Christmas

This year we stayed home for Christmas(meaning Kansas).  We truly missed all of our families and getting to see everyone, it was rather bitter sweet. We had a wonderful time just the 4 of us hanging out and being lazy. It was nice to have the quiet to be able to reflect on everything this season really means and to spend good quality time with our children.

Our celebration started on Christmas Eve, we got to skype one set of their great grandparents and open the gifts from them in front of them.  That was a lot of fun.  Technology is an amazing thing.  It is nice to feel closer together when we are 1000miles apart. This is when Elijah got a taste of what was to come and he asked us a couple times for more presents. (we kept them all in our room, so he couldn't get too excited about them all sitting out.)

We opened presents on Christmas morning and it was so much fun to see Elijah get so into it. We had to open each present as it was opened and play with it for a minute.  He would then get so excited because he realized there was still more to open!  What a joy to see him have such a great time.  He even helped mommy and daddy open some presents.  On Christmas morning we got to skype the Turley family and the Luurtsema family.  That made for a lot of fun as they got to see them open the presents from them.  And Elijah loves to skype people and talk to them.  That afternoon we got to skype Auntie Lolo and Uncle Robert.  We stayed in our jammies all day, which was very nice(well except for me, I had to go to work that evening, but for everyone else it was pj day!)

It turned out to be a wonderful couple of days, and it was amazing that Greg got to have a four day weekend.  It was great to have 4 days of nothing but family time.  I hope everyone else had a fabulous Christmas.

Christmas is here!

Well at least in our home it is!

I love Christmas time. I love the meaning, and the God sent His son to this earth so that He might save us.  What a wonderful gift of life.  I hope that this season brings joy to every person.  I'm really looking forward to really teaching Elijah the meaning of Christmas this year and starting some of our own little family traditions.  Not sure what they all will be, but I will be sharing them as they come up!

We went last Friday and got our Christmas Tree. A REAL tree.  I don't/won't do fakes.  I love the smell of a fresh tree in the home and every year it gets to look a bit different.  I'm picky about the type of tree, it has to be huge, usually 8-10ft tall and nice and fat, so it takes up like half the room. OK not literally half the room, but in a small room it sometimes feels that way. We hit the jackpot this year.  Greg just keeps saying over and over, that is a big tree. He must forget we always have had a big tree.(he's getting old)

Elijah really enjoyed taking the tree home with us, and then he loved to help us put all the ornaments on.  He didn't really put too many on, he more just handed them all to daddy, and said thank you every time he gave one away to place on the tree.  What a sweet boy.  He also loved the pine cones, you know those wonderful cinnamon smelling ones.  He just wanted to keep holding them and smelling them, and then he would bring them around to us and put them in our face so we could smell them as well. 

Athaiah just watched and played a little with some of the garland.  When we lit up the tree her little girl eyes lit up too.  She loves to just sit and stare at it.  It is fun to see Christmas decorating through the eyes of a child.

After the children went to sleep, we decorated the rest of the house with little things here and there.


When Elijah woke up the next morning, he kept saying wow, and whoa every time he found something new or shinny in another spot.  I again love seeing Christmas through his eyes and just the wonder of it all.  And this is just the decorating part!

We still have to put lights on the outside of the house, maybe that will get done this weekend.  Who knows, we are kind of party poopers and have yet to put lights on the outside of our house.  We have had them since we moved it, just have never gotten around to putting them up!

First Christmas Cookie

Here is a couple of pictures of my adorable little man eating his first Christmas cookie!  I think he really enjoyed it, what do you think?

Christmas Cookies

I love to bake, and one of my favorite things to bake are sugar cookies.  There is just something that I find so relaxing about the whole thing and it really gets me into the holiday spirit. So I am going to give you my favorite cookie recipe, it is from one of my taste of home magazines, but I tweak it quite a bit.  I actually have two that I bake, so I guess I can give you both!

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies: (4 dozen)
1 c butter, softened

4 oz cream cheese

1 c sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/4 c flour
1/4 tsp baking soda

In a large bowl cream the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg yolk and extracts
Combine flour and baking soda, slowly add to the wet mixture.
Cover and Refrigerate until it is easy to handle (about 1-2 hrs)
On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough, and cut with cookie cutters!
Place on a baking stone or cookie sheet (I prefer the stone as it keeps them really soft)
Bake at 350 for about 10min. (I like mine pale still so they melt in your mouth, with no crunch, but firm enough that you can frost them.)
Cool and then Decorate as you wish!-This is my favorite part

Sugar Cookies:  6-8 dozen(depending on how much dough you eat in the process)
1 c butter, softened

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1/4 c half and half cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

3 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beat in the cream and the extract. Combine the dry ingred., then slowly add to the wet mixture.  Cover and refrigerate until easy to handle (1-2hrs).  On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough, and cut with cookie cutters.

Place on a baking stone, and bake at 325 for 6-8 min. Cool and then decorate as desired!