Cyber Monday...ramblings, a couple recipes, whatnot stuff...

I live in a cave.
Ok, not exactly a real cave or anything made of stone like that...I'm claustrophobic and that just wouldn't work.
But still...cyber monday.  I missed it. As in I guess I just don't see the point really.  Of course, I don't see the point of going shopping in the early early pre-pre-dawn hours barely following midnight on Thanksgiving either.

So....who did some cyber shopping today?  What'cha buy? Any great deals floating around I should feel a twinge of guilt for missing out on or anything?

We loaded Dewey and Christopher up this morning to head them back to work in Arkansas.  Chris had to head out around 2am and Dewey followed afterward, around 4am -- he had to go to the shop in Dyersburg first.  There was some chat going on there, nothing official has been said, just the powers that be talking, but we could be a week away from something relaxed...namely a few weeks time off.  Now me, I'm excited...Dewey, being hunter/gatherer/provider in nature, is only looking at the 2 missing or very short paychecks that means.  I'm looking at a husband at HOME.  For a while, not just a few days.

Yes, I see the value of a paycheck.  I also see that with the next check, which is last week and this week's work, I can pay all of December's needs in one shot and really, what's left to stress over?  Picked up double my feed supply today, I'm getting 9 round bales once the rain/storms decide to back off and I can move the trailer in the muck fully loaded...we have a pantry and freezer of food...what's left? Just need the MIA husband right?  I'm already planning on the down time....hope it wasn't just all bossman chatter :o)

I'm making a game plan for the cookie trays this year.  I'm a creature of habit, so I will most likely do a few similar goodies as I always do.  Plus folks around here are creatures of habit as well...we're just plain folk who enjoy a good chocolate chip cookie, a sugar cut-out, maybe a cake ball or two could be snuck (sneaked? hmmm...) in without the cookie cops being called out. Still....I love trying new recipes, hence that Virtual Cookie Exchange :o)  If you missed the 12 Days of Cookies last year, here's the link to that one. We have Chickens in The Road sharing of Hot Cocoa Bread (OH YUM!!) and even Gingerbread Boys and Girls we'll do up as well.

We have also been spinning our thinking wheels since talking with Dewey this morning...a homemade, rustic Christmas season seems fairly appropriate :)  We just bought a few things for the children when we went stupid and went shopping on Friday evening, but honestly they aren't as enamored with fancy gadgets and toy store hype anyway.  They always go through their possessions and wrap gifts for each other...and Emily and David can find a rusty bolt and washer and pretty soon they are playing 'buddies' with their little 'people' talking to one another :o)  I mean, sure, they like toys as much as anyone else, but without a television blasting them continually with the latest and greatest, they just don't care much :o)  So, we brain-stormed some ideas today, the olders and I, and are thinking things like some dolls for the girls with some clothes for them, maybe some crocheted blankets or even stitched quilts for their new dolls as well (and the youngers can make them for each other as well...) and things like some homemade wood building blocks for the boys, and Lincoln Log type blocks.  They pulled some trees into the barn today before the storms hit so they were dry and they had a place to work on them.  We'll come up with some more ideas, and they do have a few store-bought goodies like I said, so we're good to go I think.  We pulled out the snowman chalkboard today....marked it at  25 Days til Christmas....time to get busy.

We have our Ann Voskamp Advent Devotional to work on, made up our Advent "wreath" today (yeah, a day late...).  I want to get Dewey to make one of these Advent Spirals, (isn't it pretty?) but surely not this year I guess, so we got creative. I had been planning this for some time...and still ended up a day late because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted for the table area.  We wanted something pretty, but rustic and simple and what's more simple than a basket?  We put a basket on a pretty placemat with snowmen, filled it with holiday-scented potpourri (you know, seriously, what scent is the holidays anyway?)  and stood our glass candles in there (we have 4 white pillars in glass), decorated around them a bit with some fresh cedar trimmings and some silk poinsettia flowers and voila.....advent wreath for the table :o)

Now to go finish up dinner, milk Miss Judy, and settle in for some crafting time.  We have some packs of glittery snowflakes from Dollar Tree to hang, and need to pull the autumn paper chain and swap it out for a red/green/white paper chain.  And I think I'll cut some dolls from some fabric and get them stitched up on the machine, ready to be stuffed and dressed.  We're due for some thunderstorms the next couple days...sounds like good crafting time to me  I can finish up our school reading while they work on some sewing and crafting :o)

What are your Christmas plans?  Doing an Advent series to slow down the pace of a commercialized season? Maybe planning some homemade crafting for decorating or gift-giving?