Lunch With A Friend and A Recipe

Yesterday, my friend Amy came over, with her delightful children.

She and I are in charge of the Ladies Tea at church, this coming Tuesday, and needed to talk last minute stuff.  We also are coordinating a Christmas dinner for the church on the Sunday before Christmas.  Such fun!

Anyway, she wanted to bring her fabulous pumpkin soup and a yummy salad for us (and Rachel) and I took care of planning the kids lunch.

 I made Ham and Cheese sliders for the kids, which we ended up having with our soup, too!  They were so good, though next time I want to use a tad less brown sugar.  I found the recipe on Pinterest, and it is a bit sweet and savory, but mostly it is delicious!

 Up close of Amy's wonderful salad - spring greens, Bosc pears, spicy pecans, craisins, and a homemade balsamic vinegar dressing.

   Curried pumpkin soup - with a dollop of sour cream which I had already swirled into my soup.  It is so, so delicious.

That girl can cook!  

We got all our work done too, and we did an impromptu rearrangement in Kyle's room, that I've been wanting to get too.  

Did mention that she is a great friend?  

Here is the recipe for the sandwich sliders.

24 dinner rolls made into ham and cheese sandwiches.  (I simply put the meat and cheese on the rolls.)  Put the sandwiches into a baking pan 9x13 or larger.

Then you pour a sauce of 1 stick of butter, 2 tablespoons of mustard (the yellow stuff), 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/3 cup brown sugar.  Heat on the sauce on the stove until it all blends together and starts to boil.  Pour sauce over sandwiches and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

They were so good!  I'll definitely be making these again - the kids loved them and so did the adults!  If you give them a try, let me know!

Christmas Lights

 We always go more than once a season.  A local company decorates their property with tons of lights, and don't charge money to drive through their display!

 It's become a yearly tradition to go see the lights and get a donut afterwards.   The kids love it, and so do we.  Tonight we got to take Kamryn with us.  She is almost 2 1/2 and she loved it!  So much fun to see it through her eyes.  She saw the deer and said "Doggy.  Ruff Ruff!"  Cute stuff.

The full moon was out too, with it's companion Jupiter.  It was so clear and beautiful!

Events like these cause me to rejoice and to be thankful.  What a special time of year this is!

Don't Miss The Giveaway!

Just in time for the holidays comes a chance to win a little something wonderful for gift giving or keeping for yourself!

 Maybe a handbag...

 or a scarf...

 Perhaps a bracelet?

Go to Fab Fashion and see which ones you like.  Then come back and leave a comment.

Easy Peasy! 

Planning For Christmas

 First Snow 2012

Do you plan for Christmas?

I do.  Oh, I've never sat down, until now, to write out what I wanted Christmas to look like for myself and my family, but I have long been intentional with Christmas.

My friend Brenda wrote about this here.   Yesterday Vee wrote about this, too.

Being intentional with Christmas helps me to fulfill my main goal for this season with my family; Keeping Christ in Christmas.

First of all, we love everything about this season, but especially for us the Reason for the Season.  The coming of our Lord Jesus.  He may not have been born in December, but this is when we celebrate His coming.  We do this in many ways.  We have the names of Jesus on our tree - Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Second, we have a Nativity that we set up in a prominent place.  Third, we do some kind of advent calender.  We have seen over the years that our children end up memorizing the Story of His Coming, using scripture.
Also we don't focus on Santa, but we teach them about Saint Nicholas.

One thing I work very hard at this time of year is to keep my heart quiet even though my life is very busy.  I work at maintaining Joy, and embracing the season.


Things I will do this Christmas:

1. Decorate our home to be warm, cozy and welcoming. The tree is up, the decorations are in place, my garlands are hanging on my picket fence and around our kitchen door.  

2. Spend time reading good books.  I have started a new read aloud with my kids.  We are reading "Shepherds Abiding" by Jan Karon.  I love this book and enjoy re-reading it at Christmas time, and I knew my children would enjoy it too.

3. Help my Mom decorate at her home.  She wants to have it very simple this year, and so I'll head over to her place with my little helpers and make it festive at her house!

4. I believe it is a season for celebration!  So we make treats, invite people over to share in the season with us, eat good food. 

5. We enjoy good music, too, and the girls are learning to play together very nicely.  It's more enjoyable to listen and watch them play together, than to watch t.v.!

6. Make cookies for the neighbors.

7. Invite a dear couple from church over for dinner.  The holidays are hard for the wife especially, and she and Sarah have become good friends.

8. I am going to the midnight showing of The Hobbit with my 3 oldest girls and other friends from church, on December 14th!

9. Go driving to see the Christmas lights!  A business about 20 minutes from us always does a huge free display.  We go several times during the season.  I can't wait to take Kamryn.

10. I am organizing the Ladies Tea at our church, which is December 4th, and I'm organizing a Christmas Dinner for our church which will happen December 23rd after church.  It's so much fun to plan these special events!

11. On Christmas Eve we will celebrate my sweethearts birthday!  He is the best present that his Momma ever got, so she says, and I agree!  I am so thankful for him.

12. We always watch The Nativity Story on Christmas Eve.  It is our tradition.       

13. I am committed to buying meaningful gifts over the expense of a gift. I'm sure jewelry will be included as well! ;)

Have you ever planned what you want your Christmas to be like?  By doing this you can help yourself have the kind of Christmas you long for.

"Come thou, Long expected Jesus..." 
 

    

Cyber Monday Giveaway!

We are so pleased to announce the opening of our online store Fab Fashion!

And to celebrate we are offering a big giveaway.
  
We are giving away 3 items; a handbag, a bracelet and a scarf!

  

 

All you need to do is to go to our website and take a look around.  Then come back here and leave me a comment telling me which handbag, bracelet or scarf you'd like to win.

There will be one winner for each item, so three winners!

The winners will be announced Monday, December 3, 2012.

So go ahead and check out our great hand selected products!  I hope you win!

    

Forgot To Post My Slow Roast Method

Sorry!  Since several of you asked here is the link to my "Perfect Every Time" slow roasting method.  This is our turkey after roasting for about 15 hours - Tim, the carver of our turkeys said "It's not so much carved turkey as it is 'pulled' turkey."  The meat falls off the bones.  You also are left with a pan full of drippings, I made 3 quarts of gravy from it, only adding the liquid from boiling the giblets.  This is so easy and truly delicious.  To prep the turkey, I simply rinse out the cavity and let it drain, then I salt the cavity, take a stick of butter to rub the skin, leaving the excess butter in the bottom of the pan.  That's it.

Busy, busy making our home cozy for winter and for Christmas!  Love this time of year!  Today is windy and cold, so it really feels like the season.  

Check back on Monday for a Cyber Monday post about our shoppes' website and a BIG giveaway to celebrate it's opening!  Don't forget to check back for all the details!

Family Photos

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day.  Relaxed for the most part, lots of good food, lots of dishes to wash, and lots of laughter.

Kamryn discovered real whipped cream this year!

 She liked it a lot!

 I used beeswax and orange oil on our table, and then set it very simply.  It was lovely.

 Tim started this craziness....

 Sisterly affection?

 Sarah wanted a photo of them all in the tree!  But the tree wouldn't hold all the kids.  Oh, wait.  Where is Kayleigh?  Yikes I put the wrong photo in!  Urgh...

 Ah, here we go...

Sarah loves mysteries...here she was giving us her undercover detective look...so cute!

So there you have it.  We ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, English Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and pumpkin roll.  Delicious!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving!  Isn't this cute?  I've seen this all over Facebook and couldn't resist using it!

A wonderful quote of the purpose the separatists came to the new world...

"Last and not least, they cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least making some ways toward it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work."

~ William Bradford

I am thankful for them risking so much...

 

Cute Video

Last evening, after they all got back from skating, we were talking about Rachel's cello lesson yesterday.

I asked Rachel to play a few of the Christmas songs that she is learning for Tim, as he doesn't get to hear her much.  So she did.  That lead to Lindsay getting her violin out by my request, and they played "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" together.  This lead to Emily bringing out her recorder and playing with them.

This bit of video is so cute I just had to show you...

   I love my girls....can't think of a better way to spend an evening.