And now it is December.....

Yikes!

Are you ready????

Ron and I DID get the outside lights up today.

I WISH I could say that I have gotten the inside decorated, but I ran into a problem.

In 2006 I bought a pretty pre-lit tree.  It has larger white lights than the little "twinkle" lights that we have had in the past.  On Thanksgiving morning Ron helped me bring the tree in and assemble it.  It is just 3 sections so it was very easy to put together.  I plugged all the lights together and into the wall.  Voila!

WHAT???

I had a section of the bottom of the tree that was dark.  I won't go into ALL the details, but I did finally reach the 1-800 number on the box on Monday.  I learned a lot, but none of it was good!  The lights on the tree had the date 06 stamped right on the plugs and the box said there was a 5 year warranty on the lights, BUT......

(There's always a but, isn't there???)

Let me just ask you a question here.  You know those little warrenty cards that they put in everything?  Do you fill them out and mail them in?  Always?  Well....I don't.  And THIS time, it was a mistake.  They could not find my warrenty card, so they would not honor the warrenty.  However I can BUY replacement lights.    Do I want a strand or just the bulbs?  Well...hmmmm...I am not looking forward to unwinding a prelit tree so I will just get the bulbs and hope to find the problem.  That turned out to be a good choice....the strands would take 4-6 weeks to get here.  (Have you looked at a calender lately?  HELLO!!!)  I am not sure WHY at this point, but the customer service rep had me tell her exactly WHAT section of WHAT strand was unlit.  Well....it is the first half of the first strand from the wall plug.  According to her, that is actually the LAST strand, you start at the top of the tree with "Strand 1". 

Can I say that the discussion that followed became rather confusing.  Suffice it to say that I ALSO learned that the strand of GE lights I bought somewhere that look exactly like the lights on the tree are "C-6" lights, and the lights on my tree are "C-5" lights.  You must NEVER put a C-6 light in a C-5 strand!!!  (It doesn't matter....although the glass portion of the bulbs were EXACTLY the same, the little green plastic base on the bulb was a different configuration and would not FIT into the sockets on my tree's strands!!!)  Oh....and also, if I should decide to take the non-working strand OFF my tree and replace it with the lights in the box that I have, under NO circumstances should I plug my C-6 strand into a C-5 strand.  I must use a separate extension cord and plug it directly into the wall outlet.  Oh GOOD GRIEF!

I spent hours over a couple of days working on this.  I plugged in the tree and went completely through the tree looking for burnt bulbs.  I placed a piece of blue painters tape on each burnt out bulb.  I removed the top section of the tree and sat on the floor taking all of the clips out and unwinding the strand of 100 lights.  Then I started using bulbs from THAT strand to replace the 48 bulbs in the unlit bottom section HOPING to determine which bulbs were burnt out and causing the section to not light.  I had to do this TWICE before I actually found the culprits. 

Finally the bottom 2/3 of the tree is lit, but the top of the tree is laying on the living room floor completely bare of lights.  I stuck it in the top, threw the extra strand on it and plugged it into the wall. 

Ok...it will do. 

After removing EVERY burnt out light on the tree and using replacements from that original strand removed from the top....I ended up with over 75 bulbs that had been out!  MY GOODNESS!

Anway....it is December 1 and I FINALLY am ready to decorate the tree and the inside of the house.  I will start first thing in the morning!

Ron is leaving in the morning for the camp.  He has been gone for the past 3-4 weekends to the hunting camp in Mississippi.  He killed a deer the first weekend and last weekend his brother gave him meat to bring home.  So our freezer is now well-stocked with venison.  He really enjoys his time with his brothers and I am happy for him to be able to do this....although I get lonely sometimes.

This weekend I have a baby shower to attend and will continue to decorate, shop and wrap.  I feel good about my progress and may even do a little baking!  I also have my annual Christmas letter/card/NOVEL to create and print.  That usually is a nightmare of it's own with the formatting.  I really need to find a program that would make that a bit easier!

I forgot to tell you that last week the grandkids were out of school all week for the holiday.  Samantha got permission to babysit for the class pet for the week.  She could not bring it on the bus so asked if I would pick her up on the last day of school and be available to take her back when they returned to class.  Sure!  No problem!  The class pet is a Bearded Lizard named "Oola".  Sam brought her out in a rubbermaid box with NO lid.  Oola sat in this open box on the front seat next to me all the way home.

Oh my!

I think I have mentioned that Ron and I usually pick up Emmie on Monday's at noon and keep her until her Mom comes home from work.  Since there was no school, I kept her all day that Monday.  We decided to make Cinnamon Ornaments.  My sister-in-law sent me the recipe years ago.  Her children are 20 and 21 and made cinnamon ornaments with her when they were tiny.  I have a couple and THEY STILL SMELL when you put your nose close to them!  WOW!

Special Touch Cinnamon Ornaments

Combine 1 large bottle (4.12 oz) ground cinnamon

(This is about 1 cup)

with 3/4 cup applesauce

to form a stiff dough, adding additional

applesauce if necessary.

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness.

(To avoid sticking I "floured" my board and pin

with cocoa.  It worked!)

Cut with cookie cutters.  Make a hole for ribbon.

Carefully place on wire rack to dry.

Let air dry several days, turning over occasionally.

(It was very humid here, so I turned on the light

in the oven and sat them in there over-night.)

These ornaments really smell good! But don't eat them!  Tie them to your gifts, or hang them in your tree.  I just realized I did not take a picture of the finished product.  You will have to wait until my next post!

Hurry back!