Christmas Round-Up 2011 :)

It's been an interesting Christmas season this year.  Here's a quick recap of what's gone down so far:

First up, I made my first gingerbread house with Sis.  :)  The first attempt proved futile, as our frosting cement was much too runny.  After tweaking the recipe a bit and creating a thicker sugar glue, our second attempt at building a house took but 5 minutes.

That blog of frosting in the front was supposed to be a snowman, but the piping bag exploded and we had to stop there before frosting got all over.  That to the far right would be my station wagon.  :)

Next up, I opened my gifts from sis early.  She'd made me a stocking and filled it up nice and neat, considering I'd never had a stocking before.  It was even written with "La La" on it.  :)  Yay!  It's now hanging in my room.  Within this stocking, I received:

A cuddly cow (that smells like tea!) that you can microwave and a brand spankin' new journal.  :D  Joy!

And a sriracha shirt!  She knows I love the stuff.  :)  Love herrrrr!

Not shown that were also in the stocking included neat little mitten/gloves and a fluffy purple bird pen.  The gloves are sitting in my drawer and the pen on my desk.  :)

And from my immediate family?  I got socks.  Regular ol' socks.  I thought that stuff only happened in movies.  :(  I'm not even an ankle sock person unless it's summer time and I'm wearing shorts...

At least the Pumas have purple stitching.  :)  I like purple.

For sis, I'd gotten her the Pro Mark II 9000 Canon printer and a boatload of photo papers.  I warned her that it'd be of apocalyptic proportions.  I'm not quite sure if she believed me until she'd seen them all.  :)  Thank you, Staples, for all of your FAR and almost FAR deals.  :)  I'd also given her a GIANT stocking, in which I'd thrown in little piggy items; USB flash drive, note pad, and an Angry Birds King Pig pen.  I don't think she'd opened it yet, but I sure hope she likes it.  It was hidden within a Choco Pie box, buried under Choco Pie and resealed to just look like regular 'ol Choco Pie.  :P

My brother on the other hand, received a Pop phone and a bunch of Hello Kitty items alongside random things I'd found from the Dollar Tree that reminded me of our childhood.  Our toys are making a comeback!  :P

Dollar Tree Finds - 13 December 2011

I'm getting really addicted to going to Dollar Tree at this point.  I'd stopped by after class yesterday to grab a stocking for my brother.  During this trip, here are the things I'd found interesting:

Holy cow.  1.0L of margarita mix.  Nice.  :)  I didn't try it though.  But margarita mix typically comes fairly cheap anyway, so I wouldn't think it'd be that bad.  

I found these by the cash register while checking out.  They were right next to the Junior Mints, and rightly so.  This is the first time I'd seen any other flavor other than the usual mint and caramel (Junior Caramels).  They're about the size of the theater candy boxes (4.0 ounces).  How weird though, I can't even find it on their site as a product.  The box doesn't state it as being limited edition, nor is it decorated as a seasonal item.  There's no expiration date that I could find on the box either.  Regardless, it's pretty good stuff.  I'm a big fan of those raspberry creme/chocolate items.  Yum.  :)  Same family as the Junior Mints, so it's got the same consistency and all.  Good stuff.  I may stock up on a few more, even though I'm not much of a major sweets person.

I randomly decided to pick up a bag of chips and have been in the mindset of trying "generic" items lately.  These aren't bad.  They're not the most flavorful, but they are quite crispy, as kettle cooked chips ought to be.  The flavor is indeed barbecue... but I think it's somewhere in between mesquite and sweet 'cause it's not really one or the other.  There are a few pieces here and there that I find to be too oily though.  But only a couple out of the entire 5.0 ounce bag (actually, of all the ones I'd eaten so far.  5.0 ounces is a lot).  Not bad.  Though, I'm not sure if I'd ever actually get a craving for these though.  I quite like the design of the packaging though.  :P  Generics that try to mimic name brands make me giggle inside.

This was probably my favorite purchase all night.  I'd picked up a giant stocking (over a meter long) for my brother and friend.  Not bad considering that all of their normal sized stockings go for $1.00 as well as their two-pack of the miniature stockings.  Imagine how many of those you'd have to put together to even come close tot his size.  I've only ever seen one stocking bigger than this one and it was from CVS - but that one costs about $10.00.  I'll stick with this one, thank you.

The stocking is actually filled with more junk I'd found in the "Stocking Stuffers" section.  We've never actually used our stockings in this household so I thought it'd be fun to give my brother a stuffed stocking this year with things he'd remember from when he was younger.  Apparently the same toys that he and I had used to play with when we were little (I'm the child of the 90's! - born in '89, baby~!) are making a come back.  Those toys are starting to pop up everywhere.