Christmas Morn Recap

I know I'm a little behind, but in case anyone was interested, here is a glimpse into our Christmas morning this year...

I almost did not make this gingerbread house this year. Last year it was so much fun and I decided to make it a tradition. But this year I was kinda swamped. But I did finish it, and it wasn't such a horrible task. ;-) Ella helped with the round hard candies around the windows, on the roof and on the ground.

Opening up their stockings.

Of course!


She was so excited to get the pajamas. She's worn them for so many nights since she got them, I had to convince her it was time to wear another pair recently.

Miles' new dance bag. Too bad he refuses to dance in class...

Happy to hug Blue.

Here's a small look at our tree. The most prominent feature about our tree every year are the handmade snow flakes. They were made by Jason's mom who is Czech and these are a Czech tradition. Other than that, our tree is a real hodge podge of ornaments, though no glass balls this year because it was in a room with hardwood floors.

I especially like to get an ornament as a souvenir when we go somewhere new. I think Christmas is a neat time to think of all of our trips. And it's better than getting cheapy souvenirs we will just toss. Sorry I didn't have the time to do Crystal's tree tour. Maybe next year.

Today I'm feeling sick. Scratchy throat and kind of tired. Tomorrow I only teach one dance class, so maybe I can get some rest then. Oh, I just remembered I'm hosting a teen mom mentor meeting tomorrow night, so cleaning will be involved tomorrow. Ugh.

For those praying for my friend in a bad marriage. Things are getting worse and I'm trying my best to counsel her. I hope I'm giving her good advice. Please pray for me too in helping her.

Going Out when we should be Snowed In

Today we braved (I felt light headed and nauseous from worry the entire drive) the snow and drove to the Chicago Botanic Garden to see the Wonderland Express.

A designer and crew was hired to build an elaborate backdrop for model trains to run through. The first room contained four beautiful Christmas trees and two towns made from candy and gingerbread which Holiday themed trains ran through.

The next, large atrium was just spectacular. I'm not sure why we didn't take more pictures. But the backdrops were all Chicago landmark buildings and structures made from all natural materials, wood, nut shells, dried leaves, etc... Many live plants were added to fill in the landscaping. The most amazing was all of the skyscrapers near Michigan Avenue and Navy Pier. Through all of these landscapes, miniature trains ran. Oh, and I must not forget... the best part of all. There were snow machines in the atrium. So it would snow on the whole scene, and you, every once in a while.

In the last hallway, yet another naturally landscaped and built train scene was set up with landmarks from near northern suburbs.

There was also a room showing a looping film of the making of the exhibit, including a snipet from a PBS show narated by Jason's former improv teacher, Geoffrey Baer. The library had a cute exhibit of figures from childrens books, which were made of felt. And yet another area had a little cafe, gift shop and area for kid's activities. The kids (and maybe us) made "tree jewelry" for the birds to eat outside as well as paper snowflakes. The third generation of kids at the holiday party we are going to on Christmas may or may not be getting all train themed gifts. Hee hee.

It was a scary drive (for me), and Jason drove not me, but ended up being a good family event.

A Different "Twist" on Fudge

The holidays is a time when lots of people make fudge. But if you are tired of the same old chocolate fudge, why not try something different?

Cookies N Cream Fudge

You will need:

16 chocolate cream-filled sandwich cookies, broken into chunks, divided

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons butter

2-2/3 cups vanilla chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

What to do:

Coat an 8-in. square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place half of the broken cookies in pan. In a heavy saucepan, combine milk, butter and chips; cook and stire over low heat until chips are melted. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour over cookies in pan. Sprinkly remaining broken cookies over top. Let set until cooled.

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I think these are a bit sweet, but my husband loves them and if you love cookies n' cream, why not try them out for yourself?

Teachers' Gifts

Crafters, looking for ideas for a small gift for the holidays?

Another project DONE! My mom forwarded me an email from the site YouCanMakeThis and I scrolled down a ways to find THE project I was going to make for the teachers at my children's preschool for a holiday gift! I had purchased some holiday fabric at the quilt store not knowing quite what I was going to do with it. But now it has found its purpose, well at least one of its purposes! (There is more left).

Lucky for me, my generous mom has an embroidery machine and she agreed to do up some of the front panel for me. She has also made up some for herself and has started working on some of these (with different fabric for the border and back) as gifts for some friends.

The colors I chose are not the traditional Christmas red and green, but I really like these. The sample shown on the website has cool jingle bell trim at the bottom, but I couldn't find anything like that. So I went to the home dec trim section of the fabric area at Hobby Lobby and found these little dangly things that I thought looked like ornaments. I love how they turned out.

This is a FREE pattern that you can find HERE. You just need to register with the site to get the free pattern directions and if you want to get the file for the machine embroidery you can get that too. Or you can do it by hand, the pattern for that is included in the instructions. Such a simple fun gift to make! Here is the sample you'll find on their site.

Let the Christmas Season Begin!

After the stress of Thanksgiving, we started out the new holiday season with some recovery time and lots of good fun.

Saturday night we were in need of some rejuvenation time, so Jason and I went on a date while our dear friends watched the kids. We went to eat at Cracker Barrel for some comfort food. We had an excellent waitress and delicious food. The green beans remind me of my grandma's and put a smile on my face. We both had chicken and dumplins, my favorite! Then we went to a movie, which is a rare event. We saw American Gangster. I wasn't used to seeing Denzel Washington in a bad guy role, so it was strange. It was way to violent.

The kids were really good for our friends. My friend just loves them and they love her. She is like an aunt to them and a sister to me. They also just love their son James who is 5. And to give the husband some props here, it was he that Miles went to for comfort when he missed his parents.

They looked too cute sleeping when we picked them up to take home.




Sunday on the way to church we saw a nursery where pretty Christmas trees were being sold. After church we went back and got a gorgeous one! The whole family is happy! Jason is a pro at securing trees on top of cars!




For most of the afternoon Ella did a craft and Kristi worked on a gingerbread house with "help" from the kids. Ella actually did put some of the candy on a window and the roof. Miles made "bear tracks" in the snow. Ahem. It was fun and I might try to put together a gingerbread house making party next year! If not, I'd definitely like to make this a tradition in our family! Also, we all enjoyed some hot chocolate that afternoon. While we were working on the house, Jason was putting up lights outside in the COLD!







Back to the tree. I think we found the perfect place for it this year. A little nervous about it being so close to the fireplace. After we straighten it up and got the lights on, we let the kids put on the ornaments with minimal help. I did move a few up higher. The point is: it is more important that people had fun than that the tree look perfect. I have mentioned this before, but all of those snowflakes are a Czech tradition and were make by Jason's mom. We love to look at them every year.

With an attitude of gratitude, we focused on the positives and truly enjoyed the weekend. We hope that you too will experience the joy and miracle of the Christmas season!