Christmas Day--pass the grub!

Merry Christmas!

What's on the menu for today?!

I'm pretty excited to be cooking again! I got to cook Christmas dinner for us last year and it was so much fun. Granted it was just me and hubby last year, and this year it's me, hubby, Kidlet, Hubby's mom, grandma, and sister, and Hubby's sister's boyfriend... so I've got more cooking to do than last year... but it should still be fun!

For breakfast, Hubby, Kidlet and I will be having Paula Deen's "ultimate coffee cake." It's amazing and you should try it. Every day. For a week. And then go on a diet, 'cause if you eat them every day for a week you'll probably expand. A lot.

We won't be having lunch; we'll be having snacks. Peanut butter celery, smoked cheese and sausage, crackers... that kind of stuff.

And then dinner.
Ahhh dinner.

I love dinner on Christmas.

We'll be having a main course of ham, but I also bought myself a game hen, which I'll be cooking in the crockpot according to this recipe (which I will follow loosely in my typical manner, because I never follow recipes completely). I wanted poultry, and I figured this was a fairly cheap way to do that without a lot of trouble.

We'll be having dressing, mashed potatoes, rolls, homemade cranberry sauce, and a few other things.

Like bacon-wrapped asparagus, and Christmas meatballs.
I've never made either of these before, but I figure--eh, why not? It's Christmas!


And the best cider ever, which will sit in my crockpot on warm (maybe low) all day long, so anyone can grab some whenever they want.


I figured I'd kind of go all out for Christmas.
Especially since when we have Christmas with my mom and sister on Saturday, my mom is ordering pizza.
Boooo.

I'm still kind of scrambling, though. I didn't buy enough of anything to feed that many people, 'cause when I went shopping I wasn't counting on Hubby's family being here. I was only expecting to be feeding the three of us--so I bought enough for us. I might improvise and add a few random other things to my menu, if I can find something in the freezer or cupboard or whatever.


What's on your menu?

what it's all about

It's hard in our society to keep our eyes on what Christmas is really about.

It's easy to get caught up in shopping and eating and parties and decorations... and presents..
and lose sight of what we should be caught up in.

We should be caught up in how amazing it is that God--the Almighty God of all that is, was, and is to come--sent His Son in the form of a child; God came to Earth as just a helpless infant. Helpless. Can you imagine that? Being God, and being willing to be completely helpless, at the mercy of a race so blinded by sin that they didn't know what they had. We didn't know what we had. We still don't.

We have a God who loves us beyond measure.
A God whose incredible love was displayed one night, when a virgin gave birth and the world as they knew it was changed.

Not just the world, but the realms we can't see. This baby was destined to change it all: he grew up and conquered death.
That's what Christmas is about.

It's about my sin and your sin being covered by the blood of a Lamb so pure that only He could be the sacrifice we needed--a King so mighty that only He could pardon our trespasses--a God so loving that only He could pay the debts we owed.

What a God. What a Savior. What a reason to celebrate!

gingerbread houses

Kidlet's school has an annual event with the first graders in which they all bring a family member and build gingerbread houses.
They're technically not gingerbread houses 'cause they used graham crackers. But hey, it's the thought that counts.

And luckily Hubby was willing to bring my camera along!

They were given these materials:

Hubby said that when they first got there, the teacher announced that one of the hardest things for the parents to do at these gingerbread house building events is allowing their kids to build the house instead of building it for them.

Hubby said he did a good job of allowing Kidlet to build it herself, and this is what she built:

She had a good time!

Must Be Santa Monday: Santa's insight

Santa's bringing lots of presents!

He's filling his bag up and in just a few more nights he'll sneak in and leave it!

But a couple of the presents are too big to fit in the bag.

Santa knows Hubby and I don't usually eat at the table since it's very, very small, but we eat together in the livingroom.
But it's usually awkward, 'cause we don't have a coffee table.

So Santa's bringing us these!

Christmas Traditions

Christmas is a time for family traditions. We had many traditions in my family as I was growing up, and I have wonderful memories of all the things we would do together as a family each Christmas.

My husband and I have been married for about a year and a half, and this will be our second Christmas together. We haven't had too much time to establish Christmas traditions yet, but these seem to be the ones that are emerging:

1. Take trip to Walmart or Target, take ten to fifteen dollars each out of the Christmas budget and go hunt for stocking stuffers seperately.


2. Eat at Arby's at least once during the month of December. This comes from my childhood Christmas experiences - we would always eat at Arby's after shopping for my mom, so Derek and I usually end up eating at Arby's after some round of Christmas shopping too.

3. Decorate the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Derek puts the star on the top of the tree, and I put the tree skirt under the tree.

4. Save one Christmas present apart from the others to open on Christmas night. That way the merriment lasts all day!

5. Put the presents under the tree on Christmas Eve, pour ourselves a glass of sparkling cider, and sit on the couch, watch the Christmas lights and talk for a while before going to bed.

These are some of the things that we've done last year and this year (or at least we are planning on doing all of these things this year). It's a little early to tell which traditions will stick or which traditions will f fall to wayside over the years. Some of these traditions, I'm sure, will just be for the years that we enjoy Christmas just as a couple, and they'll change as we have children. But for now I'm going to deliberately take time to enjoy each one of them.

What kind of Christmas traditions do each of you have?


Images from www.martinellis.com., and www.arbys.com.

our christmas tree

this is our Christmas tree--decorated!

enjoy <3

Kidlet putting her new special ornament on the tree:

[I started a tradition with her last year of getting her a new ornament every Christmas season, and she gets to open it as a present on the day we get our tree]

how lovely are thy branches

We cut down our Christmas tree last night <3

(hubby and Kidlet looking for a tree)

Found one, so they cut it down!
(I would have helped, but .. well, I'm diseased. It was cold and rainy so I couldn't)


Ready to go! Well, pay and then go.
Hubby's great; he tied it on the roof by himself. Well, mostly by himself. Some random older lady helped him...? Apparently he knows her from work, but it still weirded me out!
We got it home, decorated, and plopped presents beneath it.

But you'll have to come back later for that ;)

stockings solved

I've come up with a new system for stockings.

The last two years I've had trouble with keeping track of stockings. I couldn't remember which things in my Christmas stash were intended for stockings, which candies I had planned on putting in stockings, and all that jazz.

So I added a stockings section to my Christmas planner, and came up with this disgustingly simple solution:

I've got a bag for Kidlet's stocking and a bag for Hubby's stocking.

That way on Christmas night when I go to fill the stockings (er, Santa goes to fill the stockings), I won't have to fumble around to find everything.

I'll have it all right there in that little baggy.

Must Be Santa Monday: Fillers

Santa needed some filler items...

So filler items Santa's bringing!

Some of this is going in stockings--Hubby's and Kidlet's. Others of it is going to be delivered Christmas night with this stuff.

I've come up with a simple new system for stockings, too, so watch for it!

To join in on Must Be Santa Monday, click here for more details, post on your blog, and then come back to this post and share your link in the comments!

put a little holiday in your heart

This is another thing that reminds me of Christmas when I was a kid!
My grandma was a big, big Leann Rimes fan; she loved listening to her and I'm pretty sure she was impressed at how young Leann Rimes was.

This song is Christmas to me.

cranberry orange oatmeal cookies

One of the girls in my public speaking class did a demonstrative speech about cranberry orange oatmeal cookies. She used a family recipe, showed us how to make them, and passed out samples.

They were delicious. I wish I had taken notes.

And I never have the guts to ask for a recipe from someone who says it's a family recipe--a lot of people like to keep family recipes in the family.

I found a recipe online instead--it's not the same, but it's delicious. They're very festive cookies; they taste like the holidays to me, with the orange, the cranberry, and the cinnamon.

I added a bit of extra orange extract and walnuts at hubby's request, but they turned out fantastic.
Oh, and I also only used about a third of the oats the recipe calls for.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla, orange zest and orange extract. Combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; stir into the butter mixture. Stir in the oats and cranberries. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

alvin and the chipmunks, anyone?

Love it.
Reminds me of my Grandma.

I miss her a lot at Christmas time.

And every time I do, like when I hear that song on the radio, or see something she would have liked, I wonder what Christmas would be like with her nowadays. She was pretty much the source of magic at Christmas; she was great.

But she's not around anymore and hasn't been for quiiite a while.
So I've been trying to think of a way to incorporate the memory of loved ones lost into Christmas celebrations...
not only my grandma but Hubby's dad, who passed away in '95.

so stay tuned for that!

I believe in evolution... of gifts.

For some reason I've been having a heck of a time finding a gift for my sister in law. She should be easy to find a gift for; I know some of her interests, I know what her taste in apparel is, and I know some of her values. Shouldn't be a problem.

But it turned into one.

A few days ago, though, I was looking through some stuff and found one of the bags I made a while back--this one, to be exact.
I looked at it and realized that might be a good gift for SIL.
I also grabbed one of the little pouches I had made (this one, to be exact) from the same stash of stuff I had made.

I thought together they might make a nice gift.

But then I thought it needed something more. Some small bottles of lotion, or hand sanitizer, or chapstick, or something like that? Sure!

Today after my final exams I went shopping at Ross. Gosh I love Ross. They always have different things, so if I go there every week or two, they have different things to look at, and thus different gifts to find. Woot.

I found a few small bottles of lotion in a set, so I bought that.

I also bought a purse organizer, which I thought would be pretty cool, since the purses I made don't have any pockets inside them. I wasn't sure if it would fit in the bag, but I figured it'd be worth a shot.


At home I had a nail file I had purchased for... I don't even know. But it was in my Christmas gift stash, so I figured I'd throw that in there, too. And I had a few brand new lip balms sitting around, so I threw one of those in, too.

So this is what SIL's gift--unwrapped--came to look like.
So much for this idea, eh?

I wrapped everything up individually and thought it'd be cool to put it inside the purse!


And then I wrapped the purse.

I'm pretty excited! I went from not having a gift idea for her to having a gift for her that I could be proud of! Two handmade things supplemented by a bunch of cute things? It's great! I love it. I love it when I figure out gifts that by the time I get them wrapped I'm excited to give them to their recipients. The gifts I have for my sister, her husband, and her oldest daughter are that way, too: I'm proud of them and can't wait to give them.


And this gift also gave me an idea for my ungiftable mom: one of these same purses (which I'll have to make still) and one of the purse organizers, which they had a stack of at Ross! Hurrah!
I might throw in one of the felt pouches, too, if I can make one she might like.


And thus, the evolution of gifts.
Now I just have to figure out what to do with the outdoorsy stickers ;)

Must Be Santa Monday: Princess Giselle

I finished Princess's Christmas present and got it all wrapped up. I posted about it previously here, showing you her Enchanted-themed gift. It's really not so much "Enchanted" as it is princess in general, but I tried to make it as close to Enchanted as I could. Blue stuff, an Enchanted framed picture, that kind of stuff.

And this:

It's a princess paper doll magnet set! She has red hair like Princess Giselle, and her dresses are the same color as Giselle's.

I'm so excited to give them to Princess!

To join in on Must Be Santa Monday, click here for more details, post on your blog, and then come back to this post and share your link in the comments!

Working On That Bowl Full Of Jelly

The time is fast approaching when I will have to really buckle down and do some Christmas baking. I got my November pay check this week, and I promptly took a trip to the store and bought inordinate amounts of Almond Bark, sugar, flour, chocolate chips, ginger cookie mix, bread mixes, maraschino cherries, chocolate frosting, and pretzels.

I really do love Christmas baking, but it's always a challenge finding the time to do it all! I think it makes it worse that I am baking for Derek and myself, and I'm baking for Christmas gifts. Derek and I don't need alot of goodies all to ourselves (we don't want a belly like a bowl full of jelly, thank you), but we do like some variety, so that's where the baking list expands. Then all the amounts for those Christmas goodies are doubled because I'm baking for other people too. And baking that much takes time.

I'm thinking the next two Fridays should be sufficient to get everything done.

Here's my Christmas goody list:

1. Christmas Fudge.
2. Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies.
3. Ginger Cookies, from a mix.
4. Mini Loaves of bread, from a mix, for Christmas gifts.
5. Chocolate Covered Pretzels.
6. Any other random goody that I think of between now and then.

What Christmas goodies are must-haves in your house? I love new Christmas baking ideas!