Today is my first day of Christmas Vacation.  School resumes January 2nd. 

 I woke up at 3:45 am not feeling well.  It has been one week since I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with tonsillitis and although I feel better, I don't feel well.  I laid in bed for awhile but soon decided to get up and find something interesting to do.

I like the early mornings when the house is quiet.  It's prime time for me.  
I started with the laundry.  Not much to wash and dry, but oh so much to fold and hang and put away.  
I unloaded the dishwasher.  
Made a pot of coffee.
Read the newspaper.  
And then continued cleaning.

Ahhhhh, my Donny Osmond Broom.   I named the magic red broom that special name.  Years ago I went to see the Donster in Dallas.  He was the featured speaker at a Women's Symposium.  So exciting.  Afterwards the vendors opened their booths and my fellow Donny fans and I wandered around all afternoon, sampling  and shopping. There was a booth featuring this broom.  The salesman did some amazing demonstrations.  He showed how you could clean up sand, sugar, mud, anything wet or dry.  At the end of his performance he said the first 10 people could purchase one broom for $15 and get a second one free.  So Marsha and I jumped at the chance.  We each paid $7.50 and walked away happy owners of a new red broom.  It was funny watching these red brooms all over the showroom area.  And now, years later - could it be 10 years? - I'm still using this broom.  And it honestly does clean up  everything.  One of the best uses:  "raking" carpet under beds.  Grabbing dust bunnies. So in our house if I say, "please go get the Donny Broom" everyone knows what I'm talking about."  

This morning after cleaning the laundry room, I swept the kitchen and hallways.  

I soon grabbed some coffee and noticed on the calendar by my computer that I had a dental appointment at 11.  I decided to call and confirm and I'm glad I did.  My appointment is scheduled for NEXT week.  

Breakfast:  Monkey Bread

There have been a lot of sales on crescent rolls leading up to the holidays.  I'm overrun with them.

I took this photos after I grabbed 3 rolls to use for monkey bread.  

Crescent rolls, sugar, cinnamon, butter, maple syrup.  

I don't have any fancy smancy maple syrup straight from the maple tree.  My kids won't care.  And this syrup with be fine.

Laid out the dough.  Cut into equal parts.  Rolled into balls.  Dropped in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Drop 3 or 4 coated dough balls into muffin tins.  We like the individual servings for portion control and because they bake through and through.  Nothing like undercooked dough with a little cinnamon for breakfast.

I tried to take a photo of them baking.  The oven is directly across from the kitchen window that gets a lot of morning light.  Bake 15 minutes.  375 degrees.

Breakfast is served.  I have a house of teenagers now.  They will eat anything.  

Time to get some work done around here.  But first I have errands.  Ugh how they annoy me.  But I know I'm the only one who will take care of certain things........... I have 2 other drivers upstairs playing the Wii.  I could force them to drive around town but a few hours by myself in the car alone stuck in Christmas Traffic sounds appealing!  

UPS store:  to return The Engineer's Textbooks we rent from Chegg.  Easy enough

Next the G.W.  I was on the hunt for a hymnal and maybe a rectangular shaped tray.  More on that later.  I found a songbook that'll do.  No trays today.  

I went into Walgreens for scissors.  They were not on sale so I did not purchase them.

I went into the grocery store.  My vacation home.  I grabbed a few things for supper tonight and meals tomorrow.  Teenagers eat all the time.

Believe it or not, these few little errands took over 2 hours.  There is a LOT of Christmas Traffic.

When I walked in, my sparkly clean kitchen was hidden under a buffet of tortillas, french fries, sandwich items, dirty dishes.......... I mean what happened?  Ironman was home from work and trying to load the dishwasher.    I have got to remember to take a photo of his dish arrangement in the dishwasher.  It is definitely photo worthy.

I had some gifts to wrap.  

I have a craft room upstairs but the Wii is in that room and frankly, it's quieter in my bedroom.  So I keep the Christmas Gift Wrap supplies in there.  Paper and boxes in one long box.  Tape, ribbon, scissors, pens, tags divided in the smaller box.

Speaking of dividers, I LOVE these little cardboard dividers from Target.  You can find them in the Dollar Spot.  Love them.  

Wow, this photo is blurry.  Santa - I need a NEW CAMERA.  But back to the little Target boxes, I use them all over my house.

They corral my nail polish.

The hold pony tail holders by my blow dryer.

They corral extras in the bottom drawer.  Everything from tylenol, bandaids, to contact lens, toothpaste, and deodorant.  

I like to divide things.  Here's my top cosmetic drawer.

These acrylic dividers are not from Target.  I have had them since I was a teenager.  They fit perfectly inside a drawer.  I love, love drawer dividers.  

Just for fun, here's Ironman's Bathroom Drawer

Ha!  I asked him once if he'd like me to organize his drawer.   

"what for?"

I guess he's got a point.  

And yes, there are TWO poison ivy treatments.  Because he runs in the woods, and rides bikes in the woods, and digs in the yard he must scrub his skin if he even thinks he has come in contact with that plant.  The Zanfel is marvelous.  You have a poison ivy rash?  Zanfel scrub will wash away all the poison resin and within an hour your skin will be clear.  True Story!  (I have not been compensated for my opinion.  They have no idea who I am)

I started on my craft project but had to stop before I could finish.  I'll take more photos tomorrow.  But this is why I wanted a hymnal.  I cut all the pages from a songbook I found at Goodwill.  Punched holes in the center.  

Teenagers are hungry.  Again.  

Grabbed onions, bell peppers, celery (Cajun Trinity) one can of tomato paste and a tomato.  I don't know why there's a small box of vanilla.  I didn't need it for this recipe.

Made a roux.  Sauteed the chopped vegetables.  Added tomato paste and crawfish.  Steamed some rice.

Crawfish Étouffée.  Easy and filling.  Just what you want with hungry teenagers.

Sometimes it's difficult to find Louisiana crawfish.  We've been invaded by Chinese Crawfish.  I've never tried the foreign crustaceans.  I will pay more to buy local.  

The teenagers ate and disappeared.

I have a kitchen to clean.  Again.

A book to read.

5 days until Christmas.

*The font at the first part of this blog is crazy.  I don't know how to fix it.  I apologize.