A Digital Nativity Story

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!! I pray you are able to spend the day with those you love and reflect on the perfect gift that God has given us. The gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. 

Cookie day

My mom, sister, daughter and I all got together for our annual cookie day on Saturday.  I always look forward to this day, but by the end I’m really glad we only do it once a year.

I attempted to make Oreo cookie pops. You are supposed to be able to put a popsicle stick in the double stuff Oreos and dip them in white chocolate. what a fun gift for some of the kids, I thought. 

FAIL…..I only ended up with about 5 that had sticks in them. The cookies kept braking on me so I resorted to just dipping them. kinda boring if you ask me. I wanted them to be on sticks. oh well, can’t win them all.

I also made these pretzel, rolo, pecan treats. Still one of my favorites. So easy to make and they are the perfect blend of salt, sweet and chewy. I also made some of this Toffee, but I have zero pics to prove it.

My sister took on the Ande’s mint cookies this year {bless her} They are the  tastiest chocolate cookie ever created.  Fudgy minty goodness at it best.

My sister also made these homemade oreo cookies. delish. The filling is peppermint and the cookie is devils food. I think I’ll go have one now.

My sister also made some little almond shortbread like cookies. I think they are my favorite non-chocolate {that’s a whole ‘nother category} cookie. Small, cute, buttery, almond= yummy!

We had lots more that we made that I never got a decent picture of. Honestly, way too many, but we will share.

What is your favorite holiday cookies or candies?

Enjoying

Some things I’ve been enjoying

We all went to see the new Narnia movie on Friday night. To say that it was great would be a serious understatement. I thought it was a little dark compared to the first two, but Josiah seemed un-phased by the battles and serpents . He said “they aren’t real mom” when I told him I thought they were a little scary. Kids are funny.  

I spent a good deal of my weekend right here. I’m not complaining one ounce. I love it.

Sunday evening we went to see the Kansas City Ballet’s Nutcracker. It was  beautiful. I think it was a little different version than we had seen in the past.

My kids all bundled up after the Nutcracker. It was so cold and windy. I don’t mind it unless I have to go outside. duh.

I ordered this twine from The Twinery the other day and it finally came. Love it. The colors are so vibrant and the twine is sooo soft. I’m dreaming of all the things I can do with it. The aqua one is my favorite. What would you do with all this twine? I hate to cut into it, it’s just so pretty.

This sweet puppy, even though she makes keeping my house clean twice as difficult.

What are you enjoying right now?

Blessings~

Well....Hello there!

I've missed ya my bloggy friends.

There has been family here and Christmasy things to occupy my time so I just haven't had the time to sit down and say much. 

I hope you and your families had a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Savior. We certainly did!! 

It was a white Christmas here, actually a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Pretty rare here in Kansas City to have a blizzard. It kinda messed up our Christmas Eve since my hubby was obligated to head on to church for service {unbelievably, not canceled}. There wasn't room for all of us in the Jeep and I wasn't about to drive 30 miles in a blizzard and risk getting stranded somewhere so he went alone and we missed him.

Christmas day was wonderful. We got up and opened presents at our house and then headed on over to my parents to hang out with my brothers and sister and their families.

Everybody got what they asked for:

 The I-Pod touch  for Britt {that thing is pretty cool}

The Leapster for Josiah

The Nintedo DS for Corban

a new guitar pickup so my honey can serenade me with beautiful music

There was a whole lot of this going on all day as everyone looked on while games were played

......ahh, the elders teaching the young in the ways of the Pod.....just warms your ♥.

We did really well this year not going overboard on lots of gifts. This was everything for about 15 of us at my parents house. It really was better not having soooo much stuff! We did good at our house this year too, we only bought about half the gifts we normally do and the kids don't seem to be any worse for it....I think even better!

Josiah lovin' on this sweet Mr. Tickle that my brother got him.

Just so ya know, that picture up there of my dear daughter is the ONLY decent one I got all day {I threatened to take back the I-Pod} so she smiled. Most of her pics look something similar to this:

Do they grow out of this???

Now for the clean up....I'm not quite ready yet. Are you a day after cleaner-upper or do you wait a week or so?

We just kinda throw all the new toys and stuff under the tree so there is easy access for a few days. I'm hoping to maybe get it cleaned up on Thursday.

My Names of Jesus Garland

I finally managed to get my garland made that I've been talking about showing you. Good thing I can use it for several years because it's a little late this year. We are enjoying looking at it though...well, at least I'm enjoying it...can't speak for the others.

I was going to show ya how I made it in case you would like to make one too, but Britt really wants me to watch a movie with her so I guess that takes precedence. If anyone wants the names document I made to print them all out I would be happy to email it to you. Just leave your email in the comments.

************Update**************

I no longer have the original document I used because my computer crashed a few months ago and it was on there. Below is a list of the names I used. I did them in this order so that Jesus was in the middle. I simply formatted them in a text that I liked and made them all approximately the same size and cut them in circles. You could do any shape that you wanted and I think it would look great!

Oh,come, let us adore Him!

Wonderful Counselor

Son of the most high

Mighty God

Jesus

Everlasting Father

Emmanuel

Prince of Peace

Glory to God in the highest!

It's a pretty simple project and the kids could make one with just some paper and string. It might not last as long, but that's ok!


{My other 4 stockings are almost finished.....I so wish I could do 40 things at one time, that way I might get everything done that I have in mind :)}

Merry Christmas!!

I'm linking up with Kimba's DIY day and Today's creative blog.

Drop cloth stockings

I managed to get 2 of the 6 stockings done. One for a girl and one for a boy. We need 3 of each {with my mother in law}. I still want to add a glittered letter hanging on each stocking for each person. I'll get to that later. Here is what I have so far:

They go quite nicely with my drop cloth tree skirt. Now if I can just finish the other 4!

This post is linked up to Kimba's DIY day and Today's creative blog ...go check it out!

Sugar overload

We had our annual cookie day at my mom's house on Saturday. We baked lots, ate lots, made lots of messes and generally wore ourselves out.

Here's who played along this year

my Mom {half talking, half smiling}

my Sis {and baby Madelyn}

Brittney

Corban

and of course...me {don't I look all cute in green frosting...ok, that's not really me :)}

 I think Kayla {my sis} learned that if you make sugar cookies, you might as well plan on doing nothing else because they take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to bake and decorate, but they were really really super soft and yummy!

The boys getting in on the decorating action {Josiah joined the party a little later in the day}

This one bailed on us pretty early in the day in favor of the couch and then she decided to go to her cousin's basketball game instead.

this was my first stab at making toffee and I must say it is pretty yummy! Not too hard and buttery sweet...just fantastic and I don't even normally like toffee. I used a recipe I found on blog somewhere, but now I can't find the link....uugh!

It was the easiest thing I made all day and also the best! 

I'll share the recipe with you this week 

{luckily, I printed it off}.

 

Christmas Tour

I thought it would be fun to participate in Nester's Christmas tour of homes this year so here are a few pics from around my home. Not all decorated yet, but getting closer. I'm still working on my drop cloth stockings and a names of Jesus garland to hang on my mantle. Hopefully I will have those up on Tuesday. 

Here's a glimpse as to what my decorations look like.....I'm just now realizing that I have NO picture of my tree...oh well. You all know what one looks like, right??

Thanks for looking!

Merry Christmas!

I'm also linked up with Southern hospitality and It's so very Cheri.

Merry Christmas to Me!!

I've been saving my $$$....

and wishing 

and dreaming

and bidding {on Ebay}

for about 6 months now

for one of these sweet babies.

I really had nothing on my Christmas list except more $$$$ so that I could FINALLY buy it soooo......

Hubby and I decided that it would be better to have it FOR Christmas than to order it after so I spent my Christmas $$$$ early and bought it!!

Yeah!!

I can't wait!!

Overwhelmed

Overwhelmed  

that would be a fairly good description of how I feel lately.

Anyone else??

I'm sure I am not alone....not even a little.

The craziness of Christmas is part of it, 

but certainly not all of it.

Our van is making noises.....again.

The kitchen faucet that has been replaced {by the manufacturer} 4 times since we bought it 8 years ago is leaking.......again.

Its making a moldy mess under my kitchen cabinet...sweet.

I turned on our 3 year old flat screen HDTV this morning to hear a lovely high pitched noise....not pleasant.

On the bright side.....

I did manage to thaw out today after having been nearly frozen all week. 

Seriously...it was like 4° yesterday...chilly!

The sun came out today so I finally got out and did some Christmas shopping.

I am soooo far behind it isn't even remotely laughable. 

Or maybe I should just laugh.....that might help.

We have cookie baking day tomorrow with the ladies in our family and I haven't a clue what I will be making.

I should probably make an effort to figure it out since we start baking in approximately 16hours....eek!

 I'm still working on our stockings....hopefully I will have them done by Christmas.

I am pretty sure this isn't what this time of year is supposed to be like. I would love to have my to do list disappear and just focus on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Does any one else find this really hard to do??

Please don't get me wrong, I am blessed beyond belief and am so very thankful for all that I have.

I just wish all the worldly things wouldn't get so in the way of the real focus of Christmas.

It's not about the gifts....it's about ONE gift.

The birth of our Savior.

We call him Emmanuel.....God with us.

He came, not to be a sweet little baby, but to give us eternal life through his death and resurrection.

That is the real gift of the season.

If I can manage to keep this as my focus there is really no reason to be overwhelmed at all when you stop and think about it.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.   Matthew 11:28

Canvas drop cloth Christmas tree skirt

I've been working on changing some of my Christmas decorations around and using more bright colors as opposed to the darker jewel tones I've used in the past. I have 2 main things on my list that need changing. One is our stockings and the other is the tree skirt. Both are dark and just not what I want anymore so in an effort to not really spend any money, but have something new I thought I would make do with what I have.

Not too long ago I made some new curtains for our sliding glass door. I made them out of canvas drop cloths and a table cloth after having seen these ones. I love them!

I had some leftover fabric so I figured why not use it for the tree skirt. This is a very abbreviated tutorial on how I did it. I'm sure it's not all seamstressy correct or anything, but I like how it turned out.

Here is a very loose tutorial of how I did it. 

I first just laid out my canvas drop cloth and folded it into  fourths making a big square with the center of my skirt being in the corner.

I pinned down a string in the corner and decided how wide I wanted my skirt to be and using a pen attached to the end of the string drew my arch from one side to the other to make my circle. I then cut it out and also made a small arch cut in the center corner for my tree trunk. I spread it all out and cut a break in the circle just like this.

next you will need to decide how wide you want your ruffle to be. Mine is about 3 inched wide so I took a yard of fabric and with selvages together I folded it in half and then in half again.

 I used my rotary cutter and cutting mat for measuring, but it could certainly be done otherwise. I cut 5  7" strips of fabric {3" doubled + 1/2" seam allowance on each side}. The amount of ruffle you need will depend on how big you want your skirt to be.

I then sewed the short ends of each 7" strip together with right sides together to make one very long strip of 7" wide fabric. Iron open the seams and fold the strip in half with wrong sides together. Stitch along the raw edge using a 1/4" seam allowance and use a baste stitch that can be gathered.

On my machine, I put the tension all the way as high as it will go and the stitch length on 4 to stitch the piece together and make a ruffle as it stitches. The tension kind of ruffles it as I go so there is less gathering involved. That probably doesn't make any sense...does it? Sorry, I'm not sure how else to explain it.  {here is a great tutorial on hand gathering}

Next I pinned the ruffle to the edge of the canvas with the ruffle facing in.

  

 Stitch along the edge using a 1/2" seam allowance.

Once the ruffle is stitched in place turn over and iron the raw edges to the center of the skirt.

On the top of the skirt, top stitch the raw edges down along the edge of the canvas. 

I finished my skirt off with some double wide bias tape around the center and the opening.

I am super happy with how it turned out. Now I'm off to make those stockings. I'll share them when I get done.



Go check out Metamorphosis Monday, the DIY Showoff, Toot your Horn Tuesday, Tackle it Tuesday,  Kimba's DIY day, Today's creative blog, It's so very Cheri Holiday , and Somewhat Simple for more crafty ideas.