Christmas Traditions

I wrote this little post so I could link up over at Kelly's Korner. Over there she is talking about Christmas traditions!

One of my favorite things about celebrating Christmas with family is the traditions! We had a lot of Christmas traditions growing up and Nick and I have tried to create some of our own too. I think the two important things to remember about traditions are; that it is okay to be a little flexible (each Christmas season has its own challenges) and you can start new ones at any time!

*we have a night sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas  where we go look at Christmas lights and go to a local drive-thru display

*we decorate for Chrismas together as a family while listening to Christmas music and then watch a Chrismtas movie together when we are done

*we have an Elf on the Shelf

*we fill shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child (yep, this year I failed at this one, thank goodness there is always next year!)

*we bake Christmas cookies, usually with my mom sometime before Christmas

*we watch Elf together as a family

*we give the kiddos new Christmas jammies to wear on Christmas Eve (this one comes from my childhood)

*we do a chocolate Advent calendar (new this year)
*we send out Christmas cards to our family and friends

*we dress up on Christmas Eve 

*Christmas day is spent at my parents house opening gifts and eating lots of food!

And we are always looking to add a few new traditions. This year we are going to take the kids to the Missouri Botanical Gardens to look around and check out the train display. If we enjoy it, it could become a great Christmas traditions!

If you need some other ideas head over to Kelly's Korner and see what other families do to create wonderful Christmas memories for their families!

Also, my friend Jenn is giving away a copy of the Child Training Bible. Head over to her blog for her review and to win a copy for yourself!

Easy Peasent Bread

There is just something about making fresh bread from scratch that gives you that ultimate Suzie Homemaker feel. I love that feeling. I suggest wearing an apron too... that really takes it up a notch.

I have a bread machine that I stole borrowed from my Grandma. It was never used before and it has been really fun to experiment with different bread machine breads and doughs. I especially love making pizza dough in the bread machine. The only downside is that I don't love the way it looks so I don't like having it out on my counter all the time. So, every time I want to make bread I have to go down to the basement and drag up the machine... It's enough some evenings to pretend we are going low-carb.

I had been reading a lot about Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and have been very intrigued  But, I don't have a big container with a lid so I hadn't given their method a try yet. When I came across THIS recipe on Pinterest I was intrigued and excited. The title suggested there were only 5 ingredients and it was the easiest bread you will ever make. I was SOLD!

And then we tasted it. Oh my goodness. It really is so easy and so amazingly delicious. My kiddos help me mix it up in the late afternoon and we have amazing hot bread with dinner. I am not going to go into instructions here because Alexandra's Kitchen does such an amazing job and gives some really great tips. But, I thought I would share a few of my pics of the process...

Sugar, flour (I used a combo of all purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour and was very happy with the consistency), yeast, kosher salt, and water. I also used honey instead of sugar on one batch and that was delicious too!

I have to interject here and say that proofing yeast used to scare me. I am not sure why. But, it really is easy peasy. The recipe offers this tip and it works like a charm... to get your water the perfect temp for your yeast add 1/2 cup boiling water to 1 1/2 cups cold water and voila...

Mix it all up. I don't mix completely, just get it all combined.

My kitchen is pretty cold, especially in the winter. So, to get the bread to rise I like to heat up my oven and then turn it off and then put in my bowl of dough with a damp warm towel over it.

BUTTER up your Pyrex bowls!

Ahhhh.... perfection.

If I can do it anyone can.

Linking up today at Raising Homemakers!

Markers Everywhere

This is what this boy does almost all day long every single day.... His hands are constantly maker stained (his favorite medium). He creates comic books, draws pictures of robots and super heroes, makes books about wild animals.

It cracks us up because when Max was about 3 his Sunday School teachers would get so frustrated because he absolutely refused to color. And now we can't get him to stop!

I am very thankful for my artistic, creative boy!

{twice the time and half the money}

I saw this on Pinterest this weekend and loved it so much I just haven't been able to get it out of my head. How true is this?

Don't waste your time running around town this Christmas season trying to buy your kids the perfect gifts. Buy them less. You can even buy them nothing. Just spend time with them. Lots of time. 

A tisket, a tasket

I am not sure where I picked this little trick up, so I can't give credit where credit is due... but this little trick has made the biggest difference for me in keeping our home somewhat picked up with 3 kiddos. 

I am not really a fan of storing toys in the living room. I have one small basket of "baby toys" that stays in our entertainment center and then everything else goes up in the kids bedrooms. My personal philosophy is that if they have too many toys to fit into their rooms, they have too many toys! 

But, we have a 2 level home and the majority of our "living" takes place on the main level. This means that a lot of toys wander down during the day. I don't mind at all because I like to have the kids all playing together and where I can keep an eye on them. But, it made clean-up in the evenings a major chore. And sadly, sometimes in my exhaustion I just let toys stay downstairs. 

Enter: the basket. The sheer simplicity makes me embarrassed to do a blog post on it. But, just in case it helps anyone I am willing to let my pride go... ha.

Nowadays I keep this basket downstairs. During our "quick clean-up" time during the day the kiddos or I can just throw toys in the basket. 

 Then at the end of the day during "big clean-up time" we load this baby up to the brim with everything downstairs that belongs upstairs.

And then my super strong and very muscly husband carries the basket upstairs where we put it at the top of the stairs and the kiddos grab everything that belongs to them and put it away in their rooms (and we encourage them to clean up any other toys that are out in their rooms).

And voila! A clean downstairs. A clean upstairs. One happy mama.

And then we start again the next day... :)

Linking up over at The Better Mom, Growing Home, and The Modest Mom today!

2 good reads

Just wanted to pop in and post links to two wonderful blog posts I read today. They are both wonderful reads and encouragement!

The first is by Rachel Jancovik, author of "Loving the Little Years" and of one of my favorite blog posts of all time, "Motherhood is Calling- and Where Your Children Rank". Today she wrote an amazing post on the Desiring God blog called "The Unbaked Biscuit." I highly recommend it if you need a little encouragement in your attitude toward serving. GOOOOD stuff.

The other is by Darlene Schacht and she wrote a great marriage post today over at The Better Mom. It is called "Love is a Gift Not a Swap of Emotions". It is a great reminder for us as wives. Especially during the holiday season when things can get crazy and busy and we can take our frustrations out on those we love the most!

And because I don't like to leave a post without a picture... enjoy this one of my cat under the Christmas tree. I am pretty sure he thinks the new tree skirt is his new cat bed. How cute is he?

Celebrating Christmas

I love Christmas time. It is really right up my alley. Decorating, parties, cute matching outfits, trying new recipes and making old favorites, lots of family time, twinkly lights everywhere... all things I love big time. It is such a special time of year and I love sharing it with my family and friends.

But, Christmas is also kind of hard. Especially the past few years, I haven't been able to enjoy it fully. Because for me Christmas has always been about blessing the blessed. Giving stacks of presents to my children who have everything already (we have gone down to 3 gifts each... but still), making big elaborate meals for people who aren't that hungry. Spending hours decorating a home that looked nice in the first place....

And I know that there is nothing wrong with doing any of those things in and of themselves...

But, I tell my kids that our lives are all about loving others. When they act selfishly I try to remind them that we are here on this earth to serve other people above all else. But, I know that the message I send them with my own life is so different.

I guess it is just, I don't know how to do it differently. This is how I have always done Christmas. The past few years I have added dropping a check in the mail for our 2 Compassion kiddos for Christmas and maybe buying a chicken for someone in Africa. I throw a little money at a few good causes to try to ease my conscious and maybe try to convince myself that I am a really good person. But, I turn right back around and get back to baking cookies for people that already have counters full of them and wrapping gifts that will be thrown into piles of dozens of others.

And I write this with no real answers. Just that, I get why my kids don't understand why Christmas isn't about presents and cookies and well... them having fun. It is the only message that they have ever seen lived out. And I want to continue to bless my children at Christmas and enjoy the holiday together. But, I can't keep doing it the exact way I have been. I have to figure out a way to make it more about Jesus and less about excess.

I loved this post by Ann Voskamp I read a couple of days ago. I would love to hear your ideas on how you give to Jesus at Christmas. What does it look like for your family?