New Traditions

This year our family started a new tradition. And apparently, it is somewhat common, but we had never heard of it. It is called the Jesse Tree.

This is how it works.

-You make an ornament every day leading up to Christmas

-Each day either before or after making the ornament you talk about what the picture symbolizes

-You read out of the bible

It is a wonderful time that really keeps the reason for the season in focus

Here is a link to where I got ours


And if your wondering where we found out about this great new tradition; it was from a great friend of mine Anna (and she has a blog too, check it out)

Traditions

Every year my mother and I get together and bake sweets for family and friends. It is a great time of talking, laughing, and mother-daughter time. We did truffles one year, then cookies another, etc.

This year me made brownies. Thankfully there was not a lot of baking because most had a cream cheese filling - but, the cutting felt like it was never going to end.

There was a total of.....

560 pieces and 12 bags of toffee (a must have every year)

All the brownie recipes came from Taste of Home's cookbook-Brownies & Bars Cookbook. The toffee recipe is from my mother.

Take The Time

A must read blog post on foster care.

ONE CHILD

Down It Came

So I somewhat naively thought that letting the children see the tree all lit up last night would keep them from touching it out of curiosity... well, you guessed it - Miss Eliana could not resist the snowman with all its bright colors.

From holding it, to mom saying not to, to her letting go completely; down it came - braking all over the floor.

So the crafty mother that I am, I came up with a solution. The snowman had not broke, only the bulb around it (thank goodness, it was a gift). So I super glued the snowman to the inside of a mason jar, poked a hole in the lid, pushed in the lights that make the different colors, twisted it on, and vwala...



Snowman back in business :) I did however make sure he was placed farther back in the tree this time - away from where Eliana can reach.

Lights, Camera, Christmas Tree

So I had this idea last night to wake up all of my 3 children so they could see the Christmas tree all lit up.

It was a hit, and they oohed and awed; then I remembered it was still bedtime :( I feared the battle of going back to bed - but amazingly they did... quietly :)

Now there was a point to this, and that was....

It is precious and worth going out of the ordinary occasionally to get a little special time with just mom and kids. Sorry dad, but you were at work.

National Adoption Awareness Month

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. The focus of this month is the adoption of children currently in foster care.

This subject is very dear to our hearts since we adopted our oldest son through foster care.

Join in this month and help a child find their forever family.

Inspiration

My uncle Darrell and his wife Sara asked me to make them a quilt for their bed. Of course I said yes, and so I started thinking about what to do. I wanted it to be something that they would both love. Well, my uncle and his friend started a business for hunters called headhunter archery; so I also wanted to incorporate that into the quilt as well. As I was looking for inspiration, about a month ago I looked outside and knew what I wanted to do (I took this photo).



Both my uncle and his wife love hunter green and this will be a king size. I will be starting it in the next couple of weeks (I will keep you updated).

What do you think?