I'm almost ready for Christmas

Well, I'm almost ready for Christmas!

My son and his family are coming here for Christmas dinner.  I have a small condo and Tom has a huge house - a really huge house - so he always hosts when we have holidays or family get-togethers.  This year, Kristy and her family are coming the week following Christmas, so on Christmas Day, it will only be me and Tom, his wife, and three kids.  So this will be a great time for me to cook the turkey.

I've got most of the food - just need a few more things including the turkey.

Monday night I made a double batch of my world famous fudge.  I used to make it every year, batches and batches, and bring some to work, give some to friends and family, but I haven't made it in a while.  It's just the Fantasy Fudge recipe on the marshmallow creme jar, but somehow mine is smoother than other people's fudge that I've tasted.  I'm not bragging - it just IS.

I make great turkey dressing, gravy and fudge.  I've always said anyone who can read, can cook.  No excuses.  You just need to be able to read and WANT to follow a recipe.  So, I can cook, and most things I make are pretty good.  But my fudge, turkey dressing, and gravy really are GREAT.  It's nice to have something you're great at.  : )  I'm a good person to have around during the holidays. : ))))

This year I got a container that sprinkles candy cane crumbs, and I sprinkled candy cane crumbs on the tops of the fudge in the pans.  I made two pans without nuts, because my family doesn't like the nuts, but that makes it too sweet for me, and so I made one pan with chopped walnuts.  After the pans had cooled in the fridge, I cut out a tiny piece of the walnut fudge (see top left corner of square pan - really tiny piece gone!) to see what it tastes like with the candy cane sprinkles, and it was the BEST!  I'll see what my family thinks.  If they like it, I have a new twist to my familiar fudge recipe.

I've never used foil before, but it makes sense - less clean-up, the fudge should come out easily.

 The tiny bite I had was delicious - I liked the peppermint on the top.

The pans of fudge don't look very fancy, but once I cut it in squares and put them in pretty boxes, they will look good.  When I make it in a round or oval pan, I always square it off and keep the curved pieces for myself.  Yum.

Since three grandchildren will be here for Christmas, one less than two years old, and then Kristy's family is staying with me this year while they are here for a few days, and some of us will be sleeping on the floor - having a campout in our sleeping bags (I'll let Kristy and Matt have my bed), I thought I'd better shampoo my carpet.  So yesterday after work I got out the carpet shampooer and got all the carpets shampooed.  It looks really nice - and clean.

I was tired and hungry after vacuuming and then shampooing, so I microwaved a fish dinner, made a Waldorf salad, sat in front of the TV and finished every bite.  And fell asleep.  When I woke up, the carpet was dry so I put back all the furniture and things I had moved off the carpet, cleaned up the shampooer, and was done.

Not much else to do.  The presents are bought and wrapped, the house is ready, and just a little food shopping to go.

I always make my own Christmas cards, and usually have them all mailed out by the end of November, but this year...  Well, I'm lagging a bit.  I've put together a couple, printed a sample, and haven't liked them.  I'll have to work on them again and try to get something I like.

When Gavin was here for his Birthday cake baking, I showed him a Christmas tree I made in Photoshop Elements.  He didn't like the way I positioned the buttons (ornaments), so I pulled up the file and asked him how he would have done it.  I moved the buttons where he liked them, and I think I may print it out on photo paper and paste on the front of cardstock, put a greeting inside, and call it a Christmas card for 2010.  I really like the way he positioned the buttons.  Here is what he did.  What do you think?

 I think this is the one!

On nice shiny photo paper, it looks great.  Perfect size.  Gavin specifically liked the "zig-zag" of the diamond buttons.  He took a photo of the tree home to tape to his door.  They are so cute at six years old. 

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a great Wednesday everyone!  : )

My 100th post! And grandson Gavin's birthday

I love milestones, and 100 posts is a milestone for me.  Especially the way I'm posting lately! :)

Last week was my grandson, Gavin's, sixth birthday.  He's in kindergarten this year.  So Gavin came over on Wednesday to bake a birthday cake.

When my grandkids have a birthday, I have them over to bake a cake for themselves and decorate them to bring home for their birthday.  (At least my son's kids.  Kristy's two live too far away, but I bake with them when I can.)  Lots of kids don't help mom bake in the kitchen anymore - in fact I'm not sure my kids helped me when they were little.  I made their birthday cakes myself.  But now that I'm a grandmother, it seems important to let them bake and decorate their own cakes.

Here are Gavin's, from 3 to 6 years old:

 3 years old - blowing out his candle.

 Yummy cupcake!

 4 years old - measuring.

 Decorating star-shaped cupcakes.

 5 years old - this poor cake looked great when it was decorated, kind of...

 Getting ready to blow out the candles!

6 years old - licking the bowl, the best part!

 Decorating the cake.

Beautiful! He carefully drew lines, crossed them, put patches of color - all very carefully constructed.

It's really fun to see how Gavin has grown.  At first I just let him stir the batter, then each year he did more of the prep.  This year I measured, and he did everything else, pouring the ingredients into the bowl, stirring, pouring the batter into the pans, and all the decorating.  I decorated one and he decorated one.  He wanted to take a photo of me holding "my" cake:

Happy Birthday Gavin!

That's a tired Grammy at the end of a long day, but the photo he took of me was actually flattering, I thought. I was pretty beat by this time.  Such tired eyes...   But worth it for the memories!  Notice the professional-like decorated cake! Gavin was very impressed - I love working with kids!  : )  

Then the next night at 5:30 Gavin had a pizza party with a few of his closest friends at his house - here are a few photos from that evening:

  Blowing out the candles.

 Gavin and his sister, Kennedy

Gavin, baby brother Graydin, and Kennedy

And that's it until next Saturday when the REAL birthday party is - a couple of Gavin's best friends couldn't come on Saturday, that's why they had the pizza night.  He's having quite a Birthday this year!

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  : ) 

PS:  If you noticed the difference in my kitchen counters, the first year the tile was an old yellow - from the early 1960s. Still pretty much in good shape, just worn.  The next three birthdays, look at the tile - beautiful.  That's what my company does - refinishing.  Kitchen counters, vanities, bathtubs.  Instead of replacing the fixture, you can have it refinished.  Click on the photos to really see what a difference it made in my kitchen and bathrooms.  : )

Happy Monday

WELCOME to our new follower, The Old Geezer! Thank you for following along with us as we prepare to RV full time.  Hopefully in one more year!

I just haven't felt like blogging lately, but am still enjoying reading your blogs!  So glad Gypsy made it home safely in her new "Sir Lance-A-Lot!"  What an experience she had in her adventure to pick up her new truck camper between the baked potato disaster and "the fall," she's had quite a time of it.

I was also wishing I was on the cruise with Kim, it looked and sounded wonderful, but she is already back home, it seemed so short to me.

Jeana is still in Arizona, I guess, checking out new homes and RVs to full time (?) in.  She has given me some new ideas - with home prices in Las Vegas and Merced so depressed, I am thinking I might buy a home after I retire in one of these areas, and use it as a home base for RVing.  I'd sure love to have a home base to return to once in a while, and have waiting when (if) I tire of RVing full time.  We'll see.  I'll figure that out when the time is closer.

I am going to have a Realtor come by soon, maybe this weekend, and let me know what he thinks my condo would sell or lease for at this time, and if he has any idea of the numbers for one year from now.  That will give me an idea to plan from.

Even the people who aren't RVing full time are traveling.  And the snowbirds.  Some of you have found warmer weather, and for the rest, I hope things warm up for you soon!

New mushroom family in the yard:

There are three more families, but I won't take space for them all.  I love my mushrooms. : )

Above is just an odd-ball photo I took when I was up in Julian a month or so ago.  These large concrete stairs looked like they were very important once upon a time.  I stopped the car and walked up them to see if anything was left of the home they used to lead to.  Nothing.  Just brush, weeds, and trees.  I wonder what the house and grounds looked like in it's prime.  Funny how sometimes all that's left is a chimney or stairs.  If these weren't concrete, they would have been long gone.

That's all for now.  My grandson had a 6th birthday last week, I'll post some photos tomorrow.

From me and Katie, have a great Monday evening, everyone! : )

Katie's bike ride, a little Christmas decorating

Last weekend I tried out the bike with Katie in the basket.  Unfortunately there's something wrong - I'm going to have to bring the bike to a bike shop or have the man next store look at it for me.  When I put Katie in the basket and walked the bike, there was a rubbing sound.  I couldn't tell where it was coming from, somewhere in the front, and the front tire looked like it had lost a little air.  I think I'll take it down to a bike shop and have everything checked out.

It was really hard to ride - even downhill - so I decided not to risk wrecking the bike and just walked Katie for a couple of blocks.

 Hey, Mom, this is fun!

I have to tell you - Katie was a natural!  She just loved it.  Never even tried to jump out.

When I walked her back up our little hill I parked it and held on the the handlebars to steady the bike to get her out and she wouldn't budge.  Just looked away from me.  So I checked what I could on the front brake, tried to see where the rubbing was coming from, but - nothing obvious to me.

Don't park - let's going again!

Finally I had to MAKE her get out of the basket, and she let me lift her out.  I have no worries that she'll be fine when we're streaming down the roadway.  If I can get in good enough shape to stream anywhere! : )

 Okay, Okay!  Lift me out already!  But I'm not happy.

Today I did a little Christmas decorating.  I put up a lighted wreath on my mantle mirror and hung my Barbie ornaments from it, a couple of outside decorations, wreath on the front door, etc.  Small things here and there. I have scented candles lit and the fireplace going.  It's very cozy here tonight.

 This is an Electric Fireplace, I love it!

Christmas presents all wrapped -  a few more to buy!

I am going to a Christmas show/service at my friend Alice's "other" church.  Alice is in her 80's, as quick, bright, healthy and busy as any 40 year old I know.  MUCH busier than I am.  She married a man a few years her senior around three years ago.  They had the BEST marriage for close to two years, then he died.  He and his family were very active in a different church, so Alice started going to his church with him.  Now that he is not here with her, she is dividing her time between his church and our church here at the lake.  The service tonight is at her late husband's church.

Alice invited me and Jan, from our church here at the Lake.  I haven't seen Jan for a long while, and am looking forward to seeing them both tonight.

That's it for today.  It's been a busy weekend, and now I have to get ready.  Alice is coming by at 6:00 to pick me up.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a nice Sunday evening, everyone! : )

Subscribed to Norton and an AOL RANT!

WELCOME to our new follower - I don't have a name ("Hi" is all I've got) or blog site, so I can't thank you by name, but we're still very happy to have you along on our journey to future full-timing. 

Unfortunately my blogging has become very sporadic lately, I'll try to do better!  I've been either too busy or too lazy.  And there's not a lot going on in my neck of the woods lately.  When I have real "woods" outside my windows that should improve. : )

I decided my laptop needs a new program to protect it, and my brain doesn't.

I subscribed to Norton Internet Security.  My original 30-day trial is up so I'm going to continue it. It really does make me feel safer and more secure, so that's the one I've chosen to protect my laptop. It's also the one recommended by our IT guy here at work.

Warning - long winded rant ahead:

Then I TRIED to cancel my subscription to Cognifit that I posted about a month ago.  They have a 30-day refund policy, and I opted to use it.  I still think it's a great program, it ended up costing me nothing, and I found out my brain is still working just fine. Good to know. : )  (And there are other free programs you can access that seemed to do the same thing for you.)  If I was having difficulty performing the tasks, I would have kept it, because then obviously I would NEED it.

I e-mailed Cognifit that I wished to cancel and have my initial payment refunded.  They immediately e-mailed me back (this was over the weekend, so I was surprised to hear from them so soon) that since I went through someone else to purchase, I had to cancel through them. 

So, I then tried to cancel through AOL, since I purchased through them.  Since I am not a member of AOL, I didn't have the option to speak to a live PERSON, but had to send an e-mail.  I needed to go onto my personal page and click on the program I purchased, then cancel it from there.  Soooooo, I go onto my personal AOL page, where it shows I am not subscribed to ANY programs.  That 's funny, since I was already charged through AOL for the first month. 

There was absolutely no option offered by AOL to contact them. 

I could not call - I tried the number provided and was informed by a message voice that if I didn't have an AOL account number, I couldn't speak to a live person. However, if I wished to join AOL as a paying member.....   

I couldn't send an e-mail.  You can cancel certain listed services provided by AOL by e-mail, but Cognifit was not listed.  I was not subscribed to any services on my "page."  Therefore, I couldn't e-mail. 

I looked everywhere I could think, did a bunch of Google searches, clicked on every "contact us" link provided by AOL, only to be brought back to the same messages. : (

I finally called the number shown on my AMEX bill that is associated with the charge.  The woman I talked with was very nice, but she said I was not signed up for any programs.  She was very sorry, but since I wasn't signed up, she couldn't cancel it for me. 

My only option at this point was to dispute the charge through AMEX.  Which I did, and asked to have it removed.  It's in process now, according to a letter I've received from AMEX, and they will let me know.

I'm thinking that AOL takes your application, charges your account, but does not show the service on your AOL page until the 30 days are up.  Then they probably list the service, but at that point, it's too late to take advantage of the 30-day refund policy.  Since I was unable to reach anyone other than the number provided in my AMEX bill, I don't know for sure, but ??????

I think it's awful to provide a service that bills monthly, offer a 30-day refund policy, then have absolutely NO WAY to contact the company to cancel.  So, beware purchasing anything that you see on the home page AOL has - they often have interesting stories I click on to read, and they are really "advertorials," trying to sell something.  If it looks good, GO TO THE PRODUCT'S WEBSITE AND ORDER FROM THEM.  It might cost a bit more, but at least you can reach the provider if you want to cancel it.

Thanks - it's nice to get that off my chest!

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  : )