Did you think I had forgotten all about counting down the days to Christmas….well…..if you did…Santa is going to bring you coal. : )

Not really!!!

The December Fourth little ornament is something that will keep you warm!

It is a little blue mitten.

This little mitten has been playing in the snow. It still has a snowflake on it.

Wonder if it built me a snowman outside?

Maybe I should go look!

21 days left!

Becky

When I went shopping with my oldest daughter who does not cook on Turkey Day at Walgreens, I received over $30 in register rewards. I went back to Walgreens a couple of days later to use a $10 off of $30 purchase coupon and received some more register rewards. So, between both shopping trips, I had over $40 in register rewards. For those of you that do not know what a register rewards is, it is a coupon for a certain dollar amount off you next purchase. So basically, I could go shopping and get $40 of goodies at Walgreens for practically free. Part of my register rewards were going to expire tomorrow, so I did a quick shopping trip tonight to use part of them up.

This is what I bought:

1 package Charmin

5 packages of turkey bacon

2 Reynolds wrap

3 bags of kettle chips

3 bottles of oil

3 bags of Nice chocolate candy

2 cans tea

3 candy bars

2 mentos

2 Celestial Teas

1 box of kitchen garbage bags

After I used, in store coupons, manufacter coupons and $36.50 in register rewards, I paid a whooping .32 cents for everything.

My total savings was 100%.

This does not happen too often, but when it does, I feel like doing the Tony the Tiger…..” It’s Great!” yell.

I still have $8.00 in register rewards left (they expire in 2 days) and I received a $5.00 coupon off my next $20.00 purchase. So, I will have to find time to make another trip.

Did you find any great bargains this week?

Becky

Today is day three of our countdown to Christmas.

Yesterday, I gave you a little hint to help you guess what today’s ornament might be.

Did you make a guess?

The hint was, “it is named after a president.”

My oldest grand girl already knew what the ornament was. When she read what I had written in my post, she asked…. 

 “Which president was named Bear?”

It was beary funny!!!!

Anywho, here is our little teddy bear glass ornament.

I don’t know whether to sing Christmas Songs or say the Pledge of Allegiance.

It is late, so I better just say have a beary good nite!

Becky

Here is the Little Advent Christmas Tree.

Today is December 2nd. Today, Oldest grand girl got to put a small glass candy cane ornament on the tree.

Here is a close up. It looks almost good enough to eat.

Peppermint does sound kinda good right now. I think I have some York peppermint patties somewhere…

I am going to go and try to find one, maybe two.

Try to guess, what tomorrow’s ornament will be?

Here is a hint,” there is a president named after it”, or is it, “it is named after a president.”

You decide which is right!

Becky

There is a saying that us Missouri native say, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait awhile.”

I guess that is why these packages of bulbs stayed in the trunk of my car for….a month…probably a bit longer…

I was waiting for the perfect day to plant them.

It is December 2nd and the weather is 63 degrees now but it was almost 70 degrees earlier today. I can hardly believe that it is this warm.

Tomorrow it could be 28 degrees. That is how it is in good Ole’ Missouri. I could not take the chance wainting for another 70 degree day to get these bulbs in the ground. Today was the day.

Luckily, I had a great grand girl, who wanted to work digging and planting the bulbs. The only catch was, I had to let her plant the bulbs where she wanted them.

 What does a grand mother, who wanted to go shopping, do?

 I got down on my knees and showed her how deep to dig the holes.

A few hours of shopping at the mall and lunch with PIC and Tall Niece at Red Lobster, this is what I came home to find.

She planted bulbs under the pear tree in the front yard. She calls this her flower pattern design.

She planted three bulbs in each of the front flowers mounds by the front sidewalk.

She moved to the little crab apple tree next and planted a bulb on each side.

Finally, she finished up in the new flower bed, where I originally wanted all the bulbs planted. : )

Never stop an artist from blooming where they are planting.

And don’t expect a 10 year old to clean up their mess!

It will be fun to see which bulbs are planted where, when we get warm weather in the spring.

OOOPS it is like spring now.

Hope your days was full of flowers and sunshine!

Becky

Are you counting down to Christmas already?

Yesterday on December 1st, I got out my advent tree. It is a little tree with lights that has a ornament to put on the tree each day until Christmas.

A few years ago I put the tree in the top of my bedroom closet. It has been there ever since.

Until yesterday.

You see, one of the ornaments had gotten broken. It was a mystery. I came home and the little balarina slipper for Dec. 17th was in several pieces on the table.

Ouuuu….it seems no one would tell me exactly how it happened.

In a rash decision of grinchyness, I took the tree and the ornaments away and put them in the top of my closet.

Everytime I got in my closet I would see that little tree, with 16 ornaments hanging on it, reminding me that it had a broken ornament. As the years passed, dust was started to settle on the little branches. I looked at all the local stores, on line, out of town stores and flea markets trying to find a tiny little balarina slipper. I was determined to fine one.

I still have not found one.

I will never fine one either.  Because, as long as that little tree stayed in my closet, where no one could enoy it, I was not going to find a replacement for the tiny little balarina slipper glass ornament.You want to know why?

Grinches do not get present they really want!

Ouch! That hurt to say that!

So yesterday, oldest grand girl and I got out the Advent Christmas Tree and started setting it up.

I took off all the ornaments and dusted off the little tree. We carefully wrapped and put each ornament back into it’s little matching box.

We got the lights turned on and oldest grand girl put on the December 1st. ornament.

The countdown to Christmas has begun!

For me, my grinchy heart grew 10 sizes that day!

December 1st in a poinsetta ornament. Later today I will post the December 2nd ornament.

I need to go now and cover my green face with makeup to go shopping. I only have 23 days left before Christmas!

Enjoy you day!

Becky

Heck if I know….just kidding!

Truthfully, I do not know a ton about pomegranates. I do know that most of us are probably more familiar with pomegranate juice. Pomegranates originated from the Middle East but are grown in the sunny state of California too. The are full of little sacks of tart juice with a seed in the center, that you can add to yogurt or cereal. I have even seen them added to cookies.

They are full of antioxidants along with vitamins and minerals. After my Kale Catastrophe, I decided maybe to switch to fruits that are really good for you instead of vegetables for the time being.

If you read my earlier post, you seen I just bought 6 ponegranates. With add matching and coupons I only paid .09 cents apiece for them.

NOW WHAT?

How do I eat this strange fruit that is covered in a skin that reminds me of a smooth husk?

I don’t know.

I had to get some directions.

The little pamphlet that I picked up said to wash off the pamegranate and cut off the end.

After you cut the end off of the fruit, you cut it into quaters where the grain is and pull each part of the fruit apart.

You can see all the little seed juice sacks.

Over a bowl of water, you start plucking the little juice sacks out and putting them in the water. The unedible husk pieces will float to the top so you can scoop them out.

Here is a picute of the undedible parts you skim out of the water. Here is a picture of the mess I made.

When I got done picking out all the floating pieces you cannot eat, I drained the water off and rinsed the fruit sacks off.

This is what I had left over.

Little sweet tarts of juice with a seed in the middle.

Wonder what happens to the seeds after you eat them?

Who wants to have the first bite?

Becky

Does anyone shop at Walmart anymore?

Since I started couponing almost a year ago, my shopping trips to Walmart are few and far between. I just find that if I can go to a store that doubles my coupon along with getting it on sale, I can really get better bargains.

I keep forgetting that Walmart will do add matching with other stores weekly adds. This week Aldi’s (which does not take coupons) was  having a very good sale on pomegranates, pineapples and bananas. I had coupons for the pomegranates I could use too. Woohooo! So tonight after dinner at Chili’s (yes, went out to dinner but I had a coupon for free pretzels and cheese) I headed over to Walmart and to Hyvee to see what kind of deals I could manage.

I bought 6 pomegranates, 1 pineapple, couple of bunches of bananas and a bag of fresh spinach.

I add matched the pomegranates for .59 cents each, the bananas for .29 cents a pound, the pineapple for $1.00. The bag of spinach was not on sale.

I used 6–.50 cents coupons for the pomegranates.

For everything I paid $4.76

No bad, since pomegranates are normally $2.00 to $2.50 each.

Next I headed to Hyvee

My original plan for Hyvee did not work. 3 items that they had on a 3 day sale were sold out. I did get my rain checks though.

Using coupons, I was going to get some small bags of Malt O Meal Cereal for .09 cents a bag, Right Guard for free and half gallon of orange juice for .99 cents.

Oh well….

This is what I ended up buying.

Since oldest daughter who does not cook, loves peanut butter (cause it is pre-made and comes in a jar) I bought 2 jars of Peter Pan Peanut Butter for $1.69 each. I also bought 3 Kemps Frozen Yogurt for $1.99 each. I had $1.00 coupons for each of the yogurt, bring the price of the frozen yogurt down to .99 cents each.

So for 3 containers of frozen yogurts and 2 jars of peanut butters I spent $6.64.

For tonight’s shopping trips I spent a total of $11.40.

Now, should I eat a banana or frozen yogurt for a bed time snack….

Which would you choose?

Becky