Important things to know so you don't literally go POSTAL!

ok, So based on the title of this post I'm going to go with that calamity first. I had two boxes that were late getting to Florida family.  I finally got them wrapped and boxed - taped and labeled and off to post office. HOWEVER........................I'm 51, and I'm not perfect but I'd love to hear feedback as to whether anyone else new this.........

I wait in line with many others along with a lady that had two little girls apparently running on sugar and get to the counter. No hello, no how are you - the postal lady says - "Uh first off- you can't use that box" so I look at the two boxes and then look at her like "HUH?"- She then apparently picks up on the "huh" thought and says- "You can't ship in a box from alcohol" - I look at her with the "are you freaking kidding me look" and she said "you can wrap in brown paper and bring back but I can't take the box." If I could shoot bullets from my eyes they would have killed her but instead I asked if a marker or postal stickers would work. "NOPE". so........................I sent the one package and went to the car.  Now mind you of course it's raining. However, because this box was going out no matter what I had to do, I had to quickly get creative.  I unsealed the box-turned it inside out-taped it back up and marched back into the post office with an "I will show you attitude". So I continue to WAIT in line again - even though she saw me return and could have said she was just here but WHATEVER...I get back to the same postal person I had originally (mind you I was gone maybe - 5 minutes) and she says "Oh, did you find another box?"  Yup, I went to the garbage outside - scooped a box and it was exactly the same size. Amazing huh. That would have been my smart ass answer but I said - NOPE, I turned the box inside out - Now you should be able to take it. I was waiting for a NO and then I would have lost it but she instead said "Wow, that was really smart" - OMG.................you would have thought I performed brain surgery. So I went on to tell her it would be smart of the POST OFFICE to let people know they can't take boxes that have alcohol verbage on it. I got lip service, paid my postage and left. So................Lesson #1- don't use a box that has any kind of alchohol on it.

Another lesson - I purchased a gift for someone from Zulily  link to Zulily - the item didn't fit so I went online to find out how to make the return.........well guess what - they are a final sale site.  Doesn't say it anywhere but it is.  The representative was nice and gave me a credit for the item and told me to donate it.  So..................if you didn't know - Zulily does NOT take returns. ALL SALES FINAL.

Happy Monday-

I did have a nice morning with Rachel - my soon to be Daughter In Law and Holly my grand dog.

Now off to plan and prepare for Austin's New Year's Eve get together.

Later -   Me

I forgot to mention a couple of Gifts to Keith................

For Christmas I made a quilt while I was in Wisconsin.  My sweet friends I meet there helped me figure out my blocks late at night.  Cathy Kirk aka Quilting Cowgirl quilted the fabric with a wood theme design and I have wood grain fabric to bind it.

The ultimate gift was his 2 cans of Dinty Moore Stew.........one which he ate for dinner tonight. Now as most of you know, my husband can cook amazing food and therefore is the biggest food snob............but he still loves his canned Dinty Moore Stew.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Saturday...Christmas in Review

Good morning - grab a hot cocoa, a tea, some coffee or a hot tottie - here's our last few days ............

BUT FIRST.................GO PACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NCSU won their Bowl Game last night. WTG!

Okay back to Christmas.........

Sydney made over 100 rice krispy sushi 

So we started Wed, Christmas Eve with a trip to the Apple Store to get Syd's (my niece) Mac Pro fixed.  We were there for an 11:15 am appointment.  We were not there very long, the gentleman helping us was very helpful and pleasant to deal with and we were on our way. Keith was meeting us for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory so Syd and I went to a few stores before meeting him.We went to a store (new to us) and found a Giraffe for Rachel and a theater mask for Mia. We then went to Macy's and found a sweater for my sister.  I have to say, considering it was Christmas Eve everyone was friendly.  Keith called and said he was on his way so we went to Cheesecake Factory to get a table.  Amazingly - no wait. We told Keith to look for the Giraffe.  The Giraffe was peeking into the booth next to us.....

Syd standing next to the really tall Giraffes in the store. 

Our medium Giraffe watching for Keith. 

It was rather humerous.  Keith arrived we had lunch, I left Syd and Keith to do their annual Christmas adventure and went to take care of my last minute shopping. I ended up picking up Randi on the way to Target and to get bagels and let Jan her husband in the house.  We came home, unloaded, got dinner prepped and I began to wrap gifts.  Now I don't know how it happens but EVERY year it's a wrapping until 3 a.m. event. I did have three little eleves that helped me wrap aka - Adele, Rachel and Syd.  In the meantime, Austin and Mia showed up with the "Ugly Christmas Sweaters" that they made which seems to have been the "thing" this year.  

We had Lasagna and Shrimp Scampi with Rice, Spinach Salad, Cannolis, Tiramisu, Mollasses cookies, Snickerdoodle Cookies, Rice Krispy Treat Sushi - major food overload. 

Syd made ALOT!

Randi was assigned the present presenter.........

Syd, Mia and Rachel had matching jammies for Christmas Eve...........

Rachel was very happy with her Giraffes and minons along with her other presents.........

Holly came to help - 

Trixie kept stealing the pig rolls and teasing Holly- 

Syd made use of all the corks Keith's collected and made him a "Cork" board.........

Justin got his new camera and passed the old to Rachel.  

Austin got almost everything he wanted as well.  Mainly Yu-gioh things............

"oh No!" - really not sure what that face was about.....LOL

A rice steamer and a 30 lb bag of rice from RAchel and Justin

A gianormous Rice Krispy Treat.  Very Happy Austin!

"mine all mine!"

Rachel and Justin gave me this scrapbook of our trips.  Here's a sampling - 

 The Cover

  The first page

 impressed with the drawing...............

Not so easy finding presents in order............

Keith tormented Trixie with a slinky around her ...

Leo- my talented Grand-cat - balanced himself on the couch............

Christmas Day Syd made a jelly roll quilt from "Rebecca" fabric........

Keith made onion soup and the girls were very busy picking all the cheese off there bowls. I couldn't resist the picture. 

Christmas Day was Prime Rib; Ham, mashed potatoes, Sunshin Cake (aka Pig Pickin' cake), cannolis, See's Candy, and more. 

Last night Quinn and Adele came to have their Christmas with us.  

Adele made me these beautiful cross stitch gifts..........

Justin, Rachel, Quinn, Adele and Austin played Ticket to Ride...........

(sorry no pics - Justin used his new camera and it's in NEF - a file that won't upload)

My sister Randi got me a new quilt book believe it or not I didn't have and Miss Sydney bought me a gadget to find my keys as you all know I always lose.  Mia gave me a Starbucks mug from "London" to add to my collection and Austin gave me a Starbucks gift card that says "I love you".  

All in all it was a nice and calm day.  I have some returns to do this week but I'm waiting for the calm after the storm. 

We are headed to the Biltmore to end our Holiday week.  It's a cold but beautiful time of year to go. 

Tomorrow is some cleaning and then hoping to get some stitching on my machine. 

I have a few recipes to post before the New Year. 

Ta Ta - big hugs...............

Stacey

Merry Christmas to me!

I just went to read Lisa Bongean's Blog from Primitive Gatherings Quilt Shop and I won a prize on the day of "Pre cuts"  - my friend Cheryl Rudnitsky won too.  Wahoooooooooooooo.  Thanks Lisa and my friends at Primitive Gathering.  Can't wait to see what I won.

Lisa's Blog - Me "A Winner" Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas to All and To All a Good-night!

'Tis the night of Christmas Day - all the presents are opened,
everyone has been fed and and gone off to bed.

I sit here now trying to figure it out,
how to start earlier, so I'm not a dilly dallier.

I stay up until two in the morning each and every year getting the present all wrapped
until I'm to the point I can no longer see clear.

So Merry Christmas Again to one and all,
My Christmas will be ready next year by FALL!

Hope everyone had a great day and best wishes for the New Year!

I will post our Christmas pictures tomorrow.

ta ta -
Stacey

Leo gets catnip.

Leo loves his catnip and a plastic ring - click here

Monday Monday....

'Tis the Season of Chaos.  Last night we went to the mall to get a tad and I mean a "tad" of shopping done.  We were meeting Austin and Mia at Khanki (Japanese Hibatchi Restaurant) at 8:30 pm.  Well we didn't get to the mall until around 7:15 pm so we were very limited on what and where we could go.  Of course - the first stop was LUSH.  This is one of Syd's (my niece's) favorite places to go.  If you are not familiar with LUSH it is a froofy place that sells soaps, masks, and basically spa essential items. It doesn't take much to spend over $100 to put it in a nutshell. Well, with that being said, the sales staff was uncapable of handling the 5 or 6 customers in the store but the best was when we checked out with our purchase and were told "Sorry - we ran out of bags so you'll have to carry your items in your purse or hands to your car"  - I thought it was April fools rather than the week of Christmas. Was I being punked?  Candid camera?  Really???????????????????  I looked behind her on the shelf and there was a box of garbage bags.  She so kindly gave me the smaller garbage bag to tote our items out of the store.  So does she not think Mall Security would wonder why we had no bag?  Did she think this was normal?  - There had to be a full moon or some kind of crazy gas being spread instead of Holiday Cheer.  "Just sayin'".............

J. Jill was great.  Huge sale - 30% off everything - sale or regular price and they are always soooooooo nice in there. Always looking to help and save you money.  The woman helping me said - next time you order online call the store instead - shipping will be free or at most $5.95 instead of $11.95 you paid.  Of course went in to return one item and came out with 4. Merry Christmas to me.

We finally made it to Khanki where we had dinner. I think that will be our last visit there. It's just not the same.

I got up this morning and Keith and Justin had left for work, Syd was up watching TV in her room.  I went downstairs to let Piper and  Crystal out and found a puddle by the back door. Good morning to me. Well got the mop cleaned it up and then went to put Crystals bed out. She's our 14 year old dog.  When I went to put her bed out I noticed a HUGE puddle by the tree into the presents. I immediately thought "#%@#" Leo, my grandcat decided to mark the gifts and tree.  I was getting ready to call Justin and tell him what his cat did when I awoke enough to realize there's no way he could have peed that much. Plus there was no smell.  So I grabbed the wet things and sniffed closer.  I know - those that don't or have had no animals probably think ewwwwwwwwwww but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  No smell.  This was a good thing. I then looked further and found that the $3 contraption that you put a 2 liter of water in, to water the tree, had detached from the tree. It's a small hose the thickness of a straw.  I'm sure one of the cats decided to play with it but which one I don't know. So I blamed poor Leo - and he wasn't the bad one.  He got a few extra treets from his Grammy.

such an angel - LOL...he's even balancing on the edge of the couch. 

Syd and I then headed to Publix to grocery shop.  3 hours later..............we had our groceries.  We had both worked up an appetite and decided to stop for a quick burger at Five Guys.  Then to Capri Flavors for the annual Cannoli filling - quick stop at Starbucks and then home to then unload all the bags of groceries.  Syd took a quick nap - I did some cleaning and now Syd and Keith are having quality time cooking - 

 Syd shredded the Mozarella

Keith Preppring the Lasagna noodles..........

then on to making snickerdoodle cookies.......

well - snickerdoodle-ish...............

some were soft, some crunchy and from what I'm hearing from the kitchen the last set are great for using as hockey pucks. 

Layering the noodles for a big tray of Lasagna. 

In our house it will be 3 days of cooking. I can't complain- my husband does love to cook. So tomorrow will be wrapping and baking, he'll do some more cooking when he arrives home and then Wed we have to hit the mall for the last minute crunch.  I would normally not participate in that yearly even of my husband but Syd needs to go to the Apple Store. 

So good night for now, 

Although I'm not sure how. 

I've been lacking in sleep and it is not something I deal with well, 

So I'm off to bed now or else it will be "#$@#".

I AM going to have all presents wrapped before Christmas eve.  I have never made that goal - no matter how hard I try - but I AM this year!

Sydney has come to town.......and jingle belling all the way!

Sydney made her first trek alone to NC - bringing the ham and bacon "literally"  That was the Berkowitz's family responsibility.  Nothing like having the Jewish part of the family bring the pork!  LOL.  But my sister did her homework and looked up how and how much to buy for the Ham.  And Virginia has the bacon Keith's loves with the slab.  So job well done Sis.

She arrived and immediately begain in the festivities.  Lights and ornaments on the tree - a quick lunch then completed the tree, vacuumed the needles and placed some presents under the tree. While watching UVA destroy Harvard in Basketball.

Click Link below to see Sydney's decorating debut.

http://youtu.be/e0g0oKzZ-R8

then Uncle Keith came home and decided the tree needed tinsel................

All good............

Keith's out putting up Christmas lights for the 4 days before Christmas but it makes him happy. 

Tonight dinner at khanki and some last minute shopping. 

Tata for now.