The leftover piece of orange rope that hangs from the luggage rack of my car that everyone likes to point out and offer to take down. But I won't let them because it is my December "happy string." It is the little piece that's left from buying our Christmas tree two weeks ago. What is more joyful than buying a Christmas tree? Champ picked ours out this year and he did such a great job. What is typically NOT so joyful is putting it into the tree stand and getting it to stand just right. It is that task each year that makes me doubt the integrity of our marriage. I say that in jest - but the truth is that it's a bit stressful for us- in fact, just last year I was flipping through a magazine and saw a product called, "The Save Your Marriage Christmas Tree Stand." This year, we got a super small tree. It's the perfect little tree and we love it, AND it took no time to situate it just right in the tree stand. Here is a picture of Brooke admiring the tree. She loves the lights and has quickly learned not to touch the ornaments.
Happiness is seeing Christmas lights everywhere! Last weekend, I spent almost two hours wrapping a tree in the front yard with lights. I had visions of the finished product looking similar to something you'd see at the Ritz at Reynolds Plantation. I wrapped and I wrapped and I wrapped that tree. The boys played together while I did my thing and I loved every second of it! Here is the finished product which is NOTHING like that of the Ritz, but we all love it and it makes us so happy!!
Happiness is our elf, Lewis! He has been pretty tame so far this December. We found him riding on the big bronze sculpture in the den, complete with candy canes and everything!
He found our Christmas stockings and hung them on the mantle in the living room which was a big surprise to the boys as they thought our Christmas stuff was packed away in storage!
And this morning, we found him outside with a hammer (suppose he was looking for a shovel and couldn't find one?) and some candy. It looked like he even planted some peppermints in the soil. Hmm.... I'm thinking that tomorrow, there might be candy canes sprouting through!
Happiness is being with my high school gals at our annual Christmas party. They all shied away when I tried to point and click my camera, so here is a lovely table decoration from the party....that's just about the only picture I got. We had a ball catching up and chatting about our goings on. This year was our 20th year of doing this - wow - that makes me feel so thankful for this great group of women and also makes me feel really old. Yikes.
First, you put your meat into the crock pot (I choose pot roast or oven roast). Place an entire bag of fresh rosemary in the crock pot.
Pour one envelope of dry Lipton Onion Soup Mix on top of the meat.
Add water or chicken or beef stock to the crock pot - enough to cover 2/3 of it.
Let it cook on low all day. When it's time to assemble the french dip sandwiches, take out your meat and strain the au jus so that you remove all the rosemary and little pieces from the soup mix. I usually put the strained au jus and the meat back into the crock pot and shred the meat.
Take some fresh french bread and slice it lengthwise. If you're a mayonnaise fan, spread some mayo on the bread. Add your meat, a fresh slice of provolone cheese and you have yourself a sandwich! Serve with a little bowl of au jus on the side for dipping (unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the final product because I got too busy serving everyone while trying to keep an eye on Brooke - so sorry!).
