I hope you all had a great Christmas! I had a really nice day. It started out with breakfast (usually we have Tollhouse cookies…yes, unhealthy I know, but it’s a tradition), but this year, we had toast, veggies, and eggs (I got to try out Udi’s Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin bread – so good!) Then we got ready for church first because we didn’t want to not give ourselves enough time to get ready. Once we were all ready to go to church, we opened up our gifts. My dad got a blue-ray player from my mom, sister, and I as well as some sweatshirts from Salvation Army (we like to get the best deals!). My mom got 6 DVDs from me (1 I got from DVDSwap – I’ll post a link below – and the rest I got from amazon using some of my giftcards I’ve been saving from Swagbucks – link below too), 2 pairs of jeans and a pair of gloves from my dad; I got some pecan maple granola from the health food store, 2 packs of socks, and an empty box…which of course confused me (though I confuse quite easily!), but then I saw there was a slip of paper inside with a picture of a camera I’ve been looking at lately!!! It was on backorder, so I would have to wait a while to get it, but I was very surprised and happy. However, yesterday, my parents found a Best Buy about an hour away that had it in stock, so when they were doing some errands, they got it for me! It’s a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V 16.2 MP, 16x zoom, really good video,…. so hopefully I’ll be taking more pictures now to share with all of you! (my old camera I got 3 or 4 years ago off of ebay – the person supposedly used it very little and was just getting rid of it because she got a different one instead, so I got a realllly good deal – and it’s a great camera – a Fujifilm Finepix S700, but because it is quite big, I find I don’t use it very often).  Then we went to church, came home to get ready to go to my Uncle and Aunt’s house – we spent the day with them, my cousins, my other aunt and uncle, and my grandma and her husband.  I didn’t get any pictures, but to say it was a feast would not be an exaggeration.  Everything was really good, and we had a really nice time visiting family!

The New Camera

So I’m looking forward to figuring all all that it can do and taking more pictures!

In other exciting news (and maybe the reason you’re even reading this…though hopefully not), Libre Tea recently sent me one of their Libre Tea Original tea glass infusers.

First of all, I just want to say I think this thing is absolutely beautiful! And having a tea infuser that you can take with you is such a great idea!

Look at the beautiful detailing!

Since I have never used loose leaf tea, I decided to buy some samples from Adagio Tea since I had a $5 coupon given to me from a friend ( If you want a $5 coupon, just mention it in one of the comments, and I’ll email you a certificate).

I’ve tried about 4 of the teas so far, and have liked all but 1. This morning, I had “Valentines” with breakfast, and it was delicious.

As far as the Libre tea infuser, I’ve enjoyed using it – the mesh filter seems to do a really good job of filtering the tea, only 1 of the teas (this morning’s) had a few of the extremely fine tea leaves escape the filter. I’ve tried it 3 times using the method of pouring the tea directly into the cup with great success, and this morning I tried the method of putting the leaves in the filter, flipping it over to steep, and then flipping it back over – I had a bit of a problem, which I’m thinking was my own fault – I’m guessing I should have let it sit a bit after flipping it back over before I opened the lid. Nothing leaked when I flipped it over for the tea to steep, but when I took the lid off, there was a slight “explosion” of tea, so next time I will be letting it sit – my guess is that there was just too much water in the filter area and I didn’t give it enough time to filter the water back into the cup after turning it right-side-up.

Another benefit is it is glass on the inside, but plastic on the outside, so it never feels too hot to hold.

Thank you so much, Libre Tea, for giving me the chance to try this out! Here is a great video on how to use your Libre tea glass- http://libretea.com/how-to-use-your-tea-glass/)

…Oh, so you want to try it too??? Well, one of you can! Libre Tea is offering 1 reader to get the same Libre Tea Original tea infuser!

How to Enter:

• Leave a comment telling me if you’ve ever used used loose leaf tea, and if so, what is your favorite flavor? (required entry)

• Like Libre Tea on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/LibreTea, (you can also sign up for their newsletter at www.libretea.com and receive a free iced tea recipe booklet!) (leave a separate comment telling me if you’ve done this)

• Follow Libre Tea on Twitter @libretea (leave a separate comment telling me if you’ve done this)

• Tweet – @LibreTea glasses are perfect #tea lovers! #Win yours @ http://wp.me/p1Faaj-cg (leave a separate comment telling me if you’ve done this)

• Subscribe to my blog (it’s at the top right side) (leave a separate comment telling me if you’ve done this)

• Post a link to this giveaway on your blog or Facebook (leave a separate comment telling me if you’ve done this)

• Bonus Entry:  Join SwapADVD (see link below) and post 10 DVDs (+2 entries if you do this; +1 entry if you just join but don’t post 10  DVDs; again, leave 1 comment if you join, 2 comments if you join + post 10 DVDs)

There are lots of entry possibilities!!! You can have up to 8 entries if you do everything above! This is open to those in the US and Canada.

Giveaway will end January 1, 2012 at midnight EST.

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If you made it this far, earlier I mentioned SwapADVD

I love finding ways to save, and this is definitely one of them – if you have any DVDs that you just aren’t watching or don’t like, you can swap them for something you would like!  How it works is you list some of your DVDs, and when someone requests it, you ship it to them at your expense.  Then you get a credit for shipping it to them and can then request a DVD that you are looking for and it’s shipped to you at their expense.  Also you get a free credit when you list your first 10 DVDs, regardless of whether they’ve been requested by another member or not (I haven’t listed that many yet, but it’s a nice little bonus feature).