Because free is always better than cheap!

My good friend Redhead is giving away a mystery book over at her place!   Isn't that exciting?!  She is so creative!  You only have till midnight tonight to add.  Midnight!  See- mysterious!

Tell her I said HI!

xoxo-

J.Danger

Drumroll please!

I was so excited to see so many new faces here on my site with this giveaway!  I hope all the newbies stick around!  Welcome little newbies!

The winner is of The Same Kind of Different as Me is- 

Bellini Valli!

Congrats!  Now keep posting all those glorious recipes on your blog!  Love them, and so does the DH.

Send me your snail mail address so that I can get it to you!

And stay tuned, I have another giveaway coming!

Thanks for all who tried to win the book!

xoxo,

J.Danger

In light of "holiday cheer"

Today, Emily did this on her blog. 

Not only does she make me hungry like, every freaking day, but she's pretty funny.  You should start reading her blog.  Then go ahead and make her recipes,  but just don't do it as well as I think I can.  That makes me feel remarkably inadequate.  Thanks!

I thought it looked like fun!  You all know I like to "acquire" ideas from others, so I thought....hmm... I can do that!  She said I can too, so here goes!

100 things that I love-

(in no particular order! So NO complaining!)

1.my husband 2. my children 3.my mom 4.my friends 5. books 6. school 7. cooking 8. cupcakes 9. yogurtland 10. Tall Mouse craft stores 11. cookbooks! 12. garage sales 13. clearance racks 14. Target 15. Nordstroms 16. coffee 17. cashmere socks 18. wearing no shoes 19. being in my pajamas for as long as possible 20. weekends 21. date nights 22. "practicing" 23. road trips! 24. diet coke 25. natural mothering 26. pecan pie 27. pumpkin pie 28. Charles Dickens 29. grocery shopping for new recipes 30. hosting parties 31. Pushing Daisies 32. Project Runway 33. Historical Fiction 34. William Stafford 35. Billy Collins 36. John Irving 37. libraries 38. rainy days 39. Paula Deen 40. Quilts 41. Crocheted blankets from my mom 42. old photos 43. Amelie 44. Gone with the Wind 45. cheeseburgers 46. BBQ 47. good heels 48. Amazon.com 49. Ebay 50. mentos 51. m&ms 52. presents from Cory 52. Blues 53. margherita pizza 54. my piano 55. NPR 56. samples at Costco 57. writing out cards 58. Charlotte Bronte 59. chile verde 60. holidays 61. new babies 62. pregnant women (the nice ones) 63. flats 64. real coffee shops 65. Etsy 66. the deli 67. going to my mother in laws for dinner 68. Danger Family FUNdays 69. G.K. Chesterton 70. Tattoos 71. Real cities 72. other people's gardens 73. getting my hair done 74. writing 75. bikes 76. Jane Austen 77. George MacDonald 78. plants in a house 79. sustainable thinking 80. Google 81. Italian food 82. good mexican food 83. Reading with the kids 84. teaching the boys at home 85. being an interfaith family 86. going to the movies 87. being in bed 88. real life crime shows/books 89. biographies 90. food network 91. hot rods with loud exhaust 92. twitter 93. having great neighbors 94. having a home. period. 95. baking 96. giving gifts 97. weddings 98. Rolling Stones 99. going for walks 100. history channel

She was right- that was way easy.  I guess it is good to have so much that I love!

You should try it.  What do you love?

p.s. I better be on that list....or else....

p.s. squared- don't forget about the giveaway! 

xoxo-

J.danger

I am almost afraid to say it....

The Danger family is done with our holiday shopping!

WHAT?!  I know, right?

It feel pretty sweet, I must say.  We are making most of our gifts, which are just about done.  Today we finished off what needed to be bought.  Well, at least as gifts.  We still need wrapping paper, and stocking stuffers, damn it!  I knew I shouldn't have said it!

The other day I was emailing someone about what I love least about the holidays.  My naive response was "Whats NOT to love?!  I just love the holidays and babies and old people.  And puppies and kittens!"  

Today, I wish to rephrase that answer.

What I hate most about this season is-

1.  The temps at the grocery store.  Now, I know.  I get it.  They are working, and it is only a temporary job, and I am sure that they are doing their best and hope to get kept on.  But really, when I hand you the broken lemonade and you look at me like I broke it, and then play with it for 5,934 minutes, trying to fix it, this makes me frustrated.  And, even if you did fix it- that would not replace the missing lemonade!  And p.s.- I wanted to buy TWO of them, but you didn't even ask if I wanted a new one! 

2.  The woman at Wal-Mart that raced my ten year old son to a book that he was reaching for.  Ok lady, really?!  You're charging down a ten year old...for a book...at Wal-Mart.  Need I say more?

But you know what I love MOST about the holidays?  Well, most everything (except all that junk above!)  Now that the gifting is almost done, now comes the baking!  I have hundreds of reasons now to bake and bake and bake!  And I intend to use them!

P.s.- lest you think that I am a cold hearted holiday hater in poor spirits- see the post below.  Would cold hearted holiday haters in poor spirits give things away?!  I think not!

xoxo-

J.Danger

Ok

So the other night when we got home, I was gearing up for the holidays! In full force holiday mode, my dear husband surprised me by trying to sneak up some Christmas/Hanukkah lights!

Oliver was such a help for Daddy!

Yep, total help.

Tomas on the other hand, bee lined it for a friend's house- ANY friend- as soon as we got home from Florida.  He was D-O-N-E with family time.

Alas, the Danger family has officially started decorating!  The holidays are here!

On that note- I bought this book at the airport in Houston during our 5 1/2 hour layover (!).  I tried to post a picture but Blogger will not let me.  It is called "The Same Kind of Different as Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  It is the story of a homeless man and an art dealer and their unexpected relationship with one other.

Here is a blurb from their website-

"It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana... and an East Texas honky-tonk... and, without a doubt, in the heart of God. It unfolds in a
Hollywood hacienda... an upscale New York Gallery... a downtown
dumpster... a Texas ranch.
Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, it also shines with an
unexpected, life-changing love."

It was a great book.  Once I started, I could not put it down.  It was more preachy than I had expected, but the story line of the book made up for it.

So- in fitting with the holiday season, I am giving the book away.  Just leave me a comment telling me what kind of a good deed you are planning to do this season (mine's covered!).

I will choose in about a week, then ship in on out to you- the winner!

Good luck- and Happy Holidays!

xoxo-

J.Danger

Cue the suspense!

Well, by suspense I really mean "I came to school today totally unprepared so I can't post until this afternoon".  But for you- I can make it suspense!  Let's just keep it between us two...

Check back later this afternoon for a giveaway!

xoxo,

J.Danger

A photo finish

First off- I am soooooo sorry.  The sheer amount of photos on this post is so absurd it is unbelievable.  But my family reads this blog (even though they never COMMENT! ahem) so at the risk of having to repeat the narrative on numerous occasions, to slightly (hmmm) buzzed barbecuing second and third aunts that are all named Sister Mary Margaret something or other- here you go.  (I love you all Mary something or others!)

This is what we looked like on Thanksgiving day.  Well except me.  Much to my dismay I was NOT able to maintain my super glam face that you can see here. Darn it!

Oliver had on a new sweater.  The commercial said it would make him behave for the night.  Snatched that right up!

My brother and his wife Vaulta drove up (or was it down?) to hang out with us for a few hours.  We had breakfast with all the Nick characters, then took James to the water park for the lagoon slides- at which point a freak accidental sliming occurred.

We also went to Animal Kingdom.  This is the conservation station there. Designed by none other than our fabulous Aunt Susie!

They rested for a minute in the bird atrium.  Tom can't wait for retirement. He's a perfect fit.

Breakfast with Patrick (right before he got fresh with me!  Patrick!)

Squidward was humiliated for both of us.  Good man that one, good man.

Oliver was picked to dance in a line up (finally NOT A MUG SHOT in a line up! Phew!)

Tomas and I got to be on a game show called "Who Knows Best".  We nailed every question, but then lost with the last one because lame not so hip mom did not know Kung Fu Panda.

Oh yes.

You know it.  I mean come on now folks, they still belong to us!

Tomas was a contestant on yet a second game show.  Here he is doing his best impression of Swiper as he swipes his little masked face off.

Super wild dance off

Good thing Tom went with the BLUE Camo!

Rockin air guitar

Heaven.

So fun was had by all.  Unfortunately all of the pool shots were lost.  Which is just a shame because you know I was absolutely the hottest one there.  You should have seen it, all the men were swooning and all the women were glaring.  I got a lot of pictures of it, they just you know, got lost.

xoxo,

J.Danger