Catch-Up

I knew it had been awhile since I had last posted, so I wasn't at all surprised to log in and see that it had been since October. I wish I could say that I've been busy doing great things, but its just been the regular run-of-the-mill fill of the days.

In November I spent Thanksgiving with my family, which isn't at all peculiar. No Black Friday shopping for me, but I did do quite a bit of online shopping on Thanksgiving and some on Cyber Monday. Honestly though I got the better deals on Thanksgiving. I guess that's sad that they do that now. We went to go get soda on Thanksgiving night at K-Mart and they wouldn't let us in because they were gearing up to open the doors at 8 or 9 that night for the start of their Black Friday deals. So sad.

December is a slower month at work, which was greatly appreciated. I've been run ragged since July at work and it was nice to have some breathing time again. I actually went to my work Christmas Party this year and it was fun. I actually have a great group of co-workers (for the most part) and it was good to see some of them that work in different offices and that I hadn't seen in awhile.

Lately this month I've been wrapping presents, reading Christmas books, watching Christmas movies and baking. LOTS of Christmas movies. Its bad...I have an addiction. I'm going to try to not be so bad next year. Today and tomorrow I will probably only watch the old stand-bys, though. By that I mean that when I was a little kid my mom would record Christmas specials on videotape and we STILL have them and watch them every year. Sure, the quality has suffered but honestly to me that adds to it. And its so funny to watch some of the commercials and see the weather alerts and how the people have changed over the years. I mean, we're talking about watching something that was recorded in 1986 and seeing that it was 14 degrees out and the weatherman was sooo much younger looking. I have some newer ones I like to watch every year, too, like The Santa Claus, Christmas with the Kranks, This Christmas, Elf, etc., but those old ones are priceless.

The weather here has been fluctuating. One day its 50 or 60 degrees and then the next its 40 or 20. Just a little bit of snow so far, but it didn't stick. We had a big wind storm the other day and that was intense (good-bye outdoor decorations). We have snow in the forecast for Christmas night/the day after (go figure). 

Well anyway, here are some photos of goodies I have been making:

Getting ready to make candy sleighs for my co-workers (found the instructions at this great blog here)

Sleigh part constructed:

And voila! So pretty and cute and well-received! And so fun and easy to make!

Chocolate truffles:

One of my specialties, Pumpkin Roll:

My other specialty, Chocolate mints:

Chocolate-dipped pretzels: