a few blips about Christmas

A Note About Saving Money

If you are like us and have no family near it means shipping all gifts which can be quite expensive. Please take them to a multi-purpose mailing place and get a good price. I found out that shipping the gifts to CA was cheaper when sent via UPS rather than the United States Postal Service.

Fabric Gift Bags!

I love how these turned out and am thrilled by the idea of the reusability and ease of storage. Plus, I have a strong aversion to the activity of gift wrapping - I would rather sew up these bags.



Gifts For Grandparents

For many people shopping for their parents as they get older becomes more and more difficult most older people do not need or want a lot more stuff. I become particularly irritated by my in-laws who really want expensive items and aren't interested anything but how it makes them looks (i.e. my chilren give me such wonderful gifts - I raised them so well). In frustration with my inability to measure up I decided to give them very personal gifts of their grandchildren. I hope that someday my children will receive an ineritance of memory from their grandparents. My in-laws are okay with it and I like to think my Mom loves it.

Often the gifts I make are photo albums or some keepsake or other pertaining to my children. I've done paper mache handprints and this year I got more creative for the girls sake they are getting older and can participate more. They painted shapes and then I painted their hands so that they could handprint them. I wrote their initials and the dates on the plaques.



I started this on C's first Christmas every year the grands get a framed ornament of the girls. I hope that someday it will serve as a unique record of their growth. On our tree I hang an ornament of a family picture and of a picture of the two of them together. When I started this project I had a hard time finding frame ornaments I liked so I decided to simply buy the little frames used for wallet pictures. I remove the kickstand, drill some holes for ribbon and tada!!

playing in the dark, something sorta cajun, art, unfolding light

Last night I took the girls out at about 5:30 and we played in the yard with flashlights. It was mildly chilly but not bad. They had fun - I experimented with taking photos in the dark without a flash - using the flashlights as spotlights. Perhaps not an experiment that interests everyone but I kind of liked the results.





Last night I made another one of my cobbled together recipes. About five years ago I decided we were eating way to much Tex-Mex and American-Italian style dishes and that we needed something different. Hubby doesn't like most southern style dishes but I decided to cobble something together that we might enjoy - after a great deal of experimenting. This is what I came up with.

M's Cajun Dish

2 cans of tomato sauce
2 cans of diced tomatoes
3 beef bouillon cubes
1/2 - 1 tsp. hot pepper sauce
2 tsp. seafood seasoning
3 cloves of garlic
1/4-1/2 tsp. cayenne
Beef Kielbasa (sausage)
Shrimp

Mix everything but the shrimp and the sausage in a crock pot ). Simmer. Slice sausage up into thin slices add to sauce about an hour before serving). Add shrimp 20 minutes before serving (however many you want). Serve over pasta.

One of the nice things about this time of year is that our local grocery stores will sell their frozen shrimp bags two for one. I will get six of this dish out of the two bags. It is nice to be able to serve shrimp and not feel like you are breaking the bank.

Speaking of breaking the bank. I've recently been reading a lot on frugal living as a sort of a personal refresher course. When reading about saving energy, not one article has mentioned crockpots. Using a crockpot as opposed to an oven or a stove can be a great deal cheaper plus it saves time. I've modified a lot of conventional recipes to use a crock as a way to keep it warm until hubby comes home. His arrival is sporadic and I like to have hot food ready as soon as he is and the crock is an excellent tool.

Here is a neat art site that makes me want to go further in my efforts - I found it at the 'inaminuteago' blog. http://www.reneeharris.net/index.html

I was reading Psalm 119 this morning. Almost everyone who has memorized verses or learned songs in Sunday School is familiar with vs 105 "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." but I was startled by vs 130 which seems a true companion to vs 105 and a lovely and haunting image "The unfolding of Your Words gives light."

The idea of unfolding is beautiful - what tremendous openess and honesty when something is unfolded - vulnerability. And here is a thought - is God's heart so tender to us that it is vulnerable?