Happy New Year to all my bloggy friends!

I have today off! Yeah! Hubby and I went and had pizza for lunch and then went to the grocery store. Note to self: never grocery shop on New Year's Eve. It was a madhouse. But we needed to get some blackeyed peas for tomorrow. And we needed a few other things.

We may go out for Mexican food tonight. We usually do that on New Year's Eve, so I guess it is a tradition. As well as ringing out the old year, we are celebrating an anniversary. Hubby and I met 15 years ago a little after midnight on New Years. It was one of the luckiest nights of my life!

Everyone have a wonderful New Year and be safe!

I need a new name!

I recently realized that I need to change my blog name. It was originally "Looking forward to a more frugal 2009." Then last year I changed it to the current.

Well, in 2 days it will no longer be 2010. I don't kow if I want to keep looking forward or if I need to call it something else.

I am giving myself a headache. LOL!

Back at work and I am swamped!!

I am back at work today and despite the fact that our office is pretty empty this week, I am SWAMPED! But I decided to take a short break to let you now about our Christmas.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were so unbelievable stress-free and quiet. Hubby and I truly loved it. On Christmas Eve, we just finished some last minute stuff, I baked 4 loaves of Cranberry Almond Bread and went to eat Mexican food for dinner. Yummy! Christmas morning, we leisurely opened our gifts from/to each other. I am not going to list what I got, because I was incredibly spoiled and feel a little guilty. We were not supposed to go crazy buying for each other since our television died and we had to buy a new one a couple of weeks ago. THAT was supposed to be our Christmas gift.

But Hubby can't help himself. LOL! Fortunately, he did not buy extravagant gifts, just a lot of them. But I loved everything. He also loved all that he received. That afternoon, I cooked a turkey for the get together on Sunday and then baked 4 more loaves of Cranberry Almond Bread, just because I was in the mood.

Christmas morning, we went and picked up Jacob, our almost 4 year old grandson, and got to MIL's around 11:30. Samantha and her boyfriend, John, got there a little later. Then Mere and her brood showed up around noon. We ate first, since everyone was hungry. Of course, Theo wanted to open presents, but we made him wait until everyone ate. We had a ridiculous amount of delicious food!

The boys had a ball opening gifts and we had a ball watching them. MIL gave everyone (adults) $100. Hubby and I had told her over the last couple of months that we did not want her to give us money. Especially when she has some unexpected expenses. We had both told her that if she gave it to us, we would just hide it somewhere in her house for her to find. LOL! She DID give it to us and we DID hide it. She found it yesterday. She called and I again explained to her how much we appreciated it, but we wanted to help her out with Christmas. She thanked me and will keep it. Hubby and I are really glad.

We had a wonderful, wonderful stress free celebration and even MIL admitted that it was really nice splitting it up the way we did, as her house is getting too small for the entire family to be together at the same time. Well, the family is getting bigger. Her house is not shrinking.

Here is a pic of me and my babies:

From left to right, Jacob (will be 4 in February) Theo (4) and Wyatt (20 months) (I told Hubby not to try to get a perfect pic....just to get one. LOL!)

Merry Christmas to all my bloggy friends!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day, filled with family, friends and much joy!

What the heck!

Hubby's cold started a couple of days after out Thanksgiving get together. Mine started the next weekend. We seemed to get a little better, then feel crappy again. Hubby said, "Wouldn't it be funny if we just kept giving back and forth to each other. "

Ummmm....no. That would not be funny.

I thought I was almost better then this weekend I started feeling bad again. I gave in to my sinus infection and finally went to the doctor. I now have drugs.

This morning, I woke up with less of a sinus headache, but my left eye has been red and watery all day.

What the heck is going on?!

We will be having our Christmas celebration on Sunday at my MIL's house. Samantha and her bf, Meredith, Billy, Theo and Wyatt will be coming and Hubby and I will go pick up Jacob to spend the day with us. So we will have 2 of our kiddos and all our grandbabies with us. Yeah!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Sluggy is giving away cookies!!

Sluggy is baking AND having a giveaway! Go here to enter to win cookie mix, Gladware and a Safeway gift card.

Tell her I sent you and we will both get 3 extra entries!

Winner of the Chex Party Mix!

The winner of the Chex Party Mix Giveaway is JC!! Congrats JC!

JC said...

Already a follower.

 

 

I will send you an email when I get home to get your mailing information. (I cannot access my personal email at work.)

Our Christmas Scandal

So after the big fiasco over not attending the family Thanksgiving get together it got worse. Hubby and I are causing quite the scandal this year.

Let me go back a little. We had a very quiet Thanksgiving, just me and Hubby, hanging out at home and relaxing. Hubby talked to Samantha on Friday and found out that her boyfriend had to work on Saturday, so our Thanksgiving dinner was moved to Sunday. No problem for me as I was off on Monday as well. So, Friday was another relaxing day.

On Saturday, I started making things that could be make ahead and prepping ingredients for easy mixing on Sunday. Meredith called Saturday evening and she and the boys were on their way back from New Orleans. She said, “I heard that you are having your dinner tomorrow…..can we come?” LOL! I said “Of course.” I told her she didn’t even need to ask, but she said she wanted to make sure we had enough food. I laughed and asked her if we had ever had a shortage of food at our house. She laughed too.

So, Sunday morning, I cooked and cooked. Hubby helped and also helped with some furniture arranging, as it has been a while since we had a bunch of people over. And, oh yeah, we live in an apartment.

Dinner was wonderful, the company was wonderful and we all had a good time. I took some pics, but they are all at home and I am not.

The only bad part was that after eating and while we were all visiting, we learned that Hubby’s sister had apparently gone even crazier than we thought and she was sending messages to everyone on the family through Facebook. It was like she was trying to get our kids to side against us. Meredith said, “I didn’t even know what I was supposed to say, so I just deleted it.” SIL even sent a message about me to the kids’ mom! How lame is that?! Mere and Sam said that their mom asked what was going on between me and SIL. She also did not respond to SIL.

I try to put all this aside and go on, but Hubby was furious about the messages to Meredith. So, last week, he told me that he was NOT going the Christmas get together at his mom’s. What??? We have gone for the last 13 years. The first time I went was when we were dating and, of course, Hubby has gone every year. So, I told him he needed to go for his mom and just stay away from his sister.

He then told me more about the argument they had on the phone over Thanksgiving, about things that his sister had done and said in the past and said that she has gone too far and he doesn’t want to be around her. He was so upset that I told him that I finally understood and that he needed to explain the same thing to MIL when he told her we weren’t coming. He told me I could go, but if I wanted to celebrate Christmas without my husband, I would go to Tennessee and see MY family.

After thinking about it, I realized that I don’t really care if we go there. I love my MIL. I love my kids. I love my grandkids. But I can do without my SILs and I guess Hubby can too.

So, we are being scandalous this year and not attending the family celebration. I think it will be a good Christmas. MIL told Hubby she understands, but SIL has been sending "can't we all get along for Mom's sake" emails. Hubby is ignoring them. I think I will too. Much less stress if I don't get into it with her.

Don't forget to enter my Chex Mix giveaway!

Today is the last day to enter here. There aren't a ton of entries, so you have a great chance of winning!!

Good luck all!

Chex Party Mix Giveaway!

There are so many great tasting Chex Party Mix recipes that you can make in the microwave in only 15 minutes! Try The Original Chex® Party Mix or Chex® Ginger-Honey Crunch for sure crowd pleasers.

Looking for an easy gift idea for friends, family or co-workers? Try wrapping your favorite Chex Party Mix in a colorful tin or bag and personalize it with your own recipe card.

To make things even sweeter, Kroger Family of Stores will have Chex cereal on sale so you can impress your guests without stressing your wallet. For 3 weeks, from December 2nd – December 25th, Kroger will offer Chex cereal at their lowest prices of the year!

Chex and Kroger provided me with a great Kroger “Chex Holiday Recipes” gift pack that included two samples of Chex cereal and a $25 gift card valid at the Kroger Family of Stores. These were not some puny single serve samples, either! I received 2 full sized boxes of Chex cereals.

I am so excited that Chex and Kroger have also offered to send one of my readers their own Kroger “Chex Holiday Recipes” gift pack!

I need to get more into the holiday spirit after being sick for the last several days, so to enter, just leave a comment sharing your favorite Christmas memory. (Don't forget to include your email address, so I can notify you when you win!)

To give my followers an extra chance, if you ALREADY FOLLOW MY BLOG, leave a comment to that effect, for a second entry. DO NOT start following just to enter, as I won't count that comment. (There has to be an occasional perk for putting up with me!)

Good luck all!

EDITTED TO ADD: If you don't have a Kroger near you, the gc would make a great gift, or you could even turn around and give it away on your blog!

ETA, again: I just realized that I forgot to include and end date. Entries will be taken through Wednesday, December 15.

It was not even on sale!

This morning I woke up with a scratchy throat. Normally, I would just contribute it to sinus problems, which I have year round. BUT, this week, Hubby has had a really bad cold. Tuesday and Wednesday, he spent most of the days in bed. He felt really, really miserable. Today, he said he was starting to feel better, but he is still at home in bed.

His cold started with a scratchy throat Monday morning.

At work, the guys on either side of me have colds.

I am surrounded. Ugh!

This morning, when I felt the scratchy feeling, I knew that I needed to make it through work today, then I have 3 days off, so maybe I would be over the worst by the time I go back to work. So, before I left for work I dug through the medicine cabinet and found some Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Swabs. Yes, I know they have been pulled off the market, but I still have some. My last precious box. But it has always worked for me with no adverse effects, so I broke one open and applied. I make them last as long as I can, since I will never be able to buy anymore once I am out. I also dosed up on Vitamin C, since it can't hurt. Right?

Then I went by Walgreens on the way to the park and ride and bought some cold/flu medicine. It....was....not....on....sale. So, you all know I was starting to feel bad to even consider buying something NOT ON SALE, but this stuff really works for me when I have colds, so I got it. I did, however, have a couple of $3 RRs to use, so got 2 boxes for $3.98. Not expensive. But you know, it is really hard for me to buy anything not on sale. I mean, really hard.

Apparently, my drug strategy is working. The 2 guys on either side of me are coughing and hacking and I feel like I am in a typhus ward or something. I have been sucking on cough drops, so barely a cough. My drugs are working so I don't feel too bad. And I am able to get my work done. So that is good.

Hope everyone is having a great Friday and looking forward to a lovely weekend. I am hoping for one.