Blogger Recognition Award

Messy Messy Fail - Made a delicious ham (bone-in) for our little Christmas dinner.  Lovely brown sugar and honey glaze courtesy of Liz of the Western New Yorker.  At my husband's request, he asks for a ham gravy which I had never heard of or had until I had been introduced by his family.  As I am using the drippings from the ham to make the PW's ham gravy recipe, I realize we may have a problem with the brown sugar in the pan.  As in it is burning as I am stirring in the flour and such to make the gravy over the stovetop burners.  Nothing like a burned sugar ham gravy.  Fortunately I added some more brown sugar and it ended up being okay, but this is not something I would recommend for those who may think for a fleeting second that this could work.

Tidy Victory - Going to see the new Star Wars movie at a Friday matinee show while visit my family in the mighty Buffalo, NY and we managed to borrow episodes IV, V and VI so we could be somewhat caught up and in the know for the movie.  Three nights in a row of Star Wars movies is pretty fun, I guess I never realized what great movies these were!  Any other Star Wars fans out there? :)

Non-Toy Gifts for Little Kids

Messy Messy Fail - It appeared as though the toddler decided to record some extra programing on our DirecTV DVR of his own before we went away for a weekend.  Upon returning, an episode of  American Horror Story Hotel and Fargo was missed due to a full hard drive of Good Morning America, the Rachael Ray Show and Kelly & Michael.  Delete, delete, delete.

Tidy Victory - These last few days I have been a MACHINE getting my Christmas tasks done - Santa Sprinkles for the UPKer's class, teacher gifts, peanut butter fudge for co-workers, cards mailed out, Christmas breakfast and dinner items purchased!  This may truly be the most ready I have ever been for the holidays, and it feels so good!

Happiness is Homemade Link Party #102

Messy Messy Fail - Who knew it was going to be 65 degrees on December 12, 2015 in Western New York!  God knew I still hadn't brought in all of my flying pigs from my garden yet - the cold can be brutal so to preserve the integrity of my piggies everything goes into the basement.  And exactly for the reason pictured below.  Poor piggy lost an ear already.  I do realize those wings look a bit like horns, and my piggy's eye is kind of crazy, but I still love them.  

Tidy Victory - And with this beautiful weather I was able to replant the last bush that was dug up from the front of the house.  I truly could not find a place to put it until I realized it would look perfect at the end of a row of pine trees and large rocks that we kept from when we leveled out backyard.  I even dug the hole myself.  My husband laughed when I asked if we had an auger.

I still can't believe Christmas is right around the corner! Hope everyone is ready or close to being ready.

This will be our last link party for 2015!! We will be taking the next 2 weeks off to enjoy time with our families. Make sure you come back in 2016 because we have some fun and exciting news we are so EXCITED to share!

We hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday!!!

Holiday Fun With Our Bloggy Friends - Christmas & Winter 2015

Messy Messy Fail - Off to see our local Christmas Parade this past Friday night, and would you believe it took us a 1/2 hour to get out of the house.  I've been taking the kid(s) for about 3 years now and have never made it in time to see my high school's marching band - we can just never seem to make it on time (the band typically is near the front of the parade).  The UPKer is crying because we are missing the band and I cannot find a parking spot, the toddler is crying because his hat is covering his face, and I cannot get the double stroller out of the trunk of my champagne Camry that I call Cecilia (don't ask).  Let's just say I was sweating.

Tidy Victory - So what did I do?  I shifted into high gear, tore the heaviest stroller I have ever lifted out of the trunk, threw the kids in their seats and hauled you-know-what UPHILL to run ahead of the marching band.  My some miracle, I made it just a couple of blocks up - the band had stopped to play their whole song - and we FINALLY got to see them play.  The toddler was clapping, the UPKer was cheering, and I was trying to catch my breath.  All in all it was a good night - we stopped at a hotel room some friends had gotten for the evening to watch the parade below and Santa literally pointed and waved at the UPKer while we watched - priceless!

And now, please scroll down to check out another awesome roundup put together by the amazing Carlee of Cooking with Carlee!

We hope you like our Christmas inspired posts we all wanted to share with you.

Please make sure to visit and comment as much as you can, enjoy!

Christmas White Trash Treat

Messy Messy Fail - Have you ever looked in the silverware holder of your dishwasher?  If not, maybe you should.  And if you continue to get little bits of debris stuck on your clean dishes, that might be the culprit.  Let's just say I took a look yesterday and threw up in my mouth a little.  I ended up soaking them in a sink full of soapy water and scrubbing with my scrub brush.  Who knew!

Tidy Victory - We got our photo Christmas cards designed, purchased and now we're just waiting for them to be shipped to our house. Turns out Walmart had the best deal for even after I tried all my Shutterfly and VistaPrint coupons.  My husband likes to help with the layout of the card every year - he has suddenly become quite interested in graphic design (wink wink).  He put together quite a nice design with pictures of the boys and a family picture of us from Thanksgiving.  Way to go honey!

Happiness is Homemade Link Party #101

Messy Messy Fail - Alex, our Elf on the Shelf, found himself in our china cabinet this morning.  Staring rather tauntingly at us while we eat our meals I might add.  Luckily the UPKer sits in a chair facing away from the cabinet, so when I opened the door to get a wine glass, not thinking about Alex flying out, he had not a clue.  I gracefully scooped the elf up and tossed him back into the cabinet with one swift move.  No one was the wiser.  That could have been ugly.

Tidy Victory - Absolutely DELISH recipe that I ended up slapping together from Happily Unprocessed - Stuffed Acorn Squash with Apple, Cranberry & Sausage Stuffing.  I had absolutely 0 plan for a dinner tonight for myself when I remembered I had an acorn squash in my pantry from a few months ago (those things are good FOREVER!) and some new venison Italian sausage in the freezer (one of hubby's does that he got).  This recipe was perfect and I had everything on hand.  Try it for a savory meal all in one.  

Santa Sprinkles + Free Printable Tag

Messy Messy Fail - As we began decorating our tree on Thursday evening, I discovered far more than usual broken ornaments.  Is it ironic that the UPKer helped us put them away last year?  I think not.  Not pictured is the glass ball the the toddler smashed on the floor in front of the tree while we were decorating.  I'm warming up my hot glue gun as I type.

Tidy Victory - I participated in my first Twitter party this week, #SnoopGames, and I won something!  I'm not sure what, just waiting patiently for it to arrive in the mail in the next few weeks.  My winning answer listed all the platforms for the new Snoopy's Grand Adventure video game. Woo hoo!