2016 Daily December 25--Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas with love from our family to yours!

2016 Daily December 24--Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is one of my absolute favorite times of the year!  We do the same things each year and we love it! (these are last year's photos)

We eat lots of yummy food--lots!

We sing lots of songs and have lots of awesome music by very talented kiddos!  We have our own orchestra almost!

We have lots of friends and family here that we love!

And we always re-enact the Nativity story--bathrobes, towels and all

Wise men and gifts too!  Love it!

Have a blessed Christmas Eve and a Merry Christmas!!!

2016 Daily December 23--gingerbread cookies

Gingerbread cookies are another Christmas tradition we have.  We love to make them and especially eat them.  I have this Gingerbread cookies recipe from none other than Mel's Kitchen Cafe--of course.  We use it every year.  It does take a little bit of advanced planning since you do have to either chill the dough in the fridge or freezer, but it is worth it.  Soft, chewy perfect Gingerbread cookies every time.

So many helpers in the kitchen--I promise there are gingerbread cookies in there somewhere. . .

Everyone likes to help cut them and roll them out.  Roll them out thick and do not overbake is very important!!!

We normally are gingerbread cookie purists and don't put anything on them and just eat them plain, but this year I saw this icing at Wal-mart and thought we would try it.  All 3 came together.  You microwave it, and it comes out  so smooth.  The kids really liked using it.  The taste isn't the best as compared with homemade frosting, but it was still fun and nice you could just use the bottles it came in and not have to get frosting bags and tips out.  

The results were pretty cool looking!  The kids like it a lot.

2016 Daily December 22--eggnog French toast

My family loves eggnog, and we enjoy it all December long--the non-alcoholic kind :)  I found this recipe for eggnog French toast a few years ago, and we have enjoyed it every December since.  I find it works best if you just put all the ingredients in the blender to mix them up.  Then you don't get any egg pieces in your French toast which I do not like.  Enjoy!

Eggnog French Toast

8 eggs

3/4 cup eggnog

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 loaf Texas Toast

Mix eggs, eggnog, brown sugar and cinnamon in a blender until smooth.  Pour into a shallow dish.  Dip each piece of toast in the mix and let is soak up a little on each side.  Transfer to a hot griddle and cook both sides until golden brown.  Top with butter, syrup, peanut butter, powdered sugar, jam or whatever your family likes on French toast.  We also just like them plain.

Enjoy!

2016 Daily December 21--ugly Christmas sweaters

So this year was the year of the ugly Christmas sweaters at our house.  Ben needed to have one for work, and for our church Christmas party you were supposed to wear one, so we decided to make our own.  I went to a thrift store and got about 9 sweaters for $1, so you couldn't beat the price!  Then I just picked up some decor things at Wal-mart.  This is what we came up with. . . 

This is my sweater.  I must freely admit that I did not make it, though.  Miss O made mine for me because I just never got around to doing it, but I LOVE what she did!

This is Ben's which I must say was pretty awesome!  He even sewed jingle bells on the bottom so you knew snowmen Superman and Batman were coming.  Needless to say his co-workers were very impressed when he wore this to work!!!  

This is Miss E's which I was so impressed with her Santa sleigh and reindeer.  She just cute those out of felt freehand.  One of Ben's co-workers didn't have an ugly sweater to wear, so I offered one of our extras.  He chose to wear Miss E's and it was a big hit.

This is Miss O's.  Love her earth!

This was Mr J's very ugly sweater :)  Loved his Christmas tree.  Next year we need to get a strand of battery operated lights to put in it.

And this was Miss A's.  She did not make this one, but Ben made it for her since she was going and was just getting home right before the party so she wouldn't have time to make one.  He figured she could wear it next Christmas on campus and fit right in :)  

And here we all are--ugly Christmas sweaters and all!  

2016 Daily December 20--Blue Jeans Week 50

And everyone is home for Christmas!!!!  Yeah!  That is the best Christmas present I could ask for.  I don't need anything under the tree, thanks.  I am good :)  Despite ugly weather and plane delays all along the way (what would we do without cell phones??  so grateful) and ugly freezing rain while making the 2 hour drive home from the airport that took us 3 hours... we are all home safe and sound and enjoying the season!  I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!!!  Here is a look at our week. . .

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the nightly reading of a Christmas book to the kids by Ben.  Priceless, and they still all enjoy it even at 16 and 14 and 11!

How do younger brothers and friends entertain themselves at their older siblings basketball games?  Tic-tac-toe :)

Mr J had his first ever band concert this week--playing the saxophone.  Sounded pretty good!

These girls did some good and rang the bell on an extremely cold day for the Salvation Army.  Good job girls!

And they are home!  Finally!  Sure love these two and have missed them tons!!!

And here are our ugly Christmas sweaters that we all made :)  Pretty impressive if I do say so myself :)  Will show you close-ups of each one tomorrow so come back and see 

And we had our church Christmas party this week which was why we made the ugly Christmas sweaters--that and Ben had to wear one to work one day this week for Ugly Christmas sweater day at work :)  They had cute photo booth things at the church Christmas party that my kids enjoyed with some of their favorite people at church.

Merry Christmas!  Thanks for visiting and have a blessed holiday!!

2016 Daily December 19

One of my very favorite parts of the Christmas season is when Ben reads to the kids each night.  There isn't a better way to end the night.  

2016 Daily December 18--Mary did you Know?

One of my very favorite Christmas songs.  Love the Pentatonix version of it also!  Enjoy! 

2016 Daily December 17--addiction

Sharing one of our favorite Christmas snacks today.  I have made this for the past couple of years, and I get requests for it every year.  

These are the ingredients, plus butter and sugar.  It is called Addiction for a reason :)  So beware.  And it makes a huge, huge batch, so be sure and make it to share.  

Soooooo good!  Enjoy

Addiction

3 sticks butter, or 1 1/2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 cups corn syrup

1 large box Rice Chex

1 large box Golden Graham cereal, or as you can see in the top photo, I buy the Malt-O-Meal brand Honey Graham Toasters, the big 38 oz bag, and I use half a bag for one recipe--cheaper than buying Golden Grahams :)

4 cups coconut flakes

3 cups sliced almonds

Mix both cereals, coconut and almonds in a very, very large bowl--I end up having to use 2 large bowls and just divide it evenly between the two.

Melt butter, sugar and corn syrup in a large pot and bring to a boil, then hard boil for 3 minutes.

Pour sugar mix over cereal and mix well.

Put on wax paper to cool and then eat :) 

2016 Daily December 16--A fun Christmas book

This is another fun Christmas book, you read it, but then you find out that on each page the illustrator has hidden a Santa face, a cat, a dinosaur, etc, so then you read it again and look for all those things.  Lots of fun!

2016 Daily December 15--giant cookies

I am always looking for new recipes to try.  This week I found these copycat recipes for the New York City Levain Bakery cookies.   They are big!  

These are the chocolate chip cookie recipe.  The recipe only makes 8 cookies, but they are giant.  Find the recipe here.  We liked these better the second day because you don't bake them very long and right out of the oven they are way too underdone in the middle, but let them cool completely and the second day they are perfect.   You bake these at a higher temperature than normal cookies--410 degrees.  Also, the recipe called for walnuts, but my family doesn't like nuts in cookies, so we made them without. 

This is their chocolate peanut butter chip cookies.  They were good, but we liked the plain chocolate chip better.  Again, recipe for these is here.  Same thing with these as the plain--let them cool completely, and they are better.  The recipe called for dark chocolate cocoa powder, which I didn't have, so I just used by regular cocoa powder. 

It is always kind of fun to try something new.  Miss E decided she was going to make the chocolate chip cookies to give to her friends for Christmas.  Who wouldn't want a giant chocolate chip cookie for Christmas???  Awesome!  Enjoy!

2016 Daily December 14--our Christmas card

Some important moments in our lives this past year. . .

Miss A graduating

Miss O and Miss E and their cross country team winning league champion

Miss O and Miss E before a parade for band

Our newest family picture

Mr J getting his Arrow of Light award for scouts.

It has been a good year!

2016 Daily December 13--Week 49

Time seems to go by faster and faster.  We are enjoying our holiday season even though it seems like it is flying by!  Miss A will be home end of the week for a few weeks, and that will be so nice to have everyone home for the holidays!  It has been a good week--basketball is in full swing for Miss E.  Busy week!  Take a look. . .

Sunday afternoon I got everyone involved helping me serve--half were addressing and sealing Christmas cards and half were labeling adopt-a-child toys.  Working together we got it all done in a very short amount of time---way less that what it would have taken me to do it all by myself.  I appreciate my little elves helping me :)

Got away for the day with these amazing ladies--my best friends that keep me grounded.  Sure love them!  And it is always nice to get yummy food too!

And we had our first snowfall of the season this week!  Big, big flakes were coming down.  They didn't last too long, but were sure pretty!

At church I am over the girls ages 12-18, and these are my girls.  I don't have a lot, but I sure love the girls I have!!!  They are great!  We had our YW in Excellence program tonight which celebrated all that they have been doing.

Ugly Christmas sweaters are the order of the day lately.  We are supposed to wear them to our church Christmas party next week, so we decided to make our own.  Pretty impressive!

Ben needs one for work next week too, so he will get to wear his twice--once to work and once to the Christmas party.  Will have to show you the finished products later.  Pretty awesome ugly Christmas sweaters if you ask me :)

And Basketball here we come--Miss Ella #33 this year.  She is a freshman and plays on that team, but they had a JV tournament this week and she played in that too.  Fun stuff!

Thanks for visiting!  Come back soon!

2016 Daily December 12--Christmas song puzzle

Ben had his work party last week, and he put me in charge of games :)  So I had found this Christmas Song Puzzle several years ago, and we played that.  Everyone liked it.  We gave them a time limit and whoever got the most right in that amount of time was the winner.  Miss O also took this list and had her friends try to figure them out over lunch at school :)  Can you figure all of them out?

I also used another Christmas Song Picture games from here from Santalady.com.  I found that last year.  Just some fun activities to do with your family or at a party.

2016 Daily December 11--our tree

Our 12 foot tree is up and beautiful!  We actually put it up two weeks before Thanksgiving this year which is not normal for us.  We are usually very traditional and stick with decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  But this year we were going to be in Utah the weekend before Thanksgiving and the week of, and we wouldn't be home until the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  So we decided to decorate before we left so when we got home it would be done and we wouldn't have to worry about it. 

It was kind of weird to be decorated before Thanksgiving, but oh so nice to come home after Thanksgiving and have the house and tree all ready to go.  Love Christmas trees.  They just make me happy to see them! 

Daily December 10--yummy recipes and newsletter

Anyone that has been following my blog for long knows how much I love the website Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  I am a huge, huge fan.  I seriously make one of her recipes almost daily.  She just started a weekly newsletter for December where she gives you one exclusive recipe that is not on her site.  I, of course, signed up.

These were the cookie recipe she included in her weekly newsletter last week.  Yum!  They were our family night treat Monday night.  I can't share the recipe, but I highly encourage you to go to her website and sign up for her newsletter!  It is free and full of tips and a yummy recipe!  After December, it will just be a monthly newsletter, but will still have an exclusive recipe.  Go get signed up here!

2016 Daily December 9--Sinterklass Day

So I should have posted this earlier, but I was not that organized.  Sinterklass Eve is a tradition we have been celebrating for about 12 years.  Sinterklass Day is a Dutch tradition and celebrated on December 6.  On December 5th---Sinterklass Eve--it is tradition to give a bag of chocolates anonymously to your friends.  We love that part--doorbell ditching!!! :) 

These were our chocolates this year.  We always do different kinds of Hershey's kisses.  Love all the holiday flavors.  

My kids are really good at doorbell ditching these.  Ben and I hang out in the van with all the lights out and out of sight of the house.  The kids put the treat by the front door, ring the doorbell and sprint away.  Very rarely if ever have they been caught.  Then when the coast is clear they run back to the van, and we do it again.  One of our favorite Christmas traditions!!

2016 Daily December 8--The Tale of Three Trees

This was our Christmas bedtime story last night.  My son Mr J picked it out, and I read it.  When I was done my 16 year old Miss O said, "That one is my favorite."  So good.  If you haven't read this one, please check it out.  A classic Christmas tale.

2016 Daily December 7--apple pie bread

This bread is divine!!!  So, so yummy!  We made it Sunday night and I was lucky to get a picture because it was all gone very, very quickly!  Enjoy!

Apple Pie Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups shredded, peeled apples (about 4 medium)

Streusel Topping

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and 3 tablespoons flour.  Using a pastry blender, cut in 2 tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3 loaf pan.

In a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Beat in sugar until combined.  Add buttermilk and baking powder; beat until combined.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined.  Add flour and salt and mix until combined.  Stir in apples.

Spoon dough into prepared pan and spread evenly.  Sprinkle with streusel topping over the batter.  

Bake 60-65 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes then remove bread from pan to cool completely--if you can before you eat it all :)

2016 Daily December 6--Blue Jeans Week 48

Yes, I realized I skipped a few weeks in my weekly blogging.  Just figured I better start current and move forward.  Maybe later I will post some Thanksgiving pictures.  Who knows?  Last week we got back from our Utah trip which we had a great time seeing Miss A and spending time with family.  We got home and hit the ground running with getting ready for Christmas and then Ben and I were out of town for the weekend with a school board conference.  Busy!  How did we get into December already?  Here we go!  Take a look at our week. . .

During our trip I was able to get together with 3 of my 5 freshman roommates from college.  It has been almost 20 years since we had last seen each other.  So much fun!  It is great to have friends where you go years and years without seeing them, but when you do get together it is like no time has passed.  Sure love these ladies!

Cousin time!  These cousins do not see each other often, it has been over a year, but you wouldn't know it from this picture--lots of love!

Then we made the very long, long drive home and hit the store to do some adopt a child shopping.  These kids are lots of fun to shop with and great Santa's helpers!

I walk in the mornings with these 2 great friends.  This morning our one friend brought us yummy bundt cakes as an act of service for December 1 World Wide Service day.  Lucky me!

And another way to start December off right is with a Christmas concert---high school band had their Christmas concert this week.  Love Christmas music!

And a picture from Miss A this week--she and her roommates went up to Salt Lake to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.  So beautiful!

And then Ben and I left for the weekend because I had a school board conference in the city.  We had a very nice hotel room with huge windows and a great view.  A nice weekend where I learned lots and we enjoyed the time together!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week!