Christmas on the way!

A week from yesterday and it's here. This year seemed to have just flown by! The good news is that I think I'm just about finished with my Christmas shopping. I went way over budget on my brother and sister, but that's pretty typical of me. Unfortunately. I just see so many things I know they would like and think "just this one last thing..." Which also reminds me that I made the nice mistake of telling my mom that I don't want any stuffed animals or any junk for Christmas. She's called John and mentioned to him that I said that, so I know she's ticked off about it. I probably should have worded it differently because I'm sure she ran to my sister and told her that I called all the gifts she ever picked out for me as "junk". You don't tell that to a 16 yr old girl, and especially not out of context like I'm sure she did. I just can't win. I probably should have just taken the stuffed animals and keychains..

The chowder was sort of a disaster at first.. lol. I had never made it before, so the first day I tried it out, I ended up making 3 different batches. The kitties loved me that day. The next day I decided to give it another go and ended up with something I felt was good enough to let John try out. He seemed to really like it, and I was quite proud myself, having never made it before. I still have some tweaking to do, but I wouldn't be ashamed of making it for, say, a party I'm going to the way I have it now.