May Angel Star

Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

Silent Night at LCC's Christmas Eve Service!

LCC's Christmas Eve Service

Letter to Santa, cookies and milk, as well as some carrots for the reindeer!

The kids excited for Santa!

May you all have a blessed Christmas!

If you want to check out the Twelve Weeks of Christmas blog carnival, click on the above link! It has all the info there at Keely’s blog, plus you can link up your post for others to see too

I love to give. Whenever we do a “Spiritual Gifts Inventory” at church giving is usually at the very top of my list. Christmas is just another time when my gift giving skills come into play.

I love putting love and care into the gifts I pick out, but more importantly, my absolute favorite thing to give are gifts that I have made personally.

There is just something special about pouring your heart into something you create to give to someone else!

Scrapbooks have been big on my list in years past. One year I was locked away in my room on Christmas Eve and then up until almost 3am finishing scrapbooks! It was so exhausting, but the look of happiness on the recipients face make it all worthwhile.

Crocheted items were my big ticket item last year. Scarves and hats, all different colors and in some cases themes (like Flyers hockey!)

This year I think I’m going to go back to the hat and scarf route, or maybe a blanket, or maybe sock monkeys. It’s always so hard for me to stick to one idea!

If anything, the biggest downfall to my homemade gifts, is not preparing enough time for me to get them done. I usually wait until the last minute before thinking about things and then lack the time to get everything accomplished. I thought I would be ahead of the game this year, but today is Nov. 1st people!

Where did 2009 go??? I was supposed to start thinking about this stuff back in July!

Leaving you with some pictures of presents past and presents future.

My Aunt Freda trying on her hat and scarf last Christmas. My brother Dwight in the background wearing his!

Traditional and non-traditional different colored sock monkeys! My Mom ordered 5 of these from me to give away as gifts this year, I’m working on a pink one right now. The girls both want a pink one as well for Christmas.

What are you making to give away this year?

So I just decided to jump right in with this little blog carnival that Keelie at Red Writing thought up. Check it out, link up and don’t forget that every week there is a giveaway!

I love the reason for the season, Jesus Christ! I love giving presents, especially ones that I make by hand. I love the sheer joy etched on the faces of my children. I love the Christmas tree (white non-blinking lights only please!) and it’s beauty at night! I love spending time with family and friends. And I love the treats that only come along during that time of year.

Yes, I love cookies, candy and pie! Lots and lots of sugary goodness! I love breakfast casserole, stromboli, and our newest tradition Christmas day lasagna! I love sneaking choconut dainties when my Dad isn’t looking! Those tasty little things are so darn addictive!

Here are the recipes to my fave Christmas foods starting with breakfast and ending with dessert!

Breakfast Casserole

• We have this every Christmas morning at my parents house!

Stromboli

• 1 loaf frozen bread dough thawed
• 1/2 lb. swiss cheese sliced thin
• 1/2 lb. cooked ham sliced thin
• 1/2 lb. salami sliced thin
• 1/2 lb. pepperoni slices

Preheat oven 350°. Roll out bread dough 1/4 inch thick. Layer ingredients in order. Start at one end, tightly rolling dough and ingredients, tucking in ends as you roll. Place seam side down on edged, foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake 1 hour. Cut loaf into 1 inch slices.

Kelly’s Traditonal Lasagna Recipe

• Yeah, lasagna is my favorite Italian food! You must make this recipe, you will love it forever!

Choconut Dainties

• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 bags semi-sweet chocolate morsels (6 oz bags)
• 2 cups finely chopped walnuts

Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beating until blended. Add flour and salt, beating well. Stir in 1 bag chocolate morsels. Shape dough into 2- x 1/2-inch logs (about 1 heaping teaspoon each). Place logs on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for about 6 minutes or until lightly browned; remove to wire racks to cool. Microwave chocolate morsels at HIGH 4 minutes or until melted, stirring once. Dip ends of cookies in melted chocolate. Roll ends in chopped walnuts. Place on wax paper until set.

My mouth is watering just thinking about all this good food!

Christmas can’t come soon enough!

Well, let me think about this. I can wait. I have so much to accomplish before Christmas, it can’t come too soon!

Enjoy!

We spent time with Paula and Michael on Tuesday. We had to spend the night at my parents due to ice that night. My Dad fell outside trying to show me just how slick it was. Alex was awake from 1-3am, fussy because of his cold. We hung out in Dwight’s room, he was playing Warcraft and watching Heroes. Brian left to get to the house and then to work. Paula and Michael left around 8am and it took them 1hr to get 3 miles because of the road conditions and accidents. Brian got off work early and picked us up. We went home, got ourselves together and then went to LCC for the Christmas Eve Service. We got there late because traffic outside Walmart was unbelievable, they had shut down the road, because Walmart was trying to close and people kept trying to get inside.  The band did Christmas songs. Then Hilary and Jeff Sloat read a story to the kids. After that Tom did a mini sermon which included picking Alex up and using him as a visual of baby Jesus and why he was sent to us.  It was really powerful.

Brianna tried to get up around 1am, I wasn’t surprised! Brian let her know not to wake us up again until after 6. She and Katie came in at exactly 6:05.  The girls were in awe of all the presents.  Brian read us  “The Newborn King”. Alex’s only interest in the story was trying to eat the book. Then we opened stockings and Santa presents. The last presents to be opened were the treasured American Girl dolls. Brianna was looking worried up until that point, she was sure she wasn’t getting one after Santa fell through. The look on her face is priceless! We took mostly video of them opening up those gifts. We hung out, cleaned up, ate breakfast and then made our way to my parents house. We opened up gifts there, hung out, had lots of food. That is about it. It was a pretty low key Christmas.

I still can’t believe it’s all over. All the planning, shopping, wrapping and it’s over.

I’m slightly depressed actually.