MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

FROM OUR HOUSE

TO YOURS

MAY YOUR HOME BE FILLED WITH CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS

THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!

Simple and Rustic

I started this little project planning on decorating the log with some pine, berries or ribbon. It didn't end that way!     You will need tea light candles, a piece of log, a drill, 1 1/2 inch drill bit. We don't have birch trees in our area so I chose to use a piece of sycamore log. Any piece of log will do. 
  This is a very simple project. Just drill as many candles holes as you would like. I chose 3 for the length of log I was using. Drill your holes 1/2 inch deep or as deep as the tea lights candles you are using.
  Insert your tea lights candles. Make sure your log doesn't roll around so you don't spill candle wax everywhere while the candles are burning. My log had a naturally flat side otherwise you can hot glue a couple of small sticks or twigs along the bottom to keep it from rolling.
  In the end, I left it plain and simple and I think it fits right in.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot

like Christmas!!!!
(His shirt is always disappearing! At least he's not in his underwear!)

We got our tree yesterday...

Trimmed it last night....

And enjoyed it today!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

A Valentine Give Away!

This graphic is property of Amazon.com.

I promised you a give away and here it is! Since I have men and women readers, I wanted to do something that either could enjoy if he/she is the lucky winner! I am giving away a $20 Amazon.com gift card! I know it's not a lot but hey it's 20 bucks! That buys a bag of chicken feed around here!

I've been playing with the new lens, Photoshop and some free Valentine templates I got from The Album Cafe. I made Jake's Valentine's for his class this year.


I'll have them printed as 3.5 x 2.5 and put them in little Valentine envelopes.

All you have to do to win the gift card is be a follower and leave me a comment. You can tell me what your plans are for Valentine's Day or how you met your significant other or just say I want that gift card!!


Good luck! Winner will be chosen Valentine's Day, Monday, February 14th at 9:00 a.m. Central time!

Christmas Day

and family fun! It's always such a blessing to spend the holidays with all these crazy people I claim as family!


Luke got his blue Nintendo DS. There's a red one around here from last Christmas of Jake's but I was told by Luke that if Santa brought Jake a red one then he could surely bring him a blue one!


Jake loaded up on Star Wars and Legos!


This is my brother's family. He bought my boys BB guns this year! I threatened to beat him but then found out I will have my revenge! They are expecting a baby in June!!!!!


What can you by a country man that will make him very happy?? A new tractor starter!


But then you have to be tortured by your grandchildren. Wonder why they love him so much?


Another Christmas full of blessings!


Mom, Dad and us four kids
I hope you enjoyed your Christmas as much as we did!

Oh and I have a surprise to post about later this week! I am so excited!!!

Christmas Eve!

Don't forget to put out feed for the reindeer so Santa will stop at your house.

Just remember to put your boots on before you go out there!!!! Yes, those are bare footprints in the snow! Jake got a little excited about putting out his reindeer food and forgot his socks and boots!

Wishing All Of You A Very MERRY CHRISTMAS From Our Home To Yours!!!!!

Peppermint Deliciousness!

A friend of mine had me buy a package of those peppermint Hershey Kisses the other day while we were shopping and I must admit I ate half the bag (or more!) I decided to go on a peppermint candy making expedition! I made a few batches before I got what I think is very close to the Hershey Kisses peppermint goodness. I got this mold for free when I bought some Jell-O earlier this week and decided to use it!


Here's the recipe I ended up using...
Peppermint Goodies
1/2 block Gulf Wax paraffin
2 packages white chocolate chips
1/2 package almond bark
20 peppermint candy disks (chopped into a very fine powder using a food chopper or processor)
1 tsp peppermint extract

Melt your gulf wax in a saucepan. You can use a double boiler but I didn't. Next add your chocolate chips and broken up almond bar on low to medium heat. Stir constantly until melted. Pour in peppermint candy powder, stir, then add peppermint extract. Stir well and make sure everything is melted.
Pour into molds or into a wax lined cookie sheet. I used the Jell-O mold and this recipe filled it twice. I just remelted after the first batch firmed up in the fridge and filled it again. They fell out of this mold with no oiling required.


The details turned out great! They are thick so I'm trying to figure out a way to add Popsicle sticks to them.


I wrapped them in basket wrap and added some twine to some and little red ribbon to others.


I will be making these for the kids in Jake and Luke's classes next year.


They are fun, cute and delicious!


Here they are all dressed up and ready to go to the Christmas party tomorrow night! I am adding baskets of these to my "homemade gift baskets" for next year.

Homemade Gift Baskets

I have already decided that next year I am giving mostly handmade, homemade gift baskets.


These have a bar of handmade soap, a package of my peppermint mini soaps, a tube of peppermint lip balm and a candle. The candle is bought but candles are next on my craft list!


Next year the candles will be hand-poured as well.


I made twig stars sprayed with glitter glue to give the baskets a rustic look plus Jake and Luke's teachers will have an ornament for their tree.


I found the little buckets, baskets, ribbon and basket wrap all at Hobby Lobby for half price.


Do you make your own crafts/gifts? If so, post a link to yours. I would love to see your ideas!

Peppermint Mini Soaps

These turned out to be so cute and they smell so good!!

I made these using the hot process and the following recipe. I didn't have time for cold process to cure with Christmas coming up so quickly. I do plan on doing some of these with cold process next year way ahead of time!

5.122 ounces sodium hydroxide (lye)
12.54 ounces distilled water
8 ounces olive oil
10 ounces canola oil
14 ounces lard
6 ounces coconut oil
1 ounce vitamin E oil
Peppermint essential oil
Red sugar crystals

I mixed my lye/water solution. Please, please, please use your goggles and gloves when doing this and keep some white vinegar on hand to neutralize any spills. I combined my oils/solid oils in my crock-Pot and turned it on to melt them. When oils are completely melted, combine the pour lye/water solution into oils in the Crock-Pot. Using a stick blender with the Crock-pot turned off, mix to trace.
This is where hot process and cold process diverge. In cold process you pour into your mold, wrap and let saponification take place over the next 18 to 24 hours.

With hot process:
Turn the Crock-pot on low. You may have to adjust this to warm if your Crock-pot gets too hot. It took an hour for this soap to cook. The sides will roll up and it will take on the consistency of mashed potatoes and look waxy. Test your pH with strips or use the "tongue" test. Put a little on a spoon hold it close to your tongue. If you feel a zap...cook it a little longer. Turn the crock pot off. Add vitamin E oil and essential oil. Stir well. Spread into a wax paper lined medium sized cookie sheet. Bang the sheet a few times on the counter to get it settled. Let sit for just a few minutes then sprinkle with red sugar crystals. Take a sheet of wax paper and place on top. Using a small roller or your hands, smooth the top of the soap and press the sugar into it gently. Let cool completely. Use cute little cookie cutters and enjoy!

One medium cookie sheet makes 12 sets of these.

Don't forget about the Fix-It-and-Forget-About-It Give Away tomorrow!

Fix-It-And-Forget-It Give Away!!

Fix-it and Forget-it Christmas Cookbook: 600 Slow Cooker Holiday Recipes

I love these Fix-It-And-Forget-It Cookbooks and I found a new Christmas one! I'm ordering one for me AND ONE FOR ONE OF YOU!! You get to pick whether you want it in hardback or paperback!

All you have to do is follow my blog AND tell me what you want for Christmas this year!!!

I want a new desk for my office and a new lens and speedlight for my camera. Oh wait, I think I have already asked for a jerky maker and didn't I get that food processor as an early Christmas gift?? SSShhhhhh!!!!

I'm going to try something a little different this time. I usually don't do second entries, third entries....you know how it goes...but this time I am! If you want to be entered a second, third, fourth, etc. time, refer a friend because I love new friends for the HOLIDAYS!

Just send them a link to my blog and if they follow me and enter the give away, have them put your username in their post and I'll give you as many entries as friends that show up!!

Contest ends on Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. Central time and winner will me announced shortly after!!!

A Night of Baking Cookies

My sister and 3 of the 5 boys we had here last night.

There are a lot of photos in this post but it's fewer than the 97 I have posted in my Facebook album! I just could not narrow it down any farther! We had so much fun! We mixed up our sugar cookie dough using this recipe.


While it was chilling we mixed up chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate chip cookies! Houston put them on the cookie sheets for us!


When the sugar cookie dough was chilled we rolled it out and the boys all cut out shapes.


We had thick cookies, thin cookies, gingerbread men with no arms and gingerbread men with 3 arms! It was all good! We baked and cooled them then the real fun began. Below is a series of photos that some might find disturbing :).

We had some intense artists among us.


We had some a little less serious...


We had a one-socked Picasso amongst us. I have never seen such cookie creations in my life...


He did a little mixing here, a little mixing there and lot of mixing everywhere.


This was by far his coolest masterpiece...


Luke was quite proud of his M&M gingerbread man too!


We had a little belly painting going on!


This $3 tablecloth was one of the best investments I have ever made!


Cookie tasting! They passed the test!


Beautiful Christmas cookies!
Tip: Put a slice of bread in the container with your cookies after baking them. The cookies will pull the moisture from the bread and your cookies will be very soft and delicious the next morning!! When the bread gets dry and hard, replace it with a new slice!


The end results were well worth the mess and all of us have declared this a new annual tradition from now on!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!