Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Goodbye 2013: Year in Review

This year Bringing Home the Bacon was visited by people in 47 states--can I get some love from Vermont, Delaware and Alaska? Also some very confused people in 72 countries!


I took all 5,218 words typed on this blog this year and inputted them into a Wordle maker to get this word cloud, which shows, by size, which words I used most frequently. Husband was relieved to see that he is not my most blogged about topic this year. 

My handy instructions for making a snowflake and my references to our favorite movie, Christmas Vacation, were big drivers of traffic to the site.

In case you missed them, here are a few of my favorites from 2013:

Monday, December 23, 2013

Merry Birthday to Me!

NOTE: This post was sponsored by the good people at Mole Valley Farmers. I was compensated for my time but all opinions are my own.

Forget about how few shopping days there are until Christmas, there is still plenty of time to pick up something special for the people in your life who were the best little tax deductions their parents ever had.

I'm talking about those late December birthdays, forgotten about in the post-Christmas haze and often subject to indignities like candy cane wrapping paper or, worse, combined half-hearted Birthmas gifts.

So while there is still time, here is a handy gift guide for the late December birthday in your family, randomly compiled by me:

1. Harry Hall snow boots - There is still plenty of winter left and winter wear is always appreciated, especially when you live in Ohio and it is possible that it could be still snowing in April.

2. Water ski - When your birthday and Christmas are within a week of each other, you need a whole year's worth of gifts. So it's now or never on the water ski. 

3. Movie tickets - Even though the days have started getting seconds longer already, there is still a lot of cold, dark winter to go and movie tickets are a great escape.

4. Mental Floss - If your birthday girl or guy loves obscure facts and dry humor like I do, this is the magazine to get them. I LOVE this gift from last year and read it cover-to-cover each issue. 

5. Pig bling - OK. This is very specific but stay with me. IF you need to buy a gift for a person with a late December birthday who ALSO lives on a hog farm and likes to show pigs, THEN you need to visit this Etsy shop and buy them many things (also works for people who are into farming in general.)


So good luck to you in your final week of birthday shopping. If all else fails, we will take cash or your re-gifted Amazon gift cards. And PLEASE, please be sure to follow the December birthday commandments.


Appointment Pooping

  NOTE: If you do not want to read about my healthy bowel movement, well too late you just did. I recently became you-better-get-a-colonosco...