Christmas Favorites

Happy Friday!  It's been a fun, festive week over here.  We are packing in the holiday fun while school is virtual and trying to do as many normal things as possible although many of our favorite traditions are different this year.  We're doing our best to stay positive, remember to focus on the miracle of Baby Jesus this time of year and make memories with our kids.

We visited the biggest Christmas tree in our town this week.  It's huge.  The kids loved seeing this real tree.  It was so fun.  

Lots of attention on the baby at Christmas.  As it should be :)

These two were cracking themselves up "driving" Santa's sleigh.

Doing all the first Christmas things for Leo has been our favorite.  We're introducing him to our favorite traditions, showing him the magic of Christmas and squeezing him into things his siblings wore.  This was Olive's outfit & Fletcher's Santa hat.  His blanket is never far behind.  He's 8 months old now.  He's the sweetest chunk.

Not to be left out, our favorite kittens - Penny & Pearl - are loving their first Christmas as well.  This tree skirt seems to be their favorite spot to cozy up.  They're v interested in batting the lower ornaments on the tree, drinking the occasional fresh pine tree water and have yet to climb any tree.

We had a really good week of school at home this week.  It's not our favorite thing - we all miss real school in person with teachers and friends, but we are making due at home.  We're also praying hard that schools will reopen ASAP in 2021 here.

We're baking lots of our holiday favorites.  Christmas brownies & cookies this week!

My kids love when we do Duplo challenges.  I give them a theme and they have to build something to go with that.  Then they present their builds and I judge them.  It's tons of fun.  Here are there favorite Christmas tree builds from the week.

We celebrated St Nick's Day and everyone woke up to their favorite candies in their shoes.

Christmas pjs will always be my favorite!

We made gingerbread houses at home this year.  We opted for a village of tiny house instead of one big house.  They turned out so cute although they seem to have a little less candy on them every day.

The board of my local MACC Moms group worked our tails off these last few weeks planning a drive thru holiday party for all of our moms/kids.  It was amazing!  All of our planning paid off.  We got to see all of our friends in person, from a distance, pass out holiday treat bags for moms and kids and spread tons of Christmas cheer.  It was wonderful!  I'm so glad we figured out a way to do it to wrap up this crazy year.

Late nights with the cats is one of my favorite times of the day!

Did you see our cinnamon roll Christmas trees from earlier this week?  We'll probably have these several more times before the month is over.

My last favorites are just simple, sweet moments from our week.  

Olive is the best helper and big sis.  Her brothers drive her nuts at times, but she really adores them.  We were playing outside this week and she was helping me with Leo.  I look over to see her singing, dancing and cracking Leo up.  She caught me watching, struck this pose and said, "Nothing to see here!"  It made me laugh.  I wish I could freeze time with her at age 7.

The big kids love these scoot boards.  They zoom all over the house on them.  Who knew how quickly Leo would learn.  He crawled over to it, plopped his belly down on the board and proceeded to push himself all over the house.  It was hilarious, impressive and slightly terrifying because he's just 8 months old.  He's got to keep up with those big kids.

Loads of extra time in our pjs snuggling, watching movies and playing.  I hope those are the things we remember when we think back on 2020.  We've never spent more time together than this year and I am glad to say we've enjoyed it.

This is Leo's preferred distance from me... within touching distance.  Preferably being held, holding hands or snuggling.  He's teething big time and that's highlighted the fact that mom is still his favorite.  I don't mind one bit although a little more sleep would be super.

I hope your week was filled with lots of favorites, too.

We've got some fun plans on the calendar for the weekend.  I can't wait!  Check back next week to hear all about it plus a Christmas house tour and a little Christmas food and craft inspiration.  

Linking up with Momfessionals Friday Favorites today.

Kid's Say...

It's been a good long while since I did a "kid's say" post.  My kids are always saying the wackiest things and making us laugh.  I would never remember them if I didn't write them down.  I keep a running list on my phone and then try to do a blog post to save it forever.  They are some of my favorite posts to go back and read.  

I have high hopes of writing these down in my own handwriting in a nice journal for both of them.  I think it would be such a fun keepsake for them to have when they are older.  A book filled with their own words of memorable things they've said over the years.  I got the idea from one of my student's parents long before I had kids of my own.

Olive // Age 7

1. While on a walk around the neighborhood we smelled something strange.  We'd just passed a dead opossum a few minutes earlier.  Olive paused and said, "I think we are smelling opossum death!"

 2. One night after dinner she said, "Let's just watch Wheel of Fortune and chat!" like a lovely little grandma.

3. We spot graffiti on a building downtown.  Olive asks what is says.  Thankfully she can't read the cursive F you message.  I tell her it says something mean that I won't be repeating.  She says, "Oh like I don't want to be your friend?"  Yep.  Mean like that - ha!

4. She responded to me and then said, "I was being sarcastic, Mom!" followed by an eye roll.

5, We were going over movie options and she turned down one.  She said, "That one makes me really sad.  You know I try and avoid that."

6. Being home so much of 2020 combined with Olive getting older has really brought out a chatty side of her.  Prior to this year she was always pretty quiet and reserved.  Now she's got tons to say all the time.  She looked over at me and said, "Mom, I could talk to you ALL day long!" and she basically does :)

7. We were checking out Leo's new teeth coming in.  Olive looked inside and said "He's got FANGS!"

8. She's been talking about getting "bap-a-tized" lately.  I won't be telling her it's baptized :)

 

Fletcher // Age 4

*Fletcher's teachers have both commented on how funny he is.  I'm not sure what that will mean for his academic future, but for now, he makes us all laugh with his funny sayings and timing.

*Fletcher talks twice as much as Olive and always has.  He's got so much to say every day.

1. "Moms smell like roses.  Boys smell like poop." he informs me after my shower one night.

2. "Mom, how much do you weigh?  Because when you sat on my lap it really hurt."

3. "Hey, Mom!  I'm fine if I get coal this year.  I could just build a bonfire with it."

4. "Penny has a cough drop stuck in her fur.  I have no idea how it got there."

5. "Mom, my water bottle is at 1%.  Please refill it."

6. I was reviewing pool rules with him.  He cut me off and said "Don't care!" jumping into the deep end.

7. "Sorry guys.  Sometimes my brain feels dumb."

8. He went through a phase where everything he said ended with "pinky promise?"

9. "Mom, You're a nice human!"  

10. His Mimi asked him if she could keep his baby.  He paused and said, "How would you feel if someone took your baby??"

11. "If you mix seeds and fruit, BOOM, you've got a watermelon!"

12. slapping turtles = snapping turtles

13. After coming out of his room from timeout for doing several naughty things in a row, Kevin asked him if he was sorry expecting him to feel remorseful.  Fletcher got a grumpy look on his face and said "I AM NEVER SAYING SORRY AGAIN!" I burst out laughing and Kevin was not amused.

14. "You're an old human!" was his insult after he was frustrated for losing a game.

15. "When Olive was a baby she loved her paci.  When I was a baby I loved my mommy!"

16. "I'm fired up about _________" is something he says when he's excited about it.

17. "I love you so munchie!"

18. "It's okay, Mom.  That was just my super hero burp!" after he let out a very manly burp.

Leo // Age 8 months

1. Mama :)

It's crazy how fast these kids are growing up!  We love them :)

Hot Cocoa & Coffee Bar

I've been seeing lots of hot cocoa bar ideas floating around and wanted to give it a try.  I customized ours to work for us.  My husband drinks a lot of coffee and we drink a little hot chocolate.  Some of the displays I've seen are big enough to feed hot chocolate to an entire army.  We just needed a few little jars to hold our supplies.

Supplies:

packs of hot chocolate

mini marshmallows

peppermints & chocolates

holiday blend K-Cups

Christmas cups & Christmas decor

Walmart has really pretty stems of holiday berries and greens this time of year.  They're just $0.97 each and are so pretty.  I got the red berries and the sparkly boxwood stems from there.

This is where our cocoa and coffee bar lives - right by our Keurig.

We are excited to enjoy some holiday drinks and love our cute little gingerbread village.  I bought a kit of five little houses this year.  We had a great time decorating the houses and Kevin would tell you that assembling them was a two person job.  I put our village on a cake plate and it's on display in our kitchen.

Oh Christmas Tree... Cinnamon Rolls & Tree Lots

I just love making holiday food and doing holiday traditions with my family.  We've hit our stride with favorite traditions.

The weekend after Thanksgiving we always go and get a real tree.  We have shopped for them all over town.  We ended up at Lowes this year.  They had a great selection, but we noticed their prices were a little higher than in years past.  I'm guessing that's probably true of most tree lots.

We sniffed all the trees, checked them out closely and decided on this one.  It's beautiful!  Probably our prettiest tree yet.  

 Lowes had this cute candy land set up.

Baby's first Christmas tree shopping adventure.

Classic Christmas.

Kevin grew up with real trees and I did not.  He convinced me to give it a try years ago and we've been getting a real tree for our family room ever since.  It's so fun!  He's the master at securing the tree on top of the van.

Now on to the Cinnamon Roll Trees!

Give me all the red and greens, tree shaped, santa hat or candy cane striped foods.  This weekend we made cinnamon roll trees.  It was super easy.

You just need one can of roll up cinnamon rolls (Aldi is our favorite) and sprinkles.

Unroll the cinnamon rolls and shape them into a tree.

Bake, ice and add your sprinkles.  The kids loved helping me with this.

Would your family like these cinnamon rolls?  My kids LOVED them!  They can't wait to make them again very soon.

2020 North Pole Breakfast

I've been doing a North Pole breakfast for the kids since 2014.  It's one of my very favorite traditions to kick off the Christmas cheer in December.  It's always the first week of December.  The date is flexible depending on our schedule or Amazon's delivery schedule :)

I set everything up the night before.

I get each kid a new ornament or two to represent things they are currently love, new Christmas pjs, a Christmas book and other random things - snow globes, candy, slippers, games, etc.  I don't wrap anything.  Just lay a pile of things at their place setting.

Olive = rainbow // Fletcher = cheeseburger and fries // Leo = baby s'more

A few tips for saving $$$ on this breakfast:  Use what you have - dishes, napkins, reuse Christmas PEZ dispensers and just buy refill candy, buy Christmas books off season and save them for Christmas and shop the sales on things like ornaments, snow globes and Christmas pjs. 

Our menu changes every year based on my kid's current favorites.  Cinnamon toast is king right now so I build the meal around that.  Lots of reds and greens and sweets.  I do not spend hours on the meal.  I just put together something quick, festive and fun.

 Late night prepping.  Everything but the food gets set out.

Olive:

 Fletcher:

Leo:

I picked these snow globes up at Hobby Lobby.  You put your own picture in them and they're plastic.  I'm hoping that meals they are somewhat indestructible.  We lost 2 snow globes last year.

We have this sweet Santa advent.  Santa moves to a new house every day.  We take turns alternating who gets to open the advent calendars every day.  The same kid does both calendars - they just rotate days.

We put little candy treats in this advent calendar.

Good morning!  Leo's first North Pole Breakfast.  Everyone loved it!

I love these 3 and my 2020 ornament.

It's never too late to put together a North Pole Breakfast for your own family!

DIY Stocking Letters

Do you have personalized stockings?

I've wanted letters for our stockings for years, but have never found any I loved.  I take that back.  All the ones that I loved were pricey when you had to buy five of them.  

I was determined to get letters this year.  I started looking weeks ago and wasn't able to find anything I loved to go with our stockings.  I was at Walmart and found the perfect letters in the craft section.  I knew it would be an inexpensive, simple DIY project.

Let me show you!

You'll just need letters that you love, twine and hot glue.

The letters were $1.29 each and I already had all of the other supplies.  The craft section had the entire alphabet and they came already white washed so no painting necessary.

Hang your stockings and then cut some sample size pieces of twine to determine the length you want your letters to hang.  I started out with 6 inches, tried 8 inches and decided the right number for my stockings was 12 inches.

I didn't think that one strand of twine looked substantial enough so I cut three 12 inch strings for each letter and braided them.  I knotted the three strings together, asked my daughter to hold it, braided the strings and then knotted the other end.  Repeated the process for all five letters.

I hot glued them in tow spots in each letter.  I made sure to glue the knot at about the same spot at the top of the letter to ensure that the letters would hang uniformly.  Let them all dry for a few minutes and then hang.

My 2020 Christmas mantle!  I LOVE it.  It might just be my favorite Christmas mantle ever.  I got free pine branches from Lowes when they trimmed up our Christmas tree, went out and cut some branches of berries from my yard and added in some red glittery garland/pom poms.

We've got our Christmas books in boxes on both sides of the fireplace and are ready to enjoy the Christmas season.  I smile every time I look at this spot in my house.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Thanksgiving Leftover Soup

I know I can't be the only one who has a refrigerator full of Thanksgiving leftovers days after Thanksgiving.  Who else has leftovers!?!?

I was inspired to make a Thanksgiving leftover soup after seeing this recipe:

Creamy Turkey Wild Rice Soup by The Food Charlatan

I loved the idea of that soup, but didn't have all the fresh herbs on hand.  I wanted to come up with a recipe that would reinvent my Thanksgiving leftovers without breaking the bank.  My recipe works with your Thanksgiving leftovers and many things you likely already have in your pantry or fridge.

Thanksgiving Leftover Soup

6 c water

3 c reserved turkey broth from cooking your turkey (mine came from my crock pot turkey)*

2 t chicken bouillon

2 c shredded turkey*

1 box Rice A Roni Long Grain & Wild Rice

1 seasoning packet from the Rice A Roni

salt & pepper to taste

1 t oregano

1 t basil

4 diced garlic cloves

1 c chopped celery*

1 c chopped onion*

1 c chopped carrots

1 c corn*

1 c gravy*

4 T half and half

Directions:

Chop everything into small pieces, shred your turkey and add all of the ingredients into your soup pot.  Let cook for at least 1 hour and let simmer for 1-2 hours for the flavors to really develop.

Notes: I rarely save my broth from cooking meat in the crock pot, but several wonderful cooks that I follow on social media all do it.  They talked about all the flavor and goodness that comes from that broth.  They were right!  This soup had the best flavor and I have to give the credit to that delicious homemade turkey broth.

Serve your soup with a delicious crusty bread.  That is my favorite recipe that I blogged about earlier this year.  It makes the best, easiest, prettiest loaf of crusty bread.

Would your family eat this??

It smelled heavenly as it was cooking and my family loved it!  They said I needed to write my own cookbook with this recipe.  They sure know the way to my heart :)

I think this will be a new post Thanksgiving recipe for us every year.

Enjoy!