New Year

I know some people loathe making New Year's resolutions. I know some people may think they're just crazy aspirations that never come true or never get carried out.

But I always love to think of the New Year as a chance for a fresh start. A chance to begin again and do things better. A goal is set and is hopefully reached. And even if it's not reached ... it's something that I continue to ponder and work towards.

With that being said ... I have a few 'resolutions' that I'm planning to work on this year.

* Spend more time with the Lord. Reading the Bible, having my quiet time, praying, writing in my journal, etc ...
* Spend less time watching TV and being on the computer
* Eat more healthfully
* Exercise more consistently
* Prioritize my time better
* Plan specific times to have one on one time with each daughter and hubby and make sure that I carry them out.
* Make more time for friends and keep in better contact with the ones that live farther away.
* Read more books.
* Model Christlike behavior for my girls and anyone who sees me.

I'm sure the list could go on ... as I sit here I think of more and more things I'd like to do this year. I'm going to leave it as it is for now. I know that I can't possibly carry out all these things in my own strength - but only with the strength and wisdom from our loving God can I do these things. He knows the desires of my heart and knows that I'd like very much to be able to carry out these things in my life.

Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

Happy New Year everyone!

Family

Family faces are like magic mirrors.
Looking at the people who belong to us we see the past, present and future.

{Grandma K and J}

{Uncle Aaron & Aunt Glenna}

{Grandpa K. & J}

{Grandma S. and J}

{Grandma S. and H}

{The Grandparents and girls snuggling on Christmas Eve}

{Grandma S and her 3 Granddaughters}

{My Mom, Brother, niece and my family}

Lord God we thank you for our family. We thank you for good health, for happiness and for moments shared together. We thank you for a legacy of faith and for traditions to carry on. We thank you for your love and sacrifice and your Son who brings us together as a family.

Friends

In good times,
In bad times,
I'll be on your side forever more,
That's what friends are for.

I'm thankful Lord, that you've given me the blessing of so many wonderful friends. ~~

Christmas Day traditions

I think this may be the last of my Christmas traditions posts... maybe! I'm sorry for anyone who has lost interest as I've posted SO many blogs about Christmas traditions. It's just that around this house this is our favorite time of year. And over the years we have created so many traditions that mean so much to us ... pretty much the whole month of December is dedicated to Christmas and remembering Jesus birth.

So here is the big day ... it's finally come ... Christmas Day!

The kids stayed up so late the night before that they actually slept in! So my Mom, Bob's Mom and myself were the first ones awake. We sat and enjoyed a cup of coffee (or two!) while we waited for the rest to wake up.
Finally J and my Father in law woke up ... J was so tired and just stared at all the gifts under the tree ...
After everyone woke up we all opened our stockings, one person at a time. We let the girls do theirs first and they were thrilled with everything they found inside. J is showing off her fleece scarf that I made the girls.
H waits patiently as each adult takes their turn opening their stockings.
Bob waits patiently for his turn ... After stockings we take a break from gifts and we go eat breakfast. Our tradition is to make a big egg casserole which we have with fruit and some type of sweet bread. This year I made Cherry Eggnog bread.

After breakfast we finally got down to the fun stuff ... the gift opening! We do gifts one at a time so everyone can see what is opened and who it's from. The big gift for the whole family was a new basketball net! It is huge, we can't wait to put it together! The girls enjoyed new chairs from Grandma and Grandpa ...
And fun new Lego sets - even if it did take 2 children and 2 adults almost 2 hours to build this house! =)

After gifts we spent time together talking and hanging around while my amazing hubby finished preparing an awesome meal. {He loves to cook.} We had a fabulous dinner together, then more visiting, then dessert, then some friends also stopped by to hang out and watch the Celtics game with us.

All in all it was a wonderful day. We are so blessed and so fortunate to be able to give and receive so many wonderful things. We are so blessed by family and friends and the gift of fellowship and laughter and love. We are so blessed by a great home and nourishing food. We thank you Lord for all the wonderful gifts you have given us, but most of all, for the gift of your Son.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Every Christmas Eve we go to my in laws house. We eat together and we celebrate Jesus by having a birthday party.

Every year my Mother in law has told the Christmas story with plush characters in a kid friendly way so they could understand it. From the time the girls were old enough to talk they have known the story and Grandma would ask them questions throughout the story so they were actively taking part in the telling.

Well this year the girls are getting so grown up that they decided to tell the story all by themselves! H was the narrator and J moved the characters around.

Grandma introduced them ...
They did such a wonderful job!

It was beautiful to see our little girls telling the story of Jesus birth. It was heartwarming to know that even at their young age ... they truly know and understand the meaning of Christmas!

After the story they sang a few songs for us. Then we celebrated with birthday cake for Jesus (well actually this year it was just dessert, not cake, but we sang Happy Birthday anyway!) We also celebrated another special birthday on Christmas Eve ...

Christmas Eve is the day that H accepted the Lord as her Savior last year ... so we celebrated her first 'spiritual' birthday. We gave her a small book and CD called Mary Did You Know (she loves that song!). We are so proud of how much she has grown in the past year. She has such a kind heart and a helpful spirit.

Our Christmas Eve traditions then continue as we all go to our church for the Christmas Eve service. They always have 2 services, one that is 'kid friendly' and one that is more geared to the adults. So we went to the first one and it was great. The girls loved seeing many of the kids they know up on the stage performing or singing.

After church we all drive back to our house. Everyone spends the night at our house so that we can all wake up together on Christmas morning. My Mom, Bob's parents, his brother Aaron & sis in law Glenna and the four of us all slept over. We had to throw mattresses down and pull out all the extra blankets but it's such a fun tradition that we wouldn't even mind if there were 10 more people!

In the evening we sit around and eat snacks like cheese & crackers and sweet treats. We drink some eggnog and talk and laugh. The girls are allowed to open one gift, it's a new set of PJ's for each of them!

Then we played this new game called Twister Hopscotch ...

Even Daddy played ...
Then we got the kids all settled in bed ... and all the adults brought out the gifts and filled the space under and around the tree. After that it was already past 11pm and we all were exhausted so most of the adults headed off to bed ... with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads ...

{{So these are our Christmas Eve traditions ... it's pretty much the same every year. Sometimes we throw in something new but most times it's the same. I love the 'feel' of Christmas Eve. I know it sounds silly but the whole day I felt as though I was on the verge of tears. Just the feeling of doing these special things year after year had me feeling very emotional (in a good way) and nostalgic. I am so blessed.}}

Bloggy Break

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to take a short break from my blog. Just want to fully enjoy these last few days before Christmas and then of course the big holiday itself.

I have lots more traditions and photos of recent happenings to share with you. I look forward to bombarding you with multiple posts in a few days time. =)

But until then may each and every one of you have a beautiful and blessed Christmas. May Christ's love dwell in your hearts and remind you of the true meaning of this glorious holiday.

Love, Kathy

Lovin' my Girl time ...

These past couple of weeks while we've been preparing and planning for Christmas have been so much fun for me. The girls are at such a wonderful age where they love to help and be creative. We've been having fun every day doing little things together.

I am so thankful for these two precious gifts we've been given!

Christmas Tradition #5

Baking Day!!!

The girls and I had so much fun baking all day Saturday! We started the morning off by making muffins for breakfast ...
Then we made a Pumpkin Cheesecake for a Christmas party we were going to - it turned out fabulous!
Ready to go in the oven ...

Then we made Peanut Butter & Cheerio Balls covered in chocolate and Sprinkles ... the girls worked the 'dough' into little balls ...
Then we coated them in chocolate and added festive sprinkles ...
Then we got our cookie cutters ready and made Sugar Cookies ... H loved rolling out the dough ...
And J loved cutting out the shapes ...
They both loved decorating with TONS of frosting and sugar! This was a batch I decorated but the ones the kids made were covered in crazy amounts of colored frosting and sugar!
It was such a fun day! I love to bake and I'm so glad the girls are at a great age where they can help and also enjoy it too.

Christmas Crafts part 3

This craft was just pure fun! I had some leftover green fleece (I don't even remember what it was from!) and so we decided to make some Christmas stockings for the girls' favorite stuffed animals. I know ... seems silly to make a stocking for a stuffed animal but the girls were thrilled and thought it was such a fun idea ... they play with the stockings and pretend to fill them with girls for their treasured friend.

Anyway, we started with the leftover fleece. I used my (childhood!) stocking to trace out a stocking pattern on the fleece, then cut the pieces out ...
The next part must be done by Mommy ... I sewed the pieces together. (You might be able to hot glue them if you don't want to sew.)
Here they are all sewn together ...
Then we added some red, glittery felt on the top ...
Then the girls added white pompoms ... and then I used some puffy paint to write out the animal names on them ...
They turned out SO cute!!! The girls love them! ( ... and I think they're animals do too!)

Christmas crafts part 2

Oh the things you can do with pipe cleaners!!

We made pipe cleaner candy canes and pipe cleaner stars.

For the candy canes we simply twisted together the red, white and green pipe cleaners - and added some white plastic beads to them ...

The girls used them to decorate their own little trees ...
And then they wanted a star for the top of the tree so we made those out of pipe cleaners too!

Christmas crafts ...

The past few days the girls and I have been having fun doing Christmas crafts and baking. These crafts are simple and fun and great for little kids to do.

First we made Spiced Dough Ornaments. These smell wonderful and would be a great gift or would be cute tied to the top of a present. Here is the recipe and directions:

1 cup ground cinnamon (yes a whole cup - go buy the cheap stuff at a discount store)
1 TBSP ground cloves
1 TBSP ground ginger
1 TBSP ground nutmeg
1 cup applesauce
2 TBSP white craft glue
food coloring (optional - we didn't use it)
A few tablespoons of flour

Combine the spices in a mixing bowl. Add the applesauce and glue.

Use your hands to work all the ingredients together until you have a large ball of dough (add some flour if it's too sticky)

Roll out the dough on a floured surface ...Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the dough ...
Use a straw to poke a hole in each one (so that you will be able to string a ribbon through it for hanging)
Put them in the oven for one hour at 200 degrees ...
After they have cooled you can add some ribbon or string ...
Hang them up!
OR, you can take some white craft paint and add some little details to them (it looks like frosting!)
These smell wonderful and were so easy to do!