Christmas Menus and Traditions

I should have posted this earlier, but like most of you, I have been too busy. I love to hear others traditions. We are just starting to establish some. Early in our marriage we traveled the entire Christmas break. We were in a different home every Christmas, so it was hard to start traditions. After getting Isaac we decided to stay home, but do to a Christmas miscarriage one year, pregnancy bed rest the following year and still having to travel at some point during the break to see grandparents, it has been hard to establish our own traditions. For the past three years we have done a few things that I guess are becoming traditions. On Christmas Eve we go to church and come home to have our big meal. The children then will open one present before going to bed. It has been pajamas(I want nice clean pictures on Christmas morning), but after a year of Isaac crying because he was so excited and then deflated to find pajamas, I have changed that. They always each get a box of new books. We will let them open that so they can read them while they are too excited to go to sleep. On Christmas morning we will open presents one at a time and try to spread it over time. We always read the Christmas passage from Luke and we have a breakfast of breakfast pizza and Cinnamon rolls. For the rest of the day we have left overs from the night before and other favorite heavier snack foods. We will leave the day after Christmas to visit with all of the family and we will be gone a little more than a week. That means on Christmas I will be packing last minute things and getting the house ready for us to leave. That is why we do our main meal on Christmas Eve. It leaves Christmas day for the kids to play with their new things and I do not have to be in the kitchen all day. Bruce is trying to talk my into taking the tree down on Christmas so we do not have to come home to it. I don't know yet.

Our menu this year will be:

Prime Rib Roast
Broccoli Casserole
Green Bean Bundles
Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Rolls
Chocolate Chess Pie

What are your traditions?

The Father, The Mother, and The Child

We are going through Training Hearts Teaching Minds in our Family Worship Time. If you have not heard of it, it is a great book. It is a good tool to not only teach the children (and adults) the Shorter Catechism but to assist them in understanding it as well. Zachary (4) learns a lot by just listening to us work with the older two. Last night we were going through the questions and my husband asked, "How many person's are in the one true God?" Zach says, "I know, I know, let me try! Three persons are in the one God. The Father , the mother, and the child." I think we have more work to do.:)

Merry Christmas

One of my husband's Online students forwarded this Christmas greeting to him. I thought it was really funny.

To All My Democrat Friends:



Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.



To My Republican Friends:



Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Wedding Costs

When we found out Jackson was a boy, my husband's very first thought was "Yes! One more wedding I don't have to pay for!" That's a man for you. Well, I was reading this article, and I thought maybe we could get out of huge expenses for Sarah's as well.

Let's Talk Christmas Baking

I am not a baker. I plan and get excited about holiday dinners weeks ahead, but not the baking. I do not enjoy the mess and I imagine one day it will be fun with the help of the children, but not so much now. They REALLY want to help and it is honestly just tiring for me. But, I am a traditionalist and can not let Christmas slip by without doing it and the kids do enjoy it, so we will spend the week doing something different everyday. I polled everyone to determine favorites. Sarah has a choir concert tonight and we need to take cookies. Today we will make them. When I polled everyone I was very surprised to find they all (husband included) only wanted just plain old chocolate chip cookies. All of these years I have been making a variety of cookies and they just want chocolate chip. Well, that is easy enough. We are doing salsa for the neighbors this year. Several are elderly and diabetic. Here is the list of what we will cook/bake this week:

Chex Mix
Fudge
Salsa
Chocolate Covered Cherries
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sprinkles

What is on your list?

Stop, Rewind, Start Over

It is 8:54 Saturday morning. Can I go back to bed? Jack is cutting 4 teeth. Yes, I said 4. Therefore, NOTHING makes him happy. Bruce, Isaac, and I are passing him around. I fixed oatmeal for breakfast. I thought I was putting cinnamon in. When Bruce started to eat, he says, "this smells like tacos." I looked at my seasonings and I was looking at ground cumin. That pot was dumped and another one started. Now I am off to the grocery store. I meant to go yesterday, but took the older three to the movies instead.( That was really fun and time well spent. It was Zach's first time. It is always fun to see their awe at the theater.) We have a storm coming in tonight so the grocery store and Costco will be CRAZY. Not to mention it is Saturday two weeks before Christmas. So, here I go determined to turn my day around despite the circumstances.

Feasting This Week

Since joining my blogs I have been quite lazy at posting on Sabbath Feasting. We do still feast almost weekly. It is just easier to post about things I do not have to think about. I will be changing that.I am going to attempt to get back into the habit of sharing feasting menus and ideas. That said this weekend is the Christmas party for the employees at school. We will be eating there. I will have a brunch on Sunday after church for our feast. I grew up having this appetizer around Christmas. It goes well with a brunch so we will be having it along with a breakfast strata and a breakfast bread. I have never known the name of the appetizer. But here is the recipe.

1 lb ground beef (browned)
1 lb ground sausage (browned)
1 lb Velveeta Cheese
1 loaf party bread

Mix the first three ingredients together until the cheese is melted. (It melts faster if it is cut in small pieces.) Spread the mixture on the bread and bake at 350 until the mixture is warm and the bread is toasted.