Christmas Eve Party Prep has begun.......

I finally made my grocery list yesterday and made it to the store this morning so I am able to start prepping some of the dishes for our annual Christmas Eve party.  I have found a bunch of desserts that hold up very well in the fridge (assuming I don't eat them LOL) and some other dishes that transfer well from the freezer to the oven.

So today (as of right now) I have made my Oreo truffles and guess what?  This year I made them gluten free!  It was an easy switch to make and no one will be able to tell the difference but my friends that are GF have one more thing they can eat at the party!  :)

This is the recipe that I used: http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/11/no-bake-oreo-truffles/.  Obviously I used GF cookies and I used 8oz of cream cheese and regular white chocolate chips.  They are very easy to make and look a lot more complicated than they are---I promise!

Gingerbread house

I am going to state the obvious---YES I AM VERY BEHIND!  In the next day or two I will be posting Halloween pictures.  (sigh)

Last week I put together the gingerbread house that someone got the boys as a gift last Christmas (they brought it over on Christmas Eve).  Technically it had expired so I didn't let the kids eat any of it but since the use by date was Nov I decided it could still be put together.  ;)

Let's just say I stink at putting these together.  Ugh.  In the end we put frosting all over it to keep it from falling apart--we said it was a nice snow blanket.  :)

So excited

Seriously.....Travis kept making these goofy faces on purpose---I gave up trying to get a good picture

Is the Skylanders newest version "Trap Team" on your kids wish list?

If so......Toys R Us is running a great promotion that started today where you can get the Trap Team starter kit for any version for just $39.99 ($74.99 regular price) PLUS they are throwing in a FREE Trap with it (a $6.99 value).  It looks like you can also score this deal online but all of the traps are sold out online so you have to go in the store to get your free trap with the deal.  ;)  Online claims the store by my house is out of stock but trust me they had a wall of them this morning.  LOL  This is likely the cheapest price you will find for this all season!

Santa picture 2014

Maybe Brody is coming around about the man in the big red suit.  He didn't cry at all but he also didn't really smile.  LOL  Travis did talk to Santa but when I asked him what he asked Santa for he said....."I don't remember".  SERIOUSLY?!?!  LOL  Brody of course didn't talk to Santa for even on second.  ;)  Maybe next year.........

Holiday craftiness---SPOILER ALERT IF YOU ARE MY NEIGHBOR! (lol)

Normally my first post on holiday crafting is in early October.......so needless to say I am very behind this year.  ;)  I am blaming it on losing about 3 weeks of my life to watching Netflix every spare minute I had so I could watch every episode of The Walking Dead, Orange is the New black, House of Cards, Scandal and The Blacklist!  (by the way every single one of those shows is AWESOME)

So without further adieu I give you my first holiday project of sorts.  As you all know I am crazy about the Target Chirstmas clearance---especially when it gets marked down to 90% off.  So last year I found these cute wooden/felt ornaments that I decided I would easily personalize.  TWENTY CENTS later I have a super cute Christmas gift!  (HCC is our street name if it had initials--lol)  I will likely pair it with some sort of edible treat but how cute---it will hopefully be on their Christmas trees for years to come!

67 days

That's the number of days between today and January 1st.  I'm not stating this number for people to panic about the number of shopping days left before the holidays (yikes it's sneaking up on me since I am wrapping things up usually by now and I have done very little).  This is the time of the year that my plan is MAINTAIN my weight---lol.  At this time of the year with 4 holidays and tons of parties, happy hours etc it can be very easy to gain weight over this time frame.  I saw an article last year saying the average American gains 5 pounds!  Not me---if I lose weight in the next 67 days I am thrilled----but the goal at this time of the year is definitely to maintain!  :)  Who is with me? 

Cox Farms

Last week Brody and Lucas tore up Cox Farms!  They had a great time on the slides, the hayride and looking at the animals!  I bet they would have stayed there until they were kicked out if they could have!  lol  How cute are Brody and Lucas together?????  :)

Cheesy Chili Mac---HUGE HIT!

Someone told me about this recipe awhile ago (Tammy maybe?) and I pinned it on Pinterest but I hadn't ever made it........until now.  If you want to follow along with the recipe go HERE.

In the end this is a non packaged version of Hamburger Helper but sooooo much better!  It's also a "one pot" dish so you don't have to dirty a bunch of stuff.  I used ground turkey and use extra sharp cheddar that I shredded myself (I am trying to avoid the packaged cheese because the wood pulp freaks me out!).  The only other substitution......drumroll.......I used GF pasta and no one was the wiser!  Win!

Everyone loved it---Travis at first wasn't going to try it and then he did.......and was hooked.  He ate a whole bowl.  ;)

Next time I will add more chili powder for sure---it could use some spiciness.  :)

Super doubles started at Harris Teeter TODAY!

For those that aren't aware.......every now and then Harris Teeter will let you DOUBLE any coupon up to $2.  So a coupon that has a face value of $1.50 becomes $3 off!  This current round runs from today October 15th until midnight on October 21st.

Six out of my 10 deals today were using coupons from the paper or a magazine.  The other 4 were from www.coupons.com.  You can print coupons from coupons.com twice---these coupons I had I only printed once because I wasn't sure if the items would be a good deal until I got there.  :)  The best thing is to pair the double coupon with an e_vic price.  That can make items super cheap or FREE!

Here are my deals from today:

Frozen breakfast burritos 2 for $2 after e-vic---FREE after doubled coupon!

Suave conditioner $$2.99 after e-vic-----FREE after doubled coupon!!

Bush's chili beans--3 for $3 with e-vic----3 for $1 with the doubled coupon!  .33 a can!

Laughing Cow cheese---$2.49 with e-vic---.49 after the doubled coupon!  WOW!

Hunts petite diced tomatoes (we make a lot of chili in the fall/winter--perfect!)  4 for $5---4 for $3 after doubled coupon!  .75 a can---not the best price in the world but definitely a good discount!

Taco seasoning was 3 for $3 and 3 for $1 after the doubled coupon!  .33 a pack!  (we use taco seasoning in all of our chili)

Campbell's soup in a bag--I've never had it but thought it was worth a try with the coupon.  $3.19 and then $1.19 after the doubled coupon

Two chili powders (do you sense a theme here?  lol)  $4.58 for both---$1.08 for both after doubled coupon!  .54 each!

Reynolds baking cups $2.78 for both---$.78 for both after the doubled coupon!  .39 each!  They had the larger ones as well and those were a little cheaper but I chose t get the mini ones--perfect for holiday treats!

Weight watchers string cheese (I prefer this kind over others but it's usually very pricey!)  $4.69----$2.69 after the doubled coupon!

A bargain find........

Today I ran into my local Marshalls just to look around.  I never go into places like that with any real item or items I'm looking for---just looking for a good deal.  LOL  My mother-in-law Jamey goes into Marshalls, TJ Maxx etc all the time and finds great deals---normally I don't have the patience to look through some of the crap to find the diamond.  You know?

Anyway I was looking around this morning and found a TON of Virginia Tech dri-fit tees for boys!  They had baseball, football and some that just said Virginia Tech Hokies.  I found them in the clearance section, they looked like they ran very large (a medium looked BIG and most of Travis' tees are large/xl) and they had a BUNCH!  Here is the one I got Travis: