Christmas Favorites and Quirks

We all kind of do Christmas our own way don't we?  Some people celebrate on Christmas Eve with a big dinner and family.  Some people celebrate Christmas day.  Some enjoy the tradition of Santa Claus and some fill children's boots on December 6 to remember the goodness of St. Nick. As a family, we celebrate advent throughout the whole month of December and remember the real reason we even have Christmas which is the birth of Jesus Christ. They all certainly make good memories and do get passed on from generation to generation.

We had a lot of traditions around holidays growing up.  I don't know that my parents purposed to make traditions, it just happened.  We did mostly the same things for each holiday and we got used to it, liked it and then counted on it. Then these things became traditions.  Out of those family memories came some of my Christmas favorites and Christmas quirks.

Quirk: LOVE Christmas music but like to save it to start after Thanksgiving.  It is fun to blast it in the house and dance around.

Favorite Song(s): Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant, One Small Child by the Tommy Coomes Band sung by Marsha Skidmore

Quirk: Song I can't stand hearing around Christmas, Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses (there are a few more too.)

Favorite: A big Christmas dinner on Christmas day.

Quirk: In keeping with tradition, dinner isn't the same if we don't have prime rib with horseradish for the meat and twice baked potatoes.

Favorite: Mail is so much more fun during this season.  I love getting Christmas cards, especially the ones with the pictures and letters.

Quirk: I always feel sad when a card we sent out gets returned to us because of wrong address.

Favorite: At dinner (or advent devotional time) each night we pray for each family we get a card from in the mail that day.

Quirk: I don't frequent stores that don't allow or say "Christmas."  After all if it weren't for Christmas they wouldn't be getting the extra business during the season. Being "PC" is SO not my thing.

Favorite childhood tradition: We (my brother and I) used to get one "big" gift each year.  Instead of just giving it to us my parents would plan a gift hunt for us.  Each clue was a Bible verse.  One led us to another and to another until we landed upon the big gift! It was so much fun.

Quirk: I still love to go get a REAL Christmas tree. Making a day of finding the perfect three is a great memory and the pine smell is so nice in the house.

Favorite: I love to give the kids an ornament each year so that when they have their own trees later in life they have some ornaments to start with.  Ones that have special memories.

Favorite: I love to make a big night of decorating the tree with Christmas music, hot buttered apple cider or chocolate and yummy goodies. I always remember as a child someone would inevitably step on one of the Christmas tree lights as we were trying to put them up!

Quirk: We don't (and never will) decorate the tree or house before Thanksgiving. It doesn't feel right.

Favorite: We always got to open one gift on Christmas eve.

Favorite Christmas treats to make (we make them every year): Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, Gingersnaps, Lemon Bars, Pecan Pie, Chex Muddy Buddies, and frosted sugar cookies which got dropped for a while but have since been reinstated since having children of my own. I can now make all of these Gluten free too!

Quirk: We always give our pets a gift.  I used to love to watch my dog open his present on Christmas.  I remember one time we even got my pet hamster a Christmas gift!

What are your family traditions and quirks? I would love to hear them.  They are so much fun!

I hope you are feasting on joy this Christmas season!

~Merry Christmas~

Happenings this season

This is such a fun time of the year.  I thought I would share a few of the things we have been up too.

I made my first "roll" cake for Thanksgiving. It was a Gluten Free Pumpkin roll that was SO good.  I actually ate some and was tempted to eat the entire thing.  I want to make another one! When I served it, it was on a pretty fall platter and dusted with more powdered sugar.

Cody is in his big boy bed now.  He is very proud.  He has fallen out a few times but we have since remedied that.  Whew!  Such a rude awakening in the middle of the night for all of us.

Every year the kids get an ornament that symbolizes something in their year.  We gave them these the night we decorated the tree.  The festivities were complete with William Sonoma Peppermint Hot Chocolate and this year we had GF pumpkin roll and GF almond cookies along with the Hot Chocolate. I wished I could have all those sweets but did have some hot cocoa made with pure stevia. 

I always look so tired in these photos but that is because I am.  This day we went to church, took family photos, picked out our tree, decorated the house, did the ornaments gifts and decorated the tree. I was pooped!

Spent a day outdoors and time by the river. I got to have my SECOND cup of coffee in 5 months this day. MMMM.... it was so yummy.

We took a road trip and family vacation for one of Steve's long weekends.  It was so much fun and much needed. We enjoyed snow, rain, our hotel room and pool.  We played lots of games and did a lot of exploring and relaxing.  It was a beautiful time.

We did a new thing this year that was so much fun.  After our Sunday family dinner we (all three families and Grammi) decorated gingerbread together!  Each family had something different.  My parents had a gingerbread house.  My Aunt Uncle and Cousins had a gingerbread train and we decorated 4 huge gingerbread people.  We all had dessert and decorated together.  Loved it!

We have also been doing our Advent Devotional which is at the heart of the reason for the season. We look forward to it every night.

I can't wait for our break to be able to do some more of our traditions (like baking) and just do some plain ole' relaxing and playing with the kiddos! 

~Blessings~ 

The month of love, a tradition

I am trying a new idea this month.  I got it off this site.

Since Valentines day is in February I usually like to make the whole month focused on love.  Not the kind of love that buys stuff and is full of commercialized things but the kind of love that comes from Christ.  I have tried various ideas in the past years and we do love to do fun things on Valentines day like have pink heart shaped pancakes and trade valentines but I still think the focus should be on the Lord.  Loving like Christ loves us.

It is so important for me and my husband to teach Christlike love to our children.  The serving kind of love and the selfless love.

This month I decided to try what we call the "love jar"

We decorated a ball jar with a love theme and then I had my boys cut out a bunch of hearts.  Cody even tried.  By the end Cody had a bunch of little tiny, tiny strips on the floor and table.  He was very proud of himself and kept asking me to "yook" (look.) 

I put the jar, hearts and a pen where the family can see it in the dining room and throughout the whole month anyone can go pick up a heart and write on it why they love another member of the family then put it in the jar.  On Valentines day and February 29 (leap year... I knew someone born on the 29th of Feb!) we are going to pick the hearts out and read them to each other.

Corbin was so cute.  He couldn't wait to write on the first heart.  He kept saying, "Isn't anyone else going to write a heart, I have already written two!?"  Mind you it was only like two hours since we created the jar and put it up.  He is so full of love.  Praise God.

I hope the family likes this idea because if they do I can see it becoming a fun tradition that we look forward to each year.

As I posted here last year, remember John 13:34

"A new commandment I give you, love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another." 

Let's make February about the Agape kind of love, the love Christ showed us.

~Blessings~

Tidbits

I have been wanting to post this all day long but one thing leads to another and here I am at 10:00pm! 

1. I almost put off cleaning up my kitchen so I could post but I decided to do my work first!  I had to clean up some pans that were soaking from dinner ~ Gluten Free Mulligatawny Soup (my favorite), unload the dishes and put my homemade beef stock in freezer containers.  I am glad I got it all done first!

2. We are back to school this week and things are going well.  We enjoyed our short Christmas break and I feel refreshed again. I LOVE the flexibility of homeschool.

3. Corbin starts piano lessons tomorrow.  He is SO excited.  I am excited too, maybe I will learn something too?

4. We decided to join our local church homeschool Co-op.  I am so excited for this.  Corbin will be taking three classes along with chapel on Mondays.  His classes will be Lego building and learning how to speak in front of people, P.E., and Learning about the Armor of God.  I wish I had the opportunity to participate in things like this when I was a kid! Cody and I will be hanging out helping during the time too.

5. I started getting sick the day after Christmas and it lasted for about 4 days.  We had to postpone Daddy's birthday because of my sickness (and other extended family members were sick too.)  We ended up having a belated birthday party last night for Steve.  It was so much fun!

Corbin made him this cool birthday sign.

We had our extended family come over (I didn't get pictures...duh...) and they had dinner with us and opened presents and had cake.  We had such wonderful conversation.  I just love my family.  It was so awesome to hear my Dad and Uncle (his brother) laugh so hard over their childhood stories.

Steve has been craving pizza lately and he really wanted Papa Murphys.  Reminiscent of his college days.  I had never had it (and still haven't because they don't offer anything GF)  It looked SO good though.  He wanted a Chicago Style stuffed pizza.  Papa Murphy's is cool because you go in and order what you want, they make it right there on the spot and you take it home and bake it in your own oven.  For the record I did make my own Gluten Free French Bread so I could indulge with them in a Gluten Free French Bread Pizza.  Delicious!

This was similar to what it looked like....

I wished I got a picture of the cake.  I made a Gluten Free Yellow Cake with chocolate frosting (his favorite.)  The cake was OK.  I will probably try a different recipe next time.  I didn't have the candles I needed so I used the ones I had.  I put candle numbers 3, 4 and 2 and then added one tiny little normal candle on the side. This equals his age ~ No, not 343!  3 and 4+2+1! My 6 year old liked doing the math - 37 years old! Silly, I know. Happy Birthday Steve! May this be your best year ever.

6. I have been reading a book I got from my Brother and Sister-in-law for Christmas called 1000 gifts: Dare to live fully right where you are by Ann Voskamp  It has been an interesting read.  She has a very poetic way of writing.  Nothing like I have ever read before.  She is inspiring me to keep a gratitude journal of 1000 gifts (maybe more). Through her tragedies and brokeness in life Ann started seeking to know the Lord more fully. It led her to start keeping track of all of God's gifts. I love the gifts she writes about.  Everyday ordinary things that truly are "gifts" from the Lord. I can't wait to snuggle up under the blankets and read some more of it tonight.

7. We received a wonderful, unexpected blessing on New Years Eve.  It changed our whole evening around and we ended up having one of the best New Years Eve's I can remember.  I was still under the weather but almost over it and this blessing was just what I needed to get me out of the funk I was in. The four of us had a simple evening together.  We went to the store and got some junk food to much on.  Came home and ate it for dinner (agggh!) then did some sparklers (ones we used at our wedding 7 years ago), put Cody to bed and let Corbin stay up.  Corbin loved that.  Him and I played some Mario Brothers (I am still addicted to that game ~ although trying to set a good example), we all watched our own home videos, and then Steve, Corbin and I played a game of Sorry~ I WON. :-)  It was a wonderful family night.  We woke up the next day and had and AWESOME worship service with an AMAZING sermon at our new church.  It was a great start to the new year.

8. No New Years resolutions here. I like the idea of them but it is too much pressure.  I have goals and aspirations for the year but we will see what the Lord wants.  What I pray for this year is:

More Love

More Trust

More Joy

More Hope

Blessings~ Thank you for reading my blog.  I am grateful for all of you.  Have an excellent first week of 2012!

Happy New Year from Feastingonjoy!

May the Lord richly bless you and your loved ones in 2012.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

from feastingonjoy!

Tis the season for Joy!

After my post the other day I wanted to share with you some joyful things going on around here.

The sun rises later around here.  Usually in the seven o'clock hour.  Because of that I do sometimes get to see the sun rise.  One morning I caught a particularly beautiful sunrise

While my Mother-in-law was visiting we found this cute little shop and this sign in it.  She bought it for me and now I proudly display it in my laundry room! According to the sign I should make about 3-5k a week!

My Aunt put Rolos on the table this year for Thanksgiving and she also put a peppermint patty on each place setting.  We all had finished eating our meal and gotten up.  Soon after I realized Cody was no where to be found.  I came into the dining room and saw him with a few Rolo wrapper remnants near him on the table.  He looked at me like I scared him and caught him in the act - I DID!  He was sneaking Rolos.  Luckily I caught him before I had a repeat of what child #1 did with chocolate.  When Corbin (child #1) was two and a half he got into the two candy advent calendars we had and ate about 16 pieces of chocolate in one sitting.  He did that after he took a bite out of each cookie on a plate that our neighbor had delivered the day before.  I definitely caught him!

Cody at the table:

Corbin at two years old feeling sick after eating too much chocolate! You can see the remnants on his face and the floor.

We have been enjoying having Steve home. He has been spending special time with the boys.  He took the time to help Corbin build a windmill with scrap wood he had leftover from building shelves in the garage.  Corbin got to paint it himself and they worked together on building it.  It really works!  It was cool too because the day after they finished it was a really windy day so we got to see it in action.

Since it is starting to become a bit wintry around here. I wanted to do a snowman craft with the kiddos.  Cody had never gotten to paint before.  This was his first time.  I was really impressed with how careful he was.  He didn't make a mess at all.  I just had to keep telling him to stop painting the background for the snowman black!  For some reason he liked black the best.  We all made snowmen.  Bet you can't tell who's is whose?

We started advent the first Sunday after Thanksgiving.  This has been a tradition that our family loves.  The boys have to take turns lighting the candles and blowing them out now.  It is really cute.  We updated our wreath too.  It doesn't have as much character as our first one but I like it because it is smaller and fits on our table better.

Each year I surprise the kids with an ornament that represents something in the year for them.  Corbin kept hounding me about when he was going to get his ornament this year!   It will be nice though because when they grow up they will have their own ornament box to take and decorate their own tree with.  Ornaments with sentimental memories are fun!

I got Corbin a Winnie the Pooh/Eeyore "Where's my tail?" ornament because we had watched the movie recently and I hadn't heard Corbin laugh so hard in a long time he loved the newest Pooh movie.  I got Cody a Curious George reading one because he likes to go into Corbin's room and take all his Curious George books down and read them all. Naughty little Monkey!

We always make a big deal about choosing and decorating our Christmas tree.  I usually make hot chocolate or hot apple cider and put Christmas music on and get all the ornaments out. It is a special honor to be able put the angel on the tree once the tree is all decorated.  Usually Corbin does it but this year it was Cody's first turn. Poor Cody.... he tried but just couldn't do it.  The picture below it right before he DROPPED the angel and broke her wings off!  AGGGHH!!  Thankfully Steve fixed her wings.  We later let Corbin have his turn again and he did it successfully.  Maybe next year Cody?

We have to bundle up around here.  When we go out we always have to put on jackets, gloves, and beanies.  The problem with beanies is that the boys always get "beanie hair."

I thought I would leave you with another spectacular sunset.  We get a lot of them around here!  Oh and also I hope you'll like my favorite Christmas song: Breath of Heaven.

More Harvest Festivities

This has been such a fun year for celebrating harvest.  We don't celebrate Halloween around here but we do have family traditions that get the whole family together and create lasting memories to commemorate the Fall season.

I thought I would share what we have been up to in the midst of unpacking and getting settled in our new house.

We went to a local pumpkin patch just down the street from us.  It kind of reminded me of the Roloff family farm from the Little People Big World TLC Show.  They had a HUGE corn maze - actually two.  One of them was 3.2 miles to get through.  I had never done a corn maze before and it was really cool.

They made it even more fun because they had check points all over the place where you could punch this card with a corn kernel punch.

Cody got to go on his first jumpy jump.  It was the first time where there weren't fifteen million kids in one bounce house.  He loved it.  He could have stayed in there for hours.

The owners of the farm created a train for the kids to ride on from water barrels.  They were all pulled by a tractor and it took them around the huge red barn on the property.  The boys loved that.

Steve loved the pumpkin slingshot.  He was able to shoot 3 pumpkins out in to this field and watch them smash to smithereens!  Boy stuff!

They even had the ride where you sit in the swings and go round n' round.  A small one so Cody could go on too.  He had the hugest smile when it first started up.  I loved this ride when I was little.  Now I would get dizzy and puke within the first 30 seconds.

Here was the sunset over the corn.  I thought it was a pretty silhouette.  This place also had something gluten free for me to eat form the snack counter - a loaded baked potato.  It was nice to have a hot meal in the 40 degree evening.

I have gone to a pumpkin patch every year since I was a little girl.  I knew we would be able to find a fun new one in our new state!  Yay!

Each fall we also have a tradition of carving pumpkins together as a family.  We each carve our own and don't show anyone until the end.  It is a big surprise.  When the kids are too young to carve they get to draw on a little pumpkin.  This is the second year Corbin got to carve a pumpkin and he has BIG plans for his pumpkin this year.  It was fun because my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins participated this year and they took it to the next level and awarded prizes to the first and second.  That made it even more competitive.  We really had a blast!

Cody coloring his pumpkin for the first time.  He was in heaven.  He loves to "rite" as he calls it.

Don't mind my evil cousin in the background!  He cracks me up.  He really isn't evil... he's just frustrated because it is the first time he carved a pumpkin!

Here is my sweet cousin Sarah and my Grandma.  My grandma helped pick the seeds out of the muck so we could roast seeds.  As my Grandma walked away to wash her hands she said "This is SICK!"  It made me laugh.

Here they are in all their glory. Can you guess who's is whose?  From left to right: Cousin John's, Uncle Roger and Aunt Jan's self portrait of Steve, Corbin's of Yoshi from Mario Cart (his was the most innocent but looked the scariest), Steve and mine was the "joy" one and then Sarah's on the end (hers even had eyelashes.) 

Corbin won first place and I wish I caught his astonished look on camera.  It was so precious.  He just couldn't believe that he won.  He says now that his favorite thing in the whole world to do is to carve pumpkins!  My family also has a tradition they shared with us of turning of all the lights and chasing this kids with the pumpkin.  My Uncle did this and Corbin loved it but Cody freaked - as any two year old would do.  Now every time he sees Corbin's pumpkin (the one Uncle Roger used) he says "That scauwed me!"  I told my Uncle he may have to come over at 2am when I have to console Cody from his pumpkin nightmares.

What a fun harvest we had!  I am really looking forward to our November traditions that we have with the theme of gratitude and service.  I hope to share some of those with you.

~Blessings~

Mounds Bars

I started making this dessert for Christmas time last year.  I had it for the first time at one of my MOMS functions at church and I loved them so much.  I happen to really like coconut so this was a winner for me.  These bars are so easy to make and that is another reason I love them.

My friend Camille gave me this recipe and I have adapted it a bit.  They are always a hit!  Try them.

There are three layers to this dessert:

graham cracker crust

coconut layer

chocolate chip layer (sorry its blurry)

Recipe:

2 c. graham cracker crumbs

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. melted butter
1 can Eagle Brand condensed sweetened milk
4 c. coconut
1 12oz. bag oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Line 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper that comes over the sides. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter, and bake in 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 8 min. Mix the condensed milk and coconut together, and spread gently on baked crumbs (this part you might have to do with your fingers gingerly so you don't disturb the crust below.) Bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. Pour chocolate chips over warmed coconut layer and stick it back in the oven until you see the chocolate chips melting (about 5 minutes.)  Remove it from the oven and spread the chocolate chips evenly over the top of the the whole dessert.  Let it cool and put it in the refrigerator about 2 hours or more.  Once they are completely chilled remove the whole dessert from the pan by pulling the parchment paper.  Set the dessert on a cutting board and with a sharpened butchers knife (the big knife) cut them into squares.  They are rich so don't make the squares too big.

Make these and you will have one happy camper - or many happy campers!  Corbin literally asks if he can have one every hour of the day!