I’m always a little envious of people who talk about New Year’s Eve parties and the like, because I inevitably bring in it the same way every year–I sleep through it. :-)  Yes, I am a party animal.  I’m sorry, y’all, but if I’m up at midnight then it’s because I don’t have a choice.  I’m either working or sick or taking care of someone who is sick. etc…You get the idea.  I only have so many hours of “go” during the day and when that time is used up, then I go to bed and go to sleep.

What about y’all?  How did you bring in 2012?  Have you set any goals, made resolutions?  Anything you’re looking forward to in this new year?

1.) What is your favorite thing about the holidays?  (For me, it’s giving gifts and time spent with family.)

2.) Who is the most difficult person you have to buy for? (My Dad!  If he wants something, he buys it.  Makes finding something he can use or will want a real challenge.  Guess what, Daddy?  You’re getting a gift card this year and a new picture of the grandchildren.)

3.) How much weight do you typically gain over the holiday?  (*plugs ears, sings “la la LA LA LAAAA”*)

4.) If you celebrate Christmas, do you use a live or artificial tree? (Live!  We go to a local tree farm every year, track over acres of ground, argue over which is the best tree, drink hot apple cider while the tree is being cut, shaped, leveled and netted, then ridicule said tree the moment we get it home so that the person who actually found it wishes they’d kept their mouth shut.  This year it was me.  Good times.  Can’t wait til next year.)

5.) What’s your favorite holiday recipe? (The cheese ball!  Two blocks of cream cheese, one small container of canned ham and a packet of dry ranch dressing.  Mix it all up until it’s really combined, wad it into a ball and roll it in chopped pecans.  It’s simple, but AWESOME.  Yes, Brenda, another cream cheese recipe.

6.) Favorite holiday movie? (Not traditional, but still my favorite–Love, Actually.  I *adore* that movie.)

7.) Favorite tradition? (Breakfast casserole and hot chocolate while the kids open their presents.  It’s just our little family and my sweet mother-in-law, who always spends the night with us on Christmas Eve.  Have I ever mentioned that I have The Best Mother-In-Law in the World?  Because I do.  She’s simply dear.)

Your turn.

December, otherwise known as the month my diet goes to hell. It’s happened, y’all.  The urge to bake and try new recipes has hit with a vengeance. 

To make matters worse, I’ve discovered Pinterest and between the home decor, craft and baking tabs, I’m in heaven.  Did you know that you could make a cool bird feeder out of a slinky and a coat hanger?  Neither did I!  Or that stair risers can be painted like the spines of classic books and add a whole new dimension to your home?  One that says something about you personally in the process?  I don’t have stairs, but wish I did just so that I could paint them.  I also found a wreath made out of nothing but round Christmas ornaments and an old wire coat hanger–useful things, those–and I’m on the lookout for the perfect ornaments so that I can try it as well.

 So far I’ve only made these little Santa hats out of brownie bites, white icing and strawberries, but they’re adorable and tasty.  Aren’t they cute?

 What about y’all?  Any cool crafty ideas to share?  Any never fail recipes?

Do you know what I dread the most about the winter months?  It’s not the long stretches of cold, or the shorter days, or even the constant hurry of the holidays.

It’s getting my older dog, Ocho,  in from outside after he’s taken his last leak of the night on my Knock-Out rose bushes.  (Which is another post altogether.  Grrr.)  I don’t have as much trouble with him in the summer, but when the winter months roll around, for whatever reason–to torture me, I imagine–he WILL NOT come back into the house, no matter what I do, how much I beg, how many treats I offer.  He likes to run along the back fence line and bark at crickets and coyotes and whatever else he hears.  And he does it incessantly.  I know my neighbors have to hate him because their master bedroom is on the end closest to my house.

I knew that this horrible evening ritual was coming because I could tell that the beef jerky I was offering him just days earlier wasn’t working as well as it had in the past.  Because I thought he might have gotten sick of the beef jerky, I bought some new treats, with the grim hope that this would turn things around.

No.

I spent an hour trying to coax him back into the house last night.  He’d come up onto the deck, but then would bounce away–as though this were a game and I wasn’t freezing my @ss off–and dart back into the yard.  (He’s surprisngly fast for his age.)  And it’s infuriating.  He knows that my main objective is to get him back into the house, where he doesn’t want to be and, despite the fact that I’m the one who feeds, waters and cares for him, he has his own agenda.  Bark and Evade is what I’ve started calling it. 

What about you?  Do your furry friends have any annoying habits which reduce your relatively  decent vocabulary into a series of four-letter words I can’t put in print here?

I couldn’t resist!  It was on sale, half off.  A bargain!  It’s one of those trigger treats, the kind I only crave once a year and then can’t stop munching on after I’ve gotten it.  A handful here, a handful there, and then before I know it the whole bag is gone and I’m feeling slightly ill.  And not all candy corn is created equal either, in my opinion.  It has to be Brach’s.  Brach’s is moist, not chalky like some of that off-brand stuff.

What about you?  What trigger foods do you know to resist, but somehow always manages to win in the end?  (Ooo, I just remembered another one–Nutter Butters.  LOVE those.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about heroes lately and, more specifically, the kind that I’m drawn to.  In order to come to any sort of conclusion–which you will see I didn’t, lol–I asked myself who were my favorite heroes of all time.  First, of course, was Lord Dain from Loretta Chase’s LORD OF SCOUNDRELS.  He’s dark and brooding and wounded and would have been completely unredeemable without the heroine.

A very close second, which is a completely different type of hero, was Mr. Knightley from Jane Austen’s Emma.  Not to say that I don’t still adore Mr. Darcy, but ultimately Mr. Knightley is brilliant and honorable and funny, and he’s a hero throughout the story from beginning to end.  He scolds Emma for her shallowness, but he’s never truly unkind.  If you haven’t seen the BBC’s latest version of Emma starring Romola Garai (love her!!!) and Jonny Lee Miller, you definitely should.  It’s wonderful.

What about you?  Who is your favorite hero of all time?

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 I know there have been a lot of people unhappy with Netflix recently and, though I don’t like the price hikes or the Quikster/No Quikster issues, I have to say that I am still a huge fan of the service.  There is no better fix for an instant gratification junky than instant-streaming-no-interruptions-with-commericals-complete-seasons of television shows or series right at the end of your remote.  When I find something I like, I want to watch it ALL.  Right NOW.   Furthermore, Netflix offers lots of shows that have become absolute favorites that I would have never seen otherwise. 

The Duchess of Duke Street is an old show starring Gemma Jones and Christopher Casenove and it was utterly fabulous.  The thing that I particularly love about British television is that the actors aren’t perfect.  They’re not as obsessed with being skinny, tanned, botoxed and bleached to within an inch of their lives.  They look normal.  Identifiable.  The other thing that I really appreciate about British television is that they focus less on the hook of a story and more on character development.  That means the shows may be a little slower going in, but ultimately it’s really worth the wait.  With Gemma’s character, I didn’t always like her, but I always cared about her.  That’s a difficult balance.  I watched all 31 episodes of this series on my laptop.

Another series that I adored was Foyle’s War.  If you’re interested in WWII at all, this is a really, really good series starring Christopher Kitchens and Honeysuckle Weeks.  Each episode is like a movie–they’re an hour and forty minutes long.  This doesn’t stream instantly, but is available on DVD through Netflix.  My husband is really good at solving whodunits–infuriatingly so, actually–but he could not figure these out.  They’re excellent.  Foyle is a *wonderful* character.  Very understated, but brilliant.

Right now I’m on a Robin Hood kick and have been watching it at the end of the day as a treat to myself once I’ve gotten my work done.  I’d seen Richard Armitage in The Vicar of Dibley (love Dawn French–she’s my pretend BFF) and later saw him in North and South.  Humina, humina.  That voice.  Very good-looking, but even more talented.  I’d rather Lady Marian end up with Sir Guy (Richard’s character)  than Robin Hood.  Guy’s a true villian and cares for nothing…except her.  It thrills my little romantic soul.

 Other British shows I have really enjoyed are Only Fools and Horses, A Touch of Frost, The Darling Buds of May, Are You Being Served, Waiting For God, Keeping Up Appearances, anything by Masterpiece Theatre–Little Dorrit, Bleak House, Downton Abbey, all of the Jane Austen series, particularly Emma (with Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller) and many, many more, the bulk of which I would have missed if not for Netflix.

(Dark Shadows fans–every episode is now instant.  Squee!)

So what’s your TV pleasure?  What shows make your must-see list?

I adore fall.  By the time fall rolls around, I am so over summer, the miserable heat and humidity, that I am almost giddy when the cooler, crisp air comes in.  We have a large deck on the back of the house with a huge chiminea and lots of comfy chairs.  The dh and I spend many evenings by a fire and have been known to make a s’more or two. (Or three or four or five, but who’s counting?) 

Which brings me to the other thing I love about fall–the food.  Fresh baked breads and gooey casseroles, cinnamon rolls and warm soups.  It’s absolute hell on my diet, I can tell you that.  (I’ve joined a wellness center in anticipation of the fall food frenzy and am hoping that an hour on the treadmill will keep the extra pounds off.)

One of the things that my family especially likes me to make is a caramel pie, the kind made with nothing more than a can of Eagle Brand milk and a graham cracker crust.  You simply immerse a can (or two) of sweetened condensed milk into boiling water for three hours–rolling it around once in a while so that one side doesn’t cook more than the other–then take it out of the water and let it cool for a several minutes, pop open the can and pour the caramel-y goodness into the pie shell.  It’s *wonderful.*  If you’ve never tried it, you should. 

**Update**  I made this pie last night and wanted to pop back in and reiterate the whole “letting it cool” bit of instruction.  If you don’t let it cool long enough, hot caramel will spew out of the top of the can and, in my case, right onto my shirt. :[  Give it at least five to ten minutes before opening.

What about you?  Any old standby comfort foods you particularly want when the weather cools down?

Have you ever had an idea that just tickled you to death?  I had one of those recently and thought I’d share it here with you today.

My daughter turned sixteen last week and we hosted her party at our house.  She didn’t want a DJ, a dance floor or any of those things.  She wanted lots of flowers and paper lanterns and minute-to-win it games.  I made dozens of paper flowers out of silver, white and lilac paper and, while looking for the paper lanterns I discovered two things–they’re expensive and I couldn’t find any that really matched her theme.  That’s when ingenuity struck.  And when I found these.

I pulled out my clear Christmas lights and popped cupcake liners onto them.  It was ridiculously inexpensive and really, really pretty.  I strung 600 lights around the deck, put balloons and paper flowers everywhere (even made a big display and hung them from the light fixtures), but the cake (which I didn’t make) was the scene stealer.  It was lovely.

What about you?  Any great party/decorating ideas that you’re especially pleased with?

My oldest leaves for college a week from today. 

Right now there’s too much to do to focus on the fact that our nest will be one chick short this time next week–I’ve still got to get curtains, a rug, hangers, etc…–but I heartily dread the drive home without him.  He’ll only be around 4 hours away, but when I’m used to him steaming up the bathroom (he never remembers to turn on the fan) and guzzling milk from the jug in the fridge (yes, I know it’s gross) 4 hours is going to seem like a million.

I know that this will be good for him–he’s excited–and I think he’s made a really good choice when it comes to the college he’s decided to attend, it still seems incredibly surreal that this is happening.  It seems like only yesterday he was crawling across our living room floor toward a Pepsi can, taking his first steps toward the lighted Christmas tree. And now I look at him and, though I’m so, so proud of the handsome young man he’s grown into…he’s still my little boy.

*crying jag*

Sorry.  Should have known better than to choose this topic.  Anyway, for those of you who have little children/brothers/sisters/cousins/nieces and nephews as cliche as it sounds, cherish every moment.  They really do go by too fast.  And for those of you who have already sent your babies out into the cold, cruel world…any advice?