Merry Christmas!!

We opted to not send out a Christmas greeting in the mail this year. You could say I was lazy, or cheap, or being frugal, or being "green" or being a scrooge.....well you could say that I was being a Christmas scrooge but that simply would not be true! The other ones have some truth to them.

I have regretted this decision. I love getting Christmas cards & photos from our friends and family in the mail. I enjoy opening the envelopes and reading the greeting and seeing pictures of smiling faces of people we may not have seen for some time. I have regretted not passing along this joy to others who enjoy receiving cards like me.

Had we sent out a Christmas photo greeting, perhaps it would have looked something like this...

or like this.....

or like this....

Merry Christmas!!

May the true spirit of Christmas fill your heart with peace and your home with love.

Enjoy your time with family and friends. Safe travels!

Christmas Tree Pancakes

A friend told me that she likes to make Christmas tree pancakes for her family. I thought I would give it a try this morning. Not sure if you can actually see the Christmas tree or not.

I made a couple pancakes normally. Then I added a couple drops of green food coloring to the remaining pancake batter and made a few more pancakes. I took a tree cookie cutter and cut a tree out of a normal pancake and a green pancake. I then removed the trees and switched them to the opposite pancake. The green pancake doesn't end up looking as green after it has been cooked.

It brought a big smile to Andrew's face when I placed his pancake in front of him! "A Christmas tree!!"

Where will you spend Christmas Day?

At home with my family - 4 (36%)
At my parents' - 4 (36%)
At my in-laws' - 3 (27%)
With friends - 0

I'm not sure if you realized but you could have voted on more than one answer. I thought some people might be in multiple places through out the day on Christmas Day.

We will be going to Chad's parents house on Christmas Day this year. All of Chad's family will be together for a few days. Then we will be heading up to my parents' on Saturday morning till Monday. It seems like getting together for the holidays is getting more difficult to get everyone's schedules together.

I know some families (like my one brother-in-law's and my one sister-in-law's) have a rotation for when they are together. One year they are together on Christmas, the next year they are all together on New Years. This has never really worked for my immediate family. We have quite a few of us in the medical profession, so some people have to work the holidays. It is nice to be together on Christmas Day but for me it is more important that we can all be together sometime over the holidays. I know the boys are really looking forward to time with Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. And so am I!!

Malabrigo fingerless mitts

Today I received the Malabrigo fingerless mitts and a box of homemade fudge I won from Holli. It is so fun to receive mail, especially packages! This is what I saw as I opened the envelope.


She had enclosed a Christmas card, the wrapped Malabrigo fingerless mitts, and the box of home made fudge. I wasn't sure if I should open the mitts right then or save them to open with our other Christmas presents ~ since they were nicely wrapped. But Carson decided that for me ~ he wanted to open them! I really wanted to see them too.


I promptly tried these gorgeous mitts on and Carson of course wanted to try them on too! Here he is modeling the mitts.
The box of fudge included milk chocolate, chocolate heath bar, and cookies and cream. It is pretty tasty!! I'm sure it won't take us long to devour it! Below Carson is sampling a piece of the cookies and cream. He was making his happy noises while eating this that show he thinks it was really good. YUM!!

I decided to wear these mitts today as I blog. They are very pretty and kept my hands and wrist toasty warm.
Thanks Holli!

Turkey Enchiladas

I was looking for recipes to use up the turkey we have stashed away in our freezer from Thanksgiving when I came across this recipe. The recipe is out of Taste of Home, Healthy Cooking. It was submitted by a woman from Vandalia, OH; very close to where we used to live. I made this Monday evening and we all really liked it.

The next time I make it, I will leave out the coriander...we weren't a big fan of that spice. I don't cook with a lot of different spices, you know the usual basil, parsley, oregano to name a few but I had never used coriander before. I had some in our spice rack...maybe that was the problem, it was in a spice rack we got for our wedding 9 1/2 years ago!! How often should you throw out spices? I also just saw that the recipe actually calls for ground coriander, I had the whole little round balls. I should have known not to use them when I opened the sealed little bottle and the coriander went flying and then rolling all over the kitchen floor!

Anyways here is the recipe. I also added a can of black beans for a little extra protein and fiber.

Turkey Enchiladas

1 large onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped (I used a red pepper)
2 tsp. canola oil
3 T. flour
1 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 - 14oz. can reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese, divided
3 cups cubed cooked turkey breast
3/4 cup salsa
8 flour tortillas (6 inches), warmed

In a large nonstick saucepan coated with cooking spray, cook and stir onion and green pepper in oil until tender. Sprinkle with flour, coriander and pepper; stir until blended. Gradually stir in broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat. Stir in sour cream and 3/4 cup cheese.

In a large bowl, combine the turkey, salsa and 1 cup cheese mixture (and black beans if you desire). Spoon 1/3 cup turkey mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down in a 13x9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Pour remaining cheese mixture over the top.

Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, 5-10 minutes longer or until heated through and cheese is melted.

This would also be good with other meats; chicken, ground beef, shredded pork...

Chad received a turkey for Thanksgiving from an area nursing home. I was at my parents' with the boys, so Chad made this 20# turkey for himself on Thanksgiving day! We have LOTS of turkey left over. I have made this turkey enchilada dish, a turkey noodle soup, we have had turkey breast with potatoes and corn, tonight I am making a turkey spaghetti casserole, sometime we will have hot/sloppy turkey sandwiches....what do you do with your left over turkey?

I WON!!

It is pretty rare that I win something but I did yesterday! I found Holli's blog through our friend Sarah's blog. Holli does some amazing knitting, I particularly like a hat she did a few weeks ago and a sweater she made. So even though I don't know her personally, I enjoy reading her blog and seeing the crafty things she is making. It makes me feel like trying some of these projects but I don't know how to knit. I used to cross-stich before Andrew was born but I haven't done much since. And sewing would be fun too but the sewing machine really intimidates me!!

Anyways, Holli had a giveaway on her blog, something many bloggers are doing. I posted a comment and I won! I will be getting a pair of Malabrigo fingerless mitts and some homemade fudge! I am excited to see these mitts in person and taste her yummy fudge. Maybe someday I will host a giveaway on this blog, not sure what I would giveaway....

After we eat this yummy fudge that is headed our way, we will begin (maybe) a competition of sorts. Chad mentioned that we should have a competition last night. The competition would be to see who can alter their weight by 10 pounds first. His goal would be to gain 10 pounds and mine to lose 10 pounds. (Sounds like a fair competition, huh?!) To be fair to Chad, I have expressed the desire to lose weight/be healthier to him, he is not suggesting that I need to lose weight. We haven't really agreed to this yet. We would both like to work out more and he thinks if it is a competition, he will be more likely to follow through. (Have you seen Chad play a sport? He is a totally different person!!)

I would like to lose some weight but more than anything I just need to make some life changing choices. I need to eat better, healthier. I need to exercise more so I stay healthy and become more toned. I want to be fit so I physically feel better and feel better about myself. We shall see...there is no way I'm starting this competition before Christmas!

I am an accountant's daughter

I just spent way to long attempting to balance our check book. Have you ever done this? I don't really know how long I worked on it but at least 30 minutes. Part of the problem is we pay a lot of bills online through our bank or paying with Paypal and then sometimes forget to write it in the check book. Also our church takes forever to deposit checks, so we have to look back through the ledger to make sure we didn't miss checking one. A problem this time was our gas and electric bills amounts were almost identical, only off 10 cents. Only one of these was written in our check book ledger and it was confusing to me at first because I only saw one of them in our statement, the first time going through it, and it was different amount than we had written in our check book....anyways.

This can drive me CRAZY when I can't get it to balance out! I go back through our check book and make sure we added and subtracted everything correctly. Double check our statement with the ledger, double check my mathematics in balancing the check book. In the past I used to be the one paying most of the bills so I knew if something was off it was probably my doing, now we both pay bills and it seems to becoming more difficult to "balance" the check book. This balancing is something Chad really does not do or he will give up if it doesn't balance out with our bank statement. Not me. I can not handle it not working out one way or another. I am an accountant's daughter. (but my Dad probably never has this problem! :) )

How often should you wash children's clothing?

After each wear - 7 (87%)
After several wears - 1 (12%)
Only when visibly dirty - 0

I wash the boys clothes after each wear. This is somewhat out of habit. When they are newborns they either spit up all over their clothes or have a "blow out diaper". So that is a given, you wash after each wear. But I was starting to wonder if it was really necessary.

Maybe as kids get older you won't have to do this as much. But right now the boys are too messy not to wash them after every wear. Their clothes may have food on them, grass stains or dirt from outside, germs from other kids, pen/marker/paint or perhaps they used their sleeve to wipe their nose or mouth. I was just trying to think of ways I can cut down...if I didn't wash them after each wear I would use less water washing, use less detergent, spend less time washing clothes! Well dryer is done, must go fold the towels.

It's been a while....

I think I have experienced a bloggers funk of sorts....not much to tell I guess or maybe just too much going on. who knows.

Sunday evening was The Messiah performance at Mount Vernon Nazareene University. I was blessed to be a part of this great performance. I truly enjoyed these weekly practices over the past 8 or 9 weeks or so. It was a time for me to have a little alone time, a little adult time (though surrounded by many college students which made me feel really old at times ~ I don't know how many time the director would say "Listen up please" during each rehearsal or how many people I would see texting on their phones during a rehearsal ~ I didn't have a cell phone during college), some worship time and the chance to sing again. To sing beautiful music that truly sounded amazing.

We had a practice during the afternoon on Sunday. This was the first time we actually practiced with the orchestra! Our practices were normally with piano. And then Sunday night during the performance was the first that I was able to hear the soloist. They were wonderful. Some of the soloist were professors at the University or past alumini. The usual soprano soloist became sick this past week and informed the director on last Wed. evening that she wasn't going to be able to sing! They found a community member to sing the soprano soloist part on rather short notice and I thought she did a great job!

I really enjoyed singing in The Messiah. And though singing in a performance like this can be very moving, I think while singing you sometimes don't get to take it all in. I was concentrating on singing the right notes and coming in at the appropriate times and I felt like I didn't really get to hear everyone. (I could hear the alto section just fine.) It would have been enjoyable to sit in the audience and listen to the wonderful sounds filling the large auditorium.

Both my parents and Chad's parents were able to come to the performance ~ what a late night for them! It was great to see them again and thanks for the constant support you have shown me!

Christmas Walk

This past Sunday our little town had a "Christmas Walk". They also had a Christmas parade on Saturday but we missed that. For the Christmas walk, many of the downtown stores that are typically closed on Sundays were open. Several of the stores had refreshments ~ cookies, hot cider or hot chocolate. There was live Christmas music being played outside. There were also horse and wagon rides. Andrew & I went to this Christmas walk, while Carson and Chad stayed home to nap. The weather wasn't so nice, cool and rainy but we still had fun.

We started out with the horse and wagon ride. I told Andrew that I liked the sound the horses hoofs made on the road. He mentioned "But I don't like the way they smell." (There were a few "road apples" along the way). We then went to one of my favorite bookstores in town. They have a nice selection of books, the people working are always very friendly and helpful. They have a small area with a couple of chairs for you to sit and read. Very quaint. I knew that there was going to be a book signing of this book....
It is such a cute book! I think many children would enjoy this book especially dog lovers! The illustrator, Richard Cowdrey, lives around here. He was such a nice friendly man. He asked who I wanted the books addressed to. Andrew was standing there and Richard asked if Andrew was his name, as he began addressing the book. Andrew said "Yes, it starts with an A." I knew from the paper that he was going to be there signing this book but I didn't know they had a new book....
So I got one of each~one for each of the boys, as well as a couple more of the Christmas book for presents. As I was paying, I told Andrew he could look at books. I looked over to the chairs and he had brought a book for one of the employees to read to him and climbed right up in the chair next to her to listen. This boy is not afraid!

We went into a few more stores, checked a few more things off of Christmas lists, enjoyed a cupcake at The Pink Cupcake store. Andrew was so good. Normally he isn't much of a shopper but I kept asking him if he wanted to go home or go to another store. It probably helped that he was able to be outside jumping over rainy puddles before entering the next store.

There was a Santa outside for children to visit. I don't know what Andrew thinks about Santa. He definitely knows that it is a Santa when he sees one. We have never pushed the idea of Santa on him. We have not taken him to see Santa at the mall and he didn't ask to go see this Santa. He does love the movie Polar Express! But he knows that presents are from us, not Santa ~ I think anyways. I think it was last Christmas when we were at my parents house, Andrew was misbehaving and Justin called my parents house asking for Andrew and saying he was Santa. It was pretty funny to us! Justin said he had to be good or no presents. Andrew believed him with a very quick "ok, ok, I'll be good!"

Yesterday I bought a couple of match box cars at Kroger to give to the boys as stocking stuffers. I meant to put them away before I picked up Andrew from preschool but there they lay on the island and Andrew of course spotted them. He kept asking to open them and play with them. I told him they were for a surprise, that they were for Christmas. He picked up the phone and pretended to call the police! (Don't worry he never turned on the phone or dialed anything) But he said "Hello. Police? My mom won't let me open the cars. Can you come get her? Ok Thanks. Bye." Silly little boy.

We also visited the nativity that is set up in the town square before leaving the Christmas walk. I love all his questions as he tries to grasp these concepts! Concepts that are hard for me to grasp sometimes. That God would send his son as a baby for us, that he would later die on the cross to save us. Amazing love.

Thanksgiving

The boys and I spent Thanksgiving with my family. Chad was on call the week of Thanksgiving and had to stay here. At least is off call the weeks of Christmas and New Years! The boys and I went to my parents on Wed. afternoon. My immediate family members were all together that evening for our Thanksgiving meal. It really is so much fun to be together. Although Andrew was having some behavior/listening problems in particular this evening. He can sometimes be defiant at Grandparents homes and I think it was worse because Chad wasn't there, or maybe it just felt worse to me because I was always the one dealing with it!

Thursday we all went over to my Uncle LaVon and Aunt Linda's house for Thanksgiving. Prior to leaving, Kristy realized that Buddy the dog had eaten one of the two loaves of bread that they were supposed to take! The entire loaf ~ not a crumb on the floor. Ben had brought the bread in, not really realizing it and Kristy didn't know it was in their room. When she got back from taking a shower there was Buddy snacking away! Of course this will be one of those stories we can all laugh about over and over again! We were able to see my three cousins, their spouses and all of their children. I really enjoy seeing them all, some of which we probably hadn't seen since last Christmas. The children grow up so much!! Andrew thought he was one of the big boys and enjoyed playing outside with the older boys.

Friday we spent lounging around the house. Tric, Buddy the dog and I went for a nice walk in the morning. So nice to get out in the cool weather and chat one on one with my sister!

One funny story from this weekend was one evening Andrew wanted to build a tent. So my mom helped put up a blanket over the foot part of the recliner and stretched it over to the couch. Andrew wanted someone in the tent with him. So I laid down under the blanket too. Soon Justin and Tim were under the tent too. (Andrew was completely under; Tim, Justin and I just had our heads in) Andrew was telling us a story he learned in preschool. It was getting a little warm with all of us breathing under there. The next thing I know Buddy is trying to get under the blanket too. Buddy is a big dog, Lab/Golden retriever mix. He squeezes in, turns around in the middle of all our heads and lays down snuggling in. Andrew thought this was pretty fun. Then there is this horrible smell. Buddy had gassed us all out of the tent! I think his stomach was a little upset from eating the loaf of bread!

We came back home on Saturday afternoon and promptly left to go cut down our Christmas tree. This is the first time we have done that. We tried to last year but arrived at the tree farm too late in the day to be able to see to cut down the perfect tree. The boys enjoyed walking around and selecting a tree. It was a little warmer day, in the low 40s. We put the lights on the tree Saturday night and then finished decorating it on Sunday afternoon. Andrew and Carson enjoyed helping decorate, though they liked to put all the ornaments in one spot. With much reminding from me or me just moving the ornaments, they are now dispersed throughout the tree. I love having a real tree, smelling it and enjoying the glow from the lights.