An ornament and a recipe.

Yesterday I helped monitor lunch at school so the teachers could have their monthly teacher lunch out.  After that, I went to Sarah's classroom where the 8th graders made ornaments for their Kindergarten buddies - they will do an exchange on Monday. 

It was the cutest little ornament.  I found the idea on Pinterest:

Instructions can be found here on Fireflies and Family.  (Also, the picture is from that blog too.  I failed to take one yesterday.)

Then we took clear gift bags and added a little green and red shredded paper, dropped in Rudolph and tied it with a bow and added a cute gift tag from Hobby Lobby.  It was pretty easy and super cute.  I hope the Kindergarteners like them!

I found the tiny little terracotta pots at Hobby Lobby.  They had little holes in the bottom but they weren't quite large enough so Dan had to drill them to make them bigger.  And of course, we found a YouTube video to explain how to drill into them without breaking them.  He basically had to keep the pot wet.

I made some good progress on my shopping on Wednesday but the mall was a big bust. I spent an hour and a half there and only got one gift.  I could have ordered it but this store had a 25% off sale so it was worth it to get it from the mall.  But the entire time I was lamenting the fact that I was wasting time.  I even thought I would be smart and swing by the post office at the mall to pick up stamps so I wouldn't have to make a trip to the one near my house (but in the opposite direction of anywhere I'm ever going.)

 HA!  The line at the mall post office had AT LEAST 15 people in it.  I went to the tiny post office near my house and walked right in and up to the counter with zero waiting. Sometimes it's worth going a couple of minutes out of your way!

Peter has driven home from school the last three days now and he gets a little better each time.  He likes to stop waaaaaaaaay back from the stop signs and he doesn't like there to be any traffic coming when he pulls away from the stop sign - even if the other car is far enough away that he has plennnnnnnttttyyy of time to pull out.  And he likes to go out in the evenings driving with Dan in the dark.

Last night I went with them to Walgreens.  Dan needs a passport sized photograph so Emirates Air can make him a temporary employee badge (he's going back to Dubai in January for a couple of weeks) and wanted me to go along to.  Let's just say that I prefer day driving with Peter to night driving.  He did fine but I'm still pretty nervous.

I wanted to share another sheet pan recipe!  It's Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes from Jo Cooks. 

It was sooooo good.  I used regular potatoes that I cut up and I always add onions to the potatoes when I'm making a sheet pan dinner.  But other than that, I followed the recipe has written.

Dan doesn't like pork chops in general but he cleaned his plate.  And Peter, who is soooooo picky, complimented me several times on the dinner.  I will definitely make this again even though Dan and Sarah don't love pork chops.  I can't make everyone happy!

Here's a picture from Jo Cooks because once again I forgot to take a photo.  Bad blogger!!!

I guess I better wrap this up because guess what?  I've got errands to run!!!!  Post office, more shopping, grocery store, the print shop, etc, etc, etc.......