Cedar Fever?!!

I can't believe I'm sick again :-(  but I think this time it is just allergies. Cedar Fever has started in Austin, for those who don't know about it it's when the Cedar trees here start to pollenate.

From December through February, many people experience an itchy, runny nose, sneezing, nasal blockage, excess tearing and itchy eyes. Others complain of itching of the palate, throat, or ears, and postnasal drainage. Some have fatigue, mild headache, facial discomfort, sore throat, partial loss of sense of smell, and sensation of ear plugging. If you experience the above symptoms every year during these months, the chance is great that you have Mountain Cedar allergy.

I have ALL of those symptoms :-(

I hardly slept last night, my throat was so sore. My nose and head are stuffy, I'm congested again and just feel really run down. I hope it's short lived. Kristen usually suffers a lot with cedar allergies but so far she seems ok this season, although she did mention her throat was a little sore this morning too!  

I didn't get to the gym yesterday because I wanted to get a lot of the Christmas stuff put away and now today I will probably have to skip going because I just feel so crappy! And I still haven't finished putting all the decorations away. It seems never ending! I will be trying to do that today despite how yucky I feel.

A couple of weeks ago I bought two new Santas at Kohl's but I didn't get to show them to you, here they are (before they get put away for another year). . .

  

Of course they were on sale :-) Originally $43 each, with a whopping 70% off!!!! I'll do the math for you, that was just over $13 each!!!

When things don't go as planned . . .

It is a little yearly tradition of ours to decorate a gingerbread house after school breaks up for the holidays. Yesterday was our last day of school (for two WHOLE weeks :-), so today we got out our gingerbread house. It's usually just a bought one, I have yet to take the time to try and make my very own and glue it all together with icing. I don't even buy the house that you have to glue together, the one I get is already assembled and we just have to stick the candy to it.

I also make a little extra icing, so I got started doing that, and Kristen opened all the candy packets. THEN, we took the house out of the box . . .

 

This is the first time this has ever happened to us. At first I was going to just put it back in the box and take it back to Target (it was still in cellophane at this point but we could obviously see it was all broken. Then I realized Kristen had opened all the candy that came with it! So, I thought I would try to glue the pieces together, yeah, urmmm that idea lasted about 5 seconds. I glued one piece together with the icing I had made, but there were too many broken pieces, I really didn't feel like messing with it all.  What to do?

Ahh, yes, let's make sugar cookies instead :-)

and decorate them with the icing and candy we had from the gingerbread house!

and while we're at it, why not decorate ourselves - to look like Rudolph !!

So, our afternoon wasn't a total disaster. In fact we've had a great time, the Christmas music is playing, and I've now got Chex Mix baking in the oven. The kitchen smells delicious.

And yes, that is the same Santa Hat Kristen is wearing in the top 'header' picture when she was just 1 year old!

Getting there . . .

I got a lot of decorating done yesterday and am making good progress. I just really need to put away the boxes (back in the garage) and clear up around here some! I do think I need some stuff to decorate the kitchen, it's rather bare. So sometime this week I'll make a trip to Hobby Lobby ;-) I was going to go this morning after the gym, but decided to come straight home and get caught up on laundry first (I'm so behind on it because I didn't do much over the Thanksgiving week).

I did snap a few photos last night of my 'work in progress' - wanna see?

I love these Santa figures. I'm trying to collect one every year, usually I wait til after Christmas and try to get one in the sales, but I might buy one early this year (using the $$ my Mam sent me for my birthday) :-)

This guys is what started off my 'collection (I only have about 5). It's a Boyds Bear Santa. Jason bought me this quite a few years ago, I think before Kristen was even born! 

I love that he has 'real' eyelashes ( you might be able to see better if you click on the pic to enlarge)

ha ha, this Santa is perfect for me - right? ;-) I bought him last year at Kohls. 

 this is the tree in the dining room. I've only added this the past two Christmas's when I realized I was the only one in the cul-de-sac that didn't have a tree in their window! Last year it was decorated with all my little Boyds Bears and any other bear Kristen could find to add to it! This year I've added the doggy ornaments that were up on the game room tree, because the game room tree is different (I'll show pics of that next time). 

 The dining room table is a work in progress. I like the burlap table runner that I got earlier this year, it's so versatile. It looked great at Thanksgiving (even though I didn't host it, I still set my table! but now I can't find the picture I took of it!! I seriously need to organize my picture folders better). And I like the big poinsettias added to the napkins. 

another Boyds 'Angel' Bear on the stairs

the living room tree is up and the mantel decorated, although I will add fresh greenery like I did last year, once Lowes starts getting in their Christmas trees. They probably have them already, I just haven't been up there yet. 

All that's left to do is PUT ALL THESE BOXES BACK IN THE GARAGE!!!!!

Well, that and buy some fun stuff for the kitchen. Once I've finished everything I'll take you on a tour of the house :-)  How's your decorating going? I haven't even made a start on the outside yet!!

Busy Monday!

Hi everyone, thought I'd make just a quick post today. I'm up to my eyes in Christmas decorations! Now I really do wish I'd started a week ago, and it would all have been done by now!!!  I started getting boxes out on Friday but I'm finding a lot of lights not working this year which is slowing progress down! I've had to go to Target twice for new lights, and I still think I need one last box today. I won't even go in to the details, I'm sure I'm not the only one with lights out on a prelit Christmas tree!!

Someone asked to see my desserts from Thanksgiving, so here they are. The pecan cheesecake pie turned out really well and it got great reviews from hubs and mom-in-law, but I still prefer my pumpkin roll ;-)

and despite my good intentions of taking lots of photos, all I got was the table and one of Kristen, wearing her new furry jacket!!

Here's my stairs all decorated . . .

I've used the deco mesh for the first time this year, and I'm happy to say it was easier to use than I thought. I'll show more pictures once I do the whole house.