More of my favorite things and a recipe

Today is day number 2 of "Display Your Pitiful Christmas Decoration Day". Yes, I should be doing other things today like oh... baking, cleaning, cooking, finishing Christmas shopping but this time of year is when I let my procrastinating nature really shine through. LOL.

Don't worry about me though, I'll get it done. Sadly, I'm actually ahead of years past where I was sitting up at midnight wrapping presents. This year I've actually got about 75% of my presents already wrapped and under the tree. And today, to soothe my nerves, will probably be a baking day for me. (For all of four of my BFF who actually follow my blog, today is afterall haircut day. Listen for the scream at approximately 5:00pm EDT)

So without further rambling, here are some of my favorite things:

During a more creative moment, I decided to pull my 11-year-old's tricycle that I had been storing in the attic and fill it with my 8-year-olds teddy bear collection. Cute, huh? Sorry about the wire there. I should have fixed it before I took the picture.

A very silly Santa that arrived in my husband's stocking a couple of Christmas seasons ago. When turned on, he really plays the drums ROFL

My snowy wreath. Actually, I should have taken a picture of this whole room which we now call the snowy room LOL I flocked a cheapie wreath with snow and of course added all of my snowflake ornaments. Below it on my mantle, is a flocked garand filled with twinkling snowflake lights. It came out very pretty. My family loves this room now. It is filled with sparkly lights. They actually turn these lights on before the Christmas tree room. Go figure.

Another silly Santa. This was actually given to me by a little boy from my class about 3 years ago. He's actually a votive candle holder. Can you see those stars? They actually look quite magical when a candle is glowing inside of him.

And finally this music box:

It reminds me of the real wood burning stove that my Grandmother had in her farmhouse in Vermont. I miss her.

Okay now that I've tortured you long enough, here's a new recipe courtesy of the Crockpot Lady. I made a batch of it last night to warm us up after ice skating. Ice skating in Florida? Yep, it's true...'cept it wasn't ice. But I'll save that for a whole different post.

Here it is:

Holiday Punch

The Ingredients.

4 cups cranberry juice
4 cups pineapple juice
1/3 cup hot tamales or red hots candy
1 cinnamon stick

that's it!

The Directions.

This serves 6. Combine juices in your crockpot, and add hot tamales or red hots. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, or on low for 4-5. Stir. The candy will pretty much dissolve, leaving just a hint of cinnamony-flavor.

Ladle into mugs, garnishing with an extra cinnamon stick if desire.

Verdict: This was a huge hit with my family. Being the sugar monsters that we are, we did add in more hot tamales candy in it. What a special Christmas treat.