Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas 2015

Another year has come and gone... felt like it all happened in a blink. We are SO thankful to have Daddy home this year for Christmas, and Aunt Courtney added into the mix. It was an early morning, which means, early naps, which means early bedtime (right?) ...

For this Christmas, I wanted to attempt homemade cinnamon rolls... you know, homemade is the way to go... I was halfway through creating, when I read the part in the recipe that stated that it would yield 7 pans full of rolls... Thank you Pioneer Woman for not stating that in the first paragraph of the recipe  I was too far in, to turn around... so I ended up with 6 pans of homemade cinnamon rolls... We enjoyed 1 pan for breakfast, and then wrapped up the rest for neighbors and gate guards at our Air Force Base. At least it was a yummy mishap that others gained from...

Wishing you and yours a Merry and Bright Christmas... may you find comfort and joy in the great Hope of Christ!


















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Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Handmade For Christmas

Every year I tell myself that I'm going to spend the whole year completing a "handmade" item for the kids for Christmas, so that I'm not rushing last minute to finish them (which is typical... true Karen fashion). We celebrate each Christmas with 1 handmade, 1 want, 1 need in the gift department. We keep it simple and light... allowing the main focus to be on celebrating the birth of our Savior. We savor the calm and delight in our time together.

Opening up presents from our stockings was something I looked forward to the most each year... I loved all the little, random finds. We didn't have stockings as a family... so this year, I took on the task of creating our own. I picked out some homespun buffalo check (in a large print for the "adults" and a small print for the "children"). Everyone's inside fabric, is unique to their personalities... Best of all, they were completed before Christmas Eve. 








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Sunday, December 20, 2015

Homemade Marshmallows

With the cold air making it's way to Oklahoma... and celebrating Christmas this week... now was the best time to make some yummies to pass out to our dear neighbor friends. Cookies are always a sweet gesture (literally and figuratively), but I wanted to do something that would last a little bit longer. The kids whipped up a quick batch of homemade marshmallows (no processed garbage in these little numbers) and handed them out with cocoa in sweet little packages tied up with string. It wasn't very time consuming, and it's a delicious way to warm up.

Ingredients:
- 4 packets of gelatin
- water
- 4 cups of sugar (I used coconut sugar, and they tasted great!)
- 1 tbsp of vanilla
- 1 tsp of salt
- powdered sugar

Directions:

- Mix 4 packets of gelatin with 1 cup of water while you dissolve 4 cups of sugar with 1 cup of water.

- Once the sugar is dissolved add the sugar to the gelatin, and bring it to a boil.

- Once it has boiled, put it in a mixing bowl and let it cool until it's warm. About 45 minutes.

- Add vanilla and salt, and mix with a mixer for 10-15 minutes until it's white and frothy.

- Pour it into a buttered pan and let is set. This usually takes 1 hour.

- Once it has set, put powdered sugar over the top to make it easier to cut out of the pan with cookie cutters. You can even just cut them into squares if you want to.

- Toss them in powdered sugar.

- Serve over hot cocoa.







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Thursday, December 17, 2015

Christmas in a Box.

Receiving our Christmas Craft Nature Pal Exchange, was just as fun as making ours to ship out. Our package showed up from Florida, and we were SO delighted to see how our new friends crafted for us. They used items collected in their yard, and put together some beautiful creations. I loved the dried lemons from their own lemon tree. Charlotte couldn't pick a favorite.. she, in an elated voice said, "Mom, I cannot WAIT to hang all this up... can I pick the spots for everything?" After inspecting and reading the notes on everything twice, off she went... It was a beautiful way to experience "Christmas in a box".






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Monday, December 14, 2015

Christmas Craft Nature Pal Exchange

When it comes to decorating for Christmas, we like to keep things simple... there's no surprise there. Minimalist, is best. A few weeks ago, we signed up for the Christmas Craft Nature Pal Exchange... since we enjoyed our Nature Pal Exchange so much weeks before that. This time, it was a task completely up our alley... find nature, and create a Christmas Craft with it (something to decorate). We we paired up with a family from Florida, who have two littles. Ornaments are a big deal in our house, so we crafted a few to send to them. Plus, it's a way for them to remember us for years to come. We found some wood in the woods, cut it, drilled holes in it, and then baked it in the oven to kill all the "stuff" that lingers on wood, and dry it out. We used some shrubs from the woods, along with some needles from our Christmas tree, and paint to create. We put some modge podge on each, to seal the ornament... and strung some velvet ribbon through. Just for fun, we made sure to send some "yummy" bark for them as well. So excited to see what the exchange brings our way...

















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Saturday, December 05, 2015

Our Christmas Tree.

As soon as we pulled into the Christmas Tree Farm parking lot this year, the very first request that we received was from Mars.... she asked, "I want a baby one..." ... and so the hunt for our tree began. We walked by so many, and finally towards the end of one of the aisles... there she was. Mars wasn't too pleased, because she wanted "a baby one." But she finally accepted the fact that we were going home with a bigger tree, when we told her we were covering it in twinkle lights. Twinkle lights makes everything better.

It's such a fun adventure, each and every year... finding our tree. The tree we get to bring home, smell all throughout the holidays, decorate and stare at, all day and night. Our Christmas Tree.


















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