A SAHM’s musings

Kate participated in her CDO Christmas program. Thumbs up! She stayed on the stage the entire time

I attended Kate’s class party: silly girl

I helped out with Colin’s class party

We baked chocolate crinkles (tradition). Daddy took pictures, lots of pictures.

We spent Christmas in Texas with Nana, Papa & Aunt Amy.

Went exploring

Came back home for more Christmas celebrations

I love that he gets excited over new jammies.

Weee! I got a Kelly Moore camera bag!

My beautiful niece

We had a lovely Christmas and we’re glad that we got to celebrate with both sides of our families this year. There is so much to tell but it’s already the second week of January and I haven’t even finished my Christmas New Year’s cards

Starting at the top:

My little lunch date…finishing up our last bit of shopping

Bobba Fett snowflake via Pinterest

Maxwell the Elf as Rudolph

Maxwell the Elf as Santa

Tea and company with Andrea

Truth in the Tinsel craft time

Donuts & Hot Cocoa with Santa at the Zoo

Friend sandwich at the Zoo (Kate is not having it!)

Mama & Kate at the pancake breakfast with Santa

Daddy & Colin at the pancake breakfast with Santa 

Well it’s 20 days until Christmas. The first few days of December have flown by.

Friday we had some friends over for dinner. This is always one of our traditions with this family. Dinner before Christmas. We enjoyed pizza & cupcakes. They picked up Pinkitzel. I feel so spoiled! I enjoyed a chocolate peppermint cupcake. It got a little cock-eyed in the car but it tasted delicious!

On Saturday we played catch up with our Truth in the Tinsel activities.

The kids made Zechariah & Crown ornaments.

We rented movies and enjoyed some popcorn and hot cocoa although not all at once.

We stayed home from church on Sunday. We’ve all had cruddy colds and we’re trying to get better so we had another low-key kind of day and just stayed in.

The kids made angel ornaments and we did our little devotional.

Our activity for the day was to go look at Christmas lights. We got the kids all cozy in their jammies. I took a quick pic before loading up. This girl seriously loves her “bub”.

We stopped by sbux for some hot cocoa and cider. A real treat! Then we went to a local park where they put up quite a light display each year.

We had a lovely weekend with lots of quality family time

Today starts our observation of Advent. I know that while officially Advent is observed starting the 4th Sunday before December 25th I find it easy to just start on December 1. I don’t want to get technical, I just want to prepare our hearts for this season of celebration.

Growing up I lived next to a catholic family. The boys always had advent calendars. I found myself wishing I could count down the days to Christmas one chocolate at a time. There’s something so joyous in opening a little door for a treat. However I was not without our own family countdown tradition. My parents celebrated the 12 days til Christmas with small gifts. Since there were four of us, we each at three gifts to open leading up to Christmas. We drew numbers to see what order we went and then each night around dinner, the person of the day would get to open their gift. I LOVED this tradition. I also loved when my dad would drive us around to look at lights. I enjoyed helping my mom baking goodies too. I wanted to roll all this into one so I do my own advent activities. Twenty-five in all.

Day 1 : Open a gift under the tree.

It’s always pjs but the kids seem to forget that every year. Kate wanted to open the “BIG ONE” but I gently guided her to the gift with the tag that read: “open Dec 1st”.

Pajamas!

Kate’s pjs are a little long but hey, at least she’ll be able to wear them next year too.

Each day will be a new and different activity. There will be fun family activities. Activities that are others-focused such as buying gifts for other kids. And maybe a new tradition or two.

My mother-in-law, Sylvia, made the kids a fabulous Advent calendar and mailed it to us. This one will be filled with candies/chocolates and maybe a quarter or two.

However, I also wanted to truly celebrate Jesus each day because he truly is the reason for the season. I decided this year to download Truth in the Tinsel. This may be the best $4.99 I spend all month. We completed our 1st day right before bed. The kids absolutely loved it. And so did I. They made candle ornaments for our tree. We ended the evening singing “This Little Light of Mine” in a dark closet with only a flashlight. This is what memories are made of. This is one of the best parts of being a mom. Teaching my kids about Jesus and His Love & Light.

We set up the Christmas tree on Saturday. The kids were filled with bubbly excitement to get started with the decorating.

{excuse the messy bookcase}

Kate did not want her picture taken

My goofball!

We didn’t finish the decorating that day. We were missing the tree skirt and a few other special decorations. With a little prayer, we finally found the missing box. Stay tuned for the grand finale.

I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.
Erma Bombeck

I am thankful for books and so is she!

I’m thankful for my friends old & new!

Love & hugs to you all. You know who you are!!!!!

Thankful for t, an urban teahouse and their lovely iced vanilla black tea!

I am thankful for the community on facebook and all the friends who offered up some of their taste-tested recipes and helped me answer the age-old question of “What’s for dinner?”

I will be trying this recipe out this weekend…

Pot Roast (from Pinterest)
2-5 lb roast
1 envelope ranch dressing (dry)
1 envelope Italian dressing mix
1 envelope brown gravy mix
Potatoes and carrots
1-1 1/2 cup water
1. Add carrots and potatoes to bottom of crock pot
2. Put roast on top of veggies
3. Sprinkle a 3 envelopes of seasonings on top
4. Add water
5. Cook on low 6-10 hours until tender and veggies cooked through