If you want to hear about my week leading up to Christmas, read on! If you don’t want to hear me whine, scroll down to the pictures of Stampin’ Up! cards from my friends.

It’s been a sad, sad couple of weeks at the Cooper house. Our Keurig coffee maker decided to die. It said it needed to be descaled. I descaled it. And it still just kind of spurted out a thimble of coffee, and said, “Descale.” So I descaled again. I hate descaling, by the way, because it takes forever to get the vinegar smell and taste out of the machine. I confidently tried to make another cup the next morning. “Descale,” it said again, as it spurted out a teaspoonful of coffee. Seriously? I went to the store and bought “Keurig Approved Decaling Solution.” It cost me over $12. That should do it! No. It still spurted out a snort of coffee, and said, “Descale.” Time for target practice. Whoever can hit the “Descale” message at 50 yards wins.

Fortunately, we have three French Presses, so we still had the means to make coffee. And my aunt was flying back to Virginia from Florida on the 20th, so Mike & I did a little shopping before we picked her up. One of our purchases was a very cool Hamilton Beach coffee machine. You could make a single cup of coffee using K-cups (or the reusable ones you fill yourself) or you could make a whole pot of coffee. Nice! Mike usually drinks a cup of regular before switching to decaf. And Jon & I drink several cups each – so this was perfect. We could make a pot of regular, and Mike could make a cup of decaf.

For the past several years, I’ve been ordering coffee from Camano Island Coffee Roasters (CICR), because it’s the best I’ve ever had. Seriously. They roast it the day they ship it, and it arrives in my mailbox two days later. You can smell the caffeinated goodness from the porch. Ok, maybe not quite from the porch, but when you open the mailbox, the coffee smell wafts out and you can almost hear the angels singing. Even the decaf is amazing. I absolutely hate decaf from most coffee places. I think they think you drink decaf because you don’t like coffee. No, I buy decaf so Mike’s head doesn’t blow up. And sometimes you just want coffee at 8 p.m. but you still want to sleep, so you drink decaf. I tried the decaf from CICR and have never looked back. It’s wonderful – and it’s water processed, so you don’t get all those horrible chemicals that override the benefits of drinking decaf.

So, every two weeks, I get a little box of heaven with a pound of decaf for Mike and a pound of dark roast for me. Ok, sometimes I order myself two pounds, because Mike doesn’t drink as much coffee as I do. But you get the idea, right? Every two weeks, I get my supplier to hit me up.

My last shipment was shipped Monday, December 21. It was scheduled to arrive on the 23rd. I skipped to the mailbox (because we were totally out of coffee), and – no box of heavenly goodness.  Ok, it’s Christmas week. I can wait another day. I ran to the mailbox on the 24th. No coffee. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? I knew there would be no coffee delivery on the 25th, and I was beginning to panic. Fortunately, Mike had brought some of the office K-cups home, because he knows me, and he has a highly developed sense of self preservation.

On Christmas day, the Hamilton Beach coffee maker decided it wasn’t going to make any more single cups. I mean, REALLY? On Christmas? I was already having to drink stale, k-cups, and now it wasn’t even going to make that for me? (Side note: Did you know that if you use the pre-packaged K-cups, the coffee is stale? Yep. If it was fresh, it would cause the cups to explode.) I couldn’t even use my French Press or make a whole pot of coffee, because we were out of ground coffee. I was panicking. Mike said, “You can have some of my decaf.” After 33 years, that’s his suggestion? Decaf? Really? He doesn’t know me at all. It wasn’t 8 p.m, it was 8 a.m., and I needed caffeine. I needed it bad. I needed it badly enough to cut open K-cups to use in the French Press. It was quite pathetic, actually, but I was desperate. I needed just one good cup before I started cooking dinner for 12.

My dear, sweet Jon brought a bag of local coffee home on Christmas, so the day was saved. And Mike & I bought yet another new coffee pot – this time a Keurig 2.0 that brews a carafe or a single cup. We’ll see how that goes. In the meantime, I still don’t have my Camano Island coffee. I don’t know what the United States Postal Service has done with it, but it seems to be MIA.

So all that was to say this – without coffee, I have limited creative powers. I made a darling birthday card for my cousin, but I forgot to take a photo. So here are some of the Stampin’ Up! Christmas cards from friends.

Susan’s Card

Ginger’s Card

Sarah’s Card

Christy’s Card

Aren’t these all amazing? I have very talented friends!

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a wonderful day!