Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree. How lovely are your branches.

We put our tree up yesterday. I love having the tree up. love love love it, until Christmas day anyways. As soon as the presents are unwrapped I want it gone. I have been known to take it down ON Christmas day. I wait til the night time but that is just out of courtesy to the rest of the family. I pretty much want to take it down before I even clean up the wrapping paper.

But right now, I'm still in love. I love sitting in the dark with just the tree lights on, maybe sipping some egg nog. ahhhh. The kids did most of the decorating, it was very cute. I put the pics up on my photobucket account if you want to see them.

Also, having the tree up really puts me in the mood to shop. I need to get more presents under there! So that is my mission in life this week. On friday I'm going to order everything I need to order off the internet. So I need to have my selections made. My hope is to time the orders just right that they will NOT come while we are at Disneyland. Last year two things arrived about 2 hours after we left the house. They sat on our porch for 4 days. Well, that's a lie. I don't know how long they sat there cause they were stolen. My guess is they were stolen on about day 2. So I will not be making that mistake again.

Anyways, I hope to basically finish my shopping this week. That is the plan anyways.

OH! I almost forgot. My new recipe for this week. I'm adding a new meat to the menu. Pork. I have never cooked pork before so I'm trying it out.

Polynesian Pork Chops

4 boneless pork chops, 3/4" thick
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup
1 can (8 oz.) pineapple chunks
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. honey
2 cups cooked Minute White Rice
Sliced green onions

HEAT oil in skillet. Add chops and cook until browned. Add onion. (I drained excess fat and oil)

ADD soup, pineapple with juice, water, soy and honey. Heat to a boil. Cook over low heat 10 min. or until done.

SERVE with rice and garnish with green onions. Serves 4.