Fun with The Island of Misfit Ornaments

I decided to check out the Target 90% off Christmas sale today. There really wasn't much left at all. I guess if there's something I really want next year I'd better get it right after Christmas.

It was mostly "The Island of Misfit Ornaments," like this reindeer with one antler.

And...a toaster ornament?

 

But I did find these partridge and poinsettia ornaments that I really liked. I kind of stared at them for a while in the store, trying to decide what I could do with them, and then bought five of them along with some raffia that was also 90% off

Put them together, and you have a Christmas garland!

I like how it's Christmasy, but not overly so. I still don't plan to keep it up year round though. In fact, it fell down just a few minutes ago since I just had it taped to the window. I'll have to work on a better hanging method when it's time to decorate next year.

Did you find any great buys during the after Christmas sales?

Decking the Halls

We don't have a lot of Christmas decorations in our apartment, but we did add a few seasonal touches.

We bought this 4' Christmas tree for half price. It's plenty big to hold all the ornaments we currently own on the front side alone.

I had considered a few possibilities for a tree topper but didn't want to spend a lot of time or money on one. While I was getting my hair cut last week, Nathan went to buy some lights for the tree, and I got back home to see Snoopy sitting on top. I really like it. I have 11 plastic Snoopy ornaments, so this Snoopy we got on our honeymoon fits right in.

The only Christmas decoration I really wanted to buy was 

an "Our First Christmas Together" ornament.

The ornament I made Nathan for Christmas last year

This was one of my favorites on our tree growing up. 

My mom gave it to me after Christmas last year for my own tree.

Nathan's had this wolf on top of his TV since I've known him.
I decided he needed a little decorating.

Our advent calendars and Christmas cards on the refrigerator

Snowman night light

I took the normal decorations off the top of our short bookshelf and put up some Christmas candles and a snow globe. I gave the snow globe to my grandma when I was little since she hated snow, and now it's a reminder of her.

What are your favorite Christmas decorations?

My Quest for Tolerable Stuffing (or Dressing)

For Thanksgiving this year, I was in charge of making pumpkin pie and stuffing. The pumpkin pie I actually volunteered to do, but I was a little surprised when my cousin told me I had to make stuffing since it's one of the four or five foods I don't like. She hates stuffing too, and so do half the people who were at our Thanksgiving, yet for some reason we still have to have it.

I decided to try to make stuffing that I would actually like. I had heard Scott Hutcheson on K-LOVE talking about how dressing is better than stuffing. I honestly didn't even know there was a difference. He uses cornbread in his dressing, which I thought sounded good. I wanted to put apples and pecans in my dressing as something extra and was excited when I found a recipe for Apple Pecan Cornbread Dressing. I modified the recipe a little since my mom doesn't like onion and Nathan doesn't like celery or ginger.

This is how I made my dressing:

• 1 (9x9 inch) pan cornbread, cooled and crumbled (I made a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix)
• 1 (6 oz.) box Stove Top turkey stuffing mix
• 1 golden delicious apple, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups apple juice
• 3 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cornbread and stuffing mix. Mix in the chopped apple, chopped pecans, apple juice, and beaten eggs. Spoon dressing into prepared casserole dish.
3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until heated through, and lightly browned on top. 

The verdict? The stuffing lovers loved it, and the stuffing haters wouldn't try it but took my word for it that it was good. Nathan ate a couple bites on Friday and said it was "different." His parents seemed to like it though. I personally really liked it. The only change I would make would be adding more pecans or using pecan halves for extra crunch since I didn't put celery in it. The description in the original recipe of "savory, yet sweet" was very accurate. It was far from frugal, but I was willing to pay extra to make it good.

Do you prefer stuffing, dressing, or neither?

The Holidays as Newlyweds

Oh, the holidays...a time of joy, a time when you gather with your family...until you suddenly have two families. When people ask if Nathan and I are spending Thanksgiving with his family or my family, I almost feel like they're asking which one of us won the battle. We live an hour away from both sets of parents, so it's not a matter of going to the place that's closet. And since they're in opposite directions, it's difficult to visit both the same day.
 
For Thanksgiving last year (when we were together but not "officially" engaged), we lucked out because my family had the Thanksgiving meal on Thursday and Nathan's family got together on Friday. This year, both of our families are having Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. Can you believe it? Our moms both said "whatever you decide to do is fine," but that didn't really help our decision. Ultimately, we decided to spend Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday, then go hang out and eat leftovers with his family on Friday.

Now we just have to figure out Christmas!

Nathan and me at Christmas last year. I'm holding tinsel.

The main reason we decided to go see my family for Thanksgiving was that more of Nathan's relatives will be in town for Christmas. But of course, I want to be able to see my family for Christmas too. Last year we were at my parents' house for Christmas morning since that's when my family always opens gifts. Then we went to Nathan's parents' for Christmas evening, when his family opens gifts. As nice as it was to see both our families, Christmas becomes a lot more stressful when you drive two hours in the middle of the day. A part of me just wants to spend Christmas in our apartment and wear pajamas all day! I do consider it a huge blessing though that we both have parents that live nearby and with whom we want to spend the holidays.

What are you doing for the holidays?