2012

                       HAPPY

                        NEW

                      YEAR!!!

After Christmas Post

Well, we had a great Christmas here. My hubby got 11...yes 11 days off of work!!! This has been the best Christmas leave ever! He is off until after New Years!!! This is a real treat for us.
We had a good Christmas eve day. I think that we started a new tradition. We went out to eat at Chili's for lunch, and instead of ordering meals for everyone, we ordered different appetizers and shared all around. We don't often order appetizers, so this was a real treat for us. The kids loved it, and I was so surprised at how much less money we spent. Then we went and saw Santa Clause at our BX. We don't teach our children to believe in Santa Clause, but it was fun for them to get to see him. We always tell them that Santa is not real. Then we came home and made a delicious ham dinner, and read the Christmas story out of the Bible and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Then we went out to see Christmas lights. That is a yearly tradition for us. We like to go to a candlelight Christmas eve service, but they were running too early and late this year, so we missed it.
Christmas day is our family day. We open presents and have doughnuts and play all day. It is a lot of fun for the kids, and us too.
Now we are gearing up for New Years. We are planning to have banana splits and a meat and cheese and cracker tray and some homemade punch. I have to come up with a recipe for the punch...if anyone has one they would like to share, I'd be ever so grateful. (No alcohol tho...we don't drink and this is also for the kids). The kids get to stay up until midnight if they can make it. It's the one night of the year we encourage them to stay up!  :) A real treat for them!
Well, I hope that all of you had a Very Merry Christmas and that you have a great New Years! I would love to hear all about your Christmas holiday traditions, so feel free to leave them in the comments.
Happy New Year!

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Food For Thought

I wanted to share a link to this post... A great read for Christmas
http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/2007/11/surrendering-our-stuff.html

Snowman

This is just so cute...I couldn't resist buying one!

He talks and sings when the fridge is opened.

We had fun hiding him in the fridge and watching the kids reactions when they

opened the fridge and heard the snowman.

Such a cute thing!

Christmas Gifts

This year we are sending out a lot more homemade items than we have in the past. I actually like sending out the homemade items. Our kids get to help make the items we are sending. It takes a little off of the store shopping/materialism of Christmas and it allows them to be more involved in the gift giving. This year we made birdhouses and wooden ornaments and hot cocoa mix and the kids made their own cards. The birdhouses dad made and the kids get to paint them. The ornaments were made out of wood by dad, and I painted them solid colors and the kids painted the decor on them. They each got to paint one ornament in each set. The hot cocoa mix was easy to make and I bought these cute canning type jars from the hundred yen store. I filled the jars  and put ribbon and a bell around the top. They look pretty nice. The kids decorated their cards. They made one for each box and they all get to sign all the cards.
Since we have such varying ages and the younger ones have a smaller amount of patience, I turned on Charlie Browns Christmas and that helped keep the ones who weren't having a turn making the crafts happy.
Here are some pictures of some of what we made:

                                              The birdhouses before the kids painted them.

                                                             The hot cocoa mix

Jesse Tree

This year I was involed in a Jesse Tree ornament exchange. 25 ladies all get together and each pick an ornament to make. There are specific ornaments to be made.  Then about a month later, we all gather again to exchange the ornaments. So each lady makes 25 of the same ornament, and then when all the ornaments are exchanged, you end up with a set of 25 ornaments. Then on December 1 you have a devotional for each day and the ornaments correspond to the devotionals. Each night the kids get to put the ornament on the tree that goes with the devotional for that night. The book we are using is called The Advent Jesse Tree by Dean Lambert. It has a devotional each night for children and adults, so you can pick which one is better for your family depending on the ages of your children. I have really enjoyed having these devotionals. It is a great way to focus on the Lord during the holiday season, and I have enjoyed the Bible talks that can come out of this.
A lot of people might be put off by having to make the ornaments. I actually had no idea what I would make until I went and saw what others had made. Also you are only making one ornament 25 times. So you don't have to be super creative.
Anyways this was a great experience and I hope to lead or be involved in a Jesse Tree ornament exchange at our next base. It was a lot of fun.
Anyways here is a picture of some of the ornaments...I already have some on the tree. :)

 Some of the ornaments the ladies made.

I made the Noah ark ornaments...my dear Husband was so sweet to cut the wood out for me.

Randomness

I thought I would share some random things today.

Our seven year old is sent to wash his hands. He comes out of the bathroom and I ask
Me:"Did you use soap?"
The Boy:"no"
Me:"When I send you to wash your hands I want you to use soap".
The Boy:"But I don't want to waste it".
The boy was sent to wash his hands again...with soap.

A Blessing:
My wonderful Hubby and I are at the grocery store. I need baking supplies. I am almost out of flour. The commissary is out of all purpose flour. Ugh!! They have little ity bitty bags of flour and expensive organic flour. I look and think that I see a pack of flour that is all purpose...the regular size. There are two left...all purpose flour to which my husband proclaims "Praise the Lord". That was a blessing!

We are still finishing up our crafts and boxes to send home. Still hoping that they will make it home by Christmas. Can't mail any packages until tuesday...the post office is closed until then and then I'm not sure we'll get them out before the end of the week anyways.

I have some posts to post, but am waiting for the pictures to add to them. We are working with the laptop because our house is so small that when the Christmas tree goes up, the main computer comes down. Tho the tree looks so much prettier than the computer.

The hamster and our seven year old:
Our hamster is mean. He bites. He is a fat little critter that is spoiled in a luxury hamster home with food and carrots. He even has a little ball to run around in. But he bites. So he is more for the kids to look at than to touch. Well one day we find our seven year old holding the hamster. I am surprised that he can hold him and the hamster doesn't bite him. Well come another day and the seven year old picks up the hamster only to have it bite him. He washes his hand and I bandage it. He goes back to the hamster cage and has a talk with the hamster and then...picks the hamster up...only to be bitten again. Boys sometimes have to learn the hard way. He doesn't like the hamster as much now. I think we need a new hamster.

That's all for now. Hope to have some new posts up this week. Hope you are all having a great holiday season.

Some New Blogs

I like to go searching from time to time for new blogs to read. I have my favorite blogs and still stop by their blogs, but sometimes I like to find something new. I found a new one today that I like. It is called Missional Mamma.
http://missionalmamassoul.blogspot.com/
Hope you stop by to visit.