Christmas or Giving Challenge: Day 2

Okay yes, I am missing two days...I know, I know I KNOW!!!  See, what had happened wuuuzzz, my kiddos were supposed to stay the night with their Aunt Friday night, and instead conked out in the car on the way home from our community Christmas Parade about 9pm.  ALL THREE AT THE SAME TIME!!!  WOW!!  It is so rare for any of them to fall asleep that early much less all three!  So needless to say they were put straight into bed and stayed there the whole night through.  Which meant no family bible reading...Booooo.  Then last night they got in super late from going to see the Nutcracker Ballet with their aunt (yes the one they were supposed to have stayed the night with), and since Sunday mornings are killer around here if they don't get their sleep (not to mention they were whiny tired little things from a full day of being spoiled rotten) they went straight to bed.  So tonight after we got in from church, with one already asleep from the ride home and carried to bed, I was determined to have our nightly Bible time with the remaining alert groggy half awake kids.  We read Luke chapter 2 verses 4-8 (to catch up from missing the nights before) and discussed what it might have been like to go to the place Josephs family was from just to pay money to the government.  To get there and not even have a room to sleep in, and, to top it all off, for Mary to go into labor.  How much more of a humble beginning to life could one baby have???  I think that was kind of the point though, don't you?  Macey was the half awake child, and when asked what she had done the last couple of days to give of herself I got a resounding "nuthin"... fwweeewww five year olds!  So I will tell you what she has done in spite of her conviction that she has done "nuthin"   Tonight when her sister had lost a toy at church (which I want to add she was told not to take in at all!) Macey started crying in sympathy with her, and said she wanted to go look for Madeline's toy cause she was sad she had lost it.  That melted my heart of course, but in the true spirit of honesty I have to say that she did follow that up with the comment  "I liked hers better than mine too!!!".  So maybe her giving was a little self serving, but hey she's FIVE folks, and the fact that she was willing to help her sister find a toy is HUGE!  Then there is the instance on the way home tonight where Macey was being a little magpie and yakkity yakking.  Well Kent wanted to talk,and couldn't get a word in edgewise (just like a male wanting to take up a females perfectly good talking time!!).  finally, I told Macey that Kent wanted to talk could she please let him have a turn.  So she promptly closed her mouth,and let Kent have his say without any fussing about it...AH. MAZE. ING!  She ALWAYS has something to say about not getting to do exactly what she wants to do.  I was quite impressed with her desire to let him have his time with nary a comment on her part about not being finished or something else that she always seems to come up with.  So giving is abounding in my family, and we are dearly loving this Christmas reading Challenge even if we have really only done two nights of it.  I hope we can get back on track, and do it daily...maybe if we move it to the mornings before school....hmmmm something to consider.

I hope your season of giving is going well!

Have a great day and God Bless!

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Have a great Day and God Bless!

Peppermint Ornaments and Wreath

Today I went to my oldest daughters school to help her class make peppermint ornaments.  They were so cute and super easy to make.  So I thought I would share them with you as well as my inspiration for a wreath after they were done making their ornaments.

Here is the finished ornament and as you can see it is very cute, but very simple.

First to gather your supplies you will need:

1.) red peppermints, green spearmints, or both

2.) Pipe cleaners

3.) ribbon cut into about 6 inch lengths

4.) red-hots

5.) LOW temp hot glue gun

6.) glue sticks

7.) spray can of clear shellac clear coating

First take five mints of either red or green and arrange into a circle.  Then put a dot of glue between each mint until are all attached together.  

You are looking at the backside of your mint. Now you will take you pipe cleaner and cut of a piece long enough to make a circle large enough to glue to the back of the mint circle with out showing on the other side. Then criss-cross the ends of one of you 6inch long ribbons making a look to hang your ornament by.  The picture below shows what it should look like after both of these steps.

Finally you will glue one red-hot to the center of each mint.

Lastly once all of the glue had dried very firmly you will spray a coat of shellac over the entire mint area. Again here is the picture of the final project.

Each student made one of each color and they are too cute.  When we were finished we had quite a bit of the supplies left over so I decided to get creative (with the teachers permission of course) to make a mint wreath for the classroom.

I started by making a large circle alternating color of mints and gluing them together.

Next I grabbed some long pipe cleaners 

and attached them together on one end.  I didn't not make a circle since I wasn't sure just two would go all the way around the back of the wreath

I started gluing it around the back of the wreath in the center of the mints. .

Then I started another circle of alternating colored mints on the inside of the first circle.  I glued them together and to the outside circle

Then I glued a pipe cleaner around the back of the inner circle of mints

Then for extra stability I took a couple more pipe cleaners and glued them in a zig-zagg pattern between the two circles of pipe cleaners. 

After that dried pretty well I flipped it over and admired my handiwork. I decided that to add red-hots to it after having the alternating colored mints made it too busy looking. It wasn't done since after the teacher sprays it with shellac I am going to wrap a wide red ribbon completely around the top/through the wreath and tie it in a bow to hang bye.  She was going to spray everything down over the weekend so a truly final picture will be posted next week, but I just couldn't wait to share this project since it would be super fun to do with your kids over the weekend if you are looking for such a project.  Until then here is how it turned out minus the shellac and ribbon to hang it by

I cant wait to finish it up on Monday.  

I do have a few pointers for you if you decide to do it yourself.  Low temp hot glue was the only glue that would stick together and dry quickly enough for a children's project without melting/liquefying the candy.  everything else made the red-hot slimy or just didn't stick the mints together.  Also you NEED something on the back for stability and pipe cleaners is just what we came up with.  You can try something else if you like but this did the trick for us.

Overall, it was a fun day spent with my daughter class and was very productive.  I hope you like this simple, quick, and cute project, and if you decide to make it or another variation I would love to see a picture and hear all about it!

Merry Christmas!

Have a great Day and God Bless!

Christmas of Giving Challenge: Day1

December 1st marks the first day of my family Christmas of Giving Challenge.

Tonight we read Luke Chapter 2 verses 1-3.  Then, as my Hubby and I explained to my children what we were going to be focusing on this Christmas holiday season (the girls were listening intently and my lil man was listening with half an ear as he tried to snag a chip without me seeing since he had already been told no two or ten times...boy does he try to sneak!!) , and how we were going to have nightly bible reading over the story of Jesus's Birth I thought it would be prudent to go back and read where Mary first learned she would be a mommy.  So we read from Luke chapter 1 verses 26-38.  There were quite a few questions fielded during that reading from my six year old Such as "Whats a virgin?" my answer "Someone that hasn't been married".  Next was "Whats Barren mean?"  my answer "Her body couldn't have a baby live inside it ever, but God healed her so she wasn't like that anymore"  Whew sometimes there are tricky waters to navigate as a mommy!!
Anyway, I went on to say, since we were focusing on giving of ourselves this holiday, that each day I wanted them to try to find a way to give to someone else, and to tell about their experience every night.  I posed a few examples like helping a friend out who drops something, or joyfully sharing their things with others, or any other way they can give of themselves without expecting anything back for doing a good thing.  I also told them about things I had seen them doing just today that were very giving. Such as sharing their toys with their friends.
Overall they seemed excited about it, and I hope this will open their eyes more to the needs of those around them, rather than just focusing on their own desires and needs.  I also told them about a few family giving events I have planned for us that will impact not just them, but some of our neighborhood and community as well.
So, as part of this challenge, I said that I would report to you the ways we are giving as a family...as stated earlier today my kids shared their toys with their friends who were at our house today.  Also they started watching a video with them during calm down time that they really didn't want to see, but was the choice of their friends.  And Kent, who was still his rough tough-boy 2yr old self through the day, and even though he had very much been his normal assertive/defensive/on the offense self (note: don't try to make him do something he doesn't want to do...he will react with force! even if you are 9 yrs older and outweigh him by at least 30-40 lbs!! as one such youngster and several others re-learned tonight), as soon as he saw his cousin come through the door he ran up to him, and gave him a big ole hug.  He was so happy to see him!
As for my husband and I, we were pleased to be able to open our home, and barn, to all that were helping decorate our church's Christmas Parade float.  I loved being able to feed a hungry group of people my taco soup (yes, I will share the recipe later).  My hubby, who has found his favorite season for grilling (the cold season), fired up the grill to make yummy hot dogs and hamburgers as well.  We had a great time of fellowship before they all trooped back out to a COLD chilly barn to finish up their work.  I can't wait for the parade tomorrow!  I just know our float is going to do well in the judging, and even if it comes in dead last, everyone has had such a good time finding costumes and decorating, that its the Grand Champion in my book!!!

Please forgive my rambling on and on in this post, I just can seem to stop the flow tonight.  I hope you find many opportunities to give more than just gifts this season, and  I would love to hear all about it.  So please leave me comments telling me all about it!

Have a great day and God Bless!

Ooey Gooey Butter Bars/Cake

I first tasted this delectable treat while staying with my aunt in St. Louis.  I was immediately in crave for them!!  so much so that after they were gone my cousin had to go to the store and buy all the ingredients so they could be made again because the whole family wanted more.  That was about five years ago and since then I have made them every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This year one of the ladies came in and her son couldn't come with her she told me the only thing he was sad about missing was my ooey gooey butter bars!!  So of course when I made them she had to text him a picture of her eating one to show him what he was missing out on hee hee.  Well after many asking for the recipe, here it is (as promised to my family) for all to enjoy this holiday season.

Gooey Butter Cake

 Cake:

1 (18 ¼ oz or close) package butter yellow cake mix

1 egg 

8 tbls. Butter melted                       

                                                     

Mix together and put in the bottom of a 13x9 pan (after stirring I press in with clean fingers.  It will be a clay-ish consistency)

Filling

1 (8oz) package cream cheese softened

3 eggs

1 t. vanilla                       

8 Tbls. Butter melted

1 box powdered sugar or 3 c. Pwd. Sugar

Mix together    (it will be lumpy if you just stir, so feel free to use a mixer to even it all out.  It may still be lumpy even after the mixer, but I promis its okay and will turn out delish.  Check out my not so great looking bowl of filling...yah I know, but it was still sooooo good!!)

and spread over cake in the pan.  

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes 

A St. Louis tradition

Here are a couple of pictures of my final product.  Please keep in mind that my Aunt's Bunkhouse oven is gas and I'm used to electric and it doesnt cook very evenly so its a little browner around the edges than what I like.  When I make these next week for a Christmas get-t-gether I'm hosting I will put a better final product picture on here. (Just trust me that they should be an all over even gold brown color mmm-kay???)

Absolutely delish!!!  and I hope you give them a try since they are super easy and will be a huge hit at whatever function you present them at from a family night to a blow out shindig!  If you do try them please let me know!  I would love to hear all about it!!

Have a great day and God Bless!!