Cookie Bake 2010

Had a great day yesterday sharing laughter and recipes at our Second Annual Cookie Bake! LOVE hanging out with these ladies! Oh - and we even did some Christmas Caroling too! :)

Can't wait until next year. Bigger and better every year!

Thanks to Michele, Faythe, Shelly, Mom (Janet), Hanna, Stephanie, Elizabeth, Chloe and Miranda for coming out to spend a snowy Sunday afternoon with me! I am blessed!

Love you guys!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Traditions

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmastime! What a wonderful time of the year! I have always believed that the entire month of December is... just... magical!

I was thinking the other day about Christmas traditions. We all have them. And maybe some we aren't even aware of. Here are some of ours:

We always put out Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Always. I can't even allow myself to compromise on this one. It simply MUST be up. Heck - it's hard enough for me to wait THAT long!

For years Chloe and I have gone out Thanksgiving weekend to pick out a new snow globe to add to her growing collection and a new tree ornament. It's been pretty fun to see some of the ones she's chosen over the years! One year it was a pink star, one year it was a cow sitting on a log and this year it was a light-up angel. :)

For the past few years Chloe and I have decorated a ginger bread house. It's a hoot to see! Frosting everywhere. Fun memories!

Throughout the month of December we read Christmas stories from various Christmas books we've collected over the years. Some include devotions, which are fun for Chloe.

We host a Cookie Baking Day with our friends the middle of December. This is an old tradition that my family used to do when my grandmother was alive and we just re-vamped it and included it in our new traditions last year. SO much fun!

This is a little silly - but growing up we had a Golden Retriever as our family pet. We (Trevor, Chloe and myself) now have one in our family. They are indeed our favorite little creatures. So - each year I purchase my mom a new Golden Retriever calendar for the new year. Silly tradition - but it's still a tradition, right?

On Christmas Eve, our family's tradition is to drive around town looking at all the Christmas lights. We LOVE to drive with the windows down, blankets tucked around our bodies warming up with a thermos of hot chocolate oohing and ahhing over the house and yard displays.

Every year, two days before Christmas, we bake and decorate a birthday cake for Jesus. During our families dinner on Christmas afternoon, we sing Happy Birthday to our Savior. What a sweet time this is!

Special notes...

We have five Christmas trees: Two in our living room, one in our entry way (Chloe's tree decorated with recycled Happy Meal toys), one in our master bedroom and one on our front porch.

I'm obsessed with snowmen!

Oh - and I DO start listening to Christmas music in mid November.

Stockings in our family have always been a BIG deal. They usually include a variety of candies, books, magazines, perfumes, lip glosses, gum and small pieces of jewelry wrapped and sitting alongside of the stocking demanding to be opened first. :)

Christmastime... for sure the MOST WONDERFUL time of the year!!

What are some of YOUR Christmas Traditions?? I would love to hear about them!

Christmas Traditions

I LOVE Christmas! And with that - I LOVE Christmas traditions! I love the oldies that we've been doing year after year and I love the new ones we make with our family each year.

Here are some of our family's Christmas traditions...

1.) Family Christmas Cookie Day. When I was a kid my grandma, my aunt, my cousins, my mom and myself used to get together for a cookie bake off always the week before Christmas! It was a BLAST! I just remember my grandma's tiny kitchen being jam-packed with flour, eggs, baking soda, peanut butter, chocolate chips and sugar covered over everything that would stand still! It was such a great time and some of my sweetest memories are of us in that kitchen!

2.) Birthday Cake for Jesus. This is something that Chloe has really enjoyed the last couple years. She especially enjoys the decorative touches!

3.) Christmas Prayer Links. This is something we started a couple years ago. We take green and red construction paper and make a prayer link (you know the links you used to make as a kid?). We put the name of someone we want to pray for on each link and then take the days leading up to Christmas to pray for each and every individual name on the links. It's a neat way to keep the focus away from ourselves and on other people we love and care about.

4.) Snowflakes. We make home-made snowflakes and hang them up from our kitchen ceiling. Chloe's gotten into the habit of then naming all of her snowflakes. :)

5.) Christmas picture. We've done this every year since Chloe's been born. We take her picture (or of all three of us if it works out) next to our decorated Christmas tree to send in our Christmas cards to our friends and family. Then we frame the picture and put them out on display during the Christmas holiday.

6.) Christmas Tree decorating night. Every year our Christmas tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving. No exceptions. As we decorate the tree, we ALWAYS watch Christmas Vacation. It's just what we watch! ALWAYS!

7.) Mama's House Sleepover. For years we used to stay the night at my mother-in-law's the night before Christmas Eve. We did this from the time Chloe was born (the year my father-in-law passed away) until about 2 years ago. Hey mom - we need to continue that tradition... we're coming over this year! :)

8.) Sleigh Ride. Every Christmas Eve since I was a KID, we've gone out to look at Christmas lights around town. In recent years, we've added a twist to this old time favorite... we bundle up in coats, hats, scarfs and gloves, pack a thermos of hot cocoa, get in the car and drive around looking at lights WITH THE WINDOWS ROLLED DOWN! This is particularly fun when it's snowing... kind of feels like you're strolling in a carriage ride through the snow!

9.) Thank You Letters. Every year I sit down days before Christmas and write individual letters to my family members. My daughter, my husband and my parents. I thank them for being in my life and tell them what they mean to me. I highlight memories I have with them over that year and just simply take the time to tell them how much I love them. Then I hide them in the tree for them to find on Christmas morning.

Those are some of our family's Christmas traditions... what are some of yours???

Making a List and Checking it Twice.. or maybe Three Times!

We still do the Santa thing with Chloe every year. She's 7 years-old. And please don't write me a long list of reasons why doing "Santa" with her every year is wrong. We do it. She likes it. That's it.

So - I was telling her on Sunday afternoon that if she didn't finish her list for Santa that night, that it wouldn't get to the North Pole on time, because Monday was the DEADLINE! So - in a mad dash, she took off to her room to find the list and finish it.

This list cracks me up! I just HAD to post it. But PLEASE don't tell her I shared it with you... she would be devastated (and embarrassed) at some of her items. This is just too precious not to pass along! Oh - and I'm going to spell the items EXACTLY like she did. Here we go...

1. Violin
2. DS (this would be Nintendo DS)
3. Gum (yeah, that's right - the girl wants gum!)
4. High School Musical 2 (the DVD)
5. Hannah Montana Sell Phone (this is actually a 'play' phone)
6. Lipe Stick (Lip Stick)
7. A TV (umm.. not!)
8. Gres Shull (I'm still not sure what this is!)
9. Gutar (that would be guitar and she's still upset that Santa forgot that last year!)
10. Movies
11. Gitakstick Swet Pants (this would be gymnastic sweat pants!)
12. A Sled
13. The Simpson's Movie (umm... another not!)
14. Shrimp (what can I say - the girl has quality taste!)
15. Choocklet (this would be chocolate! Ahh - just like her mom! Shrimp and chocolate!)
16. Kids Cooking Set
17. Dresses
18. A Sell Phone ("cell" phone... this would be a real one. NO?)
19. Braselet ("bracelet")
20. A cat (might I add that even though she knows her daddy is allergic to cats, she still wants one and says she will keep it in her room!)
21. Games for DS (that's if Santa gets her the DS, otherwise, these are pretty pointless!)
22. Poop Corn (yep - you heard it! My daughter wants "poop" corn. I'm actually hoping this is popcorn!)
23. A puppy
24. Peja's (Pajamas)
25. Games for WII
26. Bells (??)
27. Pool (now you've gone too far!)
28. Cards (she clarified this as being "playing" cards)
29. World Puzzle (actually something she saw at Wal*Mart)

Okay - there are some things on this list that are do-able, some that are NOT do-able and others that are just down right not going to happen. Gotta love this imagination, though!

Christmas Traditions!

Every family has them - - those silly Christmas traditions that make the holidays so special! We have our own... and I thought I would share some of them with you today.

• Ever since I was a little girl, we have always driven around on Christmas Eve to look at all the Christmas lights in our city. I remember as a girl - it was magical - the way the city looked all "done up" in rainbow colored lights! My husband and I have carried that tradition into our family as well, however, we added a little twist to it. We look at lights through local neighborhoods with the WINDOWS DOWN. I know, it's typically freezing out - but not when you come fully equipped with blankets, mittens, hats, scarves and hot chocolate in thermos containers! It's still so cool and I get just as excited about this tradition as I did when I was a little girl!
• I'm not exactly sure how this one got started, but for the past 6 years or so, after the passing of my father-in-law, my husband, my daughter and I stay the night at my mother-in-law's on December 23. We wake up on Christmas Eve and then enjoy a breakfast together before we split up to do last minute shopping, baking etc. It's a lot of fun. We stay up really late and eat and drink hot chocolate. It's a real highlight of my Christmas holiday!
• Every year I hand write a letter to each member of my immediate family... my husband, my daughter, my mom and my dad, and place them in the Christmas tree. In the letter, I tell them how much they mean to me and for all the things I'm thankful for that year. Even before opening stockings, I have them open the letters and read them. It's just a nice way to reflect on what's truly important!
• Since my daughter was about 4, we have been making a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve. On Christmas afternoon, after dinner, we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus as a family. What a really neat way to celebrate the true meaning... Christ's birth. I have to say - this one is my daughters favorite! (oh, did I mention, she gets to pick out the cake flavor and frosting?)
• On Christmas night, sometimes (not every year, so does that count as a tradition?) we go see a movie. It really depends on what's out that particular year. This year it looks like it might be Alvin and the Chipmunks - although I've received mixed reviews.

Those are some of my family traditions. There's more - and every year we add a couple new ones. I'm interested in what other family traditions YOU might have... please share and Merry CHRISTmas!!!