The Sweet Smell of Christmas!

Saturday was a busy day at our house. It was the day we chose to make a lot of our Christmas food. It's become a tradition to do this on a Saturday. Lets see, we made:
Puppy Chow, White Christmas Mix, Toffee Cereal mix, fudge, pretzels with chocolate, tiger butter, pretzels with kisses, truffles, peanut butter balls, and toffee squares. Can you smell it all through your computer? We each had certain things that we made. 2 years ago, Katelyn tried fudge which never hardened so she took over the white Christmas mix. Last year, she added the wrong cereal, so Dave and her picked through it. She started with it this year and Wow, it worked. So she proceeded to do the truffle mixture. Chelsea was a bit concerned but I told her that Katelyn could handle it, I mean how hard is it to melt chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk? Well...... do you know that 3 cups of chocolate chips is 1 1/2 bags - NOT - 3 bags total? Needless to say, we have a lot of truffle mixture here! It's kind of becoming a tradition to get a few laughs out of Katelyn's baking. After a weary afternoon, we have quite a bit of food. I have some frozen to take out as needed. You're all welcome to stop over and sample... hmmm...maybe just some of you!



Chelsea busy stirring her chocolate for the puppy chow.













Look at that concentration!















Shaelyn made chocolate pretzels and pretzels with kisses and M&M's.

















Here is Chelsea with her puppy chow and tiger butter. Tiger butter is a mixture of peanut butter and white chocolate swirled with milk chocolate.



















This is the puppy chow, white christmas mix and toffee cereal mixture!
















Here is some more of the finished food.

Who's the Stranger in my House?

Katelyn's home for Christmas. I realize that she does come home throughout the week, but now she is home until early January. She's 1/2 way through her first year in college!
I'm hoping we see a little of her because I was informed that she's got plans with a lot of friends and she's working full time. I'm guessing that she will be around on Christmas Day though!

Shaelyn's Acting Premiere!

Shaelyn had a really cute Christmas program last night. They sang, Polar Puppy, Jesus, Our Brother and Jingle Bells. They all got to wear some puppy ears, as you can see. Unfortunately, she was the first one in and was way on the right, so we couldn't see her for the first two songs. But then.....she got a special part for jingle bells. She got moved up to the microphone! She's the little one in the pink and black dress (next to the girl in the plaid dress) and she says, "Boy, that was a fun sleigh ride!" She's got some enthusiasm. Take a listen!

Slippin' and Slidin'

I didn't really have a lot to say today but Dena advised me to talk about this crummy weather we have here today. This morning we had a storm come through which caused a lot of icy roads which then turned to slush. It came through right around daybreak when schools decide if they will cancel for the day. At 6:30 there was still nothing much cancelled in my county. Then at 7:00, I heard a cancellation for Cheri's schools. I gave her a call, to her relief, because Nick had just headed out to the bus. Chelsea continued to hope but to no avail. It does seem that our school system hesitates greatly to delay or cancel. As the day continued, it began to rain. This is what our deck looked like this afternoon. All the ice was melting off and now it is just very slushy out there. It was not fun delivering papers this afternoon. We all looked like drowned rats - no I did not want a picture of myself looking like that. Sorry! Tonight we are going to Shaelyn's Christmas program at school. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures for tomorrow.

Memory Verse Monday

I'm going to continue on this week with Luke 2:7-14 - the Christmas Story

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord, This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests"

Shaelyn's artwork

Shaelyn has really been doing a lot of drawing lately. Here's an example of 2 of her latest. The first is cars driving on the road and the 2nd is of Chelsea and Millie. I love how she gave Millie a true Pomeranian nose.

What holiday food are you?

Cheri had this on her blog the other day and I thought it was cute. For those of you who haven't seen this, give it a try.

You Are a Trifle

No doubt, you have many intricate layers. But deep down, you're a little squishy.

What Holiday Food Are You?

Wordless Wednesday

Something from Chelsea's Concert Monday Night

Chelsea's Christmas Concert

Chelsea had her band's Christmas concert last night. She is in the concert band for 10th graders but last night they joined with the symphonic band (11th and 12th graders)
too. She is playing clarinet - the 2nd person from the left in the front row.
All went well in the concert, aside from the fact that we had to take Shaelyn. She sat pretty good until the orchestra played. They played 5 songs and 4 of them were slow and long. The last song was better because it was Jingle Bells and she recognized that one. The band ended with a medley of 4 different Christmas songs and they did a great job!

Memory Verse Monday

Since we are in the Christmas season, I have decided to work with the Christmas story again, found in Luke 2. I'll be doing this over the next few weeks until Christmas.
I memorized this year after year while I was in school, but I don't think that a refresher course in it would hurt.

Luke 2: 1-6
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.

Where does She Come Up with these Things?

Every year, instead of writing real names on Christmas gifts, such as To: Shaelyn,
we assign fake names. Last year, I used, Happy, Dopey and Sleepy. This keeps the kids guessing as to which presents are theirs. This year the names are Dasher, Prancer and Cupid. I was wrapping a present the other day and brought it to Shaelyn to put under the tree. Here's the conversation:


Me: Shaelyn, You can put this present under the tree.
Shaelyn: Who's this one for?
Me: Prancer
Shaelyn: Another one for Prancer? That Prancer sure must have been a good little reindeer this year. He's getting a lot of presents.

Wreath Making Night

Tuesday night, I was invited to a wreath making party, courtesy of Mari's sister-in-laws - Karla and Diane. There were a few of us bloggers there - Nancy, Cheri and Laura. I have never done this before so I wasn't sure how it would go. It was great fun. Thanks to a lot of help from Diane, my wreath turned out pretty good. Us "sisters" arrived at early bird time, thus we were able to complete our wreaths before supper time. We were treated to an exceptional meal of soups, sandwiches, little hot dogs and even dessert. Sorry I don't have pictures of the meal but my batteries were dying on my camera. This was so much fun, even though my hands were a little sticky and sappy by the time we were done. I can't wait till next year (if they decide we're allowed to come back). I'm keeping my eyes open for things to use in the future.



Mari and Nancy, before all the hard work began.














Karla and Diane, our hosts for the evening. Thanks you guys!














This was truly a lot of serious work.




















My work in progress.

















This is my finished wreath. Cheri will try to tell you that I stole all the red berries, but really, I just used what was mine. I do like that red bow - it truly compliments the red berries!


















Here's Mari's finished wreath. She's got some nice gold stars in there. I'm thinking about adding some gold to mine next year.

















Here is Cheri's finished wreath. You can see that she kind of hogged all the pine cones from me.


















I didn't get a picture of Laura's finished wreath because she got there later than we did. But I did get this great shot of her excitement and amazement in working.

Wordless Wednesday

What do you Think?

I took some Christmas pictures while Katelyn was home this weekend. I like one, Katelyn and Chelsea like another - Katelyn thinks she has a funny smile on one of them. Which one should I use?
Give me your opinion!

Choice #1




Choice #2



Choice #3

A busy weekend!

We had a nice Thanksgiving Day. It ended up not snowing so we went to Dave's sister for dinner. Then we headed back to our house for supper with my family. We enjoyed playing games and supper together.


Shaelyn and Halle sneaking into the crackers.













Cheri and Ann playing a game of Skip Bo.














Katelyn, Chelsea and Nick enjoying supper on Thanksgiving. We always have leftover turkey on buns. Yummy!!

















Our tradition is to put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Dave ended up having to work, so he wasn't able to help. But we managed to do it ourselves.


Shaelyn getting in some play time before working on the tree.














The snow was beautiful while we were putting up the tree. I love it when it snows while we are putting up the tree. It really helps you to get into the Christmas spirit.

















Hanging up the stockings.

















Katelyn and Chelsea working on the lights.



















Shaelyn working hard.

















It's finally done.















The girls with the finished tree!
















This is what a cat looks like when it's stuck in a Christmas tree.