Orlando is not known for ice, or even snow, but this time of year you can find it for 20 bucks a pop. And it’s worth every penny.

The Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. (near Disney actually) hosts a frozen exhibit each year that allows families (and big kids too) to experience winter in the Sunshine State. ICE! is an attraction that visitors walk though, viewing exhibits made entirely of ice blocks. You’ll see a huge train, larger-than-life ice cream cones, an igloo and an entire life-size Nativity made of carved ice.

My husband and I took our two-year-old and met our friends (who also have a two-year-old). The kids loved being all bundled up and walking through all the colored areas. My son kept wanting to go back to the see the “choo-choo.” At the end of the exhibit, there are three slides — two for adults and one for kiddies under 40 inches tall.

If you are planning on going, buy your tickets online to save a couple of bucks.

Two weeks and one day left until Christmas. How did this happen? It feels like yesterday when I felt like I was ahead of the game, but alas, I am not.

You see, last week, at the last minute, we decided to have carpet installed in our living room. Lord only knows why we decided to do this now; right in the middle of Christmas season. But the timing seemed right at the time and the carpet was beyond pitiful. We’ve been overdue for a replacement for years. Even though the company we purchased the carpet from does next day installation, the process took us nearly a week: We had to make an appointment when we could both be at the house, then also be at the house the next day for the installation process. To save money, we decided to move the furniture ourselves. I’ll get back to Christmas in a minute.

So, we make the appointment, move the furniture, wait for the installers, then realize that if we’re putting in brand new carpet we should at least shampoo the sofas. Can’t put dirty sofas on a clean carpet now, can we? So, we drag out the shampoo machine and start cleaning.

Meanwhile, books, furniture and all the Christmas decorations are floating around in open boxes waiting to be put out as if they are on the Island of Misfit Toys. The tree is half decorated and we have yet to put all the furniture back in the living room.

But Christmas is coming so we must speed things up. Along with all the other stuff we have to do to get ready for the holidays (I have to get a package all the way to Italy) we now have to put our living room back together. At least we have new carpet to sit on while we wait for the furniture to go back in the room.

My son loves bananas. Every morning starts with a big yellow “nana” and a sippy of ice cold milk. I’m not a big banana eater myself, but I do love the flavor of the monkey-loving fruit so I’ve been looking for a way to use up the bananas that get too ripe. I have a thing about eating bananas that are too brown, well, any brown at all. I tried putting them in the freezer, but they just turned to a gross liquid when I thawed them.

I started looking for a good banana bread recipe that I can use when I get too many overly ripe ‘nanas. Last night my son helped me with this recipe and it turned out great. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com — submitted by somebody with the user name Shelley. I made a few modifications based on the feedback and was welcomed with a delicious loaf of banana bread for breakfast this morning.

Here’s the recipe (from allrecipes.com, with my additions):

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas (about 5-8 bananas)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon (and or/ 1/2 t. nutmeg, 1/2 t. all spice)
nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle top with mixture of brown and white sugar (be generous).
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Get the original recipe at allrecipes.com
Read what people say about this recipe in the allrecipes reviews.

I found a new Web site that I’ve been using to get organized: OrganizedHome.com offers so much that I don’t know where to start. I’ll focus on the part that I’ve used it for the most: developing a household notebook.

The site explains how to start a notebook that you can use for all of your important papers. Here’s how the site defines a household notebook:

“Unlike a personal planner, which is designed for use by one person, a household notebook or family organizer serves as “command central” for an entire family. While each family’s organizer will be unique, most are simple three-ring notebooks with several divider sections.

Most household notebooks include a telephone and message section, a divider for church, clubs or volunteer activities, travel, home management and finance. sections, medical information, and personal records like gift list and clothing size charts. At-home and homeschooling parents often add personal and family schedules to coordinate life with young children.”

I started my notebook a few weeks ago and love it.

My favorite part about the site is the “printables” section where you can print (free) forms for your notebook — pages like regular monthly calendars, master to-do lists, favorite recipe lists and even forms to help organize your scrapbook supplies. There’s even has a section just for organizing Christmas.

So far, in my notebook, I put a printout of our address book, where my favorite recipes are (and what page number they are on in recipe books), medical information, emergency contact information for babysitters, church directory, 7-day menu planner and my personal packing list for when we go out of town. Now, I just have to pick up the 3-ring binder to find any of this stuff. I’m keeping it in the kitchen so that it’s easily accessible for me and for my husband. Hopefully this will keep me more organized.

“Twenty Days Until Christmas,” — this is a headline I saw on a Web site this morning while I was looking for Christmas cookie recipes. Twenty days. I haven’t even made my shopping list, although I have made several purchases already. Usually I have goals of when to get all my out of state shopping done: The first people I shop for are those to whom I have to mail something. I have most of these done, but need to wrap, box and ship them. I’ve still got some time:

According to the United States Postal Service here is the mailing calendar:

Letters and cards — Dec. 20
Priority Mail — Dec. 20
Express mail — Dec. 22
Parcel post — Dec. 15

If you are shopping online, this year’s drop-dead shipping date is December 19 (15 days from today).

Not only do I need to do my shopping, I have to purchase the Christmas cards (address and mail them), take my son to see Santa, get our tree, decorate the tree, and so on. I thought I was ahead of the game, but that headline this morning makes me realize that I need to get going!