Guest Post: Cookie cutters for Christmas

Guest post written by Holly Nielson

I'm by far the least domestic of all my friends, as in I'm not that great at cooking. But, one thing that I'm really good at is baking. When I was browsing for some more cooking supplies a couple of weeks ago, I got a really great idea for something to give them all for Christmas. I had been putting off buying them gifts for a while so I thought that would be perfect.

I went online to try and find some cookie cutters for them. I thought that it would be a really cute gift to wrap up a set of nice cookie cutters into a gift basket and tie it up with a ribbon. While I was doing that I came across the website www.WirelessInternet.net and after that I decided to change over my internet access to that company.

I found a really great clearance on cookie cutters of all kinds of shapes and sizes. So I bought a whole bunch of the cookie cutters and got some really cheap gift baskets to put them all in. I think my friends are going to love my gifts.

Guest Post: Best Christmas lights display in the neighborhood

Guest post written by George Marshall

We probably put way too much thought into our Christmas lights display at our house every year, but it's one of our little hobbies. As soon as the kids start back at school in the fall, I start getting ideas online and trying to figure out new ways to rig up our lights so that they're look even better and be the best in the neighborhood.

I was online with our clear tv bundle a few weeks ago and found all kinds of great ideas to use! While I was at it, I also ordered a new ladder that would make hanging up lights on our roof and in our trees a bit easier.

I just finished all the finishing touches on our lights display during Thanksgiving weekend, although I started putting up some of it weeks before that. I like to take my time putting up everything so that it will all look perfect and itÕs easier to figure out how to plug everything up, to make sure that everything is electrically safe.

Merry Rockin' Christmas (A Day Late)

Off Topic: New Dog!

Christmas came in early in our household. Yesterday, we picked up our new dog, Lisey. We're really excited to finally have a dog after the long and arduous search, KJ even more than me! She's a American Eskimo dog mixed with what we think is a border collie. But since she was a rescue we may never know. She's already taken a liking to chewing on the branches of our Christmas tree, so we have to keep a good eye on her.

Oh, and if you're interested in where the name Lisey (pronounced "Lis" like Melissa and "ey" like....e) came from it has some mixed roots. (And if you're not interested I'm going to tell you anyway.)

I wanted to try to name her after a Red Sox player (since I'm a big Sox fan) and finally settled on Lisey as a tribute to first baseman Kevin Youkilis as Big Papi didn't quite have the ring to it. The name also comes from the Stephen King book Lisey's Story, as I'm also a big SK fan. I definitely wanted the name to mean something, much like I want my lyrics to always be meaningful, and I think we accomplished that.

It's Definitely A "Twisted Christmas"

It's going to be another weird Christmas this year. Since KJ and I can't make it home once again, we're trying to make the best of it and thankfully the live rock shows have been plentiful to compensate. Our Christmas season got a little "twisted" last night as we caught 98.9 The Rock's Twisted Christmas show at the Midland Theater in Downtown Kansas City. The show featured Adelitas Way, Sick Puppies, Papa Roach and Breaking Benjamin.

This was the second time in a few months that we got a chance to catch Sick Puppies live. We first saw them back in September here in Lawrence (see "Hard Rock, Sore Throats, Hot Bass Players and Getting Old"). I missed Emma. It was nice to see her rocking the bass once again. This was also Breaking Benjamin show number 5 for us. And honestly, I would see them again...and again. Ben (the lead singer) was a little under the weather but they still put on a good show and even rocked out a great version of Dream On by Aerosmith.

As for Adelitas Way and Papa Roach, this was the first time we'd seen either. Adelitas Way was decent, they brought some energy and some good tunes. But Papa Roach was nothing short of amazing. I like their music and although I've never been a huge fan, they most definitely know how to bring the rock. Jacoby, the front man, was all over the place, dripping sweat from song one and all while sporting a giant smile on his face. It's so much easier to get into the music when you can see the band enjoys what they are doing.

Aside from the music it was one of the most interesting shows I've ever been to and that might mean that I need to be in the pit a little more often. We saw at least 3 sets of women making out (I think there was one girl that was the common link to all 3 sessions), two sets of naked breasts (on a couple of different occasions, one occasion that won our side of the floor a little contest), and at least 3 fights, all of which my bad ass girlfriend broke up. This show was truly what a rock show is about.

It's nice to think that in about 3 weeks we'll be heading back to the same place to catch Cavo and Rev Theory for The Rock's New Year's Eve party. It'll be a huge change of pace to be counting down the new year like we've seen on tv all these years. It will no doubt be a great experience and an even better reason to rock out like we love to do.

By the way, sorry for the crappy cell phone pics of the show (Not that the pics on here are ever stellar anyway). It was hard whipping out the camera in the surging crowd and though we were close, it was necessary to use the zoom on my cell phone camera, making the pics a little grainy. But with me being a bit of a cell phone photog wannabee, I couldn't help myself.

Rock on!