boring boring blogging!!!!

I need to step up the blog content.....it's even boring me! We have had an amazingly nice but COLD December this year. Record low temps for the date, I think the coldest I have experienced since moving here 10 years ago. I am nearly ready for Christmas. I am enjoying the last few days prior doing some fun last minute shopping and decorating. (putting out all the Christmas Playmobil we have-tedious chore, but so fun!) I enjoy going to the locally owned shops that are NOT in malls!!! Does any one else think malls smell bad? I feel ill in the malls!

....the last few years I look for MADE IN AMERICA. We are giving away our country! What will we become if we can't make anything? I found gift bags that were made in the US and I bought them all because I noticed that the new ones being stocked were now made in China, the same company, now made in China. I also searced high and low for tissue paper made in the US. Look at candy canes, almost all are now made in Mexico.

I roasted 8 pounds of pecans using a Martha Stewart recipe of maple syrup, brown sugar, butter, kosher salt, thyme and cayenne pepper. They made nice gifts for the teachers and for the hosts of a Christmas open house. I will do it again, much easier than cookies. The pecans are $10.00 a pound this year, I used local, so that's a decent gift if you give a pound. A bit healthier than cookies too. It only takes about 20 minutes per pound , plus cooling and wrapping. I also found that I am having a terrible time finding one of my favorite things, real bayberry candles. I finally found 7 on ebay and the candle maker wasn't making any more this season, so I bought the 7. I ordered some from Leman's catalog as a gift and I found some more in the Chinaberry catalog. They are so wonderful to have for Christmas. I suppose they are more common in the north, I have never seen them in a store here. We always had them growing up in upstate NY. The smell takes me back....