleaning supplies to scrub down C's shower stall and bathroom.  They are redoing the tile in my and Jamie's bathroom tomorrow, so it will be out of commission for the next two days.  And I refuse to shower in his shower until I have scrubbed it until it shines.
• Printed all of my flashcards for my School Law final, which is next week.  Now I have to study.
• Did a load of laundry in between getting home from my work day at school until I left for grad class.

I am going to scrub away tomorrow after school, so will update with some pictures!

Interested in seeing how other bloggers tackled it today?  Click here!

Menu Planning Monday

This is my first time joining Orgjunkie's Menu Planning Monday. So, here it goes!

Monday: Open-faced roast beef sandwiches (leftover from Sunday's pot roast) with gravy, tater tots, corn

Tuesday: Stromboli and salad

Wednesday: Taco junk

Thursday: Pork chops, cous cous, green beans

Friday: Chicken stroganoff

Saturday: Lasagna (hopefully, if my dear husband follows through with his promise!); if not, homemade pasta

Sunday: Chicken enchilladas