It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

This year I am trying not to put too much on my plate. In past years I have felt overwhelmed, then disappointed, when I have so much planned to do and then don't get to all of it. I am definitely giving myself the space to enjoy this season. It's especially rewarding and sort of zen. 

Here in the Monkey House, Christmas preparations are underway. This is really the first year that Squirrel Monkey can help with making cookies and building ornaments and coloring pictures for family members. It's really very exciting to be discovering all of this with her. 

Here are her first ornaments. Just a couple of old fashioned clothespins we found at Michael's Craft. She painted them brown then I helped her hot glue the rest. These are going to find a special home with some of our family members this year. :)

We had fun doing the Christmas Stroll in our tiny town (of 800 people!) Here we are asking Santa and Mrs. Claus for a pony, but not like Applejack because she already has Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle, she has that one too. Lol! Squirrel really loved going on the horse-drawn carriage. At the end of the night she got over-stimulated and had a complete screaming meltdown over a bowl of chili. We need to remember to watch for the signs of her getting this way so that we can head home before it happens next time. We have always been pretty good about understanding her sensitivities. But that night we missed the window. Later, at home, she told us it was too loud, too bright, and too many people. Lesson learned.

We tried a new recipe for our Christmas cookies using cake mix - and my Grandmother's antique cookie cutters! So easy even Squirrel (3.5 years old) could do it almost by herself. Just a little bit of help cracking the eggs and measuring the butter and she was set. Oh, she also needed a little help transferring the cut cookies to the sheet pan. We found this recipe on Pinterest... of course! Follow me!

The recipe comes from GoodenessGracious.com The post is here. They were delicious and beautiful, easy to make, and give you lots of options for flavors. Pictured above is "Party Rainbow Chip" flavor. We found that cake mixes have shrunk, by as much as 3 ounces since the original recipe was made. So we needed to add about a cup of flour to cut down on the stickiness. I also didn't add any vanilla to mine and they taste great without it. These are the best cookie cutter cookies I have ever made (and I'm not a great baker so that's not saying much!) But they are so good it makes it seem like I'm an awesome baker! They barely spread and hold their shape well. And you only need four ingredients; cake mix of your choice (so far we have made and loved cherry chip, party rainbow chip, and yellow), 1/2 cup of butter, two eggs, and some flour. Make sure you follow the advice to refrigerate for at least an hour before cutting. I do plan to ice them. Know any good royal icing recipes? :) Then we're going to hand them out to our local friends and acquaintances, Squirrel's teacher's, etc. Tonight we plan to make the lemon ones at the bottom of that post. I'm so excited to try those. 

Making cookies with the girls, putting up our tiny 3 foot tree, starting new traditions like the paper chain advent calendar... all these things are helping us all to enjoy this season together with as little stress as possible. 

I'll leave you today with a little spiritual thought...

"The real Christmas comes to him who has taken Christ into his life as a moving, dynamic, vitalizing force. The real spirit of Christmas lies in the life and mission of the Master...

"If you desire to find the true spirit of Christmas and partake of the sweetness of it, let me make this suggestion to you. During the hurry of the festive occasion of this Christmas season, find time to turn your heart to God. Perhaps in the quiet hours, and in a quiet place, and on your knees - alone or with loved ones - give thanks for the good things that have come to you, and ask that His Spirit might dwell in you as you earnestly strive to serve Him and keep His commandments" (Howard W. Hunter, "The Real Christmas," Ensign, Dec 2005, 22-25).

And happy 12/12/12!

~MMM

Deck the Halls!

Well, Thanksgiving is over. I managed to not gain any weight. Woo! We spent Thanksgiving at a friend's house, which meant that all I was in charge of cooking was the turkey, my famous totally-delicious-but-totally-bad-for-you-mac-n-cheese, and my stepmom's glorious three bean salad. Everything on the table was SO good and I stuffed myself silly. Then we braved Black Friday and went to a few stores to get a jump on Christmas shopping. It was insane... especially with two kids under 4. Mostly, we ended up just buying things online. Remember to shop from small business and buy handmade as much as you can this year. Do what you can for the economy and help the little guy this year!

Now that we've passed this holiday, we're on to the next one! My favorite...

Christmas!

We lost most of our decorations in the flood that filled our basement with 3 feet of water. Luckily we haven't accumulated much yet since we have only been together for 4 years. But, so that Squirrel Monkey could take part this year, I made a tree out of foam sheets that she could decorate by herself. She's having a blast starting and stopping when she pleases, slowly turning the bare tree into a festive decoration!

Also, this year, we started a new tradition of an advent paper chain. Each day has an activity to get us in the Christmas Spirit. I included activities such as, bake cookies, get family packages and cards together and send, color a Christmas picture, drink hot chocolate, watch a Christmas movie, wrap presents, drive around and look at lights, make Christmas decorations, call Grandparents and sing a Christmas song, do a random act of kindness, etc. I love this idea. We'll keep reporting on how it's going as we work through the days. Squirrel is super excited!

This is a little off topic for this post, but I made some boiled eggs to go with our dinner tonight and upon seeing this on my counter I had to snap a picture. Aren't they beautiful? I'm awfully thankful for friends with too many eggs from their lovely chickens. Nothing like free-range and local! :) And there's truly nothing like having friends who share their bounty. That speckled egg in the middle is just gorgeous!!

~MMM