Exceedingly Mundane

I’ve got that song from “The Sound of Music” in my head… raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. I heard a Christmas version of it yesterday (by Rod Stewart) on one of my Christmas CD’s:

[audio:http://www.hambones.org/blogs/stacy/mp3/MyFavoriteThings.mp3]
My Favorite Things by Rod Stewart (From the NBC Collection Christmas CD)

Anyway, it got me to thinking about some of my favorite things at Christmas time.

I absolutely love pulling out all of my Christmas decorations. I love to open up the ornament boxes and go through my ornaments. We get one every time we go somewhere on vacation, and of course, we have some that are very sentimental for different reasons. Sometimes I buy one in the summer (on vacation) or I buy one after Christmas and then put it up. So, each year when I open up my Christmas boxes, I get all excited to find a new ornament or decoration, or remember one that has special meaning to me. I really am just like a kid at Christmas when I open up the boxes and start to pull everything out! 😀

I have several Dept 56 Snow Village pieces as well, that I put out during the holiday season. I guess you could say that I was “collecting” them for a while, but then I ran out of room to display them, so that put an end to my “collecting” of Snow Village. 🙄

One thing I decided I really like a few years ago are snowmen. So, I started “collecting” some of those. Now, I use the word “collecting” very loosely – I don’t acquire massive collections of anything. I just find some that I like or have room for (which is always the overriding factor) and then once I reach my limit, that’s it. But, over the years I have collected Snow Village pieces, carolers and now snowmen. The snowmen are currently my favorite and these little guys make me smile every time I see them:

Then, there’s some others on my tree and scattered around the house:

So, that’s my Question of the Day: What are some of your favorite things at Christmas? Do you have a certain theme or decoration that has special meaning for you? Do you have a favorite decoration or stocking or angel on your tree that is a favorite you love to put out every year? Leave me a comment and let me know!

You can always tell when it’s the holiday season at my house, because I start going nuts, buying these flavored coffee creamers from Coffee-Mate. Last year, I was a total gingerbread-aholic, only buying the Gingerbread flavored creamer. This year, after trying the Peppermint Mocha drink at Starbucks, I decided to “branch out” and get the Peppermint one as well. I like both of them, and love having all of these flavors at the holidays. I haven’t tried their Eggnog flavor yet, because I’m not a huge eggnog fan. Last year, I bought a small container of eggnog-flavored soy milk and it was just so-so. Not sure I’ll go that route this year. I’d much rather have flavored coffee or hot chocolate!

When it gets to be fall and winter here and it’s chillier, I love drinking “warm” drinks. I have just recently picked up coffee (about 2 or 3 years ago), but I have always loved hot chocolate. I make my own mix and give it out as Christmas gifts to friends and family, and we always keep some for us to have in the winter. Gail and I used to make a spiced tea mix, and I might want to go back and dig out that recipe and make some of that this year, as well. Gail also makes a good cappuccino mix, and I have a toffee coffee mix from a good friend of mine that is really good. I also will drink hot tea this time of year, which I never do during the summer months. I like having a cup of hot herbal tea at night (decaf, of course) when it’s cold and I’m wanting something hot to drink.

So, that’s today’s Question of the Day: Do you have a favorite drink you like to drink this time of year? Something seasonal or brings back memories, or just something you like the taste of. Maybe it’s a certain flavor of coffee, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, hot tea or something else? What’s your favorite?! I’d love to know 🙂

Laura is on vacation this week, and so is not doing the Menu Plan Monday this week. However, doing the menus really helps me, so I’m going to go ahead and at least sketch one out for this week. The weekend is a bit up in the air, but hopefully we’ll end up cooking at home some. We ate out a lot this past week and weekend while Tim was on vacation and we were running around most every day. I have to really curtail my eating out or those extra pounds will really start showing up soon! 🙂

Here’s the general idea:

Monday – Turkey pot pie, mashed potatoes, corn (probably using this recipe as a guideline but using leftover turkey from last week’s Herbed Turkey Breast)

Tuesday – Maple BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges

Wednesday – Light Night before Tim weighs in at work. His choice – either eggs, Gail’s Crockpot Oatmeal, cinnamon toast OR tomato soup and grilled cheese

Thursday – Spaghetti with meatballs, broccoli, homemade bread

Friday – either Date night or possibly a new recipe for a chicken taco soup

Saturday – TBD

Sunday – Game Day food, probably Buffalo wings and chips and dip

No, this was not staged. Yes, I saw him laying like this in the kitchen on his bed and literally ran to get my camera before he moved.

Beau sleeping the other night:

Slowly, over the years, I have been buying Christmas CD’s. I absolutely love Christmas music, but I sort of hate to spend the money on a CD that I really only listen to for a month or so out of the year. I don’t spend a lot of money on music to begin with, and before I got my iPod, I mostly listened to the radio. But, I do love Christmas music and so I would splurge and buy myself one CD every year or two.

Then, a few years ago, I discovered the CD’s that Target marketed at the holiday season. They are called “Sounds of the Season” and they usually run them at really good prices, like 5.99 or 6.99. They used to do them by genre, and I would almost always buy the country music one. I have several of those, probably 5 or 6. I bought the NBC one last year that has a mix of music by artists like Rob Thomas, Amy Grant, Michael Buble, Gavin DeGraw, Chris Botti, etc, and I do love that one. I also have some other Christmas CD’s by artist, like Harry Connick, Clay Aiken, Celine Dion, and I have one of Billboard classics from years ago that has the original versions of White Christmas, etc on them (and it’s a great CD!) Anyway, I got excited about looking for the new music in Target this year, only to be disappointed that they’ve changed their format. Now, they have them by artist, which is great, but I really miss them doing them by genre (like country or jazz or the NBC collection). This year, the featured artists seem to be Enya, John Legend and Lionel Richie. I might want to get the John Legend one, but I looked at it, and there’s only 6 tracks on there (for 5.99, so a buck a song, which is the same as iTunes). Sigh. I always hate it when I find something I really like and then they go and change it on me 😆

Anyway, here’s some of the older “Sounds of the Season” CD’s that I have bought at Target…

Last year, I started uploading some of my Christmas CD’s to my iPod and I made a Christmas playlist. This year, I have uploaded a few more, and there are probably 2-3 more that I want to get on there. Now that I have my iHome iPod/clock radio (check it out here), I can pop my iPod in and listen to my Christmas music while I’m in our bedroom or bathroom. I also load up our CD changer in the living room with all Christmas music, so that I can listen in there.

So, that brings us to today’s Question of the Day: Do you have a lot of Christmas music? Do you listen to your CD’s in the car, on the computer, on your iPod or just around the house? Do you have a favorite Christmas CD or maybe a favorite artist that you love to hear sing Christmas music?

Friday, December 1, 2006
Feast One Hundred & Twenty

Appetizer
Have you ever flown in a helicopter? No, but I would LOVE it! 😀

Soup
What color is your warmest coat or jacket? A very old gray parka type jacket. It’s very warm, but it doesn’t look all that great!

Salad
What is your favorite rainy day activity? Curling up with a book and some coffee or tea and reading in my big chair by the fireplace. Sheer heaven.

Main Course
Describe your hands. Yucky, I don’t like my hands. I wish I had gotten my mom’s hands, but only Suzanne got those. I have short stubby hands, all wrinkly and freckled, short nails that I bite or that break off. Icky, I’m telling you, icky.

Dessert
If you could eat only one nut for the rest of your life, what nut would you pick? Tough choice, but probably walnuts. I should pick pecans, they are huge here, but I think I would have to go with walnuts.

I made a new recipe last night and we both really liked it. It’s really just a sweet potato casserole, but I really like the addition of the applesauce. I will do anything I can to sneak more fruit into our diets. I love to eat fruit, and often add dried fruit to my oatmeal, but Tim is basically a fruit non-believer. He barely touches it all year long, and he normally won’t eat any foods with fruit as the ingredients. He liked this though, and then informed me “I like applesauce!”. 🙂 Well, I didn’t even know!

This is from the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook I checked out of the library a few weeks ago. Very simple, but it has a good taste. I followed the recipe exactly (except I used 2 large sweet potatoes for us, not 3), and the only thing I might do differently next time is use a chunky applesauce. I had a plain one open and after baking, it was just a little on the runny side. Not bad and we certainly ate it, but next time I might try a thicker applesauce. Enjoy!

* Exported from MasterCook *

Applesauce-Sweet Potato Bake

Recipe By :Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook, page 100
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Side Dishes Vegetables

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 pound dark-orange sweet potatoes (about 3 medium)
1 cup applesauce
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

In a 3 quart saucepan, place sweet potatoes; add enough water (salted, if desired) to cover. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover; simmer 30 to 35 minutes or until tender; drain. Remove skins; cut each sweet potato lengthwise in half.

Heat oven to 375º In an ungreased 2 quart casserole or an 8 inch square baking dish, place sweet potatoes, cut side up. Spread applesauce over sweet potatoes.

In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon; sprinkle over applesauce. Dot with butter. Cover; bake about 30 minutes or until hot.

NOTE: You can substitute one 17 oz can of vacuum-packed sweet potatoes, cut lengthwise in half, for the fresh sweet potatoes and skip Step 1.

NOTE: For a festive topping, why not try sprinkling the sweet potatoes with one of these toppings – dried cranberries, miniature marshmallows, toasted coconut, toasted pecans or almonds, french fried onion rings or crushed croutons

Stacy’s Notes – Made this November 2006. We really liked it! I used 2 fairly large sweet potatoes and boiled them until tender, then peeled them using a spoon. I used a metal 8×8 pan (so it would fit in my toaster oven), and did everything else the same. Next time, try using a chunky applesauce (as it was a teeny bit runny after cooking). This was good and had a good flavor, a definite keeper. 🙂

I finished a sweet little book last night, called “Christmas Past” by Robert Vaughan. I always like to read a small Christmas type story this time of year, and this one really fit the bill. Light and easy to read, but with a good heart and message. A high-powered man and his wife are so immersed in their careers, that they don’t have time for each other, much less their two children. In a last-ditch attempt to have a nice Christmas for their kids, they sign up to go to an antebellum mansion to celebrate a “Christmas Past”, a recreation of a Victorian era Christmas. What they don’t realize until they get there that they are no longer in the present, but have been magically transported back to a simpler time. When families spent time together, did things for one another, made gifts for one another, and remembered the reason for the season by putting Christ first. This was a really short book, at only 141 pages, but it was a really good one. 🙂

For the record, that makes #67 so far this year, with a total of 23,285 pages read. Up next is the first book in the Abram’s Daughters series by Beverly Lewis, called “The Covenant”. I am really looking forward to it 🙂