Happy Birthday to the King of Kings

All of our Christmas decorations are back in the attic. Or most of them anyway, because there will inevitably be things that I've gotten so used to seeing I don't even recognize them as Christmas decorations. I just noticed the Christmas table runner in the picture below and realized it's still on the table.

Even though it's not as much fun packing the decorations away as it is getting them out, there is something very satisfying about getting things back to normal. I love when the boxes are moved out, I can vacuum up the faux pine needles, and put everything back the way it was. I love the coziness of our home decorated for Christmas, but after a month it's nice when our house suddenly seems to have more space and room to breath.

Before we leave Christmas altogether I wanted to share something we do in addition to this fun tradition. We always bake a birthday cake (or cupcakes) for Jesus.This is the cake we made this year. One fun part about making this cake was figuring out how to do the jewels. We used melted Jolly Rancher candies. At first I used mini muffin cups, it worked, but they were bigger than I wanted. So I thought I would make my own molds with aluminum foil. We looked around the house and found that the bottom of Diego's foot was an oval, a diamond-shaped game piece, and a circular bottle cap. I formed the foil around each shape to make a mold, filled them with candies Kyle had crushed, and then melted them in the oven. Voila, jewels!

Snowmen

I have always liked the idea of making cookies or something for neighbors at Christmas, but finally the past couple of years I have actually done it. I think last year I made giant gingersnap cookies and the year before I made giant stick pretzels covered with chocolate and crushed oreos. (I guess I should have made giant snowmen this year, too late now.)

A while back, I saw a fun idea on this website and thought adapting that idea to make snowmen would be fun. It was fairly time consuming (actually I guess a lot of that time was just waiting while they were in the freezer, but still...). I think they turned out pretty cute.

I intended to do this more than a week ago, but with all the sickness in our house lately I just had my first good opportunity. Hopefully it's not too late to find some neighbors who are still in town!

From the looks of the picture above, there was a strong east wind in my kitchen at the time I took the photo.

If you want to make them there are more detailed instructions at the link above, but this is the nitty gritty: I combined a crumbled up, baked cake with a can of frosting, rolled it into balls of varying sizes, firmed up the balls in the freezer, put them on lollipop sticks, and coated them in melted chocolate. Bakerella is who I got the idea from. She has so many cute ideas and variations, but I didn't see that she did any snowmen.

We also made gingersnaps, but they are staying at our house.

In Sickness & in Health, We Wish You a Merry Christmas

To borrow Kyle's description of Mike today, our family has been "sicker than a sicky sickerton." For the past 2 weeks we have each taken turns being sick and it seems that Kyle is starting us in on round 2 tonight because as of about 20 minutes ago he had a fever of almost 102. Poor little guy, it's the worst when little ones are sick! So since I haven't even read a blog much less had time to think about posting recently I figured I'll take a bloggy-hiatus through Christmas. There is nothing like being sick to make you appreciate your health!

On an up-note, I love the person who invented photo-Christmas cards!! Genius. We so look forward each afternoon to checking our mail, looking at our new cards, and hanging them up (this year on the mantle). I love seeing them every day!

Merry Christmas!

No Brain Work Required

I have a new-found love for Aldis (which I recently realized is actually "Aldi" no "s," but I really like the way "Aldis" sounds so I'm not changing my ways and hopefully it won't terribly frustrate anyone).

I have been meaning to visit Aldis for a long time, but I knew I couldn't get all of the items on my shopping list there. That meant it would be an additional stop and I just couldn't bring myself to make two stops on shopping day.

But when gas prices hit their peak a while back and my grocery bill was getting higher and higher, I was desperate to find some ways to stretch our income.

So I went to Aldis and what an experience! There aren't endless options, which I actually like. If you get to frozen foods and realize you forgot something in the baking section it's not a ten minute hike back to retrieve said item. Every week they have new "special purchases" which I look forward to with anticipation (not that I necessarily even buy any of the special items, but just knowing there are new limited-quantity/limited-time only bargains is exciting!). And I never leave without my $1.29 Austrian dark chocolate, you know, because it has anti-oxidants.

It's exhilarating to spend $30 and get a whole cart of food (and maybe a really great candle or two - they have these Renwick Candles and they are the best - so fragrant! I'm burning a Creamy Vanilla Swirl now and it smells like wedding cake, yummy!) I was also saving over $1/half gallon on organic milk. I say "was" because they haven't had it the past couple of times, so sad. Hopefully Aldis won't start doing what Walmart has been doing for years: Walmart tracks my purchases and when I start buying something regularly they stop carrying it. Who knew I had so much anti-clout with the retail giant?

I still can't bring myself to haul the kids to two grocery stores in a row so what I've been doing is going to Aldis at night by myself and taking the kids with me to Walmart on Monday morning. Which is not a bad experience when I actually manage to get us all fed, dressed, and out the door by a decent time. Monday mornings before, say 10 am, the shelves are stocked, the aisles and check-outs aren't crowded, and we are all in a good mood!

And finally for the "no brain work required" part, I found this blog today with a shopping list and menu plan for Aldis. According to the blog's author, Aldis estimates you can achieve (there must be a better word choice, but it is escaping me at the moment) 90% of your shopping at Aldis, but she has personally made menus consisting of 100% Aldis ingredients. I'm excited to try it out! Even if you don't want to or can't shop at Aldis, just having menus and shopping lists is enough to make me happy!

I have been severely lacking in motivation in the kitchen lately. I'm hopeful this menu plan/shopping list will jump-start me back where I need to be. Because, incidentally, I have found a good way to not save money is to skip meal planning, list making, and a scheduled trip to any grocery store, then either eat out or make your poor husband stop at the store on his way home from work multiple times in a week. Here's to getting back in the groove and trying out the 100% Aldis' ingredients menu for one week. I'll let you know how it goes!

And the Winner Is...

By random name drawing: Jayme!

**Confetti**Balloons**Noise Makers**

Congratulations! :-)


I loved reading your creative and fun ideas! I will definitely be adding those to my list! I wish I had one to give all of you, but I'd encourage you to go get one and start a tradition this year!

Tonight is the night Kyle will open box number 7 and find out what God wants for Christmas! He has enjoyed it so much, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up doing it all again before this Christmas.

Fun Christmas Giveaway!

Last year when Kyle was 3 we did this fun activity in the weeks leading up to Christmas called What God Wants for Christmas. It's an interactive, kid-friendly nativity.

The way we do it is each evening we read the rhyming storybook that it comes with, and the Scripture that goes along with that day, then Kyle gets to open the "present" that is numbered for that day, and put the figure in the nativity. It is so fun and Kyle really looks forward to it each night, he was so excited last night to open the box with "Murray" in it (Mary).

I was thinking how much we like it and that I should tell you about it, then I realized I have an extra one and I thought it would be really fun to give it away to one of you!

So all you need to do is leave a comment with a fun idea for Christmas for kids. It could be a book or a game or a craft or a kid-friendly recipe, whatever - just as long as it's Christmas-related!

I'm excited for someone else to enjoy this with their kiddos and it will be fun to get some ideas too! I'll keep the comments open through this Sunday the 7th and then I'll randomly pick a winner and mail it out Monday so you'll have it in plenty of time to do it this year for Christmas.

Edited to add: Okay, let's think about this. What if I don't know the address of the person who wins? If you leave a comment and you know I don't know your address or you think I may not know it then be sure to check back on Monday and see if you won. Then I'll let you know how to contact me with your address so I can send it out. Capiche?

Edited again to add: Aw, come on, you didn't think I'd actually have a relatively brief post, did you? If you already have What God Wants for Christmas, but know someone else who doesn't, feel free to tell them to come and comment. I wouldn't mind at all if it's someone I don't know who wins. I thought for a second about posting this on Rocks in My Dryer's Works for Me Wednesday, but I got stage fright and decided not to, all that to say, the winner doesn't have to be someone I know so feel free to pass it along.

Should I Be Embarrassed?

When I was pregnant with Cade, Kyle asked me a few times about why girls and boys chests are different. I explained that God made girls have chests that can feed babies. (Yes, I know "They" say you are "supposed" to call the parts by their real names, but in our house we have chests, pee pees, and booties.)

After Cade was born Kyle never made a big deal out of my nursing Cade other than to suggest, "I think you should nurse him," when Cade cried.

So it didn't surprise me, but absolutely cracked me up when Kyle drew this picture of our family the other day.
There on the left is Kyle, then Mike, then me holding Cade. Kyle drew me first and I saw the two circles with little marks inside. It took all I had not to bust out in hysterics because I knew what the answer was before I asked, "Kyle, what are those?"

"Those are your chests. And Cade is crying because he's not nursing."

Then he drew "chests" on himself and Mike, lifted his shirt up and said, "Because see my chest?"
I never imagined I would be posting a picture of my "chests" on the internet. What is this blog coming to?