Red M&M's...

I am going to tell you all a little funny fact about me. 

I don't eat RED m&m's

In fact I once did this with my M&M's

This may seem crazy and I should probably stop this odd quirk. I have actually tried to, and cannot.

You may be wondering "How did this all Start??" 

Don't worry... I am going to tell you.

When I was maybe 9-10 my friend was picking red m&m's out of her mixture.

I was confused and of course asked why she was doing this. 

Her response was "I don't eat red m&m's anymore". 

I was confused and let her explain. She told me that she had found out that the red dye in the m&m's was made from ladybug shells. Yes, that's right...Ladybug shells. I think she also said beetle shells but that's besides the point. At this point I knew she was just making it up but I wanted to be cool just like her. 

(You know we are all like this when we are 9-10 yrs old.)

When she first told me about it she had me try all the flavors. We discovered that the red ones tasted different. So, we began to pick out all our red m&m's. 

Years passed by and we were still picking out red m&m's. We would pick them out of large bags, we would throw the red ones away that were leftover in our bags, we would even pick them out of m&m cookies!!! There was no eating RED m&m's.

To this day...I do not remember the last time I ate a red m&m. 

It is not an easy task to always pick past the red ones, especially at Christmas. 

You have the mint m&ms that are amazing and the colors consist of Red, White, and Green. 

You have the wonderful and new peppermint ones that consist of Red and White. 

You have the plain, peanut, peanut butter, and pretzel holiday ones that all consist of Red, White, and Green.

That means Christmas time I lose 1/3 and even 1/2 of the m&m's. 

Luckily, my husband rolls his eyes and eats all of them for me. 

He gets tired of all the red m&m's though. 

This is a dilemma that I can't quite seem to get past.

I know the red ones aren't made from beetle or ladybug shells. 

I know the red ones don't taste funny.

For some reason though I cannot seem to muster up the "courage" to eat a Red m&m. 

Is this a bad thing?   

Should I go on having this weird quirk about me? 

Should I continue to let these red m&m's the outcasts? 

hmm...

It has always been an interesting conversation starter...

Maybe I'll eat one another day. 

Just probably not today.

:) 

My Christmas Breakdown

This year everything is a little bit different, and very new. 

This is our first Christmas married. 

We had gone to Kansas last Christmas to be with my family. 

This year though it is just The Man and Me. 

We aren't going anywhere, we don't have anyone coming into town, it really is just The Man and Me. 

Christmas has always been a very special time for me.

I have always been at home for Christmas. 

I am used to spending lots of time with my family, especially with my mom. 

My mom and I usually do a lot of the last minute Christmas shopping together. 

We make and put together lots of goodies for all of our closest friends. 

The goodies never really get to anyone because they all get eaten first. 

All of the family helps in putting up the Christmas decorations in the house, and so much more!

 Last year though, my mom and I found a very special place and created a wonderful memory. 

My mom wrote a blog post about it... 

That special place was under the Christmas tree.

We both laid under the tree and laughed for what seemed like hours. 

In the post my mom wrote she goes into lots more details as to why. 

You should check it out. :)

With all these wonderful traditions and memories I knew that this year would/will most likely be hard.

For the past few weeks I have been looking for things that I could decorate our house with to make it feel like Christmas was really here. 

Thinking of all the great decorations my family has had in the house since before I can remember, I felt discouraged because I couldn't figure out anything to have in my home. 

The Man and I went out on a little shopping trip to try and find somethings to help liven up our house. 

After going to numerous stores for many hours and having pretty much no luck, we both began to get cranky, hungry and tired. 

That is when I had my Christmas Breakdown.

I began to cry. I just cried, and cried. 

I felt like I had been defeated. I felt like I really wasn't going to be able to make our house beautiful and decorative. I had so many feelings that were extremely discouraging. All I wanted was to run to Kansas and steal all of the decorations from the house.

After eating some dinner (which always helps) and having a talk with the hubby (which also always helps) we began to reevaluate our previous shopping trip. We were looking in all the wrong places and we both had the wrong attitude about it all. I also realized I did not need all the things from Kansas because it is no longer my home. 

I realized that my real home is now here. 

It was time that My hubby and I began making our own traditions and memories. 

Traditions and memories that we will share for the rest of our lives. 

Traditions and memories that we can hold close and dear to our hearts. 

Traditions and memories that we can pass on to our future generations. 

So, we went to one last store that same night and filled our basket with all sorts of fun items. We had so much fun finding new things for our home. There was love, peace, and joy. 

There was the spirit of Christmas.

We got home and spent lots of time working on our home to make it look like Christmas. 

I have realized something really important though...

You do not have to have it look like Christmas. 

It just needs feel like Christmas, with or without the decorations.

And with that I have some pictures to share. :) 

Thanks for reading!

The Snowman Wreath we made for our front door!
This is one of my favorite things we have!

The mantle with garlands that have cute things in it. 

Can you tell I love snowmen yet??

Our amazing live (I grew up with fake, he didn't) Christmas tree
with the fabulous Top Hat Christmas tree topper!

Decorations The hubby grew up with. He thought he didn't have them anymore
What a surprise it was when he found it in the garage.
Let's just say it was an extremely happy moment!

Super easy to make and gorgeous to look at. Glitter light bulb center piece.

The annual Shop with a cop.
What a neat experience it is to participate in helping needy kids each year. :)

And Then...

 ...And then I got a nasty computer virus

Days ago I had thought I really needed to write a new blog post. 

The last post was more about my dogs than about the things going on in my life. 

I was going to write a post 

..And then I got extremely sick.

I was going to write a post

...And then I needed to grocery shop for Thanksgiving.

I was going to write a post

...and then I made sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and a Turkey for Thanksgiving at my sister-in laws.

I was going to write a post

...and then 

(starting to get the picture?)

we had some black friday shopping that we wanted to do.

I was going to write a post

...and then I had to get a bunch of groceries because I had family coming in town for my Grandpa G's 90th birthday.

I was going to write a post

...and then all the family came in town, and I had people staying here on and off.

I was going to write a post

...and I decided to do all my Thank You cards in one day. (not such a fabulous idea but...they got done!!!)

I was going to write a post

...and then we had a Christmas tree to go get, along with a bunch of other errands.

I was going to write a post

...and then that brings us to my first line of this post...

I got a nasty computer virus. 

That was when all my "going to write a post thoughts" came to an extreme STOP. 

A computer virus that was sent through my email, and was extremely legit. 

Only because I do a lot of online Christmas shopping. It truly is the best kind. 

The email was from "UPS" and had all the logo's and everything inside the email. I felt so stupid that I got the virus, but with such a nasty and clever way to send it (not to mention great timing) 

I was stuck and there seemed to be no way out. 

Luckily, my friendly geek squad at my nearest Best Buy were able to help me out. Come to find out, my computer was filled with around 95+ viruses. 

Go Figure.

My computer is now fixed.

I was going to write a post

...and then, I actually did!

Hope your holiday season is going well! 

P.S. There were many "and then's" that I didn't include. :)