All the Merry Making

This Christmas season has been one where many normal things, those that I would have considered traditional, haven't happened. Though today was quite chaotic, it was important to me that we squeeze in one cousin day before Christmas on Thursday. There was mass cookie baking and decorating, some playing in our cul-de-sac in between the rain showers, and catching up over a cup of coffee (say what?) with my 17-year old niece.

The introvert in me is ready to curl up in a hole and hibernate for about 72 hours, but overall, the chaos of today was well worth it.

Crockpot Potato Soup ... or What We are Eating on Christmas Eve

It's never too late to start a new tradition for your family ... last year marked the first year that we hosted my side of the family for Christmas Eve. For many, many years, we had spent the evening with friends and it was a much anticipated time of visiting and snacking. However, as children have grown and more and more grandchildren arrived (ourselves included!), the crowd got to be a bit much for a huge Christmas Eve get-together, and so we started our own tradition.



This recipe is courtesy of a fellow CC mom. She brought this to a recent potluck and it was delicious! Once she emailed us all the recipe, I knew this was going to be part of our Christmas dinner menu. My favorite potato soup of all is my mom's recipe which isn't quite so heavy; however, it isn't a crockpot recipe and since we'll be coming home to eat from the Christmas Eve service, I need something that doesn't take as much babying.

Kate's Crockpot Potato Soup

30 oz frozen hash brown potatoes (I diced up a bunch of potatoes since I didn't have hashbrowns and it worked just fine.)

32 oz chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz cream cheese

Bacon bits (or turkey bacon)

1 c. shredded cheese

Salt, Pepper, and Granulated Garlic to taste

 

In the crock pot, put the hash brown potatoes, broth, cream of chicken soup, half of the bacon bits and salt, pepper and garlic. Cook on low for 8 hours. One hour before serving, add the cream cheese and bacon bits. If you take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator earlier than that to warm up a little bit, it will incorporate better with the soup - I also gave it a whirl with an immersion blender to smooth it out some. Serve with cheddar cheese on top.

 

Again, the verdict by the six kids in our house was that it was GOOD. I was hoping for quite a bit leftover and I had to scrape out the crockpot to get enough for one more serving the following day.

 

Another crockpot potato soup we love is here which is quite a bit cheesier and super good as well.

Christmas Books Under the Tree

Several of my favorite blogs have been publishing their suggestions of books for Christmas gift giving. I LOVE looking at these. Since I've done a little of our shopping, many that I spot don't make it under our personal tree, but there is a more than likely chance that they will end up on an Amazon wishlist to peruse later or to try out from the library before purchasing. I'm always up for good book recommendations! I thought I would list here for my own sake the books that we (or other family members) are putting under the tree for our crew this year - to jog my memory for future years and there is the off-chance that someone out there might be looking for an idea or two.

For N1 (age 11, a fairly voracious reader):

The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Deedy and Randall Wright
Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink
Hatchet by Gary Paulson

For N2 (age 8, just a few weeks short of 9):

She is enamored with Shakespeare right now so I've scrounged up some used copies of several different Young Reader's Shakespeare versions for her. (We already own A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo & Juliet which she's recently reread on her own).

The Young Reader's Shakespeare: Hamlet
The Young Reader's Shakespeare: MacBeth
Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare

B (age 7, just starting to really take off independently with her reading):

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond - how do we not have this book?!
Katie's London Christmas by James Mayhew - we love all of his picture books

E (age 4):

Waiting is Not Easy! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems
Eli by Bill Peet

For our fosters:

Mercy Watson Boxed Set by Kate DiCamillo
Jesus Storybook Bible

For our neice, age 2:

Pride and Prejudice: A BabyLit Counting Primer
Alice in Wonderland: A BabyLit Numbers Primer

What books are you looking at for Christmas? There is always next year's list to start working on. : )

Christmas Tea and Being Thankful

I've been working through the #shereadstruth study on thanksgiving the last few weeks and it has been good. In years' past, I haven't spend as much time really thinking on what it means to be thankful during the month of November. Of course, you can't help but think about it some - it's everywhere from listing your daily gratitudes on Facebook to hundreds of crafts and ideas on Pinterest to inspire you to list your blessings. I've read Ann Voskamp's book. I have a thankful journal. I'm good on what it means to be thankful and just going through November without a pause to really reflect on it.

Or not.

I've been reminded about so many things that I know about God, but it was time to hear them in fresh ways.

• God is good all the time. Even when things look unjust from my earthly point of view. Or, ahem, when I act unjustly towards others and need God's abundant grace.
• Even in our sorrow there can be thanksgiving. When we are struggling we can still acknowledge there is a glory that will one day devour our sorrow and take it from us.
• When I am in times of searching for answers and/or reminders that God is with me, sometimes I need to non insist on finding the answer. I can rest in the certainty of the one who IS the answer. In the face of situations I can't understand, he is a God that I can fully trust.
• When I'm in a season that I am ready to be done with, I need to stop looking to the next season of life and imagining it will all be better once I have ________ (fill in the blank with whatever I think will fix the current season). Stop looking ahead and remember to look to Jesus. Sometimes waiting is the season I'm in and endurance is the lesson I'm learning.

My life is far from awful ... so far, it's almost comical when I worry about different things. I am so blessed, but yet I struggle when I feel like our days are uncertain with extra little people in our home through foster care, doctor appointments on the horizon, and a dear friend struggling with a serious medical need. A reminder of what it means to be thankful as a believer was what I needed this year and I'm so very ... thankful. : )

And to share, a recipe. I'm thankful for my friend who shared her recipe for spice tea with me. I remember this recipe from when I was a girl in Pioneer Girls, but I hadn't made it in years. I mixed up a double batch this weekend and just enjoyed my first cup while typing this post. I'm sure another cup will be enjoyed as I tackle Christmas cards and post Thanksgiving laundry and all the other things that will go into this weekend.

Spiced Tea

1 1/4 cup Tang (yes, the powdered orange drink)
2/3 cup instant iced tea with sugar and lemon
1 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground allspice
(The recipe also calls for 1/4 t. of grated lemon and orange rind, each, but I never add it).

Mix together. Add a heaping spoonful to a mug of hot water and enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve

Counting down those last few days until Christmas. It feels like things are finally slowing down around here and the last few days have been very nice. There has been a lot of hosting of events that last couple weeks - all things that were very fun and we were very happy to do - but also draining for this introvert. : )

Yesterday we took the munchkins to see a matinee of Frozen. We loved it. There was a moment or two where the boy crawled in my lap and got a little nervous, but the girls were spellbound. And I have to say, this movie has got the best Disney soundtrack that I have heard in years. It brings out the musical theater side of me. (It's a very small side, but it pops out occasionally when watching a favorite musical.)



The kids and I also went to the science center on Friday afternoon. I had hopes of being outside and going to the zoo, but it didn't happen due to big rains that swept through. I'll be honest on this one as well. The science center isn't my favorite place to go, but my kids LOVE it. It's too dark and has too many small crawl spaces for me to really enjoy it. The last time that we went, the boy was contained in a stroller so he was a bit giddy with the freedom to explore and run around. (And then he slept most of the way home in the car. Bonus).



Also bonus: cute shot of my girls standing next to Saturn.

Today was a busy at home day. For my Christmas, T hired two very sweet and thorough women to come and deep clean the house for us. What a treat. Of the many things that are on my plate (and that of any stay-at-home mama / homeschooling mama / working mama) the really deep cleaning just doesn't happen. Counters get wiped and floors get mopped, but this was such a blessing to have everything cleaned REALLY well. While they were working, I did some work upstairs, hung out with the kids, folded laundry, etc. I had a few minutes to make some updates on the blog and if you look over to the left you should see a page for my 2013 booklist, as well as an updated Family Read-Aloud list. As I updated those lists, I was surprised at how little book blogging I've done this last year. Lost of reading ... just not lots of writing about it.



We are hosting Christmas Eve at our house tomorrow night and I'm excited to finish up food preparation tomorrow and have my family over for a few hours after our church's Christmas Eve service. It's been fun putting together a menu and getting the food ready - I really do love hosting things and putting together grocery lists and meal ideas. We aren't having a huge, heavy meal tomorrow. Several appetizers + soup and bread. On the menu:

• bbq meatballs (made by my sister, very yum)
• build your own ham and cheese sandwiches (on rolls)
• chicken nuggets tray (for the kids, mostly)
• relish tray
• creamy tomato basil soup
• cheesy potato soup
• garlic bread
• cheese bread
• this cheesecake
• cake balls (made by my sister at my girls' request, so good)

I'm looking forward to dinner tomorrow already. : )

Hope your Christmas Eve tomorrow is full of family and friends, food and fellowship. I leave you with a picture N1 took of one of my favorite elves while we were out running errands one day. I died when I saw these on my phone. The cuteness.



Happy (late) Monday.

Christmas Break! and a New Post on Jelly Telly

It's Christmas Break! As of about 10:30 a.m. this morning, my girls finished up their Christmas music recital and we are officially on break until January. Whew. I've been struggling to get school done with them the last few days and even had strange thoughts of trying to plug on through the rest of this week, but it's not happening. I'm done and ready for a break and so are they. I've got a short stack of books from the library that need some attention and White Christmas is on the agenda (hopefully) for tonight's viewing.

Tomorrow I have got the monster of all read aloud posts going up - nothing like saving ALL our fall read-alouds and posting them in one swoop. I need to remind myself not to do that next spring. : )

Also, I've got a new post up over on the Jelly Telly blog and some thoughts about Jesus as our Prince of Peace.

Hope your day has been merry.

Christmas Meme 2013

Q: What is your favorite Christmas song?

O Come All Ye Faithful is my favorite Christmas hymn, I believe, stemming back from college choir days when we would sing it at the yearly Christmas candlelight service. I'm partial to Steven Curtis Chapman's version as well. If I'm looking for a contemporary Christmas song, Chris Tomlin's Emmanual (Hallowed Manger Ground) is absolutely gorgeous. We sang it on Sunday and I remembered how much I love it.

I also discovered this CD this year - T must have bought it and when I synced my music on my phone it just appeared there.



Very good. It's been my go-to in the car with the kids.

Q: Favorite Christmas Special/Movie?

White Christmas. : ) I informed T as he went out the door today that tonight may be the night for my annual viewing.



We definitely have other family favorites for this month - we typically watch Elf sometime over Thanksgiving weekend as we transition from one holiday to the next. It's also become an annual tradition to rewatch the Lord of the Rings movies in December (now plus The Hobbit).

Q: What sort of goodies do you make in December?



On the short list:

Cranberry Christmas Cookies
Toffee Crack
my Grandma's chex mix

Q: Favorite Christmas beverage? 

This year it has been diet Sierra Mist with cranberry. So good. And, of course, always coffee.

Q: How many Christmas parties do you usually attend? 

We typically have one annual party that we are invited to every year and try to go if we have a sitter. Some years we make it and some we don't. The last two years I've hosted our Classical Conversations mom's night out which is always a fun night. That's about it. 

Q: Do you go Christmas caroling? Does anyone come caroling to your house?

No and no. We went caroling last year with our small group to a nursing home, but that's probably the only time I've been in years. I/we didn't make it happen this year. I think I'm still slightly traumatized because I spend the whole time holding a VERY wiggly two year old boy who literally LICKED my face while we were singing. Maybe next year. : )

Q: What's on your front door at Christmas?

Nothing. One day I'd like to hang a wreath, but it didn't happen this year. I'm also not sure how that would work between the wood door and the storm door and I didn't have the time / energy / crafty-ness to figure out how to rig it up!

Q: When do you put the tree up and take it down?  

Ideally, I like putting the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and leave it up through the first week (or so) of January. When I was younger, my parents were always very conscientious about taking the Christmas tree down right after Christmas Day so that it wasn't up for my birthday (which is New Year's Eve). Now that I'm the parent and it's my own home, I leave it up and enjoy the lights until I need/have to take it down. I want to enjoy my lights as long as I can!

Q: Do you decorate with traditional red and green? Or with other colors?  

No color scheme worth noting here. So far every year has been different! I'm pretty sure that last year was multicolored lights. T and the girls typically pick them out and this year we have white and purple lights adorning the tree. I think it looks lovely.



Q: How many Christmas trees do you put up (large and small)?  

This year we have two. One is in our front room and it's our large (real) tree. We also have a smaller (maybe 3 foot) tree that we used the last 2-3 years when we were in our smaller house and when the boy was just starting to cruise around. It now sits at the top of the stairs in front of mirror which reflects the light all over our upstairs landing.



Q: Are your Christmas decorates themed or hodgepodge?   

Totally hodgepodge. We have a few ornaments from my childhood, a few that the kids have made over the years, and a few that I've picked up along the way. Absolutely no matchy-matchy or coordination happening. 

Q: Ham, turkey, both or something else for Christmas dinner?

When we celebrate with my side of the family Christmas dinner is usually chicken enchiladas and a layered mexican dip. When it is T's side, it's turkey. If I was planning the meal, I would probably fall somewhere in the middle of both camps. In fact, T bought me a turkey over the weekend and it is in the fridge right now so I can cook it for him. Yum.

Q: Do you have any Christmas traditions that are unusual or out-of-the-ordinary?

I really can't think of any. Maybe the mexican food meal for Christmas Day? I feel like I'm still trying to find my footing with traditions and no year seems to be the same.

Q: Do you display Christmas cards in a particular way?  

Taped to the wall in our family room. I love displaying them there, until the tape loses it's sticky and they start falling down. : ) 

Q: What do you do with Christmas cards you have received after the holidays are over?  

I used to save them, but I just pitch (most of) them. See also this post on what to do with your Christmas card photos. Brilliant. I'm doing this this year so I can virtually save the photos.

 Q: Christmas newsletters: Love 'em or hate 'em?  

Love!! I love sending and receiving cards and little newsy notes - its one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. As of Monday, all of ours are officially out the door (minus the half-dozen that I need to track down addresses for). I realize most people think that you keep up and know what's going on because of Facebook, but I don't find that is the case. One, because I have really cut back my time on Facebook and therefore miss all sorts of stuff. And two, I may know that you had the best bagel of your life and the such-and-such bagel shop this year, but I find that I really don't know what's been going on in your family. So, if you are on the fence about sending me a newsletter, do! : )

Thanks to Carrie for sharing this on her blog and Barbara for thinking up the questions. This is going to be printed and placed in my Project Life album as a little snippet of life this Christmas season.

Around the Web, a New Jelly Telly Post, and a Giveaway!

• I have a new blog up of at Club Jelly Telly today … all about taking a deep breath as we are gearing up for the beginning of a new school year and remember who is the one worthy of our trust when we get anxious. Read more here.

• Doesn’t this look like a fun little online workshop? And, if you blog about it, it’s free! So there you go. I’ve recently found Edie’s blog (Life {in} Grace) and wish I had tons of time to dig around her archives and get to know her better.

• I’ve been perusing a few of my favorite posts from Elizabeth Foss and Kendra Fletcher and trying to fire myself up for school this year. This is a busy season in our house with a VERY active 2 going on 3 year old boy and I am in need of encouragement for me and a few ideas in my pocket to keep this boy out of trouble and busy while we do school. If you aren’t subscribed to these two blogs (or at least making generous use of their archives) you need to be.
• As a fun little back-to-school treat for you, the few and faithful that read here, I’ve got a giveaway. (I don’t know the last time I’ve had one of those!) I’ve got an extra unopened copy of Volume 1 of What’s in the Bible that I’d love to mail to a new home. If you are interested, leave a comment on this post by Friday afternoon and I’ll draw a winner. (Make sure you leave me an email with your comment so I know how to track you down.) For one extra entry, you can facebook or tweet about this giveaway, and then leave me a comment with the link. Good luck!

This contest is closed - congrats Tami!

Choir Concert

Last night was our little girls’ choir concert. We take part in an amazing (free!) choir program at a local church and this year N2 and B were the only two taking part. (N1 asked to take a break from choir this year, but has asked to start back up in the spring).

A few pre-show shots take before church in the morning … it was going to be dark when the show rolled around at 5pm!

N2 was part of the “big kid” choir so she had a special t-shirt and bandana to wear.

The eyebrows appear in almost all her pictures now. They crack me up. : )

B’s class was to wear a Christmas dress so she and I went through our dresses last week to figure out what would fit her this year.

 

The girls had staggered drop-off / call times so my niece and I ran N2 over mid-afternoon and then I went back with B about a 1/2 hour before the show started.

They did such a great job. This was N2’s first year up on the risers with the big kids and it’s been a hard transition for her from the more intimate classroom settings that she had been in the previous couple of years. For a little homeschooled girl, who goes to a small church, to move to a big kid choir with over 100 kids of different ages and sizes has been a challenge for her, but she has stuck with it and I have been so proud of how she has worked to overcome some anxiousness about going each week. It also helps to have a best friend that you can stand and sing with. (Her BFF is to her left with the long dark hair).  

B’s class is only on stage for about three songs, but she had a part in one of them! We were sneaky and didn’t tell her aunt, cousins or Grandma about it to surprise them. So adorable.

And she just looks really little up there, too. : )

This has become an annual Christmas event for us and we are so thankful for the girls’ experience(s) in choir. Such a fun evening for our family.

Advent Planning

After a quick search on my blog, I realized I’ve never documented our Christmas / Advent activities for my munchkins. I found this post from 2007 and a list of our Christmas books from 2008 but that’s all that turned up in my quick search. (Lots of December Daily goodness under this tag, but that still only shares a bit). This post is to sketch out our ideas for 2012 and maybe help me remember for next year. : ) Please note: while I have listed many items here, the reality is that we not get to all of them – other things come up, kids get sick, mamas get tired. These are jumping off ideas. : )

What holiday planning looks like for me. Messy. Lots of lines and scribbles. : )

Truly, though, the holidays are messy in general. Too many activities. Family drama (every family has it, some just more elevated that others!) The inevitable sickness that hits the family and threatens to derail carefully constructed plans. The goal of my planning is hopefully not to push us into a state of burnout and overkill because of too many good things. My goals are to:

1. Have options. Things change on a day-to-day basis around here with four kids and unexpected plans or germs and an arsenal of ideas that can be flexible is important.

2. Have a loose plan. More plan = less panic for me. : )

3. Make memories for our family.

4. See Jesus. We take time to read about the sweet baby that God sent and remind ourselves the baby came to seek and save those who are lost. (Luke 19:10)

With those goals in mind, here are some of our plans for the next 4-5 weeks…

Activities with Books (remember, we won’t get to all of these books or ideas, and I’d bet money that even with the best intentions there will be days we will miss on our Advent readings!):

• The Faith of St. Nick: An Advent Devotional, with the girls
• Behold the Lamb of God: An Advent Narrative
• scripture to tie in with the days of advent. Combining resources from Good Morning Girls blog, The Jesus Storybook Bible, our ornaments from Ann Voskamp’s free Jesse Tree Advent Devotional. Note: we read through her devotional last year and I loved it. However, it was a bit heady for my girls. N2 has mentioned to me how much she loved reading in the evening together and putting our ornaments each night on our Jesse tree so we are going to hopefully continue that … just bring it down to their reading/listening level).
• Lots of Christmas storybooks! (I have listed our favorites at the link and have some that are new to us that I’m hoping to try out this year).
• December Daily creating for me

Activities at Home:

• decorating the tree (actually, deciding a plan for a tree. We got rid of our very old fake tree in our move last year and didn’t replace it last year with a one year old boy running loose.)
• making chocolate covered pretzels and / or pretzel hugs.
• making peppermint playdough. (We made our first batch of homemade playdough last week over Thanksgiving at it was a success so we’re going to try a Christmas version!)
• lots of Christmas family Friday movie nights. (We have a stack of favorites that we pull out ONLY at Christmas and are packed away the rest of the year.)
• a candlelight picnic in our family room on the floor and watching Little Women with the girls for the first time
• ornament crafts
• making homemade bird feeders for our backyard and for gifts
• decorating sugar cookies
• make snowflakes (out of coffee filters)
• making gifts for teachers and neighbors and delivering them

Activities Out of the Home:

• caroling with our Community Group
• the little girls’ choir concert
• a special outing to the Nashville Children’s Theater
• a special outing to see a friend perform in a local production of White Christmas
• looking at Christmas lights
• Christmas Eve service

As I look at our list now that it’s typed out, it doesn’t seem like there is much on there. As much as I want to add a few more ideas, this will leave some room for spontaneity if something comes up, and it will also leave margin if we need some downtime. And the beauty of the internet, if I spot a good idea out there that I wish we had time to do, I can always pin it for next year. : ) I would also like to have a few more service oriented activities on there, but we have some limitations with ages of the kids (i.e., several places we have checked with in our area about volunteering aren’t geared for little ones to help and prefer for them to be older). Our caroling with our small group is at a long term facility that our church has a relationship with and I would love to develop a routine of going over there and not just at Christmas.

Happy Wednesday. We are having a slow school day today. I had one little with a very upset stomach at bedtime. (The kind that resulted in extra laundry and a bath before bed … ick.) She was up a couple times with it during the night, but we seem to be on the mend today. Ergo, she and Mama are running at about half-speed. There has been a slow start to our school day, lots of coffee and hot tea, and now we are about to get busy as soon as I put a certain boy down for a nap. So thankful for homeschooling for days like these. : )

December Daily // 27-31

Here are the last few shots of this year's December Daily.

December 27:





December 28:



December 29: this page is a little different for a few reasons.

1. I didn't really have a picture or holiday moment captured by camera for the 29th.
2. My number "29" that came with my Elle's Studio kit was chewed on by the baby. Seriously. Ooops. : )
3. I needed a place to insert our Christmas card so this is where it went.

Ergo. No Day 29 in the album. : )



The left page is a red envelope that I tucked a small journaling card in with notes on our cards this year.



In between the envelope and the card is a transparency that came with my album.



December 30: The number isn't attached to the page. I couldn't decide where to put it on the page, so I just didn't. : )



Minus the number 30.



December 31:



The back.



Thus wraps up another December Daily. It's now in my mini-album basket to be brought back down next December and remembered, and all my Christmas scrapbook items have been packed away until next year. A few thoughts that have run through my head as I've wrapped this up:

- this was totally doable alongside Project Life. Some days the photo was duplicated, but the journaling had a different spin depending on which album it was going into.
- I loved this little album from Elise Blaha. I loved that it was 4x6 and I could just punch my pictures and insert them if I wanted to. Occasionally I struggled to figure out where to put my journaling, but it wasn't a big deal. If I go with this album size again next year (highly likely) I will add more pages in for writing and up my binder ring sizes so everything fits.
- The splurge on buying the Elle's Studio Christmas kit was totally worth it. All my numbers were there for me, as were some journaling spots, banners, glitter alphabet stickers, and fun Christmas scrapbook paper. I still have about half the product from the kit left and I've tucked it away for next year and will hopefully add a 2012 kit from Elle to restock it.

Thanks for reading along with this year's December Daily. Next week, it's back to normal Project Life posts and I'm really looking forward to breaking out my Clementine kit and getting to work.

If you want to see the rest of my 2011 December Daily and missed those posts they are linked here:
December Daily Prequel
November 29 - Dec 4
Day 5
Days 6-12
Days 16-18
Days 19-22
Days 23-26