Monday, December 13, 2021

It's Christmas time and we are making memories!!!!

Last week was that week where I wanted to wrap up the shopping and gifts!  I felt overwhelmed when I looked at my to do list but reminded myself of how blessed I am and to take one day at a time!  I don't want to forget anyone or anything and my mind seemed full!  Here's what I had going on ...

 

It's December and Matthew's basketball team has been having one practice after the next!  They are working so hard and preparing for the upcoming basketball season!  The other night he had practice, then a program at school and then his class went to Moriah's house afterwards.  Matthew loves his friends at school and his class is special to him!  Sometimes it seems like he goes and goes but I just have to remember back when I was sixteen and all the events I did.  Nothing seems to be "too much".  Most nights, Mike picks Matthew up after practice.  This night, Mike was out of town and Matthew had a ride home after all his events.  I decided to wait up for him and relax beside the Christmas tree.  It didn't take long before I fell asleep and I didn't mind at all!  I love twinkling lights and Christmas trees!


Last week, we had a ladies event at church where we made our own wreaths!  This was fun!



We bought a meal ticket at our annual school sale in the fall and we were excited to go to this Korean authentic meal.  Alex and Bok Hee cooked up a bunch of food for us and it was delicious!  Bok Hee is from Korea and she cooked us food that we loved!  Ashlyn was brave and tried everything.  The seaweed wraps that we ate with rice were good.  She liked that.  Austin ate rice.  Mike and I both really loved the noodle salad and dumplings.  This was a fun night of getting to know the Lehmans more.  The guys discovered they both love to play Acquire and so we played a game.  This was my first time playing and I won!  Now, I must say Mike pretty much told me every move to make and then I picked up more tiles.  This was a great night!




What a wonderful feeling to know all the Christmas cards have been stuffed, letter written, addressed, stamped, prayed over and sent out with love!  This usually does seem like a process but we hope it blesses people!  




Lena invited us to her house on Saturday to make gingerbread houses!  This was such a fun, festive thing for the kids to do!  She had a bunch of boxes of graham crackers and plenty of candy.  We hot glued the graham crackers together and that worked so much better than using icing!  It's a game changer!  Then she mixed up a big batch of icing and we used that for the candy!



Ashlyn loved this and took her time!  She loaded up her house with lego blocks and jelly bellys.

I had a fun time too and added some landscaping to my house!


Bryce made a cute house/den!  He added some big chocolate stars on top of his roof and three little gummy bears in his den!



Austin and Adrian both decorated houses but had it done in no time!  Lot's of icing, M&M's and skittles.


Hunter added Frosted Flakes on his roof!  Super cool idea!



Lena and I ended up sitting down and creating a house too!  I love things like this and we were at this for a few hours!  Such a fun time!



And then there was a short break to put all eleven puppies back in their little fenced area!  The puppies got out and they were everywhere!


While we decorated gingerbread houses, Matthew had a basketball tournament.  We can't wait to go watch his games and hopefully this will be the only one that doesn't allow spectators.  We did get to watch one game online and they won all their games!



I made more chocolate covered peanut butter crackers and they are ready to give as gifts!  This is a Christmas favorite!  I always make a bunch of these for us to enjoy and lots to give away!



We are now the start of a new week and more holiday festivities will begin!  We've got basketball games to attend, an employee banquet to go to and a school program to watch!  So much goodness is all around us and God has been so, so good!  We can't wait to spend the next weeks gathering with friends, family and employees!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON! 

Thursday, December 9, 2021

December, 2021

December is here.  The busiest month of gatherings, banquets, school programs, gift buying and wrapping, making homemade goodies and listening to all the Christmas music!!!  We are excited!

 



One more month to read the Bible in chronological order through in a year!


Mike was still hanging in the basement with Matthew one night and I was lying in bed just thinking of how blessed I am to have a warm house, a warm bed, a family that loves each other and a candle that smells like Christmas!

I made a few peanut butter crackers and I hope to do some more one of these days!


December is the month of so many projects!  Stuffing envelopes with a Christmas card and letter is something that needs to be finished up yet!



December is buying a tree and putting gifts under it.  It's magical!


I made another batch of apple butter!  It's delicious on toast!


Last Friday, I went to Produce Junction and bought a bunch of wreaths and poinsettias for church!  Mike meet me at church and helped hang the wreaths in the sanctuary!  It looks so pretty!


On Saturday, Mike and I and the kids walked through our little town!  We do this about once a year and it's so fun to visit the many neat shops in our town.  Singers were out caroling, shopper were strolling the streets, fudge was being poured as we walked into the candy shop!  So much happiness is in our small town!




Our last stop was at the greenhouse for me to smell the fresh dirt and fresh plants!!!  I love poinsettias and these were just gorgeous!  We did the annual quick, very quick photo shot and then drove back home as we ate the soft pretzels we grabbed in town!  I love our hometown!!!!!

Such cute kids!!!!


So precious!


We watched a baking show the other night and Ashlyn got creative the next morning in the kitchen!  A snowman pancake and a chocolate scarf was her breakfast!  


There's always that moment in the beginning of December that I feel overload.  My mom and sisters had a day of shopping but I still have a few gifts to purchase.  Things need wrapped.  The cards are not yet ready for send off.  I keep wanting to do some more peanut butter crackers but didn't find the time to just yet.  It feels like so much happening and some times it feels overwhelming.  I did purpose in my heart that I would try my best to bring a spirit of peace in our home over the holidays.  I try to always but especially over the busy days!  It's OK to not have "all the things" done yet.  Maybe some things just won't get done?  That's OK too.  I reminded myself to stay focused on the main reason of Christmas and celebrate the birth of Jesus with my family!

These two sayings from Pinterest are great reminders for me right now!


We spent a few hours at Mindy's house this week.  She's still healing from her broken leg and she decided to not decorate for Christmas this year because she can't move and carry all her things up and down her steps.  Sister Jody found out about this and set a date for us sisters and mom to go help her!  It was fun and we had her house in the Christmas spirit in now time!!!!!  Her house is so pretty!

And then I had a craft day at church for the ladies whoever wanted to join me.  We made wreaths!  I made one for me and one for Hadassah!



December sure is a month of lists and check offs but I love it when we can be home in the evening with the candles lite and glowing.  The twinkling lights on the tree are magical!  I love that we got to watch HomeAlone 1 & 2 so far with the family!  To make this month be a month of fun memories and joy is a goal!

Happy December!!!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

 We spent the weekend of Thanksgiving with my family at the cabin once again!  Every cabin vacation is so much fun!  We all help out with the meals!  We eat good!  This time the hunters were in the woods during the day and on opening rifle day, there were four deer down!  This was super exciting for the kids to watch and see as the deer were drug to the cabin, gutted and then hung up!  There was the first snow fall for us to for this winter season!  A snowman was built, snow balls were thrown and the there was laughter all around as the snowflakes fell from heaven!




So many little ones watching to see how it's done!



All four deer!!!  Two shot by men and two by ladies!!!!  Way to go hunters!











We woke up one morning with bear tracks right outside the window!


I took some photos of my parents and on the way back into the cabin, they stopped for a picture of the girls with them snowman!  My parents don't normally dress up to play in the snow!  :)))



Jeremiah and Hadassah joined us on Sunday night at the cabin after spending some time at another cabin with the Petersheims.  On Monday, we decided to stop for a Christmas tree on the way home from the cabin.  Jer and Dass joined in and bought a tree too!  We drove to 



Austin got to put the star on top this year!



And here's the tree with a few gifts now tucked beside it and the living room smells like pine!  I love it!


Thanksgiving season has been a time of much thankfulness and time with family!