Slowly but surely, we’re finishing our bedroom set from IKEA.

Yesterday, we picked up the MALM 4-drawer chest and the MALM 6-drawer chest to match our MALM night stands. We also bought a FADO table lamp that our dog thinks is a ball and won’t quit barking at, curtains for the front bedroom window, and placemats to use as table toppers.

All we need now is the MALM bed frame and slats, but we’re either going to have to borrow a truck or pay for delivery to get those home.

After looking at all the furniture yesterday, I’m pining for the MALM dressing table, which has felt trays for jewelry, even though we have nowhere to put it. Maybe someone could buy it for me and save it until we have a house with plenty of room.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve turned into total IKEA junkies and are really happy with the quality of the pieces we’ve purchased.

I would love to claim that I have been overwhelmed with holiday gatherings and celebrations, which is why I didn’t submit this week’s Four Foods on Friday on time, but I was really just savoring the time off work and couldn’t get myself to do anything productive for the past three days.

I hope some of you can claim the celebrations were endless and that you had a great holiday!

1. Do you prefer cooking with electric or gas?

Gas. It’s easier to control the temperature and I don’t boil over as often.

2. How many times a month do you order out?

“Order out” means delivery in our house, which we rarely do. Maybe once every 2-3 months.

3. How do you like your ice – cubed or crushed?

Crushed. When my husband and I were dating and he came to dinner at my parents house for the first time, he nicknamed us the Rockefellars because our refrigerator made crushed ice. That’s not so uncommon, is it?

4. Share a Christmas recipe.

My favorite Christmas cookie is Florentine lace cookies, and my mom made them for the first time in a very long time this year.

Cookies

• 2/3 cup butter
• 2 cups quick oats, uncooked
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (and use the good stuff!)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling

• 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat; stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla extract and salt; mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls, 3 inches apart, onto a foil-lined cookie sheet. Spread thin with spatula. Bake for 5-7 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet then peel away from foil.

Melt chocolate chips until smooth. Spread chocolate on flat side of each half of cookies and press two halves together.

The holidays may be over, but the spirit of giving can carry on throughout the year with Sears Heroes at Home. The Heros at Home wish registry helps to make sure that the families of our soldiers and veterans have what they need this holiday season, and all year-long.

There are 30,583 military families that are extremely thankful for the Sears gift cards they receive that can help buy clothes, appliances, shoes, and toys. If the video above doesn’t show how valuable our small donations can be, visit the Heros at Home wish registry and read the stories of some of the military families and view some of the necessities and simple luxuries we take for granted on their wish lists.

Sears was kind enough to give me and one of my readers each a $100 gift certificate this holiday season. I donated a portion of my gift card to the Heros at Home wish registry, and I hope the winning reader does the same, because the more we donate, the more each family receives.

Please visit the Heros at Home wish registry and make a donation or leave some words of encouragement for our military families.

Donations are not tax-deductible and will be given to the familes in the form of a Sears gift card.

We’ve started a new holiday tradition this year. No family gatherings on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

*Gasp* But Christmas is supposed to be about family!

Well, Mike and I decided that we see the family we are close with on a regular basis, so why waste two perfectly good days seeing family we never have the want to see the rest of the year? Instead, we’re going to relax, go to the movies, and probably order pizza for dinner.

We’re already considered Aunt and Uncle Scrooge for canceling Christmas, so I doubt we’ll be missed since we wouldn’t be arriving with arms full of gifts, but I want to assure you that we’re still very much in the Christmas spirit. Eggnog is flowing, holiday music is playing, and we sent out many holiday wishes to friends and family; we’re just going a less traditional route on the actual holiday.

Do you celebrate Christmas in a non-traditional way? Have you gotten any slack for how you celebrate the holidays?

It’s Christmas day. Are you still short a Christmas gift? Perhaps one for an expectant couple or a daughter, sister or neice? The gift of life through a stem cell collection kit from C’Elle could be the most important gift you ever give!

I know a stem cell debate probably isn’t on your Christmas list, but just consider how valuable stem cells, collected from menstrual blood, can be to a women, couple, family, and baby. The female body produces thousands of self-renewing stem cells every month during menstruation, and C’Elle’s patented technology allows those stem cells to be collected with an easy-to-use kit and cryo-preserved for potential cellular therapies.

The harvesting of the stem cells is affordable, painless and non-invasive, and because the stem cells in menstrual blood mimic both adult and embryonic stem cells, they can quickly multiple and have the potential to differentiate into heart, nerve, bone, cartilage, fat, and other cells. The cells may not be used this year, or even ten years from now, but as medical research continues to discover how stem cells can be used, the cells become more and more valuable as a treatment option.

The gift of C’Elle is a highly personal one, and one that may bring many years of happiness to your family!