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!

Happiness is Homemade Link Party #100

Messy Messy Fail - My absolute FAVORITE coffee is a Dunkin' Donuts medium regular with pumpkin spice flavoring.  We don't have a DD in our town so it's a special treat when we travel and I get to pick one up.  Except of course when you pull over, you're all excited while you get out your gift card, pull up to the window and order, but you hear "Sorry we are all out of pumpkin spice flavoring for the season.  Can I get you something else?"  Drats.

Tidy Victory - We had an opportunity to see The Good Dinosaur today (Saturday) with the UPKer in a nearby town while we were visiting my in-laws.  What a terrific movie - excellent animation and graphics, beautiful music, wonderful themes about family and making your mark in life.  I'll admit there were some heavy moments in the movie - my son commented on "Lots of storms" but it was really worth it, we'll be purchasing this one!

Happiness is Homemade Linky Party #99

Messy Messy Fail - Did anyone else miss the first episode of the 2nd season of Fargo like I did?  Can't find it anywhere on the TV schedule, and being the outdated weirdos that we are we have yet to figure out the whole Amazon Prime free streaming thing.  I'll just add it to the list I guess.  And keep searching online for that golden first episode.

Tidy Victory - I found them!!!!  All the missing pieces to our Candyland game that is.  The UPKer does enjoy playing it, but it's even more of a game to try keeping the entire thing together in one box.  My solution - ziplock bags!

Welcome back to another great weekend at Happiness is Homemade!!

Why It's Good To Take A Blogging Break

Messy Messy Fail - When we dug up most of the landscaping in the front of the house to preserve and replant after the front yard revamp (will be posting!), we got everything back in the ground EXCEPT one last dwarf Alberta spruce.  It's currently leaning with it's giant rootball on the side of the snowmobile trailer.  My husband and I cannot decide on a place to plant it, the snow is really going to fly soon and I HATE being wasteful!  I may just drop it in the center of the front yard to plant it.  Except my husband might kill me.

Tidy Victory - I made a goal for myself to put one piece of clothing from my closet into the donate pile EVERY DAY and I am pretty sure I've been sticking to it.  I don't know why I have such a hard time getting rid of old clothes - I think it's guilt from throwing perfectly good items away.  They are just old, out of style and need to be replaced.  Replacing is the key word ;)

Happiness Is Homemade Linky Party #98

Messy Messy Fail - For his birthday, the UPKer got a wooden train with paint set, like a DIY decorating kit.  I laid out the newspaper, showed him how to dip his brush GENTLY into the paint, clean the brush in the little yogurt container of water when he wanted to change colors, etc.  He was doing awesome until he used a sponge brush I had out which was too big for the paint pot and made it  come flying out everywhere.  Not to mention wiping his hands on the seat of the dining room chair.  It was one of my summer goals to reupholster those anyways.

Tidy Victory - While the toddler was taking his morning snooze, the UPKer and I got outside in the 32 degree weather with our boots and jackets and cut back a bunch of the garden.  This is happening quite late this year, typically I clean it up in October, but other priorities came first.  All hanging baskets = dumped, fairy garden = collected and packed away, MOST plants = cut back.  Just one more dwarf alberta spruce to plant before the ground freezes and we are all set.  

And now, are you ready to party?!?!?!?!?!?!

2015 Holiday Ornament Exchange Linky Party

Messy Messy Fail - Because I'm frugal (cheap!), I take the Bath & Body wallflower out of the wall outlet in our bedroom in the morning so I am not wasting the oil making it smell nice during the day while we are at work.  I typically just place it upright in a basket on my husband's nightstand.  I hear "Katie there's a mess in the bedroom"......the wallflower has overturned the wallflower and it has leaked all over the shelf.  The oil even completely REMOVED the varnish from the furniture and made the bottom of the phone charger all sticky and melted.  Nasty warm sugar smelling mess!

Tidy Victory - I had to get the boys out of the house and to daycare on my own this morning - I woke up only 15 minutes earlier than usual and somehow managed to get out of the house THE EARLIEST EVER.  It was shocking.  Let's see if I can do it again on Monday!

Oh, Hey Friday - Slightly Shallow

Messy Messy Fail  - It's nearly 12:30 on my Friday night and I'm finishing this post.  I'll pay for this tomorrow surely.  I am a night owl.  

Tidy Victory - The UPKer ate the leftover Chinese from yesterday for dinner!  I promised a pretzel from Auntie Anne's at the mall if he ate it all.  Whatever works.