Christmas 2015

Last year our Christmas revolved around my husband's work schedule which required us to celebrate

on Christmas Eve with our family.

We enjoyed it so much that when his schedule potentially presented problems to us again,

we were happy to once again enjoy all the fun together on Christmas Eve!

This was the last year we will be celebrating in this room as my Mother-in-Law will be moving in 2016.

It has been a long-standing tradition for our family to order Chinese food on Christmas Eve, 

and it just makes everything so much simpler for us!  Plus, it's delicious!!!!!

This guy picked out the necklace I'm wearing because he wanted me to remember

"that he loves me."  Sigh.

This girl simply could not WAIT for her brother to open his gift from her. 

She knew how he had picked this out a long time ago and talked about it all the time.

Each of our children picked a siblings name from a basket and bought a gift for that person.
Not this girl.

No matter that she picked one name.
She kept wanting to back our shopping for each and every sibling!!

After our reservation time was up in the club-room,

we moved the party up to my mother-in-law's apartment where the children played some more

and the girls finished a puzzle with Grandma!

We had such a lovely time together full of fun and laughter.

On Christmas Day, we simply relaxed, took things slow, and remembered 

who's birthday this was commemorating anyway!
We had a delicious lunch together with all our favorites.....

........and then we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

Soon after we had a sweet little surprise visitor who was not quite
two weeks old.
Aryn was delighted!

Because the weather was so very warm on this Christmas Day,
the girls and I took a walk where we spotted some

beautiful Christmas decor that our Loving Heavenly Father scattered

around for us to see and enjoy!!!

Such a blessed time together and lovely memories to carry us into the new year!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Baking

One of my favorite things to do over the holidays is to create some yummy treats in my kitchen that I remember from my childhood!  Usually I can round up lots of willing helpers, but this year, my helpers were scattered around at or with other various activities.
Honestly, it was kinda nice having the kitchen all to myself and being able to move through each project with out a ton of mess.  No bikering, no crowding, no spills, and lots of Christmas music.
Very relaxing, very little stress!

Because we were so busy preparing for and participating in several different programs and events,
I wasn't able to start baking until everything was over.
So, on the scond day of Christmas break I pulled out all my recipes, ingredients, and baking pans and got busy!!

These yummies elicit memories of Christmas time so long ago in an ancient, brick farmhouse

in Northwest Ohio.

Mocha Nut Butterballs are a cousin to the Mexican Wedding Cookie/Snowball cookie,

but have cocoa and coffee in the dough.  They bake up light and tender and then are rolled

in confectioner's sugar.

Delish!!!

You can find the recipe here.

These Sour Cream Cutout cookies didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned.

It had been years since I have made a cut-out cookie, and it may just be another several years until

I do so again.  This project made me feel like a rookie in the kitchen.

The flavor is wonderful and just how I remember, but they popped up so very thick.

Think biscuit.

I put too much liquid in the frosting so it wasn't as thick as I was envisioning,

but it did dry and set-up nicely so these were stackable after decorating.

I loved them, but my family hardly touched them?

Find this recipe here.

My intent was to make a TON of goodies and then share them with our precious neighbors

who have been such a blessing to us this year.  So as I finished up the baking of each cookie,

I found containers to package them up in.  Here you can see the final cookie I made on baking day.

These Chocolate Mint Drops are another favorite from my childhood that I looked forward too every Christmas as a little girl.  

They have a subtle chocolate peppermint flavor that comes from crushing up candy canes.

A chocolate glaze is drizzled over top to pump up the chocolate goodness of these gems!!

Mom's Chocolate Mint Drops

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup crushed candy canes

2 eggs

6 T. cocoa plus 2 T. shortening, or,

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares, melted

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla 

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup oats

______________________________

Chocolate glaze

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 T. cocoa

3 T. milk

Cream shortening and sugar.  Stir in candy.  Add eggs.  Blend in chocolate, milk and vanilla.  Stir in other ingredients with oats last.  Chill for 1 hour.  Drop by teaspoon on greased cookie sheet.  

Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Cool and drizzle with chocolate glaze.

I also made three batches of Puppy Chow and bagged those up to give away as well.

You can never make enough of this addictive treat.

I rarely make it outside of the holiday season because it is so delicious, and so easy 

to consume an entire batch in one sitting!!

If you don't already have that recipe, you can find it here.

We love to make treats and give them as gifts every year.

You can see what we've done other years by clicking here.

Resurrection Sunday 2015

We woke up Easter Sunday to the sound of rain pounding on our roof,

but we didn't let that dampen our spirits or steal our joy!

Well.......almost.

Doesn't everybody have a picture like this once in a while?
The one with the unhappy child who doesn't want to wear a suit and tie,

even after agreeing to it earlier in the week,

even on the Sunday morning we are celebrating?

At least he cooperated enough to join his family!!

Last spring, in March 2014,

our youngest fully understood her need for salvation from her sin nature.
That sin that requires eternal separation from Her Heavenly Father.

She asked Jesus to forgive her and to be her Savior.

But after that decision, when we began encouraging her to think about being baptized,

she refused.

Think tears.

Not in anger or defiance, but tears of fear and anxiety.

Christ never forced anyone to follow Him.

Neither would we.

But we talked with her about what would happen....

.......what motivates us to be baptized.....

.......how it pictures our dying to self, our dying to following the world.....

.....and burial of that old life.

.......and our new, eternal life found in Him.

Our new life resurrected and to be lived for Him!!

We prayed for the Lord to take that fear away and for her to want to obey Him because she

loved Him and is so thankful for her salvation.

It took nearly a full year of conversations with her before she randomly blurted out to me in the car

"Mom, I think I'm ready to be baptized.  I'm not afraid anymore.

When can I do it?"

The following Sunday we spoke to our Pastor and began looking at dates available.

The first Sunday open was Easter Sunday.

Perfect!!

What a delight it was for our whole family to watch her step so confidently into the water that day.

What a perfect day to remember the joy we can have in the security of knowing we

have our sin forgiven,  our conscience is at peace with God, and that

we have eternal life in Heaven because of this new life!!

{Aryn with our very kind Pastor and his wife,

Dr. and Mrs. Willie Weaver}

Resurrection Sunday Preparations

We spent the week leading up to Easter Sunday looking for examples of new life!!
I'm constantly God-struck with wonder how the Lord is always revealing Himself and His Good News even in the grandeur of the world around us.
I think it is no mistake that we are seeing trees, and flowers, and grasses waking up at the same time we are remembering the anniversary of His death and subsequent resurrected life.
Those glimpses of hope.
Those promises of change.

This year we made a few little things to remind us of what we are remembering,
and the Biblical symbols we find that point to our Messiah, the Savior of the world.

"Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world."

John 1:29

We also made some chocolates......in the shape of the cross.
To remind us to:

"...NOT be conformed to this world, but be TRANSformed by the renewing of your mind.."

Romans 12:3  

To be formed into the shape, the image, of Christ.

For more family activity ideas to prepare your hearts for Easter, click here.

We have also spent this entire last year preparing for this which just so happened to be possible on Resurrection Day: