Awesome things about the Christmas season

First of all, I feel the need to say that I am writing this post in a kicking and screaming sort of way. I've been feeling especially scroog-y and bah humbug-ish since before Thanksgiving. In an effort to not let my attitude rub off onto my kids, I truly made an effort pretty much every day to spread Christmas cheer to those around me, even though I wasn't feeling it myself in even a tiny amount. I really credit my mission of finding something each day to find joy in for getting me through the past month. Each time I wanted to go curl up somewhere and pull a blanket over my head, I would remind myself to "dance in the rain."

Now, I will briefly write about the things that were awesome about the past few weeks. Things that really did help pull me out of my grinchy mood (have I now covered all the Christmas fun suckers?)

I've already shared pictures of much of our baking. We baked A LOT. Many batches of pretzel/hershey kiss/M&M bites, cookies, toffee, peppermint bark and puppy chow. Homemade rolls and breakfast casseroles and cheesecake. Oh my. While it was all awesome, I'm afraid to put myself on the scale. Much of what we made we gave away, but we ate way too much of it, too. Time to put away the pile of clothes that seems to be a permanent fixture on my treadmill and actually USE it for something other than a dust and clothing collector.

I've also already shared pictures of the girls and I making fuzzy sock cupcakes, but I have to once again post this rare picture of sisters having fun together. Lauren is usually too cool to have her picture taken with her sister, and I love this one. It's awesome.




My kids were really awesome at Christmas. None of them really asked for much of anything. Well, except Rachel. I could have easily spent my entire Christmas budget on her alone. But, we managed to get some gifts that they all just loved, and it was easy to see that they were truly grateful and excited for what we got them. I sat here on Christmas morning in the midst of all the wrapping paper and boxes and realized that one of the biggest gifts from the past two difficult years is that our children are truly grateful for what they have. I know there must be things they wish they had, but it is nice to know that they appreciate what they DO have. It was kind of a pain buying gifts for them this year since no one would tell me what they wanted, so we were able to pull off a few surprises, which was a lot of fun.


I didn't make the big Christmas Eve dinner that I usually make because we were getting up early the next morning to drive to Illinois to spend Christmas with Tony's family. The kids always love having a big breakfast on Christmas morning, too, and I wanted to get it all prepared and put in the fridge. I also still had most of my gifts to wrap. So, in light of all that, I didn't want to do the whole turkey feast. I did make a nice dinner, but I thought it would be fun to decorate the table all fancy so that it would make our shredded beef sandwiches and homemade mac and cheese seem a bit more festive. I had a blast doing that, and I made Tony and the kids stay in the family room watching a movie (in the dark I might add!)while I decorated the dining room as a surprise. They loved it, and here are a few pictures:








Okay, so that was more than a few. I just really had fun doing this. And the best part is I spent NO money. I took a few ornaments from my tree...some glassware from my china cabinet, a piece of greenery from a box in the basement, some misc. glittery things that I don't even remember why I bought, and a strand of white lights that half the strand was burned out. And of course, my Christmas dishes. I'm kind of sad to put them away.


Christmas Eve in general was awesome. It was snowy, and I still had a few quick things to run out and do in the morning, but I was home by 11. Tony had other things to do, so he was gone most of the day. I turned off the tv, cranked up the Christmas CD's, Rachel and I baked some cookies, I drank peppermint coffee and prepared dinner, all while watching the snow fall peacefully.

Christmas morning was awesome. I was awake at 3, and the snow was still lightly falling. I watched a cute movie on tv called The Accidental Christmas, and at 5:30, I decided to go outside and take some pictures of the lights in the snow. It was so pretty that for a moment, I actually liked snow. That rarely happens. But how could I not think that this was pretty?




As I walked around my front yard wearing pajamas and Rachel's boots, I was praying that no one would drive by and wonder what that crazy lady was doing out in the snow before dawn on Christmas morning in her pjs.


We spent Christmas with Tony's family for the first time ever. We usually spend Thanksgiving with them, but not Christmas. It was especially awesome because Tony's brother and sister from Omaha were there, and I haven't seen them in many years. Tony's sister and I used to be pretty close when we lived there. She is 12 years older than me, and for a long time was like an older, wiser sister who kind of took me under her wing when Tony and I were newly married and I was so far away from my own family.

Here's a picture: (Tony's sister is the one next to me on the far right):




Here's a picture of Tony's brother from Omaha. Lauren challenged him to a game of horse, so the day after Christmas, they all went to the Y, and Lauren won $20 from him. He says he let her win, but I doubt it.




I met his new wife for the first time, and she is awesome. We had a lot of fun cooking together and hanging out watching movies with Tony's sister. In the photo above, she is the one kneeling on the floor.

These past few days since Christmas have been pretty awesome too, even though Lauren was sick, and now I am sick. (Have I said "awesome" so many times that you are wishing someone would have given me a thesaurus for Christmas?)

While I have had the usual housecleaning and laundry to do, they have also been lovely days of:

Lots of coffee and hot chocolate and hot tea drinking




movie watching(sorry, no pictures of that)

knitting



That isn't as ugly as it looks in that picture. For some reason, I could NOT get a good picture that shows off this really soft fuzzy yarn. It's my first ever project that isn't a rectangle or a square. It is actually about 1/3 of a huge shawl scarf. I've made so many mistakes that it's not even funny, and if I'm lucky, I will have it finished by July.


And of course, reading




I'm going to have a hard time going back to work on Monday. I have thoroughly enjoyed being home. My house is clean. Laundry is semi sort of caught up. My house smells good from all the baking. And I am wishing that I could hibernate for the winter.

You may or may not have noticed that I said "awesome" in this post about 399 times. Well, if you read this blog, get used to that word! Beginning on Saturday, I'm going to try something new here. Every day (well, hopefully every day anyway, I may miss a few here and there) I am going to try to write one thing that was awesome about the day. I won't be writing these loooonnngggg posts every day, thank goodness, right? But, I am going to try to consciously be aware of finding at least one wonderful, awesome thing every day. Make me stick to it, okay?

Crafting and Cooking at the Carlson Crib...Part 2

Yes, I really am on my computer writing at 6 am. Actually, I was on the computer writing at 5 am. But then Tony and Justin got up because they are running in a race, and I didn't want Tony to see me on the computer so early in the morning and think I need an intervention. Insomnia sucks! The sky is still dark, and I've already watched a movie, thrown a load of clothes in the dryer, eaten a piece of apple pie, and cleaned up dog puke. (Not in that order). Yesterday was full of creating and today may be full of napping.

I think I may have cured Rachel of her "I want to make something today" for quite a while. I'm sure you all (all 3 of you who read my blog!) are dying with anticipation to know what we did yesterday with that hodge podge of stuff. Well, I'll stop leaving you in suspense. :-) Before I show the finished products, I have to show the process. I had to take pictures of it all since Lauren is usually not into girly things like crafting, and she had a blast.




She doesn't much look like she's having a blast, does she? But trust me, she was. She did ask me though to please not post the pictures on Facebook. I guess she doesn't want to ruin her image.
Here's Rachel:



And now...TA DA! Here is what they made:



How cute are those? I wish I could take credit for being the creative soul who came up with that idea, but I cannot. I saw it on a blog last week, and knew it was the perfect thing for the girls to make as Christmas gifts for their friends. They both have too many friends they want to exchange gifts with, and I was starting to panic and wonder how I was going to fit that into our Christmas budget. I do have to brag a bit and say these are the cheapest gifts ever. I found the socks for $2, and the paper is left over from my scrapbooking days. So we made 8 gifts for $16. Most everyone who knows me knows how thrifty (cheap!) I am, so this was right up my alley. They will also be giving their friends some homemade treats along with the socks.

Onto the next thing. Although this one so far is on the fail list. I am trying to come up with a plan B for this project. First some more pictures:













That pictorial should have ended with a stack of cute little plastic containers of cherry lemonade lipgloss. But it didn't. The little plastic containers sit empty because the recipe I found online for homemade lipgloss flavored with Kool Aid didn't quite turn out. In fact, the flavoring part of the lipgloss settled into a rock hard clump at the bottom of that Christmas bowl, leaving a layer of pink tinted Vaseline sitting on top. And it doesn't taste anything like cherry lemonade. Trust me. I tasted it. Blech. So all the chopping of lipstick...the microwaving of Vaseline that overflowed making a pink slimy mess was for nothing. So I will either give up on the homemade lipgloss or find a way to make it work. I hope I find a way to make it work. Stay tuned.

And the projects weren't finished. Oh no. We moved onto a much more foolproof one after the lipgloss mess.





Finally, we made peppermint bark.

Whew.

One last picture, which made the whole day of messes totally worth it:


Moments like these don't happen often with these two, and it was the best part of the day.

I do have one more picture to share:



Eight years ago, I started collecting angel Christmas ornaments. I haven't bought one for the past two years because because I just couldn't find one that "spoke" to me. This week, I found one. I was at Michaels, not even looking for ornaments, and this angel was hanging all by itself, and I had to have it. That picture doesn't do it justice, but when the lights on the tree are turned on, it looks like sparkling ice, and I love it.

Ready for some crafting and cooking at the Carlson crib

We are armed and dangerous...check back later to see what all of this will end up turning into:

I'm being a copy cat and writing this post based on a topic I read on another blog this morning. It started out with this:

There is an ancient Native American story about an old Cherokee who told his grandson about the battle that goes on within us. "My son," he told him, "Inside every one of us dwells two wolves, one evil, one good. The evil one is angry and jealous, full of regret and arrogance, greed and sorrow, guilt and self-pity. The other is good. He is kind and loving, full of hope and peace, joy and compassion."

The young boy thought about it for a moment. "Which wolf wins?" he asked his grandfather.

The old Cherokee smiled and simply replied, "...the one you feed."

Wow.

I've been thinking about this all day. And I came to the realization that I have definately been feeding my evil, self-pitying wolf lately. Although I do feel the need to clarify that he/she is not greedy or jealous!

Life is just not easy for me these days, no matter how much I try to pretend that it is and do my daily 'dance in the rain.' I haven't written much lately, I know. And it's not because I haven't done anything worthy of writing about because I have. But, I've been in such a bad place lately that I feel sort of fake I guess coming here and writing about whatever is good. Not sure why, I feel that way, but I do. I am still making the effort to write things that I am grateful for at the end of each day, but I know that I have spent way too much time dwelling on all that is wrong in my world. In other words, I guess I have been feeding the hungry, evil wolf and starving the wolf that is full of hope, peace and joy. He's probably all shriveled up and emaciated by now.

I always get a bit depressed this time of year, and it is always challenging for me to be holly jolly and in the Christmas spirit. The holidays are always a little tough for me for several reasons, but the biggest one is that my beloved Great Aunt Mary died right after Christmas nearly 9 years ago, and Christmas just hasn't been the same since. She was like a little kid at Christmastime. She received well over 100 cards each year, and she left them out all the time in a basket on an end table in her living room. She only put them away when the current year's cards began arriving. One Christmas, a friend gave her a Christmas wreath with a Cardinal on it, and it hung on the outside of her apartment door for several years, even when it wasn't Christmas. I could go on and on with stories of her.

I'll not ever forget her last Christmas. In her card to us that year, she wrote that all she wanted for Christmas was to spend it with us. She lived 3 hours away, and on Christmas Eve, the day we had planned on heading to my parents for the holidays, we were hit with a blizzard-like storm and so we weren't able to go. I know she was disappointed, but she also said that she felt better knowing we were safe at home and not out on the roads in bad weather. A week later, she went into the hospital for something minor and she died 2 days later. She was 90, and I know she lived a good long life, but I was not ready to let her go. I guess no one is ever really ready to let their loved ones go.

So, even in a good year, the holiday season is hard for me because I can't help but remember so many of my wonderful memories of someone who I was closer to than my own mother. And this year has been less than a good year. Yeah, I know things could be so much worse, and I am so very grateful for the way we have handled all that has happened. I tell myself this every single day.

So back to those 2 wolves...tonight, I decided to feed the nice wolf some chicken pot pie and a glass of wine for dinner! Surely making my dearest friend's yummy pot pie recipe and eating it from a Christmas plate will be enough to strengthen my neglected good wolf, right?






Things I am thankful for right now:

*First and foremost, I am so grateful that the nasty stomach bug that attacked Lauren Monday night has stayed away from our house and not infected anyone else.

*I am grateful that even though this year has been tough, we will still be able to give our kids a wonderful Christmas.

*I am grateful that I am raising 4 children who aren't greedy and into all the "status" things that many teenagers are.

*I am grateful for my boss who is treating us all to a Christmas concert Saturday night.

*I am grateful for my children who cleaned up the mess that was my kitchen after I made pot pie.



Oh, and just in case you are interested in the blog I am referring to, here is a link:

http://www.kellehampton.com/

It's called Enjoying the Small Things. I stumbled across it last winter, and it is one blog that I always check several times a week. I love/hate her. She is a great writer, and an even greater photographer. And she lives in Southern Florida. As it those aren't enough reasons to hate her, her family owns a vacation home in a lovely sounding place called Isle of Capri.

Okay, I will stop before I end up feeding my inner jealous, nasty wolf.

Decking the Halls...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...'tis the season to be jolly...falalala la la la...and all that.

I've been spending a lot of time the past few days wondering what I should write about. I have tossed a few ideas around, but they haven't amounted to anything. I just can't seem to be inspired to write. Maybe because I've spent the last three days cleaning and decorating and doing laundry. I guess I can't be creative and orderly at the same time. Those two things must use different areas of the brain.

So, I will write about my Christmas decorating, boring as that will most likely be.

I love decorating for Christmas. I don't do anything as elaborate as I used to, mainly because I don't have the time. It used to be a week long all day production fancying up nearly every room of my house for the holidays. The first year after I started working, I spent so much time with my usual decorating that I didn't even have time to enjoy it all before Christmas was over and it was time to pack it all away again. So over the past years, I have drastically scaled back what I decorate so that I can finish most of it over Thanksgiving weekend. Each year, I ask the kids what they think are the most important decorating tasks, and that's what I do.

Of course, we put up the tree.Tony and I have vastly different ideas as to how to decorate the tree: He likes the big, old fashioned colored bulbs, and I like tiny little white lights. For many years, he insisted that our tree had to have colorful lights, so we compromised and used the tiny colored lights because I refused to put those gigantic bulbs on my Christmas tree. Finally, about 10 years ago, I decided, hey, why should HE always get to have what he wants on the tree, and I don't? So I told him we would trade off...one year our tree would be decked out in all the colors of the rainbow, the next year, the lights would be clear. But for some reason, for the past two years, our tree has been decked out in colored lights. The other day, without me even saying anything, he put on the clear lights. I've been playing around with my camera and trying to get some good "light" pictures, and this is the best I can do:




The other 2 things the kids always want me to do is decorate our staircase:




and decorate outside. We put wreaths with red bows on all the windows and wrap the porch railings in greenery and red bows. I am also in charge of the lights outside. I usually decorate with all white, red and green, but yesterday, I discovered that only one strand of my 15 strands of red lights worked, and only a few of my green strands worked. Probably because when Tony took them down after last Christmas, he just piled them all in a Rubbermaid tub and they were a tangled mess. By the time I untangled them, they didn't work. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of that mess. :( I didn't want to spend money on new lights, so after being rather pissy with my husband all afternoon, I decided to simply make do with what I had. Which was you guessed it...all-colorful. While Tony and the kids were gone last night, I lit up the outside, and the kids all love it. I admit, it turned out pretty nice, even though it's not how I usually do things. The kids love it, so I guess that's all that really matters, right?



I experimented with the night settings on my camera again...check out this cool shot! The lights look like music notes. Not sure how I achieved that look...



In addition to those few things the kids insist I decorate, I also do several other smaller things around the house.

My dining room table:




I know this is pretty boring, but...I only show it because the bright green crocheted cloth on the table was made for me many years ago by my Great Aunt Mary. I love it and always look forward to getting it out at Christmastime.

Also in the dining room:




The table by the front door:





The cloth on the table was also made by my Aunt Mary, although she didn't make it for me...it is older than I am. Again, I love it and look forward to getting it out every year. My Aunt Mary absolutely loved Christmas, so while I sadly miss spending Christmas with her, I feel she is with me in a small way.

Finally, one of my very favorite things about Christmas...my Christmas dishes. When Justin was a baby, my mom started buying me a 4-plate collection of Pfaltzgraph Holly Berry dessert plates. Each set had 4 plates, each depicting one of the "days of Christmas." After the first three years, once I had all of the 12 days of Christmas plates, she gave me other pieces...glasses, a serving plate, then, she gave me gift cards to Famous Barr...now Macy's, and I purchased a plate, dessert cups, and a candy dish. Every year, I wanted to buy the actual dishes that we could eat off of, but I never did. Then a few years ago, I was given a gift certificate to Macy's by my boss, and on Christmas Eve, I saw that Macy's had a set of 4 place settings on sale for really cheap. And my gift card was enough to buy two of them...so I now have 8 place settings. And I use them. I unpack them Thanksgiving weekend, run them through the dishwasher, and we eat dinner on them each night. And an added bonus...I am forced to clean out a cabinet in order to make room for them.

I'd show a picture, but my kids were making fun of me already for the things I have been taking pictures of. Taking pictures of dishes might be too much and they might go to Facebook and write about what a weirdo I am.

Besides just decorating this weekend, Rachel and I found a recipe to make homemade lipgloss. She is so excited to make it for her friends for Christmas. We also went through cookbooks and decided what Christmasy treats we are going to make. I love that one of my kids wants to cook and bake with me. I think I've created a cooking monster though, because she asks me pretty much every day what we are going to make.

Okay, ending this with what I am thankful for:

I am thankful that we got to spend Thanksgiving with Tony's family, who we don't see nearly often enough.

This should be the first thing on my list...I am oh so thankful that Justin got a JOB! His first one. He is going to a Little Caesar's guy...standing out on the sidewalk in front of Little Caesars in a silly costume waving at people. He is excited!

I am thankful that after the tough year that we have had that I was able to spend the weekend "decking the halls" and putting smiles on my kids faces.

I am thankful that on this Sunday night, my house is clean and laundry is caught up.

I am thankful that both Tony and I have a job to go to tomorrow.

And finally, I am thankful that my kids, who know how tough times have been for us lately and don't often get many of the material things they want, are still able to be excited by a Christmas decorated house. Their joy in something so simple truly brings peace to my heart.

My new obsessions

First of all, I know I haven't written for awhile. I just haven't had the time. It seems like every day, I think of something I could come here and write, but life has been crazy and I fall onto the couch or my bed each night in a zombie-like state, barely even able to think a coherent thought, much less write one. I felt like such an idiot a couple of days ago...on Thursday morning, Justin asked me about something that he said we had talked about the night before, and I didn't remember it. Not one little nugget of the conversation. He rolled his eyes, looked at me like I was an alien, and said "Mmmmm-ooo-mmm!!! You were on the couch watching Survivor and I said (blah blah blah) and you said (blah blah blah). You don't remember that???" No I didn't remember that. I told him that if it's dark and he sees me on the couch, he can pretty much count on me not remembering something we talk about, because by the time I am on the couch, I am done.

Sooooo...all that to say that I have been tired. Too tired to write, and that rarely happens.

But, I have once again been 'nagged' to write here. Thankfully. So I am writing. This post is going to be about a couple of different random things.

I titled this my new obsessions and I will tell you why.

First of all, I have written here before about watching sunrises from my kitchen window. And wow, there have been some incredible ones lately. I have taken lots of pictures of them, and every time I do, I wonder if any of my neighbors see me on my deck with a camera pointed at what seems to be their house and wonder what the heck I am doing. But, I can't stop. Every day, I now find myself looking to see what the sunrise looks like rather than randomly glancing out the window and noticing it. Somedays, it's cloudy and I can't even see the sun, but on other days, I am privileged to witness this:









As I watched this sunrise last Thursday morning I wondered to myself what better way can there be to start a day than watching such beauty unfold from your kitchen window?

I am also becoming obsessed with sunsets. I watch sunrises from my kitchen window, and sunsets from my front porch. Yesterday evening, Rachel was outside with a few of her friends, and she had my cell phone. I went out on the porch to ask her to give it back to me, and as I walked out the front door, I stopped in my tracks. These pictures are not even close to how beautiful the sunset was, but here they are anyway:





Of course, I'd much rather be watching a sunset with my toes buried in some warm sand, but since this blog is about appreciating what I have...I am appreciating what I have.

Now, onto my second new obsession. Just as pretty, but better because it's edible!



Those are homemade marshmallows, and oh my...that's all I can really say...OH MY!

I've made them twice now. The first batch never even made it out of the pan, cut into cubes and rolled into powedered sugar because the kids and Tony kept digging them out of the pan and eating them with a fork. Of course I didn't do that...oh no, not me! But by the next day, they were gone. This week I made them again, and they were even better the second time. And I did manage cut them into chunks and coat them with sugar...and I also managed to have several cups of hot chocolate with 2 of these yummy confections floating on top.

Just in case you're not totally sick of reading about marshmallows, I will go on some more about them.

I think it's no secret that I love to cook and bake. I have my tried and true simple stuff, and also some not so simple stuff that I like to dig my hands into. Sometimes, I want to make something that makes a big mess and requires lots of chopping, etc. Sometimes, I have the urge to make something I've never made before, just to try it for fun. A few years ago, I made homemade chocolate cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting. I'd made plenty of cakes from a box, and I'd made homemade frosting only once or twice, when I made my grandmother's carrot cake. Sometimes, while these "experiments" turn out great, I end up realizing that it was more trouble than it is worth. Like the chocolate cupcakes. They were good, but didn't taste a whole lot different than Duncan Hines.

However, sometimes, I hit upon something that the homemade version is so much better than the not homemade version, that I have a hard time using the not homemade version any more. For instance, homemade frosting. I don't think I've used canned frosting since that first time I made buttercream. Homemade frosting is so easy, and so much tastier than the canned stuff. I used to always make sure I had a good supply of frosting in my pantry, and now, I make sure I always have ingredients on hand for homemade.

I think homemade marshmallows may be one of those things that turn me into a homemade food snob. Not really, but really...they are that good. They aren't hard to make at all, just a bit time consuming and messy. Very messy. But worth the time and the mess. Thankfully, one batch makes a ton of marshmallows. I can't wait to try them out on 'smores. Maybe tonight I will make a fire and we'll try it out.

Onto the next random thing...my co worker Megan gave me a new winter coat! Well, not new, but gently used. I love it! I have always admired this coat of hers, and she brought it to work the other day, telling me that she was tired of it as she'd had it for several years, she bought a new coat and was going to donate it to Goodwill. But then she remembered how much I have always liked it, so she decided to give it me instead. Is this me or is this me???




And that fun, twisty scarf I wrote about a few weeks ago? I'm almost finished with it! I have only about half a skein of yarn left to go. I love how it turned out, and it looks so cute with that pink coat.

Gosh, between homemade marshmallows and a fun coat, I might actually be looking forward to winter!

(Did I really just say that???)

Finally, I've had some proud mom moments lately. Lauren tried out for the high school basketball team last week, and after some setbacks and disappointments, she made the freshman team rather than the JV team. She was hoping to make JV, and she is definately good enough to make JV, but she didn't for several reasons. It has been a bit hard for her because two girls that she has played with on other teams for years did make the JV team. I know it has to sting, but she is handling herself and the situation so well, truly making the best of it, and I am so proud of her.

Weeks ago, I said that everytime I posted here I was going to write out a list of all the things I am thankful for that day, and I haven't done that. So that's how I'm going to end today's post.

I am thankful that my husband is home after a looonnnnggg week of being out of town.

I am thankful that so far, we have had some beautiful weather that hasn't been too cold yet.

I am thankful for the awesome friends that my kids have whose parents treat them like family.

I am thankful that we are going to be able to spend Thanksgiving with Tony's family this year.

I am thankful that my work load has lightened a bit.

I am thankful that while the past months (heck, the past 2 years!) have been hard on our family, we are hanging in there and doing the best we can

I started off this day in pity party mode. No, I'm not going to write why because it's dumb and not important.

Remember my flowers from a few weeks ago? Last night, they still looked great. Rachel even said something to me that they were still pretty after such a long time. This morning, not so much, and they look like this now:




Which was perfect for how I was feeling this morning. A bit, or more than a bit, wilted. I should have known it was coming...the past weeks and months have been so full and busy and crazy, and with a few days of down time now, and nothing huge and pressing looming on the horizon, I guess you could say I sort of "crashed." I have been doing my very best to not be whiny and stay positive and that all almost went out the proverbial window this morning, and I wanted to curl up in bed and waste the day away. Thank goodness I don't have that heavenly bed that I posted about yesterday or I would have done just that.

Anyway, I'm not going to go into all that because that would totally defeat the purpose of this blog.

Instead of curling up and wallowing, I made homemade marshmallows. I have always wanted to do that but was sort of chicken about it. Yesterday, I made a batch of hot chocolate mix, and I thought today would be a good day to try out the marshmallow recipe. I have no idea how they turned out because the pan has to sit for 12 hours before you cut them, but I am hoping that this mess:



is worth it.

I am in LOVE

Of all the sights and experiences I had in Washington DC, at the top of the best of the best list...

The bed at the hotel.

OMG...I didn't want to get out of it. The sheets were so so soft...probably a million thread count. Or at least a higher thread count than the sheets I normally sleep on. There was a down pillow top on the mattress...layers of sheets and sandwiched in between the sheets, a thin down blanket...topping it all, a puffy down comforter.

And the pillows. OH. MY. The pillows...piles of the best pillows. That I didn't have to share with anyone.

We turned the a/c down in the room so we could really burrow under all that beautiful bedding and not sweat our butts off.

Forget the sights of DC...I could have happily spent my days languishing in that bed.

Oh, and the best part?? It was all white! I dream of someday having a bed piled with white sheets blankets comforters and pillows. Obviously, that's not going to happen anytime soon considering I have 4 kids and a black beast of a dog that sneaks onto my bed every time I'm not looking. And every time my husband lets him.

But back to that bed.

I want it. All of it. Apparently, I am not the only one either. There was a mini catalog in the room...and in the catalog was all the bedding for sale. For $3500, you can purchase the whole shebang...mattress, box springs, all the bedding, and pillows. It's a good thing I don't have a spare $3500, or it would be MINE. LOL

I haven't bought new sheets or a new bedspread in years. And my pillows...eh. Walmart pillows are no comparison. I have never given much thought to my bed before. But now...

Here's a picture:



I wonder if I can possibly convince my husband that all of my sleep issues would magically disappear if only I had this bed!