Exceedingly Mundane

I had planned to either blog today or ask another Question of the Day. I’ve asked two Christmas-related QOTD this week, and have really loved reading everyone’s answers! But I don’t think I’ve got enough time to sit down and compose a “real” blog post. I spent the morning running errands, then my dad came by for lunch and a long visit, and now I have laundry to do 🙁 We’ll watch the NFL game tonight on our just added NFL Network, so maybe I’ll have some time to catch up on some things. I have some books that I have read recently that I wanted to do a quasi-review of, as well as talk about new books 😀

Alas, things are just too busy this time of year. Tomorrow (Friday), I actually hope to start my Christmas shopping. I am so behind this year. Usually by now, I’ve gotten some things bought, maybe even half of the gifts. And I would be contemplating whether to do more shopping or start wrapping. At this point, I just want to try to go shopping and find some things.

Hope everyone is having a good day and a great week. Enjoy this holiday season, and go hug someone you love 😀

Today’s Question of the Day is short and sweet. It’s cold outside and you’re all snuggled up at home. What’s your choice of something hot to drink this Christmas season? Do you like hot chocolate, with or without marshmallows? Do you drink hot apple cider or hot tea? Or would you rather have coffee?

My answer is all of the above! I love it all. I love hot cocoa and make my own mix every year that we give to family and friends. I love hot apple cider and make it at the holidays. I drink hot tea sometimes, although it’s not my first choice. Coffee is a near-daily item for me, but mostly just in the mornings. Tim is not a believer in decaf coffee, so I don’t ever buy it. So, coffee in the afternoons or evenings for me is a huge no-no. I can’t drink caffeine too late or I have trouble sleeping. Hot chocolate is good all day and night, though 😀

How about you? If you came over, what would you like a cup of to drink?!

I thought I’d start today asking one of a series of “Question of the Day” questions, about Christmas. We’re all alike, but we’re all different too, and I always love reading about how each of you celebrate, decorate, and commemorate Christmas. We’ll start off slow and easy this year, with the first question about your tree. 🙂

Are you going to put up a tree this year? Is it a real tree or an artificial tree? Are the ornaments an eclectic mixture, or very carefully chosen, as part of a theme or other plan? What color are the lights on your tree? And finally – is it up yet or not? If not, when do you put it up and take it down?

Ok, now for my answers! Our tree is up, and it’s an artificial pre-lit tree we bought last year (Tim’s job is to put up the tree and string the lights, so you can understand why he was so interested in getting a pre-lit tree!). We put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving. The ornaments are a very eclectic mixture – some from my childhood that I saved when my mom was going to throw them out, some from when I was single (pre-Tim, as we like to call it!), and the rest we’ve bought since we’ve been married. On most vacations, we try to get an ornament from where ever we’ve visited. Some, I just see at Target and like and buy 😀 This new tree is prelit with white lights, and I have been doing white lights on my tree for about 15 years now. I may eventually gravitate back to colored lights. I saw some really cool LED colored lights in the store this past weekend. Ours will stay up through Christmas, but I’ll have it down by New Years Eve.

Now, leave me a comment and let me know about you, your tree, who decorates it, what it has on it, etc. And have a very joyous holiday season!

Last week’s menu didn’t quite go according to plan. We ended up eating out a lot more than I had planned. So, I’ll try to move a couple of the meals to this week, as “carryover meals”. 🙂 We did end up eating over half of the items that I had planned last week, just not on the day I planned them. So, I thought I would try something different this week – instead of planning by day, I’ll just try to plan a few meals.

As always, thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for organizing and hosting this each week! Go check out her blog and you’ll find tons more recipes and menu plans.

Sunday – we had the steaks, baked potatoes and salad that we were supposed to have last week 🙂

Monday – I’m thinking some kind of soup, but my choices are limited. I ran out of potatoes and sweet potatoes. (Yes, I know, I could run to the grocery store, but I just don’t feel like it!!!). So I might either make this chili or maybe this chicken noodle soup

Rest of the week:

Beef Stroganoff, wheat noodles, green beans or peas
Seasoned White Beans with ham or turkey, peas, cornbread
Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese (carryover meal from last week; always a good standby in our house!)
Sweet and Sour Chicken, Potstickers, egg rolls

As always, the weekend is up in the air. I need to just totally give up on trying to plan food for the weekend 🙄

Have a great week, everyone!!!