On the eighth day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... 8 chick peeps, 7 crooked teeth, 6 furry friends, 5 clever tricks, 4 stylish hats, 3 handsome coats, 2 bobble heads and a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

On the seventh day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... 7 crooked teeth, 6 furry friends, 5 clever tricks, 4 stylish hats, 3 handsome coats, 2 bobble heads and a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

On the sixth day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... 6 furry friends, 5 clever tricks, 4 stylish hats, 3 handsome coats, 2 bobble heads and a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

On the fifth day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... 5 clever tricks, 4 stylish hats, 3 handsome coats, 2 bobble heads and a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

On the fourth day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... 4 stylish hats, 3 handsome coats, 2 bobble heads and a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

On the third day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... 3 handsome coats, 2 bobble heads and a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

On the second day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... 2 bobble heads and a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

Aaron and I are going home for Christmas and will be there until after New Years, so I have a special treat for my holiday posts. Here for your viewing enjoyment is Oscar's Twelve Days of Christmas!

On the first day of Christmas, Oscar gave to me...

... a fuzzy bird on a heat vent.

Joel told me about a new kind of bubble that is coming out this spring. Zubbles are colored bubbles! The color is disapearing, non-staining and non-toxic. An amazing breakthrough in bubble technology!

I found this blog called Cute Overload... post after post of cute pictures. It is too much. I nearly passed out, it was too much. Beware of the cuteness.

When I was a kid, I used to go to the Farm Show and oogle the giant butter sculpture. For this year's Holiday Party I got a butter tree mini butter sculpture. My friends laughed because they all know my affinity for butter.

When I look at butter tree I can't help but sing to myself "Oh butter tree, oh butter tree, so creamy and de-li-cious. You grace our rolls, you smear on toast. Muffins with jam, I like the most. Oh butter tree, oh butter tree, so creamy and de-li-cious!"

I really wanted a certain kind of sprinkles for my Holiday Party cupcakes, not crystalized suger. After scouring the cake aisle in several stores, I actually found these in the bulk bins at Wegmans... Wegmans comes through again. They are called holly berry sprinkles... too cute and perfect for my new cupcake stand.

Wow... so I won! Not without some controversy though... which some people found exciting... heh... I found it a tad stressful.

I have to say... even better than winning, was the influx of wonderful comments and emails from readers as a result of "the accusation". Some days one wonders, "Why do I do this?". It is nice to be reminded every once in awhile. Thank you to everyone, for your votes and for your support. I feel very honored, especially in the company of the other blogs in my category, they were all very well done.

I have seen these candy cane shot glasses at Urban Outfitters, but thought they were a bit pricey. Then someone tipped me off in my comments that they had seen them in the Target dollar bin. Sure enough, I found them and got a few for our Holiday Party. I also got some mini candy champagne glasses. They got a bit sticky, but they were a hit!

For this years Holiday Party, we got out our turkey fryer, Matt brought his over and we had two deep fried turkeys! There was also rolls, corn casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy, filling, cranberry sauce and so much more. The food was delicious and we had so much fun. There is nothing like having all your friends together for the holidays!

Check out the pictures of the party on my gallery page.

I am sure you have heard me rave about The Ravioli Shop before. Right now they have a seasonal pumpkin ravioli. They recommended we make a brown butter and sage sauce for them. I had never had a butter sauce like that before and they were delicious!

We ate them on my snowman dishes which made it very festive. I actually have a whole other set of Debbie Mumm Snowman dishes and accessories that I dropped off at an eBay listing place. After several holidays I got tired of them. Hopefully someone out there is looking for hardly-used Debbie Mumm Snowman napkin holders, silverware, glasses, serving dishes and salt & pepper shakers. I have never used an eBay listing place before much less sold anything on eBay... so we'll see how that goes.

Well, it was only a matter of time. I couldn't stand it anymore. I have been gazing at the Wilton cupcake stands for awhile now. A holiday party on Saturday provided the perfect excuse and with a 40% off coupon in hand I headed off to Joann's to acquire it.

It holds 24 cupcakes. I resisted getting the 38 cupcake model. I couldn't even wait for the cupcakes to cool to load it up... ow, ow.

My grandma gave me a big jar of grape juice that she made. It was so good. I thought it was even better when I found out how easy it was to make. She got the recipe out of a Mennonite cook book. I grew up in an area with a lot of Mennonite and Amish families.

All you have to do is put 1 cup of washed grapes (concord grapes are the best, but harder to find off season) in a quart jar. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and fill the jar with boiling water. Stir with a silver spoon to dissolve sugar and seal.

I'm not sure how long you have to wait til you can drink it, the recipe didn't say. I guess when it looks purple, drink up! There is some magic with that whole silver spoon bit... not sure what the deal with that is. I don't even own a silver spoon. I think my grandma used a regular spoon and nothing horrible happened. For sure, when it is grape season in the Finger Lakes next fall I will be making several jars.

Aaron and I have a tradition of getting his nieces gifts that will drive his brother crazy... a singing pooh bear, drum set, tamborine, ant farm, etc. (I know we will pay for this big time someday)

The most recent addition is a Cookie Monster Giggle Gabber. We think he will actually get a kick out him though... we even got one for ourselves. When you move Cookie up and down his mouth opens and he says stuff... "Hah! Hah-hah! Hah-hah! I... Love... Cookies!" If you wiggle fast he raps... "Cuh... cuh... cuh cuh cuh cookie!"

Great Christmas gift! Oh yeah, they have Elmo too, but I just don't like him as well... it seems to be a generational thing.

Aaron found this letter to Santa...

There are several things that crack me up. First off... this kid is quite the pop culture maven. Second... holy joly. Third...how quickly they have become friends... from "my name is..." to "your friend". Fourth... the signature painstakingly scripted. Fifth... so nice to enquire after the wife. Sixth... kids love to tack on extra P.S's.

I would love to find more of these. Don't worry Tyler... you may have left your list lying in a store, but I am sure Santa reads blogs.

So there is a big stink in my comments for my Dec 8 post. A question as to whether there are actually that many people reading my blog that would vote for me or if I cheated somehow (which I have no clue how I would go about doing)...

"You really believe you recieved 600 votes in two days? How many people actually read your blog? Care to share some numbers? Somebody's cheating, it's either you (I really hope not) or one of your fans is overzealous... but in the interest of honesty and truth you should contact the poll organizers and note what's happening here."

Actually I am happy to share my stats, I get them from my server space provider... here is a screen shot of my December stats. I think they are rather good. About 2,500 visits a day.

So I guess I'm not that surprised. More like super flattered. Oh well, nothing like a little excitment.

(Oh I also checked the award site to see if I should have them check to see if there is some sort of cheating is going on and they already looked at it... there was actually some cheating going on for two other sites, not mine. So that's that.)

I received a few Christmas cards in the mail so I started to panic. Today I made gingerbread men and staged my annual Oscar holiday card photoshoot.

Production went well and I think we have another winner. Oscar got a gingerbread man head for his efforts.

I have plenty of scissors. But of course when I saw these holiday themed shears, I had to have a pair. I told Aaron as I put the gingerbread ones in the cart... "We can use them just for Christmas presents!"

The thing I really like about these Acme Holiday Shears is the little etching on the blades of each pair. The gingerbread ones say "Catch me if you can!".

Wasn't Acme the company the Wile E. Coyote ordered all his stuff from?

Apparently I have been nominated for the Best Blog Design in the 2005 Weblog Awards.

It's not looking too good... Giggle Chick has 300 votes, I have 46. Perhaps I could be a dark horse winner.

I got this peppermint ribbon candy at Wegmans. I love how it looks like Ye Ole Fashioned Candy.

I eat more than my share of peppermint candy this time of year. I always have a mini candy cane in my coat pocket.

So we are keeping Buddy while Tina is on bedrest. He has been an excellent houseguest.

When I was a kid I loved watching Magnum PI. I especially liked the two Dobermen, Zeus and Apollo, that guarded Robin Master's estate. Higgins called them, "the Lads". They looked so fierce.

Buddy... not so fierce. He spends his days carrying around various stuffed animals and trying to curl up in Oscar's beds.

I treated myself to these Susan Bates Candy Cane knitting needles at Joann's. I started a scarf for my sister on a pair, and they make me hungry. I would like to find the red and green sock tip covers too.

I also need to stop shopping for me! I almost have everyone crossed off my shopping list, but I need to focus!

It's starting to look pretty Christmasy around here!

I almost forgot to put this cooking project on my project page. Back in October, Aaron and I made Crockpot Caramel Apple Butter.

I love cooking with the crock pot. I also like having little jars of apple butter to share with my friends.

Check out the project page.

Aaron and I are Buddy-sitting this weekend. Last night we took him and Oscar to Burger King (Buddy's favorite). They were quite a hit at the drive thru window.

Oscar is enjoying having his buddy, Buddy, around.

Tonight was the annual holiday open house on Park Ave. Tina and I went... we have been going for years. We like to visit all the stores... do a little shopping... eat samples.

This year I noticed this little sign in Stevers Candy shop. I need a sign like that... "I am fragile. Please do not pinch!"