What are you up to today? This week?

[champagne]

We had my family Christmas get together today and we arrived home an hour ago. We had dinner and the kids opened their gifts but unfortunately not all my nieces and nephew were there since there seems to be a family feud going on so my 2 brothers would not come with their families but their loss. However, we had a great time anyway. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to my sister's and so it makes for a long day when you go up there and back in one day.

Now I am getting my grocery list together for christmas dinner so I can go grocery shopping tomorrow. My son is coming on Tuesday and staying until Friday, unfortunately I have to work every day except for Christmas.

Busy busy busy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Muriel]

So much to do, absolutly no enthusiasm to do it!

Mummy, sister and niece are coming until christmas eve, so flat should have been tidied, but nope, it is still a mess! Should have baked biscuits, but the dough is still in the fridge. Laundry should have been done, but it is still waiting (well did one load which still needs hanging up :yes:) Christmas decorations should have gone up, lights are up, but no other decorations... Never mind eh?! They're only my mummy and sister, they don't mind mess so much

Car is still unavailable, so we're meeting them in town to do a little christmas shopping before collecting all the personal bits from the car before it is scrapped.

Right, well I better get dressed or we won't make the bus on time either!

[heidiiiii]

Heidi,how do you make your meatballs?? I usually heat the frozen,premade ones,but I want to try real ones tonight,that sounds good. Reading your messages about cooking makes me feel like I should at least make an effort:)

I started cooking (on a gas stove) when I was very young. I think that is why I do all the cooking that I do. It is like second nature to me. Do not go by me at all! But I will share the meatballs with you. When my Dad made spaghetti dinner on sunday, my job was to make the meatballs. I think it was because nobody else wanted to have greasy meaty hands.

I do not have exact measurements though.

In a bowl I add hamburger (80%/20%) usually 1 lb., half a medium onion..minced, oregano, salt, pepper, 1 egg yolk, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, 1 tsp. of crushed red pepper, 1 tbls. garlic powder (no one likes to bite into a piece of raw garlic)..then I either add 1/2 cup of plain breadcrumbs OR 3 slices of white bread. No crusts, just the centers, cut up into bite size pieces.

Mix with your hands. Make sure you incorporate all the ingredients in there. If it is on the dry side, add a Tbls. of the spaghetti sauce. Wash your hands. Then roll your meatballs. Any size you want..huge, large, medium, or small. You want to roll them in both hands to get a nice round form.

This is what I do to cook. I cook them in a lightly greased frying pan until all sides are browned..but not cooked on the inside. Then I drop them into the spaghetti sauce ( I also do this with italian sausage). The sauce can take a couple hours to cook so you want to do this in the beginning... The insides cook while the sauce cooks. Moist!

Some people brown the outsides as i do, then they put them on a cookie sheet or baking pan and let them cook thoroughly that way.

[heidiiiii]

Snowing again today. It is going to be warmer than yesterday though. So it may actually be okay to go out and run some errands. We will wait until around noonish.

Tomorrow Chelsea`s friend is coming so it is all hands on deck today. Clean the ship from top to bottom.

3 more shopping days!

I have to take the ham out of the freezer today to defrost. Mmm! Nice tasty ham. We only have it one time a year and this is it.

[havanaholly]

no one likes to bite into a piece of raw garlic

Speak for yourself! One of our favorite eateries in San Francisco's North Beach is The Stinking Rose, and if a dish can be made with lotsa garlic, they have it! When I die I hope they have a branch in Heaven!

We went hiking this AM. Our friends like to hike about 3 mph and I can usually do that for an hour or so before slowing down to my preferred hiking pace of 2+mph (I like to look around and take my time!), but today I found out that whatever damage I did to my muscles when I fell two weeks ago hasn't all healed up yet, so less than halfway out I had to turn around & come back & wait for everyone else to finish.

[KathieB]

Oouch, Holly. I hope you didn't set back the healing with the over-exertion.

We love garlic, too. I made garlic bread in the bread machine last week that had a generous portion of chopped fresh garlic in the recipe. Yummmmm .... Of course my fingers were redolent of garlic for a few days, but after WD-40, garlic is my favorite perfume fragrance. :yes:

[grazhina]

Meatballs....once I bought those frozen ones, yecch never again. Homemade meatballs are easy, and make all the difference in the world.

I cook my sauce about 5 hours, we can always tell if it cooked less than that. I used to add the meatballs during the last couple hours, but the last few times I added them about 1 hour into the simmer, they did seem to taste even better. i also always stick about a 3" piece of pepperoni into my sauce. I like to make a bit pot, having spaghetti one night, pizza another night and if I made a mess of meatballs I can freeze them with some sauce for meatball sandwiches sometime. Actually, if you let your sauce sit in the fridge a day or two it tastes even better than the first day.

My favorite tomato puree is Redpak, but I can't get it here. I now use Rienzi, which gives me the closest end result. I also started adding a little chianti, which seems to compensate for not using Redpak. It's just that when you used the same ingredients for 15 years you can tell the difference.

Funny thing, nowadays, I never seem to have enough sauce left for a second meal, the guys must be really chowing down. I'll try to remember to make a double pot next time.

Today I cleaned...boring. I got the guest room straightened out for my daughter, who unfortunately can't make it til the day after Xmas. When we got the new computer we stuck the old one in there so I could get everything on it sorted out, but I've decided it's handy, even though it's not connected to the internet...if my husband would only get the router set up again, our son needs to use his laptop for school projects, but winds up using the one in the den. Anyway, I rearranged everything, cleaned everything, and have a 5' tall silk ficus tree drying in my bathtub. It was dusty, so I gave it a shower.

The guys are prowling around wondering about dinner. I'm in the mood for salisbury steak with blue cheese crusted onions.

It's getting dark, the snow is blowing like crazy. We're all hoping the power doesn't go out again. The lights were flickering a bit last night, it was really windy, and we were afraid we'd be left in the dark :yes: .

[havanaholly]

I like to use meatballs in all sorts of dishes, and I vary the seasonings, depending on what we're in the mood for. Tonight we're having chicken & rice, not sure what else all I'll put in it, but definitely the cashews!

Kathie, I think the rapid barometric dynamics had as much to do with my pooping out; now the front is here and I've had a hot, soaky tub & feeling like myself again. I'm dressing commissioned dolls today.

[heidiiiii]

Tonight the man friend is coming over. I forgot to mention (or maybe I did) that he is driving over an hour to meet up with her tonite. He is going to pick her up at work (yeah!), get dinner for them and Natalie, and bring her back here to the house.

Chelsea insists he is just a friend. I dont know..I am not going to speculate. But an hour drive one way seems more then just a friend coming over to hang out! ROFL

Fred, Nat and I have been cleaning up downstairs this morning. Chelsea was up late last night so I will leave her be for now. She needs to pick up her last Secret Santa gift but she also wants to go get her eyebrows done..Eyebrows done..for just a friend to hang out with..hmmm?

I will say hello and then go upstairs with Perla. She can be a little mean when newcomers enter the house. Plus those three will be down here talking and giggling so I figure I will just hang out with the dog and watch a Christmas movie.

Three more days until Christmas. The ham is in the fridge defrosting. I think I am going to go out today and get Fred another Christmas gift. He bought me WAY more then I bought him. Just a lil something extra to put under the tree.

Still very icy out there today. The guy came and sand/salted the street so it should be safer in the next hour or so to go run some errands.

Man friend...Hmmm?

[Anna]

Man friend...Hmmm?

LOL, now this will be interesting to hear alllll about :groucho:

Hugs

[heidiiiii]

LOL, now this will be interesting to hear alllll about :groucho:

Hugs

You know me.. I will let you all know how this turns out.

[chesterfieldzoo]

Man friend? Eyebrows? Sounds like a lot of fuss.

Kathie, I thought my taste in cologne was odd - Hoppes gun oil - but WD40? I love it.

I am going to try to get another wall painted today in the basement. Then start on the workbench.

[Starfire]

Wonder of wonders, The tree is finally complete. lol! With all the bad weather errands take three times as long to run, Spent over three hours at the urgent care office due to chest cold Thursday. Had to take our female boxer Molly to see referral cardiologist located 50 miles away on Sat and left her over night. Drove over in the snow storm yesterday to bring her home. She goes back tomorrow to see an internist. The news does not look good but I am hoping and trying to stay positive.It is a wonder anything has gotten done this past week! No cards as of yet, but all the shopping is done and mailed to those far away! Just a little more cleaning and maybe I can get back to my minis.

[havanaholly]

Beverly, I am holding your hand through this business with your boxer-baby. I still wish I hadn't had to make that decision for my Beautiful Melody...

[Starfire]

Thanks Holly, Having lost Rockie eight weeks ago makes this really hard. Just have to do what I got to do, though and hope for the best.

[grazhina]

Cleaned again. Today I steamed cleaned the carpets on the second floor, did about 6 loads of laundry, and made pierogies. I've been hungry for them for the last couple weeks and decided to bite the bullet and make them. Why bite the bullet? Cause I had a hard time falling asleep last night, then happened to wake up at 5:30 to go to the bathroom and figured I might as well double check on school closings. We expected them to be closed with all this snow, but they announced a 90 minute delay, which they later changed to 2 hours, once my kid was downstairs already having breakfast. I got about 4 hours sleep and am beat.

I also have a pot of split pea soup on the stove, cause I knew DH would want more than pierogies. i usually make a mushroom sauce for them, but I'm too tired. Also, I opened my big mouth earlier this afternoon while I was still functioning and happened to say something about baking peanut butter cookies, which I have been reminded of twice in the last hour. :groucho:

[havanaholly]

Since I was making piecrust anyway, and I ran across a jar of mincemeat in the pantry, I ended up baking two pies; a little of the pecan pie filling dripped on my finger when I was putting the whisk in the dishwater, and I licked it off and now I'm going to have to have some tonight after supper.

[champagne]

I just finished baking the Magic Cookie Bars for my son's birthday tomorrow. that is his favorite dessert. He should arrive around 5AM in the morning about the time I am headed to work. He will be the big 23.

[grazhina]

I ran across a jar of mincemeat in the pantry, I ended up baking two pies; a little of the pecan pie filling

I love pecan pie. I love mincemeat. The rest of my family can't abide either of them....sob, so I never get any :no:

[havanaholly]

The pecan pie lived up to expectations (we HAD to sample a piece each just to be sure it was fit for human consumption). DH had never had mincemeat pie before we married, and I had never had pecan pie. We love BOTH, and our sons won't turn either one down.

[Muriel]

Morning all! I must say I'm not enjoying this very early (comparatively speaking) rising to get the bus to work! Two more days. Well I'm already up, so one more day. I can manage.

Chris was very good and did lots of present wrapping last night. My sister and mum are lugging them to theirs in the car so we don't have to take them on the bus and train tomorrow.

I like the sound of the pecan pie Holly! I love them, but they're not often seen in the UK. I managed to snap one up at a farm shop the other day and really enjoyed it. Mince pies are a huge thing here and everyone has them. Normally they are little individual sized pies though. The mincemeat is often too sweet for me, but I'll certainly get a packet of them around christmas time. Just like pumpkin pie, I have to make pecan pie myself :no:

Grazinha, Chris won't eat pecans or mincemeat either, but it doesn't stop me enjoying some occasionally! You could make little individual pies, or just a small pie and have a slice a day. They'll keep pretty good I'd say.

Have a good, christmassy day! (And stay out of my pharmacy so today isn't a busy day!! :yes: )

Muriel :wub:

[PATBIDLACK]

This morning I wrapped presents. I love everything about Christmas, shopping, (over buying), wrapping presents and watching people open them.

This evening My son called and asked how long it would take to draw a picture on a piece of wood for a clock for his daughter (she is 13 and loves fairies).-

I said about 12 minutes. He thought I was kidding. I can draw people in a minute. He brought over the wood. I asked if he wanted me to paint it. If I wanted to he said. LOL Of coarse I wanted to.

So this evening I painted the clock face, tomorrow my son will drill the moon and make it the clock. It will be a last minute Christmas present but I think my granddaughter will love it. I painted it and her father put it together. A family project made especially for her. I attached a picture. I will touch up the face tomorrow as I can see things it needs.

All in all it was a good day.

[Anna]

Pat what a wonderful gift!

Right now I am sort of preparing for going over to my PILs over the Christmas days, sort of as in right now planning on what clothes etc that I need to pack and then get a move on LOL, we had a wonderful weekend with my parents and now we will get to spend some "lazy" time with my PILs, life is good!

Not sure when I will be back on though so I wish you all a greast week and see you all soon!

HUGS

[heidiiiii]

You know me.. I will let you all know how this turns out.

He picked her up from work last night and they brought dinner home for themselves and Natalie. I greeted him (checking him out) and then basically left the scene. LOL

I fell asleep around 11pm and he was still here at that point. I do not know when he left..I will have to ask Fred.

Nice guy, mixed race like the girls, telling Natalie she needs to embrace her jewfro like he does..LOL (she hates her fro and straightens it to an inch of it`s life).

They exchanged Christmas gifts because I know she gave him some and hers are sitting on the table still wrapped.

He is either a really good friend or....I do not know. I will not speculate at this time. He must have been comfortable here cause he stayed into the night.

Going out to lunch today with my *Mom*. We are going to catch up on stuff and she wants to go shopping also...ugh! I really really really do not want to go into a store today. It will be too insane!

I went into Border`s yesterday to pick up a gift card and the line snaked around the store. Luckily they had a special register just for gift cards only. I practically ran over there..LOL

Cold out today but the forecast for the rest of the week is going to be warmer. In the mid to upper 40s. Goodbye Snow!

[Sherry]

We are just home from going to Kansas to have Christmas with the son who is leaving for Iraq in a week. It was so great to be with him, but I'm give out! We took our other son an (sticky key) his two babies, but his wife ha to stay an work. So I am exhauste from all the babies (4 of them, 10 months to 5 years). We will go see the PILs on Christmas morning, then return home to get rea y for the youngest son an his family to move in. He is a teacher an the school ha to lay off 1/4 of their faculty because of financial problems. So I will be cleaning out my craft room for a nursery.

I am so thankful that we have room for them-an I am crazy about my granbabies...but I am also use to having the house to ourselves...this may be very trying for all of us, but we will live through it. If my car will just start this morning-I pray it's just a worn out battery but fear it may be worse...we on't nee this right now!