Stampede!

New Year's Eve was interesting this year. My in-laws traded their Las Vegas timeshare with one in Branson, so we spent the week between Christmas and New Year's there with them in the condo. It was nice to visit with relatives, but the overall feel and pace of Branson is just not "us", if you know what I mean. Let's just say that Eureka Springs and Branson are just about as opposite as two towns can get.

How about a little comparison:
Traffic - Eureka Springs: zero. Branson: tons, all the time.
Tourists - Eureka Springs: mostly artsy types who appreciate history and old architecture. Branson: retirees who like to golf and appreciate cheesy entertainment.
Prices - Eureka Springs: very reasonable. Branson: very overpriced.
Overall Feeling - Eureka Springs: relaxing, stress free, and friendly. Branson: hurried, stressful, and people treated somewhat like cattle.

Anyway, we held out pretty well until the final night of our visit, New Year's Eve at the Dixie Stampede. The night started off with a bang when my husband refused to be in the "required" family photos taken before entering the arena. His mother even said, "Thanks for ruining my evening." The pre-show was very entertaining and probably our favorite part. The guy was a world class juggler who could balance huge things like chairs and ladders on his chin. Then we were "herded" into the horse arena, which is set up like a stadium with rows in front of the seats so the wait staff can run by and serve your food. The riding was very good, and I wish there had been more of it. The trick riding only lasted a couple of minutes. The horses were beautiful, dressed in english saddles and still decorated for Christmas.

The food was very tasty, but it was unnerving when we were eating chicken and they started doing chicken races down below. Then they passed out pork loin, and what was next in the show? You guessed it - the baby pig races!! That part really bothered me, but I don't think many of the other guests were even aware that we were eating and being entertained by the same animal simultaneously.

Anyway, we ended our trip feeling very "overdosed" by Branson. I don't think we will go back for a very long time.

End-of-year deals

Many stores are clearing out electronics to make room for the next year's models. I've seen discount tables at several stores, and the online stores have many items on clearance too. I've seen Canon, Samsung, Pentax, and Panasonic digital cameras, laptop and desktop computers, printers, and televisions, among more.

So if you got any gift cards for Christmas, check out these deals to get the most bang for your gift buck. Hope everyone had happy holidays! We spent most of this week outdoors since it was so warm - 68 degrees today!

Baby Jesus missing again

Since there are newly installed security cameras in several downtown locations, you would think the baby Jesus in the Nativity Scene would be safe this year, right? Wrong! Even though it was chained to a cinder block, someone stole the entire thing! Were they caught on camera? Yes. Could the perpetrator be identified? No.

This is a yearly tradition of sorts in Eureka, and the Jesus is usually found and returned, with the wrongdoer paying a fine and getting a slap on the wrist. I think maybe it is time to give this one a rest and just let the baby Jesus be.

Keep the vacation

We're big on taking vacations in my family. We try to go on at least one trip as a family each year, even if it is somewhere close. Kids can't tell the difference and they have just as much fun traveling 100 or 1,000 miles from home. The part they like is getting their parents' undivided attention and spending time together.

We've sort of made a tradition out of visiting Disney World every few years, but I'm not sure how many more Disney vacations are in our future. We went about a year ago and now that our family consists of four people, the expenses were higher. We realized after a couple of days, however, that the children's meals were the best deals in the parks and the resorts and we ended up buying them for the kids and the adults for the remainder of the trip. We try to live very frugal, and it is so hard to pay $4 per meal, per person every day. I kept reminding myself that we were on vacation in order to justify the high cost.

There are many places to visit around here, we have never been to Hot Springs, Little Rock, or even the Buffalo River area. Just because the economy is in hiatus, people still need vacations to reconnect with their family and escape from the stresses of everyday life. We just need to keep it simple and keep it close to home for a couple of years.

Manly gift idea

I just thought of a great Father's Day gift for any man who doesn't like to wear jewelry, but needs to keep a schedule. A pocket watch! I didn't realize that they still made these, but new pocket watches come in many different styles to suit virtually any man.

There are the classic styles, in either gold or silver, suitable for any history buff. There are some very modern styles, for Mr. GQ on Wall Street. And then there are the very simple ones for the "no frills" type of guy. The prices vary widely, starting around $60 and ranging all the way up to $400. With great sales going on, and free shipping on many items, now is the time to get Father's Day shopping done.

Drink and be merry

I find it gets harder each year to come up with unique gift ideas for friends and family. In fact, a large part of my holiday stress comes from the thought of buying gifts and I usually procrastinate until the last minute and then scramble to come up with something.

I found a website today that sends wine gifts to recipients. You sign up on their website for one of the wine clubs, and choose from the four different levels based on price. Then your lucky recipient receives bottles of wine each month from award-winning family owned wineries.

This is one of those gifts that keeps on giving and will remind the recipient of you all year long!

Father's Day deals

Continuing with my affinity for online shopping and finding great deals, I found one site that has great ideas for Father's Day. Most men would be happy with a gift of more tools, right? I found an online store called Burns Tools with all the major tool brands, plus deals like free shipping on Delta machinery and DeWalt products.

The site is organized so searches can be done by product or by brand name, which is very convenient. The design is simple and straightforward with easy navigation. The Burns Tools store is a member of the Better Business Bureau's Online Reliability Program, which gives consumers peace of mind while shopping on the internet.

Christmas Eve skate party

This year was the first ever Christmas Eve Skate Party here in Eureka Springs. They are hoping to make it an annual tradition, and based on this year's turnout, I'd say there is a good chance it will continue (depending on weather, of course). I was amazed at the skill of all the young skaters in town. Some boys were only seven or eight years old, skating in the park, doing tricks in the bowl and half-pipe just like the adults.

Our daughter was interested in the skating, but our younger son understandably only wanted to play on the playground. So we spent time in both areas, enjoying the beautiful day (60 degrees on Christmas Eve!). One thing that was very interesting was a customized mini-van in the parking lot. It was painted to look like a space shuttle, complete with rocket boosters on the back. I've seen plenty of customized car spoilers and bras, but this van was truly a spectacle. We drive a mini-van too, and never thought much could be done to customize it. I guess we were wrong.

Gifts by gender

Why is it always more difficult buying gifts for boys? I'm not talking about little kids, but by the time they are twelve or so, boys just seem so difficult to shop for. My son is only three years old, so he is happy with just about anything. But we have some young male relatives that make things tricky in the gift buying department.

Usually we just end up giving gift certificates or spending money, that way everyone is happy and they can just buy what they want for themselves. You can purchase gift cards for almost any business these days, even movie theatres and coffee shops. Perhaps even video arcades offer gift certificates? That would definitely be appreciated by a boy of almost any age.

Keep memories alive

We're big on memorabilia in our family. We have a "memory box" in which we save things like the first note my husband wrote to me when we first met in college, or the first movie my daughter saw in a theatre when she was six months old. Actually, the "box" has overflowed into two small shoe-boxes for my husband and I, and the children each have their own box from when they were infants and we saved all the cards they received, some photos, and other fun stuff they will enjoy looking at when they are older.

To continue with our tradition, we make DVD slideshows each Christmas for our extended family members, as well as a copy for ourselves to keep in our box. This way, even though we live far apart, they can see what we've been up to all year and how the kids have grown.

For those of you who are into celebrity and sports memorabilia, I recommend an online store called Millionaire Memorabilia. They specialize in authentic collectibles in all genres and are worth a look if you are searching for something specific. The search function is very helpful and user-friendly and the site is easy to navigate. Their prices are very competitive and they even have sales periodically.

Make it count

We have always preferred educational toys made of sturdy materials like wood and metal to the modern "plastic crap" that is in abundance these days. I am so sick of kid's toys that break easily or can't stand up to normal wear and tear that exists in children's lives. Things like blocks, tinker toys, wagons, puzzles, marbles, Lincoln logs, and Legos allow children to have fun, learn, and use their imagination at the same time.

These are also the types of toys that last forever, so you can pass them down to younger children and they will still be in great shape with many more years of play left in them. Leave a lasting impression and give classic toys that will be enjoyed by kids of all ages.

I've been tagged - Random Christmas facts

OK, my wonderful friend Mile High Mommy has decided that I should share 12 random Christmas-related facts about myself. I've got a bit of time before the elementary school Christmas party, so I'll give it a go...

1. I don't know what happened, but Christmas totally snuck up on me this year. I've felt stressed and rushed for the last couple of weeks.

2. Since all of our relatives live in another state, we have to get everything ready even earlier so we can get it in the mail on time.

3. Our dog has ruined about eight ornaments already, even though we only decorated the top half of the tree.

4. Sadly, I wasn't that upset about throwing them away... I guess I'm not as attached to that stuff as I thought I was.

5. Just when I thought I was done sending out Christmas cards, we received some from people I didn't expect to get cards from... So now I have to send a few more last minute cards to be polite.

6. Thankfully, my kids don't have their hearts set on actually "seeing" Santa in person every year. We saw him last year and they both kind of "clammed up", so this year we just wrote lists. It's like, if we see him, we see him... If we don't, we don't. No big deal.

7. School Christmas performances are way over-rated. Everyone just wants to see their kid and everything else before and after is usually a let-down, especially the rude parents in the audience who talk over the performance when you are trying to hear your kid sing.

8. My husband and I split up at a store since I had our 3-year old and we had some presents to buy. We didn't really plan on where to meet, but I figured I would just check out and go to the car. Then my son says, "Hi Daddy!" I look up, and he is right in front of me! He casually walked away from his cart (which was filled with bicycles and other stuff that didn't fit in bags) and walks over to us, pretending like it was someone else's cart. I think we fooled the kid, but if not, we will surely have some explaining to do.

9. This is the second year we will spend our Christmas away from relatives. We have a love/hate relationship with family gatherings so we are both saddened and relieved by our situation.

10. I like to drink Egg Nog around Christmas. I haven't bought any this year, however, because it is just so expensive! I swear, the price has gone up a lot on that stuff.

11. I will never wear clothes with a Christmas picture on it. Those look cute on a limited number of people (mostly kids under the age of 8) but usually they look pretty cheesy. I'm just not big on clothes that can only be worn one time a year.

12. We've been getting so many cookies and sweets at work, that we will all be as fat as Santa by the New Year!

Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed these little tidbits and Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas vacations and illnesses

Why is it that the time of year when many people want to take time off for vacation is also at the height of cold season? This makes it very difficult to keep businesses running as usual. Take the library, for example. We had one employee out on vacation this week, so I was scheduled to work extra hours to cover for her (yippee!).

Then another employee came down with what we thought was the flu, but is actually pneumonia. So she can't come in either. We had to shift the schedule around again, call in some extra volunteer help, and ask an employee from the administration office to fill in for a couple of hours tomorrow night so I wouldn't miss the elementary school's Christmas performance at the Auditorium.

We are very fortunate at the library to have such wonderful and understanding employees, volunteers, and board members who are willing to step up and help during our times of need. I am still so thankful to have "won" a job there. I say "won" because sometimes I just sit and think, "Wow, do I actually work here? How can I be so lucky?" That is a great feeling.

Christmas crescendo

Crescendo (kre-shen-doh): a gradual, steady increase in loudness or force.

I think this word perfectly describes the week before Christmas, especially if you and your spouse are both notorious procrastinators. Hey, nothing would get done if it weren't for the last minute, right? So we started our shopping last Friday, and amazingly enough, got nearly everything we wanted. My husband has to go back and buy a bicycle for our daughter in a couple of days, only because we couldn't figure out where to hide it in our house. We thought maybe we could just get one in the box and we would assemble it on Christmas eve, but they assemble all of them at the store right when they get them.

Waiting until the last minute is tough when you have packages to mail out in time to arrive before Christmas. We decided to make DVD slideshows for the relatives with most of our pictures from this year. This makes for a nice gift, but is stressful since it involves relying on the computer to get the job done. And as we all know, computers can hardly be relied upon for anything. So a few computer crashes and DVDs-turned-coasters later, we got all 9 DVDs completed and packaged last night around midnight. Since I had to work at the school the next day, I wanted to get to bed early. No such luck. Then my husband got the wonderful job of going to the post office in the morning to mail all the packages, which we thought would be dreadful (as most post offices are the week before Christmas). But this is yet another advantage to living in a small town - he only had one person in front of him and got done very quickly.

The overall tone at the elementary school today was total chaos. The kids are all worked up and excited for Christmas break. I can't imagine what it will be like by Friday. Hopefully no one will get sick and I won't have to substitute any more this week. Then maybe I can get more of the gifts wrapped so we won't have to do everything on Christmas Eve.

Holiday shopping tips

Most people have a few family members who are difficult to shop for at holidays. Either they already have everything, or you just can't think of anything they would like. There are about four people in our extended family whom we always have a hard time shopping for and usually end up giving them restaurant or movie gift cards.

I was thinking the other day about things people have around their house that they don't mind having more than one of. Things like flashlights make good gifts because usually people could use another one in their home, and it's the type of thing that gets misplaced often, so it's good to have many around the house for safety reasons. Flashlights can also be given to both men and women of all ages, so they are a good nondescript gift to fit multiple people on your hard-to-shop-for list.

Christmas Parade

This year's Christmas Parade was last Friday night and we enjoyed it much more than last year. For one, it was much warmer. So I didn't have the kids complaining about their freezing hands the whole time. My husband was sick last year, so I was alone with both kids and that was a bit difficult. This year, we all went and had a great time.

My daughter brought her camera and took about a hundred pictures and was really into it. I was shocked when she picked up some candy that was thrown off a float and she holds her hand out to me and says, "Mom, could you please do something with this candy? Quick! I'm going to miss my shot." She was actually more concerned with getting a good photo than with the candy. Very surprising for a six year old.

She got some good pictures, but we haven't downloaded them yet. My husband uploaded some of his pictures from the parade to his Eureka Springs Pictures website.

For the ladies

OK girls, I've got a Christmas tip for you. One way to save money and benefit yourself as well as your partner is to buy some fine lingerie for yourself. Your man will definitely accept this as "his" Christmas gift, and you get something nice for you, too. And since you get to pick it out, you can make sure it fits and complements your body so you can feel confident wearing it.

Let's face it, if he tries to buy lingerie for you and it doesn't fit or you don't like it, would you really try to return it? I don't think so.

Happy Thanksgiving

This morning, I woke up to our first frost of the year. It didn't snow, but there are little bits of ice on the deck from the slight drizzle we had last night. We are planning a small Thanksgiving dinner just with our little family of four and I think it will be very nice.

Christmas is stressful enough, so we like to keep Thanksgiving simple. We bought a smoked turkey from Hart's Outlaw Bar-be-cue, so it only has to be warmed in the oven for about an hour. We'll just cozy up in our house and spend time with those we love the most, and be thankful for all we have.

Bridge the gap

Since the holidays have sadly become so commercial and consumer-driven, it is understandable that many people find themselves strapped for cash at the end of the year. Rather than drown yourself in credit card debt, why not check the rates on Payday loans? You can get multiple quotes and they don't even require a credit check.

The process is very simple and can be done completely online in a matter of seconds. The money can be deposited into your checking account electronically, and you agree upon a date for the money to be electronically withdrawn to repay the payday loan.

Holiday recipe

It's no secret that Thanksgiving is all about the food. We get together with friends and family to share a huge meal and give thanks for all we have. Many holidays involve families sitting down to a fancy spread of food, but Thanksgiving is the only one that revolves solely around the food.

Anyway, Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only holidays my mother makes her homemade mashed potatoes. I remember these from my earliest days as a young toddler at the dining room table. Tasting them now brings back memories from long ago. They are always a big hit, and the recipe is surprisingly simple and intuitive.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

7 large potatoes, sliced
Butter
Milk
Garlic Powder
Onion Salt
Parsley (fresh or flakes)

Boil the sliced potatoes in a large pot until they are soft when poked with a fork. Drain out the water and blend with a mixer. Add butter and milk slowly as you mix, until you reach the desired creamy consistency. Then add the spices, tasting as you go, until you reach the desired flavor. Potatoes will thicken a little as they cool.
Makes 10-12 servings
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