Real Estate Investing

In keeping with the tradition of sharing real estate news, I read this morning that the prices of homes have plunged just about as sharply as actual home sales.  According to MSNBC,

Sales of existing homes fell 8.6 percent, far more than expected, to an annual rate of 4.49 million in November, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.91 million in October. The median sales price fell 13.2 percent — the largest amount on record — to $181,300, from $208,000 a year ago.

However, since this IS the holiday season, I won’t leave you with just bad news.  Instead a couple of recipes to enjoy during Christmas.  This first one can be altered to meet your own religious beliefs (aka no bacon, ham, or add turkey sausage).

English Egg & Cheese Muffin

Toast the English muffin bread.  While toasting,

• Beat one egg in a small cup, along with a splash of milk (to make the egg fluffy) (appx. 1 TBSP).
• Lightly coat bottom and sides of regular cereal bowl with butter-flavored cooking spray & pour in egg.
• Put bowl in microwave and cook for 45 seconds.
• Add a slice of cheese or pre-cooked bacon, ham, or sausage (optional) and cook for 10 to 15 seconds more.

When done, load all onto English muffin and voila! a breakfast sandwich.

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

I’m giving you this gift in a jar recipe from memory, but it should still be yummy.

8 Cups of dry powdered milk
2 Cups of Nesquick chocolate milk mix
1/2 Cup of Coffee Creamer
4 heaping TBSPs of powdered sugar

Mix it all up (should make about 5-6 small jars) and scoop into clean jar.  Put on flat lid, then overlay a round cut-out Christmas fabric (find them in the scrap section of any fabric store).  Twist on the jar cap over the fabric.  VOILA!  Homemade hot chocolate mix…. directions:  Pour boiling water over 1/3 to 1/2 cup of mix in cup.  Stir well and enjoy. 

The coolest thing I learned today is that there is a National Christmas Tree Association.  I heard long ago that there’s an association for just about everything - and there are many goofy ones - but one for Christmas trees?  Awesome!

This association that concentrates on one of the cornerstone decorations of Christmas offers great tips on picking out a tree, recycling trees, types of trees, the history of trees, fun stuff with trees … just about everything you’d want and need related to a tree.  But most importantly, it also provides some safety tips related to Christmas trees.  One of the most important tips is to use care in NOT overloading your outlets,

Overloaded electric outlets and faulty wires are the most common causes of holiday fires in residences - these types of fires can be just as dangerous with an artificial tree.

When we had children, my husband and I went from live trees to artificial.  In fact this year we even graduated to a pre-lit tree (we want our marriage intact this time next year, especially after last year’s Christmas tree light fiasco).  We made the change thinking that artificial trees were MORE SAFE.  We do turn our tree off every night and typically don’t leave the lights on for extended periods of time if we’re not in the room with it.  But it appears that tree fires are fairly rare - when there are fires at Christmas they are typically started by something else.

Too late for me to change back to a live tree, though.  With luck on my side, I’ll keep my pre-lit, artificial tree for many  years to come.

For your Christmas pleasure, here’s a puzzle from the National Christmas Tree Association.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has made available a flyer that goes over safety tips for holiday decorations.  Key is the fact that all decorations should be flame resistant and/or testede for safety.  Here’s a sampling:

TREES

• Use no more than three standard-size sets of lights per single extension cord.
• Turn off all lights on trees and other decorations when you go to bed or leave the house. Lights could short and start a fire.
• Never use electric lights on a metallic tree.

SNOW

• Artificial snow sprays can irritate lungs if inhaled. To avoid injury, read container labels; follow directions carefully.

TRIMMINGS

• Wear gloves while decorating with spun glass “angel hair” to avoid irritation to eyes and skin.
• Choose tinsel or artificial icicles or plastic or non-leaded metals. Leaded materials are hazardous if ingested by children.

There are many other great tips.  Go here, print TWO copies of the flyer, keep one for yourself, and share one with a friend or neighbor as a random act of kindness!

Photo by chromophobe via Flickr.