boy, did we ever! ~~ if you could have seen the three-car crash we were in, you would have thought deaths were involved ~~ so frightening ~ we live in the northern suburbs of chicago, but we all go to galena for christmas ~ the bad driving conditions were forecast & we *were* nervous, but that's pretty much the scenario EVERY year ~ & we DO really have such a wonderful time ~ anyway, an UNINSURED nineteen-year-old lost control of her car; our daughter couldn't chose to go into the ditch cuz we were under a cement underpass; so when stacey hit the car it was thrown across the highway where we had gone to try to avoid the crash (thank goodness, there was no oncoming traffic at the time!!)~~ my eyes were closed the whole time, cuz when i heard my husband scream NOOOOOOO & i looked up; saw we would never be able to avoid her; i simply could not bear to watch! ~~ when i opened my eyes & found myself unharmed & alive (thanks to the airbags)~ but i was trapped in the car cuz the ditch was very deep & my door was wedged into the snowbank ~ my husband went flying up the steep ditch to check on stacey & her family ~~ BTW everyone was driving way below the speed limit; however, a car sliding on ice is close to impossible to stop ~ the girl was issued 3 tickets ~ anyway, miracle of miracles, we were all unscathed; & five hours later were back on our way to galena with two rentals joining the two cars that were not involved in the crash ~ we are back home now; but the two cars are in rockford awaiting the decision by state farm if they can be fixed ~~ phyl, from chicago who is so grateful it was not worse!

It's just not possible to have too much light, in my opinion. I've never been in a house that was too bright. When we were planning our kitchen gut, I added cans, pendants and undercabs. All the cans got switched up from dimmer to switch for one reason: I wanted to be able to use CFL bulbs to save on electric. These require a different fixture. The cans that can use CFL bulbs on a dimmer cost ten times what the switch ones cost. Hence, I got no dimmers. The old kitchen had two ceiling mount fixtures with four flourescent tubes each. The new kitchen has twelve cans in the ceiling, six pendants over the dining table and six pendants over the peninsula. I have CFL bulbs in every one; all different colors of light; none burn hot. We have four cans to one switch and 3 pendants to one switch. If it is too bright (which is never) I can always turn a switch off, (but never do). Having that much light in the workspace is just AWESOME! Yes, our neighbors think we're growing pot in the house. Yes, our electrician made fun of me the entire time he was working on it. No, I wouldn't change it! My cataracts no longer inhibit the activities I can work on in there and I think the food even tastes better! I'm planning on cutting more holes in the ceiling in the living room, and the little bedrooms if we ever get that far on the renovation! We're saving a bundle of money on the electric bill and don't have extension cords with lamps attached and cords to trip on anywhere anymore!!! In addition, we got the can fixtures that keep the bugs up in the attic from coming thru the ceiling. Nice huh? No more cricket carcasses like in the old tube fixtures! I won't ever have to worry about cricket legs or spiders coming down from the ceiling onto the dining table ever again. It's just wonderful! The undercab ones we got are halogen. They do burn hot and suck electric. Those I would change in a heartbeat. I worry about warping the cabinetry & my spices going stale so I don't use them much, except as a night-light when one of us is getting home late. The color of the light coming from them is yellow-er than the other ones and I don't like it as much. Another thing I hate about the undercab lights is the transformers take up space inside my cabinetry. What I love about our undercab lighting is that our electrician was able to hide all the wire so you cannot see it & it illuminates the back corner areas that are so dark. Seeing all the way to the corners is awesome & lets me use space I would ignore otherwise.

*waving to jel48* Hello from another Michigander! Houghton is a lovely town! I have done a little Christmas shopping for my daughter so far. I have a few American girl items hidden away. I actually would like to wrap them so I can hide them easier (I don't mind if she sees the wrapped boxes lol) but I'm not sure if any stores have wrapping paper yet for the holidays.

I do this with ornaments but we call them "You found me ornaments". Our card is VERY similar to yours. I believe it was started a number of years ago and even had a website etc. but trolls utlimately destroyed it....although crafters have kept the tradition going. I posted about it last year...so glad to hear about others keeping it going too. This year I have doilie angel ornamants, some bell/bear ones and I am sure I have some others I have made to give out. I like to leave them in the store isles, church etc. I had to get permission to leave them at the stores though.