24 days till X'mas

Another prophecy about Jesus' birth....

Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

What a special promise!

25 day's till X'mas

Prophecy foretelling Jesus' birth

Isaiah 9:6

 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This is the reason for the season!!!!!

Young Ladies and Gentlemen

1 Timothy 4:12-16


¹² Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
¹⁵ Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. ¹⁶ Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

When you work for the Lord, do not feel bad that you are young.

Serve him with your gift the way he wants you to.

:~D

26 days till X'mas

I love this time of year!

The snow here and there, bold people who put up their Christmas tree's earlier than anyone else, and Christmas lights! 

Something nice to do at Christmas is bake several dozen cookies!!!

Then give them out to people who work in your community. It will brighten their day!

A yummy cookie recipe! (pictured above)

1 box of cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup of veg. oil

Mix them all together and drop on a tablespoonful on cookie sheets 2 inches apart.

Bake at 350 for 10-13 min.

Makes 3 dozen approx. 

If you want to add sprinkles, dip the dough in sprinkles before you bake.

27 days till X'mas

Today I want to talk about our favorite Christmas books!

The top has to be the Bible, the Nativity story. Luke 2:1-21 and Matthew 2:1-23.

the rest are as follows:

2. The Christmas Carol - I actually did a study on the book and several versions a few years ago.

3. The 12 days of Christmas - we collect them like mad! Read more about the 12 days of Christmas here.

4. Look-Alike Christmas - same genre of I Spy. My personal favorite.

5. I Spy Christmas - lots of fun! I need to finish it...

What are your favorite Christmas book/stories?

(I talked about our favorite Christmas movies here.)

28 days till X'mas

An easy and cheap Christmas present!

It only costs $107,300!

That is right, it is that cheap.

I read 2 different articles on a popular carol.

The 12 days of Christmas.

According to one source:

Cost of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" gifts

• Partridge: $15 (last year: same)
• Pear tree: $189.99 (last year: $169.99)
• Two turtle doves: $125 (last year: same)
• Three French hens: $165 (last year: $150)
• Four calling birds (canaries): $519.96 (last year: same)
• Five gold rings: $750 (last year: $645)
• Six geese a-laying: $210 (last year: $162)
• Seven swans a-swimming: $7,000 (last year: $6,300)
• Eight maids a-milking: $58 (last year: same)
• Nine ladies dancing (per performance): $6,294 (last year: same)
• 10 lords a-leaping (per performance): $4,767 (last year: same)
• 11 pipers piping (per performance): $2,562 (last year: $2,428)
• 12 drummers drumming (per performance): $2,776 (last year: $2,630)

That is a lot!

Now if you want a cheaper version of this, go to your local library and see if they have "Emma's Christmas".  It is a sweet book about a girl who is given the gifts everyday for 12 days by a handsome prince. They fall in love and live happily ever after. The End.

So next time you want a cheap present, scratch the 12 days of Christmas off your list, unless it is the book! 

:~D

29 days till X'mas

Says so on the fridge.

Many people like to do countdown to Christmas.

We have 2 that we use.

One is a homemade one.

It has "ornaments" (not shown) to "hang up" on the tree.

Then we have one more.

A Little People Advent Calender.

My sisters love that one too.

Photo Credit - Fisher Price 

How do you countdown to Christmas? Besides read my blog.... :~D

30 days till X'mas

Our tree!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Especially when you wake up and see

SNOW!

When the snow is falling, and the tree makes the house smell divine, its Christmas!

When do you think it feels like Christmas?

Thanksgiving!!

So for all of you who celebrated Thanksgiving, did you do a Thank You dance?

I did. I dance non-stop! :~)

31 days till X'mas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We got our Christmas tree!

The house smells heavenly! :~D

When do you get a tree? Do you like real or fake?

More pics of the tree tomorrow!

Christmas time is here!
Happiness and cheer,
fun for all, the children call,
their favorite time of year!
(Charlie Brown's Christmas!)

32 days till X'mas (It's Thanksgiving!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Having fun with our potatoes!!! (Now they are waiting to be smushed!!! Insert evil chuckle!)

Statue of Liberty with a pepper!

Our Veggie platter! :~D

Playing with food is fun!

33 days till X'mas

I shall interrupt the Christmas festivities for 2 days.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

A time of being thankful and thanksgiving.

What is the difference between being thankful & thanksgiving?

Being thankful is keeping the thankfulness.

But thanksgiving is giving thanks to those you are thankful for.

We will celebrate with my Grandma.

I am very excited about our menu.

We will have

• mashed potatoes
• cranberry salad
• sweet potatoes
• veggie platter
• and Turkey!!

Plus pie, and a couple other things.

I love Thanksgiving! 

I love the time that is set aside to spend with family. 

What do you like about Thanksgiving?

P.S. Canadians already celebrated theirs!

34 days till X'mas

My sister (6) is trying to earn enough money to buy Christmas presents.

She is very excited to only have $1.50 left to earn.

I set up a bank for her, she is earning $7.56. She spent a $1.08 on present.

She is very excited with the prospect of buying presents.

She made herself a list with the person's name and the present she wants to get.

You can easily do this with your family.

My sister is having a blast. And she is learning about tax and a little math too.

What do you do kids that want to buy gifts for people?

35 days till X'mas

Favorite Christmas Movies!

1. Its A Wonderful Life
2. White Christmas
3. Muppet's Christmas Carol
4. Christmas Carol w/ George C. Scott
5. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
6. The Christmas Box
7. Charlie Brown's Christmas
8. How the Grinch stole Christmas (Original)
9. The Christmas Shoes
10. The Christmas Blessing
11. National Tree
12. Christmas Lodge

We also like "The Nativity Story", "The Little Drummer Boy" (Original), and the Veggie Tale Christmas movies.

What are you're family's favorite Christmas movies?

36 days till X'mas

Traditions! (I love that song from The Fiddler on the Roof!)

Our Christmas traditions begin on Thanksgiving. After all the visitors leave, we watch "It's A Wonderful Life." The weekend after Thanksgiving we get out Christmas tree. We bundle up, and go out to Mexico NY to chop down our own. We have our favorite Christmas tree farm that we started going to a few years ago. After we get the Christmas tree, we put on Christmas music and send my sisters to bed. Mom, Dad, and I decorate the Christmas tree. We put on white lights and red ribbon first. The red ribbon reminds us of the story of Jesus' birth, how it wove in and our through prophecies in the Old Testament. 

We then put on our special ornaments like the ones we get for the year we were born. 

Then we finish with icicles and snowflakes. Every year we get a new snowflake to add to our collection. One year we had a homemade one. 

We also put up our homemade stockings from my Aunt over the top of the corner cupboard as my family exceeded the space on the fireplace. The kids wake up the next morning and are so excited to see the tree looking so pretty and special. During this time, I create and make Christmas presents for my four sisters. 

We go to Lights on the Lake sometime early to mid-December. 

We started the tradition of putting on a Christmas performance for nursing homes with several of my friends. I am the leader of the group. Some sing, some dance, and some play an instrument. We have fun spreading Christmas cheer. 

Towards Christmas we get out a plate of plastic cookies and a little sign that says "Cookies for Noah". When one of my sisters was little, she had just talked about Noah's Ark in Sunday School, so when Santa was popping out all over the place, she thought he was Noah.

On Christmas Eve, we get ready and dressed in our pretty Christmas dresses and go to Church. The Church has dimmed the lights and we each get a candle to hold. We sing Christmas carols like Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High and Joy to The World. Then my Pastor retells the Christmas story. We finish by lighting our candles and singing. After we drive around looking at Christmas lights. We always go by the tree Downtown. My sisters love to see it's pretty lights twinkling. We head home and each open one Christmas present. Then my sisters go to bed, and we pull out all the Christmas presents out of hiding spots. We set up the Little People Nativity while Dad starts chopping up fruit for breakfast.

The next morning we can open our stockings but no other presents till Mom gets up. Dad and I finish getting food ready for our Special Christmas brunch. We have fruit, like pomegranate, kiwi, starfruit, mango, and more. We also have cheese like apple smoked Gouda, cheddar, Colby Jack. We bake brie in a pastry and have a loaf of french bread. We snack on the leftovers until we have dinner. After we finish breakfast we get to open our presents. Then we get to play/use them. We like to invite my Great Grandma over and we spend the evening together. My family has many wonderful Christmas traditions, these are just a few. Christmas is our favorite time of year.

What are your Traditions?  

P.S. We are getting our Christmas tree next weekend!!!!

(Last year's tree!)

My Mice

I used some candy canes, that I mentioned here, to create the candy cane mice. I will have a total of 7 when I am done, but right now only 3 are ready. Aren't they cute??

Wouldn't you like to wake Christmas morning

to see him peeking out of your stocking?

Aren't the adorable? I said it before. This is the cute kind of mouse! :~D Tasty too! My cat Ansel, tries to convince me the other kind are yummy, but I don't trust his shifty character. lol

37 days till X'mas

Every Christmas season I always look at the Martha Stewart website for Christmas ideas. I saw these today, and I will be making some VERY SOON! They are absolutely adorable.


(Photo Credit- Martha Stewart)

These are so cute! Don't you agree?

How to make them:
Mouse How-To
On a photocopier, enlarge mice template by 150 percent; cut out. With a pencil, trace ears and body onto felt; cut out. Cut inner ears and a dot for a nose from felt in a contrasting color, cut dots for eyes from black. Glue the face and inner ears in place. Make slits in body for ears and candy-cane tail where marked; to make cutting easier, fold felt across center of slits, and snip. Slip ears through slits at front; then slide wrapped candy cane through body slits, tucking the end underneath the ear piece at the back.

(Credit- Martha Stewart)

I see working on this, this afternoon or in a few days! They would be cute in the Christmas stockings!

38 days till X'mas

Auld Lang Syne (One of my favorite carols)


Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
on Old long syne.

On Old long syne my Jo,
in Old long syne,
That thou canst never once reflect,
on Old long syne.
My Heart is ravisht with delight,
when thee I think upon;
All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,
and speedily is gone;
The bright resemblance of thy Face,
so fills this, Heart of mine;
That Force nor Fate can me displease,
for Old long syne.

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,
when from thee I am gone;
will not thy presence yield relief,
to this sad Heart of mine:
Why doth thy presence me defeat,
with excellence divine?
Especially when I reflect
on Old long syne

39 days till X'mas

One of our favorite "Christmas" dishes that we make is Baked Brie.

You need a

can of crescent rolls,
and some brie cheese.

Take the crescent rolls and put the pointy part of the triangle in the middle using (I think all) to make a circle.

Then put the cheese in the middle and bake (using directions on the package).

This is one of my absolute favorite Christmas dishes.



What is your favorite holiday dishes?

:~D

On the topic of Christmas,

I saw an article today on our local newspapers website. They were talking about the radio stations that switched to ALL Christmas music November 1st. I think those radio stations have a wonderful idea!!

All the comments were people who dislike the idea of Christmas music so early.

I listen to it all year round!

Why not start listening to it on Nov. 1st??

I challenge y'all to listen to a Christmas CD!!! 

(One of my ABSOLUTE favorites!)

40 days till X'mas

Wrapping presents can be fun, funny, or just plain annoying!

A fun way to wrap presents is to wrap them in the comic section of the newspaper.

A funny way to wrap presents would be to wrap them in a box that is totally different than the object inside.

A annoying way to wrap presents is when you run out of tape.

Are you a "perfectionist" wrapper or a "who cares" wrapper? 

41 days till X'mas

A good old fashioned shopping guide.

I love Messy Mondays!

Email readers must click through to see the video.

42 days till X'mas

Candy canes are so much fun!

Some fun decorations to make are chenille wire candy canes. We have a bunch we put on our Christmas tree.

We also have candy canes (candy ones) that we saved from last year from decorating.

And the big plastic ones.... those are the best. My sisters use those for EVERYTHING. Trumpets, horses, swords (when they think no one is paying attention) and more.

What candy canes do you like?

43 days till X'mas

Before the rush, and outrageous prices check ALL your Christmas lights.

If you wait, if they are broken, dead, or simply overheating, it will be much more expensive.

And another recommendation I can give you, if you need to replace, go for LED.

They work MARVELOUSLY! I love them. We got a bunch a couple years ago and they work so well.

Also, when you plug them in. If you turn them off at night (for a tree) and plug them in the morning you want have a higher energy bill. Mainly do this is you have the old fashioned lights, and not LED.

Don't just check them, check your outdoor lights, and inflatables.

Make sure you don't have any holes in the inflatables. That could be bad......

:~D

By the way, for those of you who put up lights and decorations:

I LOVE THEM!

I love to look at each house's personality. From the lights galore, to a couple simple lights they all look beautiful!

Picture from Oracle On Delhi Studios:
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Website

(My Dad! :~D)

44 days till X'mas

Pray for a friend(s) who has no contact with Church. Invite him/her/them to your Christmas program at your Church!