What's been happening in our little part of the world.

We have dibs on my mom for the holidays- we had to call it after a couple of times when my greedy brother said it wasn't fair and blah blah blah and they wanted her to come so we have her dibbed- it is in fact my present from the year before, Ken buys tickets for my mom to come here.
I know it grates on some people who shall remain nameless Toods & Bill, but tough noogies.
Anyways, this year I have voluntarily given up rights to my mommy so that my nephew can have her. Yeah, my Williebean and his daughter Asia get my mommy. There has been a history that I won't get into of less than stellar holidays (well, I will get into the IT'S NOT NOW AND NEVER HAS BEEN MY FAULT) and since my boy is sharing a condo with mom - we were soooooo worried about her being on the oxygen and all that other crap but she is totally a gazillion times better now YAY THANK YOU GOD! I am graciously letting him undib me.
Hear this, though, every dang body!
I now and forever more call eternal dibs on my mommy (cuz I've always been the favorite) for the holidays, you are all welcome here but you can't have her there. This means a few days before Thanksgiving til a few days after the New Year.
No discussions, no more undibbing no matter what, no nothing so nah and you can't un-nah my nah so there.
We had a fabulous weekend- it was Ken's mom's 75th birthday and it was fabulous. Everyone who could come did and I don't even know the total headcount.
I am going to get one of our wonderful relatives that can take a decent picture to email me some so I can put them up eventually but for now I have a few of the food we made. I'll put the recipes for the petit choux (mini-cream puffs) on the lunch blog since it would just get lost in this post and I decided to put all the recipes over there.
It was so cute, everyone chipped in to get her a diamond necklace and earrings and she cried and it was beautiful. Then she got a photo book of all the grands and great grands and she really cried. Touching and wonderful.
The cake was amazing- they had a photo of her when she was a little girl on it (and let's not even get into the eating your mother is a new low on cannibalism jokes) but really, it was just lovely. Again the relatives take much better pics than we do so I'll wait til I can get them to send to me.
Today we got our freezer delivered- it is nice, and only $2 more per year to run than the lowest rated one they sold anywhere near the same capacity.
We try to do what we can to be environmentally conscious, sometimes you have to make trade offs though. If I had paid a few hundred more for a $2 a year savings it would have to last longer than I will be alive to pay for itself and quite frankly I don't have that kind of money to throw around and even if I did I find that wasteful in a different way.
I think it is like most things, you have to find the balance and do what works for you.
Lowe's couldn't deliver the dishwasher today as they only have the floor model and it has a dent on the front bottom... unless I am getting a discount I will bash the thing up myself, thank you very much.
I think we will really like it, though, it is the quietest one they sell at our Lowe's and only $4 more per year than the lowest energy rating, again a very excellent price. The reason we chose it was because the lowest to run had a very tiny silverware holder and over 20 decibels louder.
Anyways here's the pics of what we brought... deviled eggs, snow peas and baby carrots. Instead of picking through, stemming and blanching the snow peas I just defrost a bag of frozen- the steamer bags are nice but any work and they are perfect for any veggie platter or snacks- the girls really like them in their lunches.
Grape tomatos, baby carrots and olives- we HAD to use our little frog dip bowl Kyra got for me- simply pour in a bottle of Kraft Peppercorn Ranch Dressing and you have a perfect dip- simple is good.
Mini cream puffs- half filled with vanilla cook & serve pudding and half filled with chocolate fudge. In the middle are some brownies made in my new cutesy pan that I got with part of the Bed, Bath & Beyond GC that I won- the details don't show up really well but there are several cute designs.
Everything went over really, really well. :D I was amazed at how many people didn't know what snow peas aka sugar snap peas were. Or if they did know about them have only ever had them in like a stir fry when they get take-out. They taste nothing like regular peas, you eat the pod and they are sweet sweet sweet and yummy cold or hot, in recipes or as is, it's all good.
That's enough chattering I feel the need to win something so going to enter a few contests before I need to pick up the drama queens.
Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!!!