Decorating!

Our Christmas dinner with Mike's family last Sat. We love our snowman dishes!

Upstairs tree, it's a hodgepodge of homemade, Hallmark and fun things!

Our downstairs tree where we hang out, peppermint stripes!

Upstairs mantle, my favorite place to sit at dusk! Especially if someone will play the piano for me! haha

Hard to imagine in a week it will all come down! boo hoo Although I do leave up the mantle until the end of January. We like to sit by the lights at night, especially if it snows and we leave our snowmen up too! HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!!

A Merry Christmas!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which IS Christ the Lord!

May you hold the true meaning of Christmas in your hearts as you celebrate Christ's birth!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS!!

More snow!!

Now we REALLY have some snow!! I would guess we have a foot of snow and had a little more today and we are expecting more!! We love it, a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!

Let it snow!!!

We finally got a really good snow! It was so pretty! The girls and I sat and watched it snow last night and thought it looked like glitter in the light of the porch light! Here's our backyard basking in white blankets of sparkling goodness!!

This little guy was busy either burying or un-burying an acorn! not sure but he let me get pretty close!

Here's the bridge with a blanket of snow underneath, always a beautiful sight any season! We are blessed to have such beautiful blue water! Soon there will be icy chunks floating along under the bridge! We are going to get even more snow tomorrow night so I hear.....YAY! If you are a snow lover you know what I mean! haha

Homemade gifts!

I am reposting this recipe, because I've made it three times now in the last two weeks and still haven't ended up with enough for our own house! ha ha it's a great last minute gift if you need an idea! I plan to make some more this week for home. We all love it! I've given it away many times this season already! Merry Christmas!

We love this orange spiced tea (lots call it Friendship tea) and we give it often for Christmas gifts. Here's a batch I made up to give away last week. I've enjoyed a cup of it myself several times this week! Enjoy!

Spiced tea:

2 C. Tang (or dry orange juice mix)

2/3 C. Dry Lemonade mix (Country time is good)

3/4 C. Dry instant tea crystals

3/4 C. sugar

1 t. Cinnamon

1/2 ts. Ground cloves

Mix and place in an airtight container or ziploc bag. I added Candy Red Hots to mine to look festive and they added a bit of Cinnamon flavor and looked pretty!

Mix it in and then when you place it in jars to give away, sprinkle a few red hots, or even Christmas sprinkles on top of the dry mix. As long as it's sugar it will melt anyhow! This recipe would make 2-3 small jars I would guess. Have fun!

Add one HEAPING TBS. to a mug of HOT water and stir!

Reindeer treats!

A fun treat to make and give away or eat yourself! Fill a tray with small twisty pretzels, set a Hershey Kiss on each pretzel, put in a 250* oven for 2-3 mins. Test with your finger and if you can easily push the tip of the Kiss down they are ready. Remove tray and immediately press a red M & M in the center. Let them set up in the fridge or for a few hrs. We do red M & M's to look like Rudolph, but you can use red and green to look festive. We've done them for ALL holidays since M & M's come in so many colors! These are delicious with Almond M & M's too and caramel. I have a friend that uses Rolo's too! White Kisses don't work well, they melt fast, but if you watch them you could use them, they are good! Especially Peppermint ones! REMEMBER each time you eat one you are eating a whole Hershey Kiss! haha

Point of Grace!

We went to a Point of Grace concert last night at a local church, Ronnie Freeman was there as well. We've been a fan of both of these groups for years! What an absolutely great concert! I have to say it's one of the best shows we've been too! The scenery they brought was amazing, and they changed their gowns many times (well not Ronnie ha) so of course the girls and I enjoyed that! They had some of their band dress up like Frosty/Rudolph and Santa while they sang songs about them! So cute! We had a great time, and it was just the thing to kick off that Christmas spirit......they really focused in on the "true" meaning of Christmas and it was so moving! They sang an absolutely gorgeous song called the 3 gifts! I turned to see tears in my hubby's eyes several times! It was just a great time! (click on the photos to see a better view if you want to!)