Christmas is Coming...

And we are keeping extra busy.

Friday we had friends over to bake and decorate homemade sugar cookies. The kids intermittently ran around playing while the moms drank coffee and talked. Win. Win.

The recipe I use is quick and doesn't require the dough to be chilled beforehand. I have learned that having to wait on dough is a pain when you have little kids.

At this age, cookies are not beautiful, but the kids enjoyed dumping as many sprinkles as humanly possible on each cookie they touched.

Thanks to my friends, the kids also had fun shapes to decorate, including dinosaurs, and I believe a turkey even made it into this batch of cookies! 

Once the kiddos were sufficiently sugar-ed up, I used my new Roomba to clean up the sprinkles covering the floor and then we all parted ways. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon and the kids had a blast spending time together.

After our friends left, I scrambled to get my crew out the door to meet Daniel for a little Christmas shopping. We spent less than two hours knocking out our present shopping before hitting up Chick-fil-a for dinner. Did I mention that it was our anniversary? Not the ideal way to spend an anniversary evening, BUT Christmas shopping is done, so I'll take it.

Saturday morning I had to wake everyone up to get out the door to have breakfast with Santa at the church where Jack attends preschool.

We started out eating pancakes and Santa came by each table. Then we were split into three groups and sent to do various activities throughout the building. The kids made a manger craft, then there was cookie decorating and reindeer food making.

Then we went to play reindeer games, we heard the story of Jesus' birth – from the point of view of Humphrey the camel, followed by the kids getting to sit on Santa's lap (Isaac was not a fan), and then ending our morning dancing to Christmas songs. 

Oh what fun we had!

Saturday afternoon I whipped up a batch of bon bons (my family has made these cookies since I was a kid), and then we headed to our small group Christmas party for dinner.

We enjoyed a fun evening visiting and eating, and ended our night reading the story of the birth of Christ, with a little help from the kids. 

I'm so thankful for all of the people who are a part of our lives and that we can celebrate by sharing some of our Christmas traditions with them.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

In my head, Christmas is a magical time, full of joy and merriment. But in reality, these moments are not always as joyous as I imagine they should be.

I hope our kids remember that we had some fun traditions and they forget the tired, stressed, impatient mommy who sometimes reared her frustrated head.

My daily prayer for myself is that I will have grace for my family, and also for myself when I mess up. I am thankful for children who forgive and forget – even if Jack sometimes tells me that Santa isn't going to bring me presents because I yell too much.

These days, the best part of my day is bedtime when Jack tells me he loves me more than I love him, and I know for sure that all is forgiven and a new day will dawn and I will try to do better.

Every year I consider trying to follow an Advent calendar, but I think it is better to give myself permission to enjoy the season without any additional stress.

After Thanksgiving we kicked off our Christmas traditions by decorating our little memory tree. We collect ornaments every year from places we visit. And now that we have children, we also have ornaments they have made, plus yearly child-specific ornaments that I am collecting for them so they will have a collection when they leave home.

The little tree that Daniel and I bought from Big Lots when we were first married (14 years ago!) is one of our favorite things. The ornaments are dear to us. I love reminiscing about where we have been, and now we can tell Jack the stories behind each of those trips as well.

New ornaments from 2016 include one from vacation in Canada with a stop at Niagara Falls this summer, and also one from a caving trip in Florida with my siblings and our kids. Unfortunately that one is MIA. I'm hoping to find it soon.

While decorating our little tree, Isaac lasted about 5 minutes before we had to put him to bed. Once he was tucked in for the night Jack helped me make our special hot chocolate recipe. I'm pretty sure he relished the extra time with mommy and daddy, decorating the tree and sipping hot chocolate while watching a movie (he picked Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!).

We always get a second tree – a live one – that we decorate with white twinkle lights and homemade gingerbread cookies. Jack has helped me with the baking for the last several years, and this year Isaac sat with us for a bit. Isaac's current goal in life is to do whatever Jack is doing.

When Jack was first born we went to a Christmas Tree Farm to cut down our own tree. For the past two years, Daniel has convinced me that we should just purchase one from Jack's preschool. I miss the farm experience, but for now, the preschool fits us better.

I used to write yearly Christmas letters to send out every year, but that tradition is staying on hold for another year. Though I still plan to share our annual Top 10 list at the end of the month.

The thing I am learning, and trying to embrace with parenting, is that you really have to be fluid. When I am too rigid in my expectations, no one is happy. It is better when things are relaxed and we just enjoy the season. We haven't watched any Christmas movies yet, but we have played Uno in the glow of the twinkle lights.

There is still Christmas shopping to be done at our house, but hopefully these next two weeks will hold more of the wonder that my heart is yearning for – both for myself and our kids. My family will be joining us for Christmas this year and I am looking forward to sharing more of our traditions with them.

Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookies

A lot of the memories that we collectively shared at my Grandma's funeral revolved around food. Delicious, southern, comfort food to be exact. One of my dad's cousins who attended the funeral was sweet enough to make peanut butter cookies from a recipe my Grandma gave her in 1968. She sent each of us home with a bag of these cookies and then emailed the recipe to my mom to share.

This week I had a chance to whip up a batch, and no lie, these really are the best peanut butter cookies. The recipe calls for 1 cup of fat. I used butter. REAL butter, no fake stuff here. If memory serves me, I'm pretty sure Grandma always used butter when I was a kid.

When I was making my batch, Jack wandered into the kitchen, looked in the mixing bowl and told me that my cookie batter was dirty. I guess the peanut butter made it look too dark for his liking.

I used my hands to roll the batter into balls and then Jack helped me press the fork into the balls to flatten them. He quickly got over his dislike of the "dirty" batter, first licking the beater clean and then devouring every cookie he could get his hands on. He told me they turned out better than he expected.

The funeral was just over two weeks ago, but through food, I am still remembering Grandma.

Grandma's Peanut Butter Cookies, circa 1968
Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup fat (I used real, unsalted butter)                                            

1 cup peanut butter (I used natural, but any brand, chunky or smooth works)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

 

Directions

Mix butter, peanut butter and sugars.

Add eggs and beat well.

Stir in dry ingredients

Roll into 1-inch balls (or drop by tsp).

Flatten with fork (you can dip the fork in cold water or sugar)

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes until light brown.

Enjoy! 

Our Live Christmas Tree: A Christmas Tradition

 

As is our tradition, we set up a live tree in addition to our little fake tree. Unfortunately, due to weather and time constraints, we were not able to make it out to a Christmas tree farm this year.

Instead we chose to go to Jack's preschool where the church was selling trees to raise money for a local Boy Scout troop and youth group activities. It didn't hurt that the preschool/church is less than a mile from our house!

I'm a little sad that we (meaning Daniel) didn't get to cut down the tree ourselves, but it was a sweet family experience none-the-less. I'm pretty sure Daniel would make this the new tradition if he could... we shall see.

While this year's tree doesn't rival the size of some of our trees in years past, it is still pretty much as big as the room can handle. We tend to go with Griswold-esque trees instead of Charlie Brown trees.

In preparation for this year's tree, we actually swapped our formal living room with the dining room since the dining room has more windows.

Even though the room is smaller, it is nice and cozy and we love to see the tree when we drive up to our house. 

Another tradition in our family is to decorate the live tree with white twinkle lights and homemade gingerbread cookies (future post will include recipe link). Pre-kids I would string popcorn and cranberries and sometimes make a paper ring garland. Those traditions may make an appearance again when our kids are older, but for now we are sticking with lights and cookie ornaments.

I love Jack at this age. He is really getting into the spirit of Christmas and starting to enjoy these traditions. I hope that the memories we make will stay with him and that as an adult he will reminisce about this precious time spent together.

Isaac is old enough to be curious and stare at wonder at the lights and the efforts of his big brother and parents. I am savoring these moments, but also look forward to when he can participate a bit more. Until next year...

Weekly Meal Plan

The last couple of weeks have been super busy. We have had quite a few events to attend which has meant lots of eat outs and lots of leftovers. Thankfully fall meal planning is great for leftovers – chili and soups tend to taste better with time, and we made good use of both in recent weeks. Here is what I have been cooking lately, I hope some of these recipes encourage you to cook more at home!

Chicken Marsala with Rice and Carrots
[recipe adapted from Fancy Fork]

Originally I had planned to use a slow-cooker recipe from Creme de la Crumb, but once again I have been reminded that I am not a slow-cooker cook. Mostly because I get too busy and don't remember to start the meal in a timely manner. So I pulled an audible and found a recipe from Fancy Fork that incorporated most of the ingredients I had already purchased.

The only thing I didn't have in my pantry was tomato paste, so I substituted with sun-dried tomatoes, which I think added a nice flavor to the dish. For Jack, I kept some chicken tenders separate from the sauce. Overall, a great dish.

Chili with Triple Cornbread 
[Chili recipe via Mohaus and Cornbread recipe from Betty Crocker] 

This is one of my all-time favorite fall meals. I don't cook many meals more than once, but this chili and cornbread makes an appearance a handful of times each fall. It is great for a crowd, and if it is just going to feed a small family, the chili tastes better with each passing day.

I love this cornbread because it is super moist – more like a bread pudding than cornbread. It was perfect for letting Isaac have a taste as well. Chocolate and cinnamon are my somewhat secret ingredients in the chili and they really make the dish. I skip on the jalapeno when serving to kids, but it still tastes delicious and has a bit of heat from the spices.

Personal Pita Pizzas

I don't have a recipe for this. I just got inspired when my brother-in-law made us pita pizzas when we were visiting last month.

Basically you take Pita bread (or Naan bread) and brush olive oil on it. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350º then remove from oven and add pizza sauce, toppings (I used sausage, bell peppers and onions), then top with mozzarella cheese. Bake for another 10 minutes. These are really customizable, great for kids, and a fast mid-week meal.

Vegetable-and-Steak Soup with Croutons
[recipe adapted from Annie's Eats]

Croutons in soup is one of my new favorite things (I buy store-bought, but the recipe tells you how to make homemade). We use them instead of saltine crackers. The only problem is limiting Jack on how many croutons he can eat with his soup! 

Since my husband loves meat, I added steak to the soup to make it a little heartier. We were all fans of this meal and it tasted even better as leftovers later in the week.

Sausage-Egg-Pancakes Muffins
[recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com]

I had some leftover pancake mix [my mom's recipe] and leftover sausage from the pita pizzas, so I decided to make pancake-egg muffins. I have made this before with bacon, but this one was a little difference since I had sausage. I used a Scrambled Egg Muffin recipe from AllRecipes but used a pancake base like I had before, and added cheese.

These were a hit with everyone and really simple to make, plus you can't go wrong with breakfast for dinner. They are easy to customize which is good if you have picky eaters (Jack isn't too picky but he doesn't like green peppers).

Super Simple Banana Muffins
[recipe from Eazy Peazy Mealz]

I recently picked up some really ripe bananas from our local grocery store ($0.88 for 6). These were perfect for this muffin recipe. I just hand mixed it and baked in a muffin tin for 18 minutes (instead of 60 minutes for a loaf of bread). Like chocolate chip cookies, there are a million recipes for banana muffins, and from my experience, I rarely find a bad one! These muffins were super moist and great for preschool mornings when I am running behind.

Apple Spice Cinnamon Sugar Pound Cake Bites
[recipe adapted from Table For Two]

This super simple dessert was perfect for a potluck we attended recently. You toast the pound cake and roll it in a special Apple Cinnamon spice mixture. I had enough spices leftover that I saved it and added it to the top of my banana muffins before cooking, and it was also a good addition to our Saturday morning pancakes.