Jolly Old Soul? I'm Not Buying It!

We went to see Santa this morning at the Festival of Trees. I think the picture tells the story. . .





But on a lighter note, the Mommy & Me Christmas tree turned out great! The homemade ornaments were so cute and the birdies were adorable.









Check out all of the loot that was donated to our organization!





The trees will be auctioned off on Saturday night and we think our tree will go for the highest bid!! I mean, I'd love to win it. You know, if I had a few extra thousand dollars to spend. Our tree last year went for nearly $2,000 and this year the loot that comes with our tree totals close to $5,000! I'll let you know the final bid. The money goes to a great local charity.


Stay tuned for our evening in Manteo at the tree lighting, maybe a recipe for what I plan to make for dinner (you know, if it turns out to be tasty), and various other stuff that is fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

What I Would/Wouldn't Do For This. . .

Is the saying "what I would" or "what I wouldn't" do for something? I can never remember. Maybe it's either, depending on how you want it to go. Anyway. . .




To win this camera and package, I would do just about anything. It is AMAZING. And to get it, all you have to do is donate to these charities. Pretty cool. I haven't actually donated yet, seeing as how every $10 I have is going to more important things like the power bill and the groceries (oooh, I have a cool post on groceries to do soon. Stay tuned for that!), but if I find myself with an extra $10 in the next week, I'm definitely going to enter this contest/fundraising event. I encourage you to do the same. Maybe if you win you would consider giving me the camera package, you know, since I REALLY want it. Of course, since very few posts are posted without mentionind MckMama and her blog, I have to admit that this came from her. She shoots her amazing pictures with a camera like this and I have always been totally jealous. So anyway, click on the icon above and check out the details of the giveaway. Thanks.

A Little of This, A Little of That

First, let me tell you what I made for lunch today. Ham and Potato Soup. It was really, really tasty-and I'm not just saying that because I made it. Kingston and Nigel liked it, too! I recommend it. So much so that I am sharing the recipe with you.

Ham and Potato Soup:

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1/3 cup diced celery
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup diced cooked ham
3 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk


DIRECTIONS
Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

If you make it, let me know what you think! It was very easy and quick. Hopefully you will have better luck than I at getting your roux to thicken. Why do I always have trouble with that?!

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And now I want to share some craftiness with you. I agreed to make the tree skirt for the Mommy and Me tree for the Hotline Festival of Trees coming up this weekend. I took the scraps from Mrs. Biggs' scrap pile (she makes the most adorable baby/kid clothing and accessories) and fashioned this here tree skirt.

I think it turned out pretty good. It isn't perfect, but I think it will serve it's purpose. I was also thinking that it would be easy and really cool to make a tree skirt out of old baby clothes that you want to keep for sentimental reasons but know won't be worn again. I'd be glad to try it for someone if they are interested. Let me know!

We will decorate the tree tomorrow (Dec. 3) night. I'll try to remember to take pictures of the final product. I taught the moms how to make fabric birds one night and I can't wait to see how they look on the tree. Fun and festive!

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Kingston has just grown enough to fit into these adorable PJ's that Nigel's boss and his wife gave us as a baby present (along with the bath toys that Kingston still loves). He is the cutest thing on the planet in his footy pajamas! I could just look at him and giggle all night. Well, at least until 8:00 when it is time for bed and time for mom to have a break!

I tried to get Kingston to wear this cute Santa hat so that I could get a good Christmas card picture (yes, I'm still on that quest). As you can tell, he was NOT a fan of the hat. So scratch that idea. You will not be getting a Christmas card with Kingston in a Santa hat. Thankyouverymuch.

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We are looking forward to the Christmas season! I'll kick it off with my tree decorating tomorrow night, then we are going to Manteo for the lighting of the Christmas tree with Nana and Grandpa. At some point in the next week or so we will be getting and decorating our very own tree. We love telling Kingston "no" over and over again so the tree and it's decorations will be tons of fun. . .

Not Me Monday!

It's Monday again! I have no excuse for not participating in Not Me Monday, so I'll give it a go this week. I mean, High Cotton is closed for the season (hoooooray!) and we will not be open again until February. That means I have no place that I have to go on Mondays and a few other days in the week. It's a nice feeling. Now I just have to keep myself from spending any money and I'll be just fine. . .

This week I did not:

• get REALLY frustrated when Kingston woke up in the middle of the night for the 5th night in a row and nearly slam him through the crib mattress when laying him back down. For some reason he has decided to stand up and scream, screech and give me no choice but to go into his room at least once in the night. I think he is having a bit of separation anxiety and realizes that he is all alone. He won't go back to sleep without my hand on his stomach. It's not fun. It doesn't make me annoyed with him. No way. Not at all.

• forget to buy Able dog food and totally run out last night. I would never neglect my sweet, calm doggy. And we didn't just recently decide to forgo the $30.00 Nutro dog food for the $10.95 bag of Ol' Roy. We are all making sacrifices here, Abe! So I for sure didn't feed him a hot dog and a bun and a few green beans and some potatoes. No way.

• cave in and finally put cabinet locks on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. We were trying to go for the "let's just teach him not to go in the cabinets" routine, but after dealing with 4-5 temper tantrums when we moved him from in front of the cabinet full of heavy, glass baking dishes, some dust and a few mouse turds, we decided it was time. Wonder how many times in the next few days Nigel and I will cuss the cabinet locks?!

• laugh at Kingston when I told him "no" and he shook his head back at me. You aren't supposed to encourage that behavior so I would never crack up.

• wipe Kingston's snot on my pants leg on a regular basis. That is just gross.

Is there something that you definitely didn't do this week? Leave me a comment or swing on over to MckMama's blog and check her out.

The Haynes Get Funky!

I "Elfed" my family last year and got the biggest kick out of it!!! This year there are some new dances involved in the "Elfing" and we have a new member of the Haynes Elf Family.

Please enjoy while we get a little funky. Try not to pee in your pants.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are home from our Thanksgiving Day in Virginia. We went to Suffolk and Portsmouth and visited more family members than I could count!!! It was a good day and we made some relatives very happy by bringing Kingston by for a visit. He was so well behaved and happy all day. He made us very proud.

So, do you wanna know what I am thankful for?

• My wonderful husband, son and other immediate family members. Don't know what I would do without them.
• My job that allows me to take Kingston to work with me to avoid the crazy cost of child care. Thanks, Will and Sherry! Y'all are the best!
• All of the things that make my life so good-my house, my mini van (giggle), my computer, my cell phone!
• My wonderful friends, new and old. I would name them but I would hate to leave someone out and then have one less friend to be thankful for!
• Skittles-Man, I love those things!
• Ending most days with my favorite baby boy doing this in the bathtub:

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. We have so much to be thankful for. Thank you for viewing my Thanksgiving post. Hope you had a great day, too!

A Bathroom Sense of Humor

Someone in my family was once told by a teacher that he had a bathroom sense of humor that he should have gotten rid of by the 3rd grade. I'm not going to say who that was, but it wasn't me, my mom or my dad.

Apparently, Kingston is a big fan of the bathroom and I am sure he will end up with that bathroom sense of humor mentioned above. I mean, this episode cracked me up. But then again, I have been known to loose it when watching the bathroom scenes in movies such as Along Came Polly and Dumb and Dumber. (I'm giggle right now just thinking about it!)

Kingston heard Nigel say something to me from inside the bathroom so he went to investigate. He decided to stay a while. While Nigel was still in there. You know, going to the bathroom!

Today Kingston went back in the bathroom (you would think he would be scarred for life but apparently not!) and started playing with a rubber ducky near the door. I checked on him a few times and he was just playing innocently. Then I stopped hearing the ducky squeak as he was slammed against the floor. I walked in and saw this:

Isn't this a typical picture? Who doesn't have a picture of their first born with a puddle of toilet paper at their feet?! And loving every minute of it!

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Kingston can stand alone these days! He likes to stand and then plop down on his butt. I think he will be walking by his birthday. He is so close!

He is also getting pretty snuggly, much to my excitement! He puts his sweet little head on my shoulder and as Grandpa said, "I melt." Today he fell asleep. This is how Nigel found us when he got home from surfing:

Kingston was dead asleep for 45 minutes. He would have slept longer but I was loosing feeling in my lower back. Sweet boy. He melts me on a daily basis!