Katerbug Blue

Did you have huge storms these past few days? We did! The worst part is that it’s all melting and our window wells filled up, and flooded the basement. Not anything huge, but enough. What makes me the most irritated (that’s a little harsher than what I’m feeling) I had made sure that everything on the bare floor was protected in the big rubbermaid bins.

Then, trying to be helpful, my husband went down to straighten up the basement before the Christmas Eve party and ended up putting many cardboard boxes on the floor. Now those boxes are soaked! He did have the good sense to leave the Samsonite luggage on top of the coat shelf, so that is completely dry, and I’m now using it to hold everything that was once housed in a cardboard box! I will be hitting the store sales on storage bins later this afternoon and if I’m lucky, there won’t be a cardboard box left in the basement!!

Have you taken a blogging break this holiday season? I have! Not really planned, just because everything seems to jump out at you the last month of the year. Holiday decorations, school parties, orchestra concerts, Christmas gifts for teachers, Christmas gifts for everyone, having the kids home all day, EVERY DAY!!, baking, cleaning, cooking…..oh my goodness! There just hasn’t been a spare moment for anything not holiday or child related!

And so, late as it may be…I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas! And then ask, How was your holiday?

You got a taste of ours, but it really wasn’t so bad! We had two major holiday parties at our house this year. Christmas Eve with the entire extended family, and then Christmas morning brunch with just the in laws and their family.

As nice and festive as it is to sit in a dimly lit room full of twinkling Christmas lights, I have to say, the immense feeling of ‘recovery’ as you vacuum the last pine needle away for the year…THAT is well worth all of the work!

The other thing my sister is doing on her blog Kid Cookin, she’s putting up a new recipe everyday for a different cookie exchange. I think it’s so fun to see all of the different kinds of cookies she’s got on there, and I completely want to try them all–but this weekend I did try one. It’s the Impossible Peanut Butter Cookie, and after eating the entire plate…I’ll definitely be in need of some Leptovox!

These are truly peanut butter cookies, and honestly, reading the recipe they don’t seem like they will work because there is no flour or leavenings in them. It’s just a cup of peanut butter, a cup of sugar, and an egg…sounds like a big mess maker to me. But honestly, they were the softest, creamiest peanut butter cookies I’ve ever had. You can shake the recipe up a bit and make it with crunchy peanut butter (which I don’t have on hand)…I bet they would be good with crunchy peanut pieces in them too.

Take my word for it–they are the easiest, yummiest cookies EVER!!

Do you have memories from when you were little? When I was younger, my mom was a single mom–and so there are some different memories than some of the kids my age would have had. I mean how many kids watch their mom’s getting ready for a date? She married again when I was 9, and we got a fabulous man to be our dad. He had a pretty high up job in his company, so there were many occasions when I would sit on my mom’s bed and watch her get ready.

She had a lot of pretty stuff…both to look at, and to smell! My favorite was her Oscar de la Renta perfume. Whenever it’s Christmas I try to find it again for her, that or Chanel #5! I’m not sure she has many places to wear that kind of thing now, but whenever I smell it, it takes me back to being 10 years old, sitting on her bed. And that is really nice!

I was clearing out some of my older posts this past week, and I have to tell you, it was so fun! Reading about the events that happened in our lives over the past few years, looking at the pictures. Even my oldest son who probably needs a diet pill, had pictures of him where he was thin. It’s kind of hard to remember those days, simply because we’ve been so worried about him for so long.

The strangest, seeing my baby, who is now 4 years old. In my head he’s always looked the way he looks now, but to see his newborn pictures and even his 2 year old photo’s, he’s grown up so much. How fun it would be to be able to go back and hold those precious little things again.

What a busy first week of the month it has been! Between birthday parties and Christmas shopping—-HOWAH~~it’s crazy! I’ve always been amazed at how many family birthdays we have during the month of December. So on top of Christmas shopping for Ping Golf clubs for the “Man”, I’m also forced into looking for Barbie dolls and baby dolls in order to make a birthday seem totally different than Christmas.

Last year I was finished with all of my shopping by this point in the month…this year? I’ve barely started! Christmas decorations are also behind as well. Honestly, I better get on the ball–or we’ll be celebrating Christmas in January!