Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card Controversy

This week has not been a fun week at work. I know. You can always count on me to help bring cheer to your day. I have been dealing with what I like to call “The Great Christmas Card Debacle of 2007.”

Personally, I sent out 8 cards this year. 8 cards to out-of-town relatives that don’t get to see our sweet little kiddies that often. In past years I have sent cards to lots of friends, but with the budget being a little tight this year I had to cut way back. (So if you were looking for a card from the Castle’s you can stop now.)

After the Halloween party at work I asked my boss, who is the office manager, what to expect at Christmas time. She assured me that we were not in charge of anything at Christmas. Decorations are kept to a minimum and the party is catered and the CEO assistant takes care of the Christmas cards. All we have to do is stick on the stamps and labels. Whew. This was good news because the Halloween party was a ton of extra work. Not that I mind work, but I like to know what to expect. Keeps me from going crazy.

The only problem is the CEO’s assistant is also new. He does not have the greatest notes about the Christmas cards. He should have started nagging employees for their Christmas card list in October. I am not sure how it happened but he delegated the job of making the labels to me. He sent me the lists on November 30th. The only problem, I can’t figure out how to get the labels from Excel to Word to Avery. And the assistant can’t either. Finally, I call in the greatest geek I know, my husband, and he figures it out in about 30 minutes. My Hero.

This all happens the first week of December. I finish up the labels. We have some wonderful interns working here over the holidays. Perky college girls that run circles around me. So I give them the labels and in 10 minutes they are done with 400 labels and stamps. Okay, it was more like 50 minutes. Whatever.

I had set a mental goal of getting the cards done by December 14th and thanks to the interns we did it!

So what is the debacle you ask? Why all this rambling about cards? Can’t we just see pictures of your cute kids?

We have two main clients: Ford and General Motors. The Vice President on the GM account likes to have the cards hand delivered at the Ren Cen. We have “Runners” that can do that so it is not a problem. So I set up a run for the runners to take the cards on Monday. As they are on their way to the Ren Cen the VP calls the front desk to see how the cards are coming along. We tell her great! The runners are on their way to make the delivery.

She says What!? Tell them to bring them back. We have to SIGN the cards.

I was told that there would not be a card signing party this year. There was not time for it. I understood that to mean to send them with just the JD logo stamp. I assumed wrong.

So it was back to the drawing board. We had to reprint all the labels and AFTER all the employees signed the cards we have to put them in new envelopes and stick on the labels. Then they went through and found ones that were not correct and I had to redo those. Fun times.

For some reason all of this really bothered me. It bothered me that I had a bad attitude about Christmas cards. Maybe because it was not supposed to be  my responsibility in the first place or maybe because I felt like I had failed. It was not a difficult task. But I had to do it twice which not only wasted my time, but also the interns time as well.

So I left work early yesterday and went to my Happy Place. I walked around Target thinking about the debacle. And what a rotten attitude I had. Who knew Target could be a place of prayer and redemption? And I am not talking about praying for sales and redeeming coupons.
I went back to work the next day and apologized to my co-workers and thanked the Lord that those Christmas cards were gone.

And they were signed this time.

Sunday Snowday

It was a true snow day today. Most times it snows I still have to go to work. I leave while it is still dark and everyone is snug in their beds while I face the treacherous roads. But not today. Today church was canceled which means everyone got to stay home. The girls were still up early and the first one was out the door with all her snow gear on by 9:30. By 10:30 we were all out in the snow. Some of us shoveling some of us rolling around in the snow. Crazy kids. Our neighbor came over and used his snow blower on our side walks and eventually part of our driveway. We love our neighbors.

Then Larry reminded me of why we had children before the age of 30. So we could go sledding with them. When we were first married and I was a teacher we went sledding on a snow day. I was only 24 at the time and that hill kicked my hiney. So I made good on my promise and went sledding today. Okay, I didn’t actually go down the hill but I walked up it and took lots of pictures. Larry was a sport and went down.

And even though we missed meeting with our brothers and sisters at church, we needed a day together as a family. We have been so busy lately. Larry has been working every day since Thanksgiving and it was starting to wear on me. So an unplanned “free” day was a gift.

Some pictures from sledding.

I thinkI will wait in the van. It’s too cold!

Larry, Claire, Susy and their friend Maddy.

Are we going all the way up there?

I should put up the video of him rolling down the hill on this sled.

Brrr. We only stayed out for about 30 minutes. The wind was crazy!

Snow and boot cut jeans do not mix.

Time for some hot cocoa!

New Link

My friend Ro finally gave in and started her own blog. I know she’ll have some great stories to share. Go say Hi!

Proof

Proof that my friend Ro needs to start her own blog.

Her husband Jim told me today that he caught himself on fire yesterday.

You can’t make stuff like that up.

My Girl

I made a chocolate pudding pie for dessert for after dinner tonight. All the girls were excited I had made a dessert just for them. It reminded me of when Larry and I were first married and I had made a fancy fruit salad for dessert. He was so surprised it was just for him. We go to so many church and school events it seems like I am always making some dish for something or other. So the family gets a little excited when I actually let them eat the desserts I make.

After taking a few bites of my pie I look up at Susy to see her face and one hand covered in chocolate pudding. I asked her what she was doing since she had more on her face than in her mouth.

Her response. “Eating chocolate.”

Snowflake Creation

A new addiction for this Christmas season. You can create your own snowflake here.

And the best part…no little pieces of paper to clean up.

Have fun!

Today’s Search Results

“What about Brian Castle Cakes?”

Frosting

Some of the best recipes I have are ones I have collected from friends. This frosting recipe is no exception. My friend Carol (who needs to start a blog) gave me this recipe for royal icing years ago when I was a newbie at cake and cookie decorating.

Royal Icing

3 Tbsp meringue powder (I get mine at a cake decorating store, but they have it at Meijers in the cake decorating section)

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

6 Tbsp water

Beat on low speed for 7-8 minutes.

Make the icing a little stiffer for making lines and adding details. Add a little more water to fill the entire cookie in.

I Made a Little Dough Today

The cookies in my header are a picture of last year’s annual cookie decorating party. I think those particular cookies are my creation but Larry can decorate a Santa like nobody’s business. Today I whipped up the dough in my KitchenAid mixer and sometime this week the girls and I will roll out the dough and cut out and bake the cookies. I have tried many different recipes for cut out cookies but this one is my all time fav.

Thick Sugar Cookies

2 cups butter or margarine (I use butter)

2 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

6 cups flour

3/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add Vanilla, salt and milk. Add flour one cup at a time. Divide dough into 4 parts and wrap in plastic wrap. (I shape mine into rounds.) Refrigerate for at least one hour. Roll out dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Bake on a greased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper) at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Makes 5-6 dozen cookies(really!).I make the cookies a week ahead of time and store in the freezer until the decorating day.

The Set Up (These pics are from 2005)

The Cookies

The Mess

Recipe for frosting coming soon.