Weekly Song - "Sounding Joy" | Ellie Holcomb

One last Christmas song for you to enjoy before we start the new year.  I teach a co-op class called Joyful and it is built around the idea that we can find Joy in every day life.  So this song naturally fits into that idea - the joy around Jesus coming to earth! 

Weekly Menu - a week of family and a New Year

 Just like that it is the last official week of the year.  This year seems extremely long (January was HOW long ago?) yet it is hard to believe that we are entering 2025.  This week we get to see my brother and sister-in-law, Kel and Deb, as they are home for the holidays from Brazil for the first time in forever.  We get to enjoy them for a Lions game on Monday, New Year's Eve AND New Year's Day.  Somehow I think we are getting the best end of the "deal" of them being home!  

Friday - leftover Lasagna from Christmas, garlic bread and salad

Saturday- we have a family Christmas party scheduled

Sunday - pork loin ans baby potatoes

Monday - Meatball Soup and crusty bread 

Tuesday - News Year Eve.  We are gathering at my mom's for snacks and games.  We will stay as long as those that live/are staying there want to stay awake.  Then we will head home and stay up until mid-night HA! 

Wednesday - New Year's Day! - My brother requested a great ham dinner so we will enjoy a meal with them before saying "See ya Later" once again. 

Thursday - I believe my kids are heading to my mom's for their second annual stay at Nana's over the holidays.  They did this last year and I think all three of them enjoyed it.  I'm hopeful that Darryl and I can get something yummy for dinner.  (I'd settle for Taco Bell as long as I don't have to cook it LOL) 

Chirstmas Traditions - Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Since today is actually Christmas (Merry Christmas!!) I wanted to share our traditions for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I find it interesting - and fun - to learn about other people's family traditions around the holidays because we all have such unique things at times!  

Let's start with Christmas Eve!  Some of our traditions are more recent while some have carried through from when even Darryl and I were growing up!  

• Since 2020 we have gone to my mom's house on Christmas Eve.  Obviously during that year, a lot of the traditional Christmas Eve services were not held so we did something else that became one of my favorite nights of the year!.  We go to my mom's where she prepares some wonderful snacks for us all to enjoy (we've been enjoying snacks for Christmas Eve since I was in high school - a favorite tradition!).  My mom's house is lit with Christmas lights and candle light so it is so cozy and warm.  She takes time to read the Christmas story before we open one gift.  (This is a tradition that carries on from both mine and Darryl's childhood).  Eventually we head for home.  We usually stop downtown to get photos by the big Christmas tree before heading home to take photos in PJ's by the tree.  I just love how it slows everything down and gives us time to remember the true reason for the holiday and enjoy just being with family. 

Next up is Christmas Day: 

• My mom joins us on Christmas.  Just like when I was growing up, my guys get to open their stockings before we eat breakfast!  It is a fun way for them to get a few things while waiting for us all to eat!

• I cook breakfast :-)  I include Orange Julius and cinnamon rolls because those are things from Darryl's Christmas growing up.  Once we finish breakfast and clean off the table it is time for gifts!
• Growing up we always opened one gift at a time which helped make Christmas last longer.  We still carry that tradition on with our kids.  It's fun to have time to see whatever everyone gets and, yes, it helps stretch out the morning.  
• Once we are done with gifts, my mom usually packs up her things to go home for a bit.  This gives her time to get her things home, let her dog out, and then come back for dinner.  

• I cook Christmas dinner :-)  There is no tradition to dinner - I've done a variety of things the last few years as I've tried to find the "perfect meal" for Christmas.  This year we are having Lasagna, Salad, stuffed zucchini, stuffed mushrooms, and garlic bread.  Everything is pretty easy!  My husband is going to pick up his dad for the afternoon so I'll have plenty of time to get everything prepped and ready to cook. 

After dinner we just enjoy being together, laughing, and eventually eating some dessert.  My mom usually heads home before it gets dark and we normally settle down for the evening just enjoying the evening.  I like to try and savor those last few hours of Christmas when everything slows down and we can just breath for a bit.  

I pray that all of you also enjoy the beauty of the holiday no matter where you are! 

Weekly Song - Matthew West - Because of Bethlehem

Matthew West never disappoints.  This is such a beautiful song.  Enjoy! 

Weekly Menu - A week with a birthday AND Christmas!

 Friday - Coconut Chicken, sweet potatoes and veggies

Saturday - Dinner at my mom's

Sunday - Nate's birthday!  He gets to chose dinner :-) 

Monday - BBQ Cups and Chips

Tuesday - Christmas Eve at my mom's.  This has become a well loved tradition!

Wednesday - Christmas Day :-)  I decided to go a different direction this year!  We are going to have Homemade Lasagna, a great Olive Garden inspired salad, and garlic bread.  I have a few dessert ideas as well including my favorite Christmas Cranberry Cake.   

Thursday - Honestly, I'm not sure HA!  Maybe leftovers or maybe I'll stick a little bit of money aside and we will order Little Ceasers. 

Christmas Traditions - The Christmas Tree

 Are you a fake tree or a live tree person?  We are live tree people.  It is what Darryl and I both grew up with - going out to a tree farm, finding the perfect tree, cutting down, and hauling it home.  Most of our married life we have also had a live tree.  There were 2 years I believe that we had a fake tree - the years that Darryl was dealing with a back injury and then surgery.  Our guys were little so I'm not even sure they remember those years.  We were laughing recently about the fact that the year Nate was turning one we actually picked out a 3 foot tree.  Why?  Because he was into EVERYTHING!  So, we put a card table behind the couch and set the tree on the table.  Looking into the living room it just looked like we had set the tree in front of the window, behind the couch - no one knew it was short!  

For quite a few years we had a wonderful tree farm about 40 minutes away that we visited every year.  They had beautiful trees, a campfire burning, hot chocolate, and horse drawn wagons if you wanted a ride.  We loved seeing the workers every year including the elderly owner.  Eventually we learned that the owner had decided to return and sell the land so we visited their last season and made one last memory at that wonderful farm.  It took us over a year to find another "perfect" tree farm (that year in between - we found a farm that we would NOT visit again HA!).  Rainbow's End is wonderful.  Their prices are great (when we started going the price for any pine, any size was $18.00  . . . now it is $24.00 so still reasonable), their trees are beautiful, and the owners are just great!  They have alpacas and other farm animals to see, lots of photo ops, and a warming barn with crafts and treats.  

Josh picked out the tree this year - a big fluffy white pine.  I'll be honest, we weren't sold on it because this type of tree has more flimsy branches for ornaments but in the end (as you will see) it was beautiful. 

The last few years Nate has cut down the tree but he decided to let Darryl relive memories and cut it down this year.  (The snow on the ground might have had a part in that decision LOL) 

And it is down!  

Josh and Nate loaded it on top of the blazer so we could take it up to the barn and get it baled, shaken, and drilled. 

 Our traditional selfie with the tree on the truck :-)  It was windy but thankfully not too chilly.  

Weekly Song - Tasha Layton -Comfort and Joy

Tasha Layton has such amazing, heart felt songs and this Christmas Song doesn't disappoint.  This was a new song to me in the past few weeks and it really spoke to my heart.  The reminder that despite everything that goes on around us - God sent his son to bring us comfort and joy.  

Weekly Menu

This next week is probably our busiest week of the month with the Homeschool Library program and Leadership Meeting for our Co-Op plus the normal lessons and such but then everything stops!  (Yeah!)  We will have two full weeks of just holiday things!  

Friday - Roasted Pork Loin, Homemade Mac and Cheese, and Green Beans

Saturday - We are headed to my Father-In-Laws today.  He usually treats us to pizza :-) 

Sunday - BBQ Cups and Fries (before we head out to my last concert for the season!) 

Monday - Tortellini Soup and Bread

Tuesday - Beef Tips and Noodles and salad

Wednesday - Pot Pies

Thursday - Homemade Waffles, Bacon and Sausage

Christmas Traditions - How the Grinch Stole Christmas Storybook Advent Calendar

We all have wonderful traditions that we look forward to each Christmas.  One of our family favorites is the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas Storybook Advent Calendar" that I found on a blog about 10 years ago.  There have been a few years that I wondered if my guys really still wanted it but they always ask to make sure that it will be up by December 1st! 

One of my favorite things about this advent it was that I didn't have to do much to put it together!  On the blog post at Chica and Jo you will find the storybook cards all prepared.  They just have to be printed, cut, and then glue or write the dates on the back of each card. I started my cards with one and they end with 24 but by about the 3rd year I realized that an advent calendar is really like a countdown so you could also do the first card as 24 and then count down to 1.  Whichever way you prefer works!  The shoe organizer can be decorated as much or as little as you desire.  Mine is old enough that I need to reattach/update the ribbon!  I'd love to find some fluffy green "ribbon" or maybe some red glitter ribbon to make it a little more fancy.  

To use this calendar is super easy!  Each day you or your children pull out the card for the day and read whatever part of the story it shows.  Some days (like day 1) it is just the title of the story or a small snippet and other days it is a paragraph or two (just like the pages in the book). I have never found a small Grinch doll to use so I printed one from on-line and attached him to a straw and he moves day to day! Then, I always put something in each pocket as the "gift" of the day.  Now, every year it is different.   When my guys were younger I did a lot of activities.  There were a few years that I did all gifts and candy ($5.00 gifts which add up fast with two kids).  One year funds were super tight so I did gift certificates for a morning or afternoon off school (we homeschool so this is doable).  Little did I know that those would become the favorite - so much so that the next year they asked to ONLY have those HA!   It's what ever works for you and your family.  

This year I tried to be a little more creative but also not spend hardly any money.  Day 1 is always a normal countdown calendar.  You know the ones - with chocolate behind the doors or a few years they did the Lego calendars.  This year though I got one of the countdown puzzles.  Each day they open a box and do that part of the puzzle.  It's been fun to do AND I won't throw way a half used chocolate calendar that no one eats.  I still have done some of the afternoon or mornings off of school.  Then I pick up favorite candy - m and m's, kisses, gum, push pops, etc and use those on some days.  I still add activities - such as "It's time to get our Christmas Tree", or "Lets make cookies today!".  This year some of my newer ideas are "Let's play a game - Mom's Choice" (or Josh's or Nate's) depending on the day, I printed a Christmas puzzle and we competed to see who could finish it first.  I also have a printable Christmas game to play one day and a Christmas ornament for us all to make.  So, again, as you can see, the ideas or limitless.  I use Pinterest a lot to search for fun ideas.  Oh!  Some years I've done money.  For example if I decide to incorporate $10.00 each over the course of the days I might do $1.00 one day, $5.00 a different day until I've put all $10.00 in the pockets. 

Sometime over the course of December we also watch the movie together - well I try to get them to watch it with me but teens are funny like that LOL!   

Can you guess what we played for "Let's play a game - Mom's choice!" ?  Dutch Blitz is one of my favorite games but I don't get to play it often.  Joshua actually ended up winning. 

The guys working on the puzzle countdown.  We live in a small house without lots of space to set up a puzzle table so I cleaned off my desk and they are putting it together in that space.  It is harder than I expected but they are doing great! 

Weekly Song

It's been quite awhile since I've shared a weekly song and what better time to return then Christmas!  I love Christmas music - maybe it's because we don't hear the songs over and over all year so it is like a special gift.  

I heard this song by JJ Heller called "Star of Wonder" last weekend on the radio and just loved it.  JJ Heller has been a favorite artist of mine for a long time due to her voice and the songs she sings that always carry so much emotion.  So, I hope you enjoy it as well! 

Hopefully over the coming weeks . .. months . .. the next year I will continue to share more songs.  I have a super long list in Spotify of songs that I love and that speak to my heart. 

Weekly Menu

We got hit with our first snow of the season after Thanksgiving and then with a little bit of a snow storm this past week.  It was nice to use leftover Turkey to make some comforting food - Turkey and Dumplings followed by Turkey and Noodle Soup!  Yum!  We are enjoying a quieter December without a lot going on, which is actually nice.  We were also blessed with a "fill the freezer" gift of meat which is great for meal planning!  Here's the plan for the coming week: 

 Friday - French toast sticks, bacon and sausage 

Saturday - Dinner at my mom's

Sunday- roast, potatoes, and carrots

Monday - stuffed shells and biscuits 

Tuesday - pork chops and rice 

Wednesday - Soup and Sandwiches

Thursday - Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, and Corn