Here's a couple of Christmas recipes that have been a real hit at our house! I made some with my 4-year old and we gave out a few small tins to our friends and neighbors. She thought it was pretty special that we got to turn them into gifts AND we got to sample some ourselves.
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
2 1/4 c unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. butter or margarine, softenend
1/4 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. light brown sugar
1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. white chocolate chips
1 c. Craisins (dried cranberries)
Mix flour with baking soda. Combine butter, the sugars, pudding mix and vanilla in large mixer bowl, beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture; then stir in chips and cranberries. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.
Peppermint Fudge
2 c. milk choc chips
1 c. semi-sweet choc chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
dash salt
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1/4 c. crushed hard peppermint candy
In a heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt. Remove from heat and stir in peppermint extract. Spread evenly into waxed paper-lined 8- or 9-inch square pan. Sprinkle with peppermint candy. Chill 2 hours or until firm. Turn fudge onto cutting board; peel off waxed paper and cut into squares. Store covered in fridge. Set out at room temp. when ready to serve.
Last year I set out to make our Christmas celebration a bit simpler. I scaled down the buying considerably and I limited our activities. This year I’m going in the same direction but we’ve enjoyed more events than we did last year. It’s amazing how stress-free it can be if you do a little pre-planning and you’re willing to say “no” to some things. I have not really been frazzled at all. I’m smiling at all the cute little things my girls do, I’m humming while I shop, and I’m absorbing every moment!
Here are a few things I’ve incorporated that have taken out some of the stress:
Do-It-Yourself Christmas Cards
This year I decided to take a picture of my girls myself for our Christmas cards and print the pictures on my new favorite toy, the Epson Picturemate Charm and then put them in little frame Christmas cards. I happened to have about 18 frame cards leftover from 3 years ago when I did my own cards so I was able to use those and that cut down the price. I bought the girls matching dresses 2 months ago. I dressed them in their matching dresses and set them in front of our Christmas tree and just started taking pictures. In about 10 minutes I had a couple of really cute pictures and they were both looking at the camera and smiling! It was a lot easier than getting them all dressed up, packing them up in the car, and then trying to keep them neat until it was our turn at the local photo studio. Also, I didn’t have the big pressure sell to buy a bunch of extra pictures that I did not need. Overall, a good option that worked out well!
Make a Party Out of Decorating the Tree
Now that I have one daughter who is able to help with the decorating, we decided to make a night of it. Pull out the ornaments and put on some Christmas music and start placing ornaments on the tree. With all of us working on it, we were done in a half hour. My daughter got such joy out of getting to pick where the ornaments went and we even got to share some stories about where we’d gotten each ornament. We ate a few cookies along the way and had some hot chocolate. Didn’t cost much at all and lots of memories and lots of fun!
Look Out for Lights
Make a game of trying to spot fun and different lights as you drive to shop or go to events. We like to find houses with the most lights, ones with the most colors, or unusual decorations. My older daughter enjoys yelling out from the back seat when she spots more lights.
The point is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make memories with your family. Your children will remember the fun times you spent with them or they will remember you running around frazzled and frustrated with everyone. Which memory do you want to leave with them?
At a local coffee shop, I like to go and get one of their Mexican Mochas…simply delish. It’s got those little notes of cinnamon and spice that make it so tasty. It goes beyond your simple Café Mocha. I haven’t gotten to go there as often as I like with all the hustle and bustle of two kids not to mention the fact that we’re all cutting back on some of the unnecessary things in life. But alas, I found a way to enjoy a Mexican Mocha at home with relative ease. Below is the recipe for the Mexican Mocha mix…you can also make this and put it in a cute decorative jar and give as a gift. Throw in a few homemade cookies and I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t love to receive that gift!
Mexican Mocha Mix in a Jar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons powdered vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
Combine and blend ingredients in a small bowl. Place in an airtight jar.
Attach these instructions to the jar:
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Serves 6
3 cups water
Mexican Hot Chocolate Mix (approx. 2 tbsp.)
Cinnamon sticks for garnish
Heat the water to boiling and add the Mexican Hot Chocolate Mix. Stir with a whisk until the mixture is smooth. Garnish with cinnamon sticks.
Recipe courtesy of Recipe Goldmine
If you’re like me, by the time you get kids to bed each night your brain is tired and all you want to do is wrap yourself in that Snuggie your husband bought you last Christmas, sit on the couch and watch whatever mindless shows come on the TV. It just seems like it might be too exhausting to actually pick out a book and find a quiet corner to read or tackle a Bible study with hours of “homework.”
So what do we do when we have an evening stretching in front of us with not much to do…I’m afraid all too often I fall victim to a night of watching some not so great “reality” television. As women these shows seem to speak to our interests—fashion, gossip, friendships, and lifestyles that seem better than our own. On the surface it seems fun to get “carried away” with Rachel Zoe as she styles Demi Moore for the Oscar parties or maybe watch another group of “Housewives” get in a cat fight in the middle of a busy restaurant or dare I say take another quiz on Facebook.
Recently God has been showing me that I need to get proactive about filling my time with things that are better for me and most importantly please the God I claim to serve. Here are some ideas that I’ve tried…
1. Ladies Book Club
I actually used my contacts on Facebook and sent out a post asking if anyone was interested in joining me for a book club. I got about 10 responses so I chose the latest Joni Eareckson Tada book, typed up a meeting and reading schedule and hosted the first night at my house. We had about 7-8 women come on a regular basis and we met every Thursday night for 6 weeks. Sometimes we met at a local Panera Bread and other times we met at someone’s house. The hostess would provide a few snacks and coffee and we discussed the book and more importantly got to know each other even better and shared in some sweet prayer time each week.
2. My Own Little Bible Study
’m not very good at just reading a chapter of the Bible and then trying to dissect it on my own…my mind tends to wander. I found a Beth Moore Bible study workbook I had started back before I had kids and never finished so I’ve been working through it just completing as much as I can in the time I set aside each day. It’s amazing how refreshing it is when I know I don’t have to get all of the homework done before the next Bible study meeting. I can take my time and if I don’t finish a particular day’s assignment, I just pick it up the next day and continue on.
3. Photo Organizing (Not Scrapbooking!)
I am one of those people who likes to buy all the cute little scrapbook supplies…stickers, paper punches, fancy papers, etc. but I don’t seem to ever sit down and actually complete scrapbook pages. The Type A personality in me gets really annoyed by this but then that natural tendency to procrastinate rears its ugly head and next thing you know I’ve accomplished nothing and feel like a failure! I finally figured out that if I spend even an hour each week just organizing family photos by date and category, I feel like I’m moving in the right direction. The other thing I’ve done recently is purchased some small purse size albums and used each one for a different theme…for example, all of our pictures from a recent trip to the pumpkin patch went in one small album and my daughter and I decorated the cover with some of that fall-themed scrapbook paper and stickers I just happened to have on hand. It felt good to actually finish an album!
These things definitely shouldn’t take the place of spending some good, quality time with your husband. He needs to feel loved and one of the best things you can offer him is your time. It’s easy to shuffle your man to the back burner when the kids demand so much of you each day. My husband and I work together to get kids bathed, books read and in bed so that we have time to spend together and time to spend doing what we like to do individually.
Take some time to consider how you spend your hours each day and you might be surprised by the extra hours you find when you get intentional about how you spend your time.
