Thanksgiving...and Christmas decorating!

(source)

Today will be spent baking...and baking...and more baking, with a little cleaning and decorating thrown in!

The guys are at the storage unit now gathering all of our Christmas decorations. We ALL have the day off today so this was the perfect day for it:)

This is the best day! I just can't stop smiling! I love baking for Thanksgiving! I love decorating for Christmas! All on the same day.

There will be:

pies

stuffing

candied pecans

cranberry relish

sweet potatoes

corn fritters

and

Christmas music

a Christmas movie

Christmas milk (aka egg nog, M started calling it that when he was little and I love it)

This is a perfect joining of two holiday's to make a wonderful family traditions!!

Happy early Thanksgiving everyone!

favorite things friday

I can't believe another week has gone by! Things have been so busy around here...but in a good way! This month the boys and I have been focused on writing down things we are thankful for. It has been a good exercise for all of us and something that we have all enjoyed!

This week for my favorite things Friday I want to count my blessings with friendships that have been formed. Moving to a small town where you don't know anyone can be hard. In fact, I think that I underestimated how difficult it was going to be. People that have a history together, that have known each other since grade school aren't so willing to let the "new girl" into the group.

On top of that, I tend to be shy/reserved with people I don't know that well. I have been praying for God to open doors for me. Well this week I see an open door and I am running through it!!

Favorite Things Friendships:

1. We are having a few of the boys friends over to spend the night tonight. It will be pizza and a movie and video games and staying up way too late! N said the boys are going to take over the world!!

2. I invited a few friends to a cooking class at Big Cedar and they all said yes! This will be the first time that we have done anything socially together although we all volunteer at the school. I'm so excited!

3. I surprised the boys with a tea party after school yesterday. It was fruit and cheese, bread and a really yummy pumpkin spread. We ate on pretty plates and drank out of breakable cups. The boys loved it and so did I!!

4. I got together with a girl that is on a fundraising committee with me at school. We were supposed to brainstorm ideas of businesses that would be willing to donate goods/services to a auction that we put on every year. We spent the morning talking and laughing and connecting! We got very little actual work done but I think that we successfully formed a friendship!

5. The hospital has been extremely stressful and busy lately. I have questioned how I can be a good nurse when so many things are piled on me. I know my co-workers are feeling it too. But when things get really stressful we band together and work as a team. We are also planning to get together outside of work for a girls night out!

I feel so blessed right now and thank God for all my wonderful family and friends!

Same kind of different

I sat on the floor of their college apartment. Small living space opened up to a postage stamp kitchen. This is familiar to me, it feels like yesterday although I have a diploma framed on the wall that says it's been almost twelve years. Time flies when your not looking, when your busy with babies and life.

There is a difference between our college place and theirs besides the absence of grunge rock and mid-nineties decor. There is a baby here. A soft skinned, rosy cheeked, blue eyed fella. To be honest, I was worried about them having a kid when they are just kids themselves. I remember how I was at twenty. How I didn't think beyond next week and didn't have a "plan" to save my life.

But I see love shining in their eyes and determination. I hear pride in their voices when they talk of their little one. It's the same pride that I have. The same mama love that blossomed in my heart the day that my two were born. It's a love that transcends age, time, and circumstance.

I guess it IS true that all you need is love...and a plan doesn't hurt either!

Amelia

Big Cedar

Before the last days of summer slip into Fall I wanted to take the family someplace where we could have fun and just enjoy each others company! Big Cedar is that place for us. Situated on table rock lake in the midst of the Ozark mountains. It is majestic and at the same time peaceful (just my kind of place).

We can come here to unwind and forget about our worries and obligations at home. We can wrap ourselves in the warm love of family togetherness:) We can laugh and play with the redheads...

Nothing says childhood like a cold sno-cone on a hot summer day.

We ate supper al fresco, soup and sandwiches and smoothies, yum!! The weather was high 80s with a nice breeze. It felt wonderful to us after the 100+ weather that we have had for most of the summer. You can't see from this picture but there is a nice view of table rock lake...ahhhh!

We strolled around the grounds, no timetable or schedule. Just the four of us and the joy of the moment.

We need places like this sometimes. Places that give us permission to slow things down, live in the moment and enjoy each other.

We plan to go back in the Fall when the trees are painted a nice golden-orange and we can wear our sweaters and stocking caps. And maybe again before Christmas so elves can bring milk and cookies to our room:)

Where is your favorite place to go as a family?

Be Still. Family

(me and my sweet boys)

(not a great picture of us but one of the only ones without my husbands thumb in it:)

(me and my husband...boy do I need a hair-cut!!!)

We worked and played in the yard yesterday as a family. We had no plans, nowhere that we had to go, no responsibilities or obligations to anyone. It was perfect. A beautiful day to laugh and play with each other. Our big backyard is like our own paradise, except nothing exotic grows there. It’s down-home, homegrown. We grow childhood memories and juicy tomatoes on the vine. The boys were wild cowboys today. Their laughter contagious, I wish I could bottle it up. Save it for a rainy day.

We need this time as a family. This Be Still time that is as important as eating and breathing to us. We need it to feel whole, to feel like a FAMILY. Sometimes I forget that it’s not only me that needs the quiet time. Until we have days like this and it teaches me a lesson. There is always something to be learned if you just listen hard enough. We can learn as much from our boys as they can learn from us (probably more).

We cleaned out the shed in the backyard. The one that we have been working on for awhile and I found some more blue Mason jars and the boys and I watered the garden and dreamed about the things we would make. The food we talked of is similar to what I ate in my Mama’s kitchen and her in her Mama’s because that’s how it goes here in the South. Half the recipes in my recipe box were pinned in my Grandmother’s beautiful script. So, if you asked me if I could think of a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation I would just smile…yes.

Here is one:

Lemon Jell-O Cake

1 pkg lemon Jell-O
¾ cup water
½ cup oil
3 eggs
1 box yellow cake mix, mixed with above ingredients and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Take cake out of over and prick all over with fork, have topping ready to pour over the cake.

Topping

Juice of two lemons
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp butter
Warm just until butter melts and pour over hot cake

I flipped the recipe card over and grandmother had written on the back: this was Owen’s (my grandpa) favorite cake. Nara Grun gave me the recipe in 1958.

Disclaimer: We are health nuts at our house. So most of the passed down, family recipes I put my own healthy twist on:)

I'm sharing this over at One Nutty Girl today and since I don't want to be "absent" from all the boys childhood pictures I'm linking up at The Peanut Gallery as well. (now I just need to teach my husband how to use the camera:)

Merry Christmas! (Belated)

I know, I have antlers on my head. This picture begs the question, who are the kids and who are the grownups?
M and N got this red Mustang and a green Jeep from Santa. They were excited to drive it that night but have refused to drive it since and wouldn't even sit in the Jeep! So much for expensive toys! We should have kept the box that it came in.
This castle and Knight display was sitting in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas morning thanks to one tireless elf (Husband) who stayed up late into the night to put it all together! He did tire at one point and feared that he could not go on. But milk and cookies appeared to give him an extra boost of energy. That is the magic of Christmas!
We hardly ever get a decent family picture. But this is the best of the lot. The other attempts will not be shown here for vanity reasons.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Its always nice to have all my boys home. We spent Christmas Eve with MeMe and PaPa (Husband's Mom and Dad) and Shawn, Jayme and Mark (brother-in-law, sister, and nephew). It is always a special time at their house with wonderful food and good conversation! Christmas morning was just for the family! Wrapping paper and bows were strewn all over the living room and all of the toys were played with at once! That afternoon was spent with my Dad and Sara and brother Seth and Grandma and Grandpa and extended family. I always have such a good time at their house. I remember Christmas at my Grandparents house and am glad that my boys will have those memories too. Christmas night we made a vegan spaghetti and stuffed mushrooms for my Mom and Neil and his son and family. We opened presents again! At one point M made the comment that Santa must have done all his Christmas shopping at Toys-R-Us this year!
It was a busy, wonderful holiday.