catching up

Good morning! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, we certainly did. It's been a while since I posted so I thought it was time for an update.

I am sitting here in my office with my blinds opened so I can watch it snow, we aren't expecting any accumulation but the flakes are big and fluffy so it is pretty to look at. Each year on Thanksgiving night I drag my Christmas tree out and put it up but this year I haven't done that yet, I am thinking about doing it Friday night and making an evening out of it with the kids.

Did any of you go shopping on Black Friday? I never do because I am not willing to risk my hide over material things around a bunch of "my kids gotta have it first" lunatics. Here in our local Wal*Mart there was a fight between two women over an item, one of them went to jail and let me tell you that is the Christmas spirit! I don't see a point in fighting over things that are supposed to be gifts for your loved ones, I mean this is the season of giving but at what extent? Just be the bigger person and let them buy it, a better deal will probably come along for you anyway. I love all of my people but I refuse to be arrested over a gift, to me that takes away the meaning. Some people get off on that kind of thing though and they think fighting over an item or getting arrested makes the item mean more.

At church we are preparing for our Christmas play, this year the smaller children are doing the play and I am so excited to see the finished production. All three of my kids and myself are taking part in this play, Ty will be Joseph, Bethany will be an angel, Chesney will be singing "O Holy Night" with a sweet six year old who has the singing voice of an adult, and I will be singing lead in "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem" and the entire cast will join me after a few lines. I am excited because the lines the kids have to remember are very simple and short, Chesney and I have no lines to remember thank goodness.

I have talked about how I love to cook in previous posts and about my habit of watching the Food Network Channel, this time of year is my favorite time to watch the FNC because you can get all kinds of ideas to change up regular recipes. This year for Thanksgiving I took Tyler Florence's idea for awesome mashed potatoes. You use Yukon Gold potatoes and boil them in 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of heavy cream, a bay leaf, and extra virgin olive oil.....oh my goodness they are delicious. Tyler also added a clove of garlic to the milk and cream then when he mixed them he added spicey grained mustard, I didn't use the garlic or spicey grained mustard because my mom doesn't like garlic. When you drain the potatoes you keep the milk and cream mixture to mix your potatoes with, you will have extra liquid left over and you keep that to freshen the dish up if you have people coming in and out throughout the day if you are serving them for a Thanksgiving meal or some type of meal where people will be in and out at different times of day, they are absolutely delicious. If you would like to try the recipe then click on Tyler's name and I have it linked.

I guess I am going to sign off now and finish up everything I have to do this morning. Y'all have a beautiful day and be careful out there for those of you who live in areas experiencing winter weather conditions.