(Next to) no snow, and cool gift possibilities for next year...

It's amazing to me that here it is, January 6, and we have had very, very, very little snow here in Idaho. Don't get me wrong, the car and I are really ok with this when it comes to the roads, but I am worried about a drought factor coming into play later on because of the lack of moisture. What's it like where you are? I put up a poll to the right, but it ends soon. Just wondering if there is a lack of moisture everywhere...

So just some thoughts that I thought I'd share (plus, if I put this up now, I can just look at it next year when I am trying to think of something to give that's not all that expensive, but useful/helpful in some way) about some things I observed/received/in some way learned about over the holidays:

--One of the neighbor gifts we got this year was canned apple pie filling. Wow, it looks great, and I would imagine tastes even better than it looks. I can't imagine it will remain in storage long, but it is a great food storage item....

--There was a great comment left on the post about great, inexpensive gifts that I already linked to on December 19 (this link) where someone (thanks, Kristen B.) suggested wrapping paper, with a tag that reads: "May your Holidays be wrapped with Joy!"  Clever, and something that could be given out at the very beginning of the holidays and you would be done, and people would have something they could totally use. Seeing as I'm a procrastinator, this one might not work out that well for me, but who knows? :)

--We went to visit some relatives, and saw what one of their neighbors was giving out for neighbor gifts--paper towels! There was a roll of paper towels with a candy cane, and the note said something to the effect of  "absorb the Holiday spirit". Again, very useful...

--Amazing that, seeing as how we discovered just prior to Christmas that all of our flashlights could not be accounted for, two new ones showed up as gifts under the tree. Great minds think alike, I guess, because I provided one of them and my husband provided the other. Odd that we couldn't find the ones that are supposed to be in a very specific place in case of a blackout, but good that we found out that we couldn't find them when it wasn't an emergency. The previous ones, which will hopefully eventually show up, really had been in the same place for ages. So here's my question for you--it's not an emergency--do you know where your primary secondary (ha!) light sources are? We would use our flashlights to find our candles--seems easier that way... :)

Well, seems unusual to still be talking about the holidays, but guess where I'll go looking sometime in November for those ideas I want to remember? Plus, I got the link to the gift ideas to work this time (hurray!) so that's a plus! Thanks again to Fabulous Finds (I love when the links actually work) for the above link, and when I went to go get that link, I saw that there is a giveaway for a free stencil  that ends soon that is on the current post, so thanks for that too! (I know that the giveaways I post for aren't always strictly on this blog's subject, but who doesn't like a free giveaway? :)

Anyway, happy 2012!! More on things I'm working on/need to work on to come---because yes, I still have a lot to learn/do/ practice.... :)

How quickly was that help supposed to come?

I hope everyone has had a great week and a happy Christmas! The day after Christmas we headed south for a road trip, and fortunately, everything went well for us. We could put a big question mark on how it went for whoever was parked next to us in one location we went, however.

We had arrived in large parking garage, and had finally found a place to park, only to find that the vehicle next to us had one of its rear doors left open. This would be fine if, say, the owner were there taking something out of the backseat, but the problem was that there was absolutely no one there. Kind of eerie, really.

And since the car was at the edge of a row, on the pillar nearby was a security box flashing its blue light like crazy. We looked around the car, and directly into it, to make sure that no one had passed out or something right next to or right inside the car, but there was no one to be seen. When we looked more closely at the security box, it indicated that if the light was activated, security would respond. We didn't touch the car, but looked around for the (hopefully) arriving security as we went on our way.

 By the time we got back to our vehicle, the car door was closed. The blue lights, however, were still flashing. Or flashing again. Hard to know. Just like it's hard to know when help will come whenever there's an emergency. Granted, there's not enough information here to know what happened. The person who left their door open could have activated the security light themselves and made their way to help afterwards. Someone could have activated the light for another reason altogether, and the door could have been left open by a forgetful youngster. (Hey, it happens.) I guess my point is that even though the light was flashing, there was none of the advertised help immediately visible.

 Hopefully, none of us will be in a situation where we need help, but emergencies happen, (in all probability not something even vaguely related to what happened with the person with the open car door) and for many of them we can be prepared in such a way that we don't immediately need help if one happens where we are. Having at least 3 days of emergency supplies ready, like this list of supplies at ready.gov can make our lives easier if we have to wait for help we hope will come. (I do think that I have linked to this site before, but it does give a basic list that newer readers may find helpful.) It will also make it less urgent for help to get to us, which might especially help anyone who is in more need of assistance than we are...

 In any case, hope everyone will make (or perhaps update) a 72-hour kit for emergencies, and hope no one will ever need it. The link above gives some ideas, but everyone's needs will vary, so it is likely that no two 72-hour kits will look the same. The open car door thing was a reminder to me that help might not always arrive as quickly as one would hope...better to have one and not need it than to not have one and need it...

 Take care, and Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours all the best for Christmas and throughout the holiday season!

If you're still needing ideas...

...for inexpensive "neighbor gifts" or the like, you might want to check out this post: http://todaysfabulousfinds.blogspot.com/2010/12/15-gift-ideas-under-2.html. I have no idea why all the options for inserting links are gone as I write this post, but they are, so here's hoping I figure it out (or the options come back) before the I write the next one... Thanks to Fabulous Finds for the ideas!

Giving food, getting food...

Well, that was about the most cohesive title I could think of, given that I am about to relate a bunch of experiences that are semi-related...

--I had the opportunity to prepare a meal for a large family and deliver it--thing is, my typical "go-to" meals wouldn't necessarily work in this circumstance, given I didn't know how much food was actually needed. There were a variety of ages represented, and, well, I wanted to make sure there was enough food taken in. Sooo, I went looking on the internet and found this recipe for a ground beef casserole. Thing is, I used ground turkey, and omitted the green pepper, and made it for my own family the day before I made it for the other family. It went over ok with my family, although it wasn't a huge hit. What I liked about it is that with these ingredients, it's easy to manipulate the measurements to make it larger by doubling, and I'm pretty sure if you wanted to stretch it with a little more pasta, it wouldn't hurt anything, and would be more to serve. Anyway, not strictly a food storage recipe, but it is easy, and readers remember how much I love easy when it comes to recipes. :) Just thought I'd share. I think it would be great to take to a potluck dinner, as well.

--Many thanks to the kind "Christmas Elf" who left the homemade cinnamon bread ring (reminded me of what I have seen called "monkey bread") and ran away before we opened the door. It was still warm, and enjoyed by all!

--And speaking of "getting food", I thought I should share this link about legislation that was recently passed, as I understand it, without the amendment that was suggested at the beginning by Senator Paul. Storing food is particularly mentioned, so I include this link in the interest of spreading more information, and because people need to make informed decisions whenever possible. You may have already seen/heard about this, but wanted to include it here for those who have not.

--Picked up some boxes of potatoes at a local farm for my parents and took them down at Thanksgiving--they were requested so that they could be given as Christmas gifts. Ahh, Idaho potatoes, fresh off the farm. Gotta love food for gifts. Saw on the internet elsewhere a suggestion of giving a case of toilet paper for a "white elephant gift"--I think it may come across as funny, but no question would be useful....

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and is enjoying the Christmas season!

Thank you, Veterans!

Can never say thanks enough to all those who have served our country and protected our freedoms--but the thanks is heartfelt. Thank you!

Some things are worth repeating...

I imagine by now that many if not all of my readers have heard about the peanut butter companies raising their prices in a major way--soon, if they haven't already. I wrote about and posted this article over on my other blog on Monday, and it gives details on when some of the prices are going up with some of the major peanut butter companies. Looks like there is some time left before some companies raise prices, but not much, so you may want to stock up on peanut butter, if it is one of your preferred preparation items. Since time is of the essence in this case, I hope you will pardon the repetition...

And since I am repeating myself, you may want to check out my post here that includes links to a great site that I don't think I have ever mentioned on this blog....

And, speaking of repetition, I can't say thanks too many times for coming back to read... :) Hope all is well with everyone!