Well, today is SATURDAY and the 3rd day of our Christmas! Let's see...I started out the day by making biscuits (out of the can if we are being honest) for the hubs and he was pretty excited...let me just say that if you need a quick breakfast idea, go for the Pillsbury large biscuits with old fashioned butter flavor. No jelly OR butter required. Next, we made a dashing trip to WalMart for wax paper and a lock for our storage shed out back. When we were leaving the house, we finally checked our mailbox for the first time and look what we found! Our first Christmas card of the year! And SO cute! I mean, Christmas, wedded bliss, and Bully?...it doesn't get any better than that!
After that, I began baking while Lee worked on opening his eyes and catching up on sports since he hadn't watched SportsCenter in the 9 hours that he was sleeping ;). I made peanut butter balls (Lee's favorite) for the first time EVER! I forgot a step and, to me, they're a little dry, but he disagrees...
By the time I let those cool, it was time to come up with something for lunch and I knew just the trick! We were having chili for sure. I made the chili in about 15 minutes and sprinkled the toppings just in time for Lee to take a break from putting the new lock on the storage unit:
After enjoying ALL of our chili, it was back to baking for me! I went on to make my personal favorite..."bumpy cookies," as Megan and I call them (also known as cereal clusters). However, I forgot to put the Almond extract in...again, I feel that they are just a little off...Need I tell you not to bake when your mind is elsewhere?! Not a good idea. I will say that they still taste pretty dang good though and Lee agrees.
Next on my list of goodies was "no-bake cookies" for Lee. I do not care for the oat-filled, peanut butter and chocolate combination but the hubby is pretty set in his ways and likes them A LOT. Therefore, they went on the list of Christmas cookies for this year.
We still stuck to our regular cookies as well...the classic tea cake cookies that the family drools over. The recipe was actually from my former babysitter and we have adopted it like we invented the notion of teacakes! Below, you will also see what is left (3 to be exact) of a new addition - snickerdoodle cookies! Lee claims these have replaced my previously mentioned favorites for now. Pretty tasty.
My last venture for the day was to tackle the "lemonade cookie!" Umm...LOVE IT! Rhonda and I are definite fans...it's a mixture of tangy lemon flavor and sweet sugar sprinkled on top. The cookie is light and fluffy and pretty perfect.
Where was Lee during all this you may ask?...He was setting up shop. Literally. He cleaned out, hung things, and put a padlock on his new shop out back! Joe, Lee's grandmother's boyfriend, had generously given us some goodies from his huge stash of tools and supplies and Lee sorted through them and rearranged everything so that he can find them as soon as he needs them! He thoroughly enjoys tedious tasks such as this. Here is a photo I snuck in while he was rifling through some things. After this photo, I had to escape with my allergy-prone self since Rhonda was sweeping and the dust was flying everywhere! ha
Yes, I mentioned Rhonda, my mother-in-law! She came to visit again! She has been great with our new house and coming to visit (maybe because she has a place to sleep now instead of driving back and forth...or maybe just because she loves us so much ;) ). Either way, she hardly ever comes without "happies" and today was no exception. She gave me the adorable wine bottle with Christmas lights and Christmas stopper you see below. It is the perfect addition to my kitchen decor for the holidays! Love it!
After all of this, we settled into our P.J.'s with cookies and an SEC championship game. Lee wore his bully reindeer pants Rhonda found at Steinmart this year, so naturally I decided to cheer on the BULLDOGS (from Georgia). I was pretty happy with my pick for the first half, but Les Miles must have channeled some type of genius during his halftime speech because LSU came back to win the game 42-10 (I think). So much for that! Now, we will just have to see whether Alabama will get a rematch with them at the National Championship or if Oklahoma State will pull out a ticket to play in the game after tonight!
During all the commotion, we did not forget about our 3rd meal so no worries! Rhonda treated us to Mi Toro and WHEW! We are stuffed now...but happy and stuffed. We are watching Oklahoma v. Oklahoma State and waiting on the Mississippi State basketball game to come on since Daddy and Dustin are in Starkville for the event! After that, who knows?! All I can say is that Rhonda brought some old Christmas classics for she and I if our man goes to bed early AGAIN! The three of us are Snuggled in with full stomachs, Christmas lights, blankets, and some football and basketball...that's how we are ending our THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS! Tomorrow will make FOUR...time flies when you're loving life!