The Fuzzball Chronicles: the Life and Times of Curly Mommy

“Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” Luke 2:14 Merry Christmas!

Little Man loves that baby. Tater is singing, "Its all right, my baby sister." It sure was tough to get them out of the snow globe. :) Baby B at four weeks old. We all love that sweet baby! Wow! Everyone is looking in the same direction and standing still, at least for a few seconds.

In my profile I state that I believe in eating whole, natural foods. This recipe does not fall into that category, but it sure does taste good. Each Christmas for the last 3 years I have made some sort of braid or ring. I got this recipe out of The Pampered Chef cookbook All the Best from Our Kitchens to Yours. It looks really impressive, so it is great for parties. Broccoli Chicken Braid 2 C. cooked chicken, chopped 1 C. broccoli, chopped 1/2 C. red bell pepper, chopped 1 clove garlic, pressed 8 oz. sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded 1/2 C. mayonnaise 2 tsp. All-purpose Dill Mix (or 1 teaspoon dill weed ) 1/4 tsp. salt 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) refrigerated crescent rolls 1 egg white, lightly beaten 2 T. slivered almonds Preheat oven to 375ºF. Chop chicken and broccoli and place in bowl. Add chopped red bell pepper. Press garlic over mixture and shred cheese over mixture. Add mayonnaise, dill mix and salt. Mix well. Unroll package of crescent rolls. Do not separate. Arrange longest sides of do...

Christmas was really good this year. We didn't try to please everyone and we didn't go overboard. Well, we spent too much money, but I am talking about overcommitment today. Our front yard isn't lit up. I put my 3 year-old Wal-Mart wreath on the door and made bows for the carriage lights on the garage and the mailbox. That's it for the outdoors. One of our neighbors asked if we had a Christmas tree inside. Uh, yep. Their yard is really "decorated." I guess he thought we weren't celebrating sufficiently. I have a lot less to clean up and I am happy about that. We told our family that we would be at our house on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We did not travel on either of those days. We did gather with my extended family on the 23rd and with Yardboy's family on 26th. Both families are about an hour away, so we easily made it back home both nights. We decided that is was important for our children to go to bed at home on Christmas Eve and wake up at ho...

Little Man and Tater Reading The Nativity in Christmas pajamas.

K introduced me to Gorilla Glue last spring when we were working on the MOPS float. Thank you K. I love the stuff. When I pulled all of my Christmas crap out of the attic several things were broken. Gorilla glue came to the rescue. Santa's music box stays in now. The little angle is not severed in half anymore. The little kid being attacked by the dog is now attached to her legs and the Nut Cracker snow globe has it's hat again. The down side of gorilla glue? It doesn't work very well on baskets made of paper grocery bags (another project I did with K) and it stains clothing permanently . The purple fabric is the shirt I wore while working on the MOPS float. It is now a sleep shirt. You can see the stain on the upper left of the close up photo. If I were Oprah, I would give this stuff away on my "Favorite Things" episode.

The Christmas celebrations are in full swing! Tater loves the Advent candles. She gets so excited talking about the meanings of the candles and can't wait to light the "BIG WHITE ONE!" Last week we were at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, Florida. Yardboy had to go there for a work conference so that meant the hotel room was FREE. If we had to pay for it ourselves, we would never stay there. We couldn't pass up the opportunity. While we were there the kids and I went to see ICE . It was amazing and cold. Little Man was very unhappy about having to wear a parka (provided by ICE) but enjoyed the experience after he got comfortable. Tater got to go down an ice slide over and over and over. I'm sure the idea is funny for people who live in cold climates. We really enjoyed our 20 minutes of nine degree "weather" but were very happy to get back to sunny Florida weather. We arrived back home around 4:00 p.m. Thursday, and then it was off again. We were at...

I love Christmas and what it stands for. I don't love the time required of me at Christmas. I am too busy to even think. Maybe I will have the time to write a real post soon. Until then, Merry Christmas.