I’m always on the lookout for baby girl clothes with dogs on them. There’s so much cute boy stuff with dogs, but very little for girls (it’s all cats—ugh!). Anyway, I found this cute Scottie sweater at Kohl’s on clearance for $2.80! It’s 6-9 mo. size, so I hope Anna can wear it next fall.

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I decided to get out and do a little shopping this morning around 9:30. I thought since it was New Year’s Day and people were off work/school but stores were still open, it would be really busy. Boy, was I wrong. Conway was like a ghost town. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it that empty. Very eerie, really. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I sat at the Harkrider/Oak intersection by myself—and I mean that literally no one else was there—where yesterday it took me three cycles to get turned left at that light. Was everyone just out partying until the wee small hours? I pulled into the Conway Commons parking lot, a place usually bustling with activity, and found it almost empty, making me wonder at first if the stores were even open.

I finally commented about it to a clerk, who informed me that everybody was probably watching football. Apparently Arkansas was playing in some big bowl game? Huh.

Well, I really enjoyed my morning of quiet, stress-free, crowd-free shopping. It was wonderful! Maybe there is a reason I should follow football more closely.

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Here’s my sweet baby niece, all ready to open presents in her Santa outfit! She’s about 5 1/2 months old.

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I love music, and I’m all for toy musical instruments that allow babies to start discovering music at an early age and get their little creative juices flowing. However, they need to be made right! Take a look at this Fisher Price 2-in-1 Crocodile Keys:

It’s a xylophone/keyboard thing, but the problem is as you go from left to right, the notes go from high to low! Now that’s just gonna mess a kid up. I’m wondering, was there not one person with just a smidge of musical background at Fisher Price who could have said, “Um, guys, I think this is backwards…”

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Since I like to cook, I think a lot of my posts will be about food and sharing recipes. Here’s what we had for Christmas day:

Breakfast

• Breakfast casserole (a plain sausage/egg/cheese variety, since someone in this household who shall remain nameless won’t eat it with mushrooms, veggies, etc.)
• Cinnamon crumb cupcakes (like little individual coffee cakes)
• Sautéed apples

Dinner (with my parents)

• Roast beef and gravy (my mom)
• Hashbrown potato casserole
• Green beans (my mom)
• Homemade oat dinner rolls
• Frozen cranberry salad and 5-cup salad (an orange/pineapple thing) (my mom)
• Cranberry-apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake with whipped cream

As you can see, I ended up supplying the carbs. That seems to be what I’m best at!

The recipe for the Cinnamon Crumb Cupcakes came from a Penzey’s catalog, except I added the apple. David and I are big fans of Penzey’s spices. All you have to do is smell supermarket cinnamon and Penzey’s cinnamon side-by-side, and you’ll be hooked too. When you’re making this recipe, it may seem like too little batter and too much streusel, but it comes out just fine.

Cinnamon Crumb Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 apple, peeled and finely chopped

Streusel topping:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut in 1/4-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 325°. Spray 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour and baking powder; add to rest of ingredients. Mix on low speed until well-blended (the batter will be very thick). Fold in chopped apple. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

For the topping, mix together the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. (If you have a food processor, it works great for this; use about 8-10 1-second pulses.) Sprinkle streusel evenly over muffin batter.

Bake for about 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove to a wire rack.

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… and I’m not ashamed to admit it!

It’s an apple corer/peeler/slicer gizmo. I know it looks like one of those gadgets you might see on a late-night infomercial that’s just made to sell, but it works, really! And it’s fun to use. It’s not worth it to do just one or two apples, but if you are making a pie, for instance, and need to do six or seven, it’s quicker. And did I mention fun?

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Actually, that’s not an exclamation; it’s short for “Ornament Of the Year.” It’s a tradition my parents started with me and my brother when we were little. So when we started our adult lives, we already had 20+ ornaments to put on our first Christmas trees. (I think I actually wound up with many more than that; I had a thing for Christmas decorations and somehow managed to accumulate more than one ornament a year.) I’ve continued it into my adulthood, making sure I secure at least one new ornament each year, usually purchased, but sometimes received as a gift. I’ve decided that since our tree is already getting quite full, the tradition had better stop with me this year since it will start with Anna next year. So here’s my last official “OOY”:

I like birds, so I chose this little goldfinch. This doesn’t mean I won’t get any new ornaments ever, just that I won’t intentionally look to add one every year.

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Here’s the tree, for anyone who’s interested:

I’m a procrastinator and never have any presents under the tree until just a few days before Christmas, so I always put stuffed animals under the tree when it goes up so it won’t look so pitiful and empty under there.

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I was up from 3 A.M. to 6 A.M. night before last with Sasha. That’s right, our dog. She’s scared of thunder, and for some reason her solution for this is to jump on our bed. (She’s not allowed on the furniture, and she’s very good not to get up there unless she’s scared.) I would almost give in and just let her just stay up there (against my better judgment) so we could get some sleep. But she doesn’t want to sleep with us. She wants to pace around and tromp all over us and roll around on our heads. How she thinks this is going to help the thunder situation, I don’t know. So anyway, one of us gets up with her so at least the other one can get some sleep. Since David has to go to work, I have Sasha duty on weeknights.

Let’s see—I finished a load of laundry, thawed some chicken and got it marinating for dinner, drank a cup of hot cider, and caught up on my internet goofing-around. I went back to bed when David got up to get ready for work, and I slept until 9:30.

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Today I’m 3 months away from my due date. So I guess that means I can say I’m 6 months pregnant? I’m starting to get quite a belly now, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting the day I can say I’m 6 months, because that sounds like I should be getting big. 5 1/2 months just doesn’t sound like I’m that far along, but 6 months sounds ok to start getting huge. Yeah, I know that’s silly.

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