2013 Daily December 7--snowflakes

 Each year I keep a record of the activities we do on our Christmas countdown chain.  At the end of November Ben and I work together to make up the activities.  This year as we were going through the calendar and activities to decide what activity to put on each chain link I told him to write down "make snowflakes."  He didn't seem very impressed with that idea, but I told him the kids like it.

And they do.  Every year they love to make snowflakes. 

These are their creations from this year.  We have done them with tortillas in years past and then eaten them.  That was fun.  But normally we just use plain white paper.  I am always impressed with their creations.  I think it is important to remember that even the simplest things can be and are important--like taking a few minutes to make paper snowflakes around the tree together.

2013 Daily December 6--slowing down

December can get so absolutely crazy, and we need to remember to slow down.  I have lists and places to go and things to do, but all that had to stop this week when this little guy got sick.  

Being sick is so not fun!  It forced me to slow down.  I needed a day to not leave the house.  Stay in my PJ's, watch over this guy, and take a nap since he had been up since 3 a.m. throwing up.  Ugh.  No fun.  But it was a good reminder that we need to slow down every once in a while.  The store and work will still be there tomorrow.  The dishes aren't going anywhere and neither is the laundry, so take a minute and breathe, relax and slow down.  Enjoy the season.  Enjoy your family and slow down--and hopefully you can do this without having a sick kid :)

2013 Daily December 5--Christmas countdown chain/Sinterklass Eve

One of our most favorite and longest running Christmas traditions is our Christmas countdown chain.  Each day the kids take off a link of the chain from Dec 1st to the 24 and there is an activity listed on the chain for us to do that day.  We do all sorts of things, and they change every year, but the one that does not change is December 5th.  December 5th is always the same.

December 5th is Sinterklass Eve.  Sinterklass Day is a Dutch tradition and is celebrated December 6th.  On Sinterklass Eve it is tradition to give a bag of chocolates anonymously to your friends--in other words door bell ditching which my kids love!  This is the kind of chocolate we give out--yum!  Of course we have to sample a few to make sure we aren't giving away bad chocolate :)

 We celebrate this every year, and I think it is one of my kids' favorite parts of Christmas.  Each of them get a bag of chocolates to deliver to whomever they wish.  We plan out how we will approach the house, turn the lights off in the car, park a block away, ring the door bell, drop the bag and then run.  Great fun!

Happy Sinterklass Eve!

2013 Daily December 4--highlight of Thanksgiving Oreo salad

So do you want to know what the first thing gone--like the bowl was scrapped clean gone--at our Thanksgiving feast?  Oreo salad.  So yum!  I posted it a while ago, but wanted to share again because it is so good!  The fact that of all the amazingly delicious stuff we had this was gone first says a lot!  

My very dear friend Angie made this Oreo salad for our Easter potluck lunch this year.  I had to use every ounce of will power I had not to lick the bowl in front of my company.  It is that good.  It is called a salad, but it is mainly a dessert, but, man, no matter what you call it, it is good!  I meant to have a bigger bowl to show you a picture of, but my kids devoured it when I made it, and I barely saved this little bit to snap a picture.  So good!  It calls for buttermilk, and I had the real stuff when I made this, but Angie always uses this. . .

Angie also makes hers the night before, but I tried to do that and when I went to get the bowl out of the fridge the next morning, 3/4 of the salad was gone, so beware. . . it disappears really fast!

Oreo Salad

1 small package instant vanilla pudding

1 cup buttermilk

 Beat together with a whisk and let set a few minutes until soft set.

Fold in:

8 oz container of Cool Whip

1/2 package of Oreo cookies chopped into small pieces

15 oz can mandarin oranges, drained

Let set in the fridge at least 2 hours before serving (if you can keep your kids away from it)

Enjoy!

2013 Daily December 3--Christmas Pillowcases and poem

I have posted about these every December, and it has been one of my most popular posts.  Enjoy!

Christmas pillowcases have been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember.  Every December 1st growing up we would get a package from my DeeDee (Grandma) and in it there would be Christmas cookies, a new Christmas pillowcase she had made for each of us, and this poem. . .

December the first starts a magical time,

With all sorts of color, rhythm and rhyme.

Sugar plum fairies will dance in your head

If you'll put this pillowcase on your bed.

The reason it's special, as you will soon see,

Is that it's been dusted with Christmas fantasy.

Visions of candy canes, Santa, and such

Will fill each dream with pleasure so much,

That when it comes the time for it to be washed,

Do it quickly so no magic is lost.

So I grew up getting these awesome pillowcases, and then my DeeDee has made them for my kids since they were little, and then I have been passing the tradition along to Ben's brothers and sisters and their families.  I realize the poem says "the first," but you can change that to any date "the tenth," "the twentieth" etc.  Get some dusted Christmas fantasy in your house! :)

2013 Daily December 2--week 48

Every Tuesday I share my picture-a-day for the week before.  So my Daily Decembers on Mondays will be my weekly pictures.  Thanksgiving was great.  We had 20 here and had a wonderful time.  Good food, family, friends, played football--what more could you ask for?  Here is a look at our week. . .

Thanksgiving prep--the sister missionaries came over the day before to help us get ready.  Sister H and Miss E made a chocolate pie what was to-die-for!  

Sister K and Miss A made an adorable turkey vegetable display.  You can see it here

Ben and Mr J made the whipped sweet potatoes--yum!

Ben carved the turkey and made the gravy.  Gravy is always Ben's thing--mine always goes lumpy.  He is our gravy man :)  He does a great job!

The little kids' table 

The big kids' table :)

Our Tree of Thanks is complete for this year!  So much to be thankful for!

Then the day after Thanksgiving we always decorate for Christmas.  Ben and the kids got the tree up and ready to go.

A sneak peek of some of our family pictures--we had them taken the day after Thanksgiving.  Love this one of the kids trying to get ready to take a picture :)  Happy with how the pictures turned out.  More to come. . 

I am doing Daily December blogging, so come back often!

Thanks for visiting!

I am linking up with The Mom Creative

2013 Daily December 1--a new countdown

This is my third year to do a Daily December for blogging.  Ben asked me why I did it last year because in a crazy month like December it is a lot of work to remember to blog something every day.  I said I did it because

1.  I do enjoy blogging

2.  There is so much in December to talk about

3.  December is one of my favorite times of the year, and I want to remember things my family and I do/have done

Blogging for me is documenting.  It is keeping track.  It is recording life.  So Daily December 2013 here we come. . .

So we always do some kind of countdown--or several--for Christmas.  This year I decided to do a new one.  A Christmas book countdown.  We have a lot of Christmas books.  I told the kids to each pick 3 books they liked and one they had never read before.  Ben and I made up the difference to equal 25.  These are the ones we chose.  The idea is you wrap them and then open one to read each night before bed by the Christmas Tree.   Yes, my 4 kids are almost 16 (gulp), 13, 11, and 8, but they all still love picture books.  I still love picture books.  You can never be too old for good picture books--especially Christmas picture books, so I think my family will like it.

And here they are all wrapped and ready to go.  Miss O wrapped almost all of them and labeled them.  #1 is our new book for this year.  I always buy a new Christmas book each year.  I will share that in a later post after we unwrap and enjoy it tonight.  Looking forward to taking time each night to relax and share a story.  

Let the Christmas season begin!

Please join me for my Daily December posts!

See you tomorrow!