wittenlover

Down to three loaves of pumpkin bread and a pan of fudge for tomorrow's shipment. I cranked out quite a bit last night. This "Team No Sleep" girl still got 4 solid hours of shut-eye last night. Impressed with myself. lol

Just have pumpkin bread (3 loaves) and one batch of fudge left for my "Round 1" drop dead ship date tomorrow. Will finish those up tonight and get everything packed. Round 2 begins as soon as I drop off Round 1 with my trusty FedEx elves. I'm tired, but in a "labor of love" kind of way - in other words, it's worth it.

Tough when the family isn't together on the holidays. I haven't seen my brother in 5 years because he lives across the country and his work typically doesn't leave him with enough time off to come home for the holidays. Hang in there and know that, while we may not be physically with you, your GD family is here for you.

Way too much baking still to be done tonight and tomorrow for Wednesday drop dead date for my round 1 shipments. Team No Sleep, here I come! lol

Yikes! Glad they’re on the mend! Feel free to keep hanging out here all year! (Heck, I did after I blew my “in the club” status partway through the year.)

SS package in FedEx elves’ capable hands just under the wire (PM’ed you tracking Bopeep)! Whew! Been a crazy week when it was originally going to be a quiet one! Now to get back to baking for my track family. Team No Sleep’s star player hard at work for the next several days! lol

Thought I'd be able to pick up the last of the gifts for my SS tonight but day job has derailed that plan. Will have to be grabbed tomorrow as I travel between one work thing and the next. Still hoping to wrap, pack and ship tomorrow, if at all possible.

I ended up buying one thing for my SS and a couple nice amethyst rings. Total out of pocket was sub $30. Win.

When you move back to MI...

This sounds really good. I've bookmarked it for trying sometime. Thanks for sharing! I don't know what Dad and I are doing for Christmas just yet - depends on his work schedule.

My baking marathon begins tonight and will continue for the next week & a half or so. Need two more small things for my SS box and then I can ship that out. Will be picking them up tonight as I grab fresh eggs and a couple of other last-minute-grab baking stuff. As for other gifts, I'm at a loss. Literally have no clue what I will get one of my best friends. I hit it out of the park with my gift to him last year and am unfortunately fresh out of ideas for this Christmas.Need to make time to get into one of the stores I can usually at least get ideas from. I''m even struggling with what to get my dad. This isn't like me to be this "blank" with gift ideas, but it will all sort itself out at some point. My baking list, Round 1, has to ship by 12/14: - Chocolate chip cookies, double batch (nets me 15-18 dozen, depending on cookie size) - White chocolate macadamia cookies, double batch (about 16 dozen) - Peanut butter cookies, double batch (about 8 dozen) - Oatmeal pb chocolate chip cookies, double batch (about 8 dozen) - Chocolate candy cane kiss cookies, single batch (about 5 dozen) - Snickerdoodles, double batch (about 6 dozen) - Chocolate peppermint fudge, two 8x8 pans (128 squares) - Chocolate strawberry fudge, one 8x8 pan (64 squares) - Pumpkin bread, 2 loaves - Brownies, 2 9x13 pans (48 brownies) Round 2, has to ship by 12/20: - Repeat all cookies from round 1 - Lemon sparkle cookies, double batch (about 6 dozen) - Single batch of each fudge - Brownies, 2 9x13 pans - Gingerbread fudge (new this year, if I have time) Boxes will go everywhere from Idaho to NC (and a few other places). Busy cookie girl, keeping my NASCAR track family spoiled for the holidays.

Yep. Struggling to find things to buy. smh lol

You didn't move far enough south. lol (I drove from MI to Charlotte, NC on Christmas Day in 2010 in a snowstorm that began in WV and got worse the farther south I went!)

Doing my last bit of shopping for my SS within the next couple days before I get too deep into my Christmas baking marathon. Good times!

Happy December, all! Had the company Christmas party Saturday night, so got all dressed up & had a great time. Proud to say I am SEVEN dress sizes down from where I was last year. Still have a ways to go, but making good progress. [emoji16][emoji106]

Oof... Son first. Whoever your SS is will certainly understand if there is a delay. Praying he is OK and gets to come home soon.

Here we go! Let's see if I can manage to stay in it all year this time! Thanks, Brad!

Congrats to all!

Dad and I had a great time in Frankenmuth. We ended up at Zehnder's and did their buffet style. Lots of yummy options on the buffet to be had, including a variety of meats: turkey, roast beef, fried chicken (because Frankenmuth), salmon, fried shrimp, and stuffed pork roast. Sides were traditional and plentiful. Dad had blueberry pie for dessert and I went for the traditional pumpkin. We left with full bellies and a thought that we may do it again in future years.

Twelve years since I lost Mom, 11 since I lost my grandparents, brother lives across the country and can't get home for the holidays, leaving just Dad and I local. Neither of us have "special someones" in our lives, so it's usually just the two of us for holiday meals. It does make the holidays a bit rough sometimes... That said, I take moments for myself and allow myself the melancholy times because it's definitely not good to bury our pain. But... I do my best to "fake it till I make it". I'm very attached to music, so I look for songs that lift my spirits no matter the season, be it something that reminds me of my hard-rock loving mom (think AC/DC, etc) or a song that just brings me joy in general. For any of you GD'ers who are having a rough time this season, know I think of you as "extended family" so you are never alone, even in the moments when loneliness weighs on you the heaviest. You all are in my prayers.

My closest Walmart did not get any in, but the next closest one did. I missed the cutoff for the appointment line by about 12 people. Ended up heading to Target Friday morning and got my Xs 256GB without a problem, complete with $250 gc. Not a bad consolation prize.

Their sale was really weak this year. No cat furniture on sale, really, litter deal was not the best deal, depending on what other stores folks had available to them, no "first X # of customers through doors get coupon/gc/whatever" etc. Petco beat them on some things, too. This is the first year I haven't gone to PetSmart on BF in a VERY long time. I did go to Petco, though. (Great deal on Litter Genie Plus system that I wanted to pick up.)

6 pm tonight (Thursday).

My issue is memory space. The 128 GB version of the 9.7” is $329.

No dice on any additional info from my PetSmart tonight. They’re keeping it under wraps, but they were starting to put some tags up for a weekend (thru 11/25) sale. (Also posted in PerSmart posted ad thread.)