Christmas Break FUN!

Since my girls are in public school I am always SUPER happy when school is out and we get time to be together at home. With Christmas break coming up I knew that I wanted to spend the time with them just having as much fun as possible. So I started a list of things we could do and set aside a little of my paycheck so we would have the funds to do it. 

The true blessing came when through a series of events they BOTH ended up with NO IPODS for the entire Christmas break ... I can't tell you how wonderful it was that they were not staring at those screens all the time! 

The other thing that I was pretty intentional about this Christmas was that they didn't get ANYthing for Christmas that had anything to do with technology ... no video games, no ipods, no phones, no computers, no tablets, nothing! They basically got clothes and creative/crafty items. Now we certainly did a lot of movie watching, most evenings snuggling up together for hours to watch movies ... and they also do sometimes play on the computer {their latest thing is Pinterest} ... but otherwise our break was such a nice, relaxing time of playing and being creative. 

Here are a few things we did:
They have always been wonderful artists thanks to my Father in law who gave them art lessons ... they received some new paints and brushes for Christmas so one day we stopped at Micheal's to get some new canvases and they spent most of that day painting.

One of the days we were blessed to celebrate Christmas with my Mom, her fiance {just engaged on Christmas Day!!}, and my brother Matt and his family ... the girls had fun playing with their cousins and we opened gifts and had lunch together and just enjoyed visiting and catching up. 

{Mom and Wayne}

{Stacy and Matt} 

Jilly also got a MARKER Maker for Christmas, something she had on her list and she was so excited, making markers several different times throughout the break. A couple of the other creative things they got were those LOOM band bracelet things - which they both spent HOURS working on. And Jilly also got a notebook thing where there are stencils and you create outfits and fashion ideas {hard to explain but it's cute}

 One day we needed to make some exchanges so we headed out of the house for a few hours, my hubby was sick that day and although it sounds mean we all wanted to avoid getting his sickness, so off we went. We went to a few stores, stocked up on some crafts at Micheal's, had lunch at Panera and stopped in to drool at Pier One - Haley commented that when she grows up she wants to furnish her whole house from Pier One - sure Haley, don't we all?! 

We also went out to lunch, then bowling with some good friends -- lots of fun with this group!! 

And another day we went Roller Skating with these lovely friends. 

We also went Ice Skating twice, once with family on Christmas Eve and once with friends - those pics will be in a separate post. 

And since the girls had some gift cards we did a little shopping ... after walking around Target for about an hour not knowing how she should spend hers, Jilly finally decided on a scooter! I was so happy she chose it because it was one item I had thought about getting her for Christmas, but just never did. With the cold, nasty weather lately she has been using it to scooter around inside the house for now. =) 

I am so thankful for this Christmas break ... we really had a great time together!! I was sad to see them go when it was time to go back to school. 

Merry CHRISTmas!

Just want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas! I hope this weekend brings you closer to the ones you love and closer to the King of Kings who came as a tiny baby so many years ago in Bethlehem.

Christmas Tour of Homes 2011

Welcome to our home! This year my plan was to keep it simple. I even weeded out a bunch of Christmas decor over the past 2 years and honestly, I like it better with a little bit less around here!


Here is our tree, it's a real tree and I just love it. It smells so yummy and piney! The door to my bedroom is right behind the tree and I love to step out of my room every morning and smell that pine smell!
Here is one of our large bookshelves, I took half of the books and put them away for the month so I would have room for my snowmen. I like having lights on the shelves too so you can see the stuff even at night.

Our Elf on the Shelf, "Jingle" just loooved this sign!

I call this next set of photos 'I've got the JOY JOY JOY JOY down in my heart!'

The only new decoration I made this year was this - I added strips of Christmas-y fabric to a strand of white Christmas lights. I LOVE the way it turned out and it's so simple and pretty draped over our fireplace. {thanks to Pinterest for the idea, love that place!}

I have several very pretty Nativities that have been given to me as gifts over the years. Here are two of my faves, along with my hurricane jar from Blessings Unlimited... {this is the left side of the mantel}

And this is the right side of the mantel...

Here is a closer look at my snowmen ... I used to have about DOUBLE this amount, but have scaled back to only my favorites now.

{can you spot Jingle?}

Thanks for visiting! Have a Merry CHRISTmas!

To see LOTS of other homes please check out The Christmas Tour of Homes at The Inspired Room.

Christmas Baking

There is just something about Christmas time that makes me want to bake! I used to make ALL sorts of things, but in recent years have learned that it's better to just narrow things down to just a few simple favorites.



The first step of course is to have all the proper ingredients on hand. So I pulled out the recipes I knew I'd want to make, made up a big grocery list of items needed, and headed off to Walmart. Yep, I figure it's only once per year that Christmas comes around so I'm gonna go with price over quality. =)



And all of this .... is what we came home with!






Don't these peppermint crunch baking chips look amazing? I can't wait to have them!

And THIS is what you get suckered into buying when your daughters shop with you ...

Here are the things I'm planning to make this season:

Cutout Sugar cookies - already made some for Bible study, but I know we'll make more.

Scotch Shortbread - just made a small batch last night cause I've been craving a little something sweet to have with my tea each evening.

Devil's Food Chocolate Cookies with Peppermint baking chips

Red Velvet Cookies with White Choc chips {never tried before but thought they sounded good!}

And that's it! Yeah, just got the oats and walnuts and such to have on hand just in case I decide to make something that needs them. {Otherwise they make a healthy breakfast too!}

And while I'm here, I might as well share the recipes, right? Cause I know you'll want to know them!

Scotch Shortbread

2 sticks of butter {don't EVEN try to sub something else, only REAL butter will do!}

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups flour

Mix all together, press down into a square 9x9 pan, then either poke some holes in the top or sprinkle with some festive colored sugars. Bake for about 20-30 min in a 300 degree oven. When mostly cooled cut into squares. This is soooo yummy and buttery and rich tasting. I can only eat small squares at a time!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Cream with a mixer:

3 eggs

2 sticks of butter

1 cup of sugar

Add:

1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Slowly mix in:

3 & 1/2 cups of flour {I may have even added more like 4 cups cause my dough seemed too sticky}

Chill dough in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Working on a floured surface, roll out your dough to desired thickness {my trick is to keep it fairly thick - you get MUCH nicer cookies!}

Cut with floured cookies cutters {I let the kids do this, they love it!}

Bake for 10-12 min until the dough looks dry but NOT brown. You may need to keep an eye on the first batch to figure out what the best amount of time is. Every oven and pan cook a bit differently.

{My other trick for cookies is using a Baking stone, like the kind from Pampered Chef, you get great cookies every time without burning the bottoms.}

Once they have cooled you can decorate with icing and sprinkles. The girls LOVE that part!

Devil's Food Cookies with Choc. Chips

One box of Devil's food cake mix

Mix with 1/2 cup of oil and

2 eggs.

Add 1 cup of {any kind} choc chips.

Form into balls and bake for 10-11 min at 350 degrees.

This can be edited with any kind of choc chips - I am going to use the peppermint chips with this cake mix.

I am also going to try using the Red Velvet cake mix with White Choc chips by using the same recipe but just changing the flavors - we'll see how they turn out!

And that's all, very simple but delicious recipes.

Slowing Down this Holiday Season

Everywhere you go during the month of December you're bombarded by the busy rush of preparing for Christmas. Everywhere you look things are being promoted to you. Gifts to buy, decorations that you just gotta have, food you have to make, etc. It's all enough to make us feel a little crazy, isn't it?

For us, it is somewhat inevitable that we WILL be busy at this time of year. This is the month where we attend a lot of parties and gatherings with friends and family plus we still have all our regular stuff going on like Awana and sports for the girls. But we also have a choice to make in just how crazy we make ourselves, yes?

Today I want to share a few blog posts that have truly inspired me lately as well as a couple quick tips that I have found helpful over the years.

One thing I am slowly learning year by year is to let go of those feelings of what a 'perfect' Christmas needs to look like. I shamefully admit I've spent too many times stressing out because we didn't get that perfect photo or my house didn't look magazine worthy or plans just simply didn't pan out as I had hoped they would. Some times even our best laid plans can fall through. One year I was so excited to attend our annual Christmas brunch for our MOMS group at church and that morning I woke up with the stomach bug. What a disappointment to have to miss such a wonderful morning! We also had a Christmas Eve and Christmas day a few years back when half of our family had the stomach bug. My poor daughter could hardly enjoy opening her gifts because she felt so icky. So yes, plans can change, life gets in the way, things don't always turn out the way we want.

This week my friend Jessica had a great post about this idea of perfectionism. I hope you'll go here to check it out.

Another post that has inspired me today was from Emily at Chatting at the Sky. She shares the idea that a gift doesn't have to be something you buy in a store, click here to read the 10 gifts you can give that won't cost you a cent, but will have lasting worth. {Bonus, her post today is also a giveaway of her book, which I have and am LOVING!}

This post, from my friend Sarah, is where she says what she's NOT doing this year. It's OK to say to yourself 'I don't have to do it all, every year.' It's OK. Let me repeat ... It's okaaaayyy! Choose a couple favorite traditions and let the rest go. It's more about enjoying what you ARE doing, then trying to cram in so much that no one's enjoying it anymore.

My personal goal this year is to slow down. Enjoy the moments. Disconnect from electronic things and just be.all.there. A friend Mindy talks about this here.

And lastly, here is something I started doing a bunch of years ago and it works well for me. I know this won't be everyone's ideal way to spend the season, but for me, it helps me immensely. You ready? Here it is - my big, Christmas time 'secret' .... I try to have all the busy things done by the 2nd week in December. This means I start in early November and over the course of several weeks I get most of the things done. So by the 2nd week in December I hope to have:
*all gifts bought
*all cards bought, addressed and mailed out
*parties and such penciled in on the calendar
*decor up, tree up, etc

Does it always happen as I had planned? Nope. Of course not. But this is my goal each year. Why? Because then I can spend those last 2 weeks before Christmas simply enjoying ... reading with my girls, baking together, driving around looking at lights, wrapping gifts in the evening while the girls are in bed, watching fun Christmas movies all snuggled together, dancing and singing to Christmas carols together. Just soaking in the season. And that is my goal.

I also adopt a more relaxed school schedule in December too. It's nice to give ourselves a little leeway so we can use the extra time to bake or work on making gifts for people or just more reading and snuggle time. I know there will be lots of cold January days when we'll have plenty of time to do school work, but Christmas comes only once a year and the book work will always be there after the season.

I know myself enough to know that I cannot be a last minute person, I get easily stressed out when I try to do things last minute. I know several people who THRIVE in that situation, but I get cranky and crazy when I leave things until the last minute. So for me to truly enjoy the season, this needs to be my goal.

I hope that each of you will find a way to slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. If you haven't already, you should check out my previous post which is a giveaway, and take a few minutes to read through the comments on how other people find rest and peace at this time of year.

The Christmas Towels

This past weekend we decided to go get our Christmas tree and set up our house for Christmas. It's been a long standing tradition around here to do this on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Since our house guests had gone home on Friday and we had no plans on Sunday we decided it was a great day to go for it.





We went to a beautiful tree farm and cut down our tree. We brought it home and got it set up. Then we proceeded to pull out the SEVEN large rubbermaid bins from the attic which were all full of Christmas stuff {yes, I think it's too much and am trying to downsize a bit this year!}.





The girls were super eager to help and started pulling things out of boxes right away. Now, in case you've never heard me say this, I am a bit of a control freak. I know, I know, you're totally shocked {hahahah - NOT!}. Anyhow, I am one of those people who likes to set the Christmas stuff up JUST SO. I want to arrange and move things and play around with the placement until I'm totally happy that it looks just how I wanted it. But I also recognize that the girls are getting older and want to be a part of the whole process of Christmas decorating more and more.





Oh yeah, I should back up slightly ... the night BEFORE our decorating we went out to this super fun Oldies dance with some friends of ours {I think it's funny that I would enjoy an oldies dance SO much more than a current music dance! Must be getting OLD!}, the girls spent the time with some friends and every one of us had a fantastic night. But, we didn't get home until ONE AM! And I have quickly learned I am TOO OLD to stay out that late! Unfortunately, my internal body clock doesn't know the meaning of 'sleep in' and I was wide awake as usual at 7am. Going to sleep at 1:30am ... getting up at 7:00am = somewhat cranky Mama!

OK, back to the decorating. Decorating for Christmas is a BIG endeavor, as I mentioned, we have 7 huge bins full of Christmas stuff. Plus, there is all the regular, everyday decor that is already filling the house, then you add in the fall decor that needs to be put away for another year. So imagine my little house filled with bins, candles, vases, snowmen, pine needles, ornaments, books, etc etc etc. The place was a WRECK!

We all worked together, but I was just sorta of edgy because of all the mess {and the control issue!}. I would get a little snappy with my family from time to time and was just feeling more head-achy as the day went on. Finally we pulled out a couple mini trees for the girl's rooms, along with some small Christmas village pieces that I also let them have in their rooms ... so they went off to their rooms VERY happily and got busy setting up all their own Christmas decor. Finally, I had a little time to do my own decorating!

Then came dinner time ... we decided to heat up some leftovers which we had from eating out at lunchtime. All of the sudden everyone wanted to eat MY leftovers and I may or may not have had a little mini tantrum about how it was MY food, MY leftovers and *I* wanted them! {It sounds so much worse written out!}

So basically what I'm saying here is that this cranky, over tired Mama was not so nice to her family on a day that should have been filled with fun and memories. Yeah, I blew it. And I think they knew I was maxed out with the mess because they even busted their butts trying to clean up the house before bedtime.

I got the girls all tucked in bed, took a couple Advil for my headache, and walked into the bathroom to pee and saw ... the Christmas towels. I hadn't even seen them come out of a box, but apparently one of my girls saw them, took them out and went and hung them nicely in the bathroom. And then I smiled. Smiled and thought, what sweet girls I have. And then I was sad ...remembering how horribly I treated them today. :(

And in the morning, I asked the girls and Bob to come see me ... I told them I was thankful for all they had done the day before ... and then I said, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was overtired and cranky. And I love you. Very much.'

And they still love me ... this old lady who dances to the oldies and can't stay up too late and gets a little possessive of my leftovers and is a bit controlling with decor and messes up all the time. Yep, they love me.

Fruitcake

Let's have a poll ... how many of you LIKE fruitcake, how many of you can't stand it and how many of you have never even tried it?

"The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other." ~Johnny Carson

***I actually happen to be one of the only people in the world who actually LOVES fruitcake! Got a fruitcake you don't want? Send it to ME! LOL***

I grew up eating fruitcake at Christmas time because my Grandma and my Dad loved it. But you HAVE got to buy the right kind ... I have never found another fruitcake that tasted as good as Claxton's.

It's sweet and nutty and rich. You only need a small slice of it at a time. I prefer to eat mine frozen just like my Daddy used to do. You just keep it in the freezer and when you feel like having some you slice off about a half inch and eat right away. It's soooooo yummy!

Just for fun ... I challenge any of you who have never tried it to try it this Christmas season. I have seen the Claxton's kind at Walmart so you could easily pick one up and give it a try. I bet you'll find that it's actually pretty good!

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.}}