Our Christmas 2010

We had such a blessed Christmas this year! I just have to share some great pics from our Christmas celebrating!! 

Last weekend we went to Illinois and celebrated with Sam's family. We had tons of fun celebrating with Sam's parents and then again with his Grandma. We also were given free tickets to a Rivermen hockey game (Go Rivermen!). They lost, but we won $20 to our favorite restaurant in Peoria, Avanti's. Mmmm I want a gondola just thinking about it! So that was great! Cody LOVED the hockey game and still talks about hockey. I wonder where he got that love from??? Many people are surprised to hear my hubbie used to play hockey and was a goalie at Liberty University. My kids definitely picked up on daddy's and now mommy's love of hockey.

Here are some pics of the kids fingerpainting boxes to give to grandparents. Wow! they LOVED it! But guess who got squeamish about getting ucky! Cody! of all people! I thought for sure Aimee would have issues but she was in 7th heaven! Cody felt the need to wash his hands FIVE times during this process! 

On Christmas Eve we got about 5 inches of snow and Daddy and Aimee and Cody went out and played for 2 hours building a snow fort! Let me tell you, I've never seen such pink noses and fingers! They had a blast!  

Here's Cody's "bicycle" for Christmas - he definitely needs to work on his driving skills but daddy's working on that! Cody loves it! 

And of course, who can resist CANDY!  

Aimee got little "dollies" for her dollhouse - she was very excited about them and quickly named the little girls Felicity and Natalie just like her 2 cousins. 

I think this pic is my FAVORITE! Who would have thought a view finder would bring so much excitement! 

And of course, if you've been following my blog lately, you can see the "dollyhouse" was a GREAT hit! Everyone got in on playing with it and oohing and ahhing at all of it's pieces! Absolutely wonderful! 

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas not only because we enjoyed giving gifts to each other but because the family memories were very sweet and the reflection on all that God has given us this Christmas was much needed as well! Hope you had a very merry Christmas!

Christmas Memories

Five years ago my husband and I were married on November 12th. We were the PERFECT couple! One of those couples that never disagreed, never fought, were always lovey dovey! Until Christmas Eve that is. That ALL changed! It was the worst Christmas EVER. You need a little background here to help you understand why it was so horrible. Sam and I were raised in different families. DUH! But really, when it came to Christmas and gift-giving, our families were NIGHT and DAY! 

For Christmas every year, Sam would make a Christmas list and give it to his parents. (Yes, he was still doing it when I married him.) So CHRISTMAS EVE he would open presents with his family and basically know EVERY single gift he received because he had asked for them. Disappointment was felt if certain things were received instead of other things but he was still basically happy because it was all things he wanted. 

I, on the other hand, would never DREAM of making a Christmas list for my parents because we were raised that if you ask for it, you WON'T get it!!! So a Christmas list would be for the sole purpose of nixing everything on the list. EVERYTHING I opened on CHRISTMAS MORNING was a complete SURPRISE! I had no idea what I was going to get - unless I happened to peek under my parents bed - but that's another story! 

Our first Christmas as husband and wife was set up for complete disaster but we had NO CLUE it was coming. 

Sooo imagine my surprise when my husband kept nagging me with questions of what I wanted for Christmas. So I would tell him basic ideas like a necklace or a new decoration for our new apartment. NO SPECIFICS! Poor Sam was desperate to find out what I wanted for Christmas so he took me shopping. The guy was really good. He took note of EVERY SINGLE THING that I noticed or said that I liked. He made me try on a coat and would make comments like: "so you would wear this size then?" Needless to say, I thought he was simply trying to get an idea of what I would want for Christmas - surely he wasn't going to buy EVERYTHING I said I liked, he was just figuring me out for a future grand SURPRISE present. I was WRONG!

On my part, I was pretty frustrated at how obvious Sam was being about telling me what he wanted for Christmas. I would have it all figured out and then he would TELL me he wanted it! There went that idea! I didn't want him to KNOW what he was getting from me. So I had to be pretty creative with my gifts and avoid EVERYTHING he informed me about wanting for Christmas. I accomplished it! He had NO CLUE what he was getting for Christmas!

We were both extremely excited about our first Christmas together and had all of these romantic visions of what it would be like. We were WRONG! 

We opened our gifts together and BOOM!!! It was a disaster! All of my gifts were the EXACT same things I had basically picked out for myself and there were NO surprises. For Sam, as he opened present after present, he got more and more and more disappointed because they were not what he was expecting!

The rest of the night was not the beautiful first Christmas together we had dreamed about. It was a mess! 

Now obviously, we worked it all out (we are still happily married after all!) and we both truly enjoyed the gifts we received from each other that Christmas. Several of the gifts are still around and they have fond memories attached to them! Now we laugh about our first Christmas and we have learned how to combine our two family traditions into something that works for both of us. We have learned that Christmas is not about the presents but about the heart and the love behind the person GIVING the gift and not at all about the gift itself. 

God's Christmas gift to the world is still not accepted with appropriate thanks from everyone. But the love behind the gift, God's LOVE for us is still just as constant and sure as it always has been. Are you one of those who have received God's gift? Have you believed that God sent His Son, Jesus into the world as a baby to one day grow up and pay the price for the sins of you and me by dying a cruel death on the cross? He was the only perfect One who could do that for us! But after dying, He did not stay dead, He miraculously  came back to life and is now making a place for those who believe in heaven with Him. If you only believe in what He has done for you, you will be a recipient of the greatest Christmas gift of all time, eternal life. 

Merry Christmas! 

May your Christmas have wonderful memories that will be passed on from year to year! 

Grandpa Dale's Pickles

This is my Grandpa Dale's amazing Bread and Butter pickle recipe. This is a special recipe to me because my Grandpa died when my mom was 16 and I never got the chance to meet him. But through my mom I've heard many fun stories that give me an idea of who he was. Below is his recipe for Crisp Bread and Butter Pickles. 

Sliced Cucumbers

Sliced Onions

Green Peppers

Salt

Cloves of Garlic

Prepare and slice all of these ingredients and let soak in water for three hours.

Drain. 

Put in a big stock pot and add the mix below.

Sugar

Tumeric

Mustard Seed

Celery Seed

Vinegar

Heat to boiling - mixture will not cover the pickles but the pickles will cook down eventually til they are covered. As soon as it boils spoon into hot and clean canning jars and put lids and rings on them and process in a canner for 15 minutes after the water starts boiling. Remove from canner and let cool. Make sure the lids seal then ENJOY!!! 

Now you may see I don't provide the amounts to the ingredients. That's because I don't want Grandpa's recipe to get lost on the world wide web. But I'm more than happy to share! If you are a follower on the right, click on the contact me tab at the top of my page and simply ask me for the complete recipe. If you're not a follower simply follow first then contact me! I LOVE these pickles and I know you will too! 

Loved for generations!

Toys can hold such sweet memories! My sister and I led some very interesting and different lives that were imagined through the "lives" of our Barbies or our Fisher-Price Little People. We traveled to exotic places on our rocking horse. We became architects and built beautiful castles and houses for our Lego people. Our paper dolls were dressed in beautiful and fantastic ways! I even remember how our yellow pom-pom was used for everything from a campfire to a beautiful wig on our head! Making "hamburgers" for mom and dad in our play kitchen holds sweet memories too. My sister and I sometimes take a walk down memory lane and remember times when life was much simpler. Playtimes were some of the most happy memories of our childhood that we have.

Watching my kids begin to develop their own playtimes and being creative with their imaginations is so exciting to me! It's funny too because I've noticed how the toys I really want to get for my kids are the same ones that I have sweet memories about! My kids have Little People, a play kitchen, Legos, and Melissa and Doug dress up girls. Aimee also has Barbies, but I'm somewhat regretting that decision because "her girls" always seem to be a little cold from the lack of clothing, and "mommy" doesn't seem to think it's a big deal!

My mom did a great job of saving some of our precious toys for us as we have our own children. Crazy thing is, they were her toys too! I received a little rocking chair where I rocked my "babies," attached stuffed animals up to it like a dogsled, and became a paralytic for my sister to push around in my "wheelchair." Now my kids have it and that is so precious to me! My niece just turned two years old and it was time for her to receive her special toy from Grammy. Mom had me go to storage and grab our old rocking horse and clean it up for her. I decided to bring it home first and let my kids rock away and boy did they love it! Especially my horse-loving Cody! Precious times.

What toys did you love as a child and do your kids play with them or something like them now?

Sad

I'm a little sad. I am selling my Classic Winnie-the-Pooh nursery set. 

The set that I FELL. IN. LOVE. WITH. AT. FIRST. SIGHT. 

The set that I bought on Ebay for $150 because I was the only bidder. 

The set that if I had bought it in the store it would have been $1500. 

The set that I decorated Aimee's nursery with when I was only 5 months pregnant. 

The set that I used for my son when he was born too. The set that has graced our nursery for the last 3 and a half years. I'm selling it. Why? Because my kids don't really like Winnie-the-Pooh. My daughter likes Princesses and Pink and Flowers. My son likes Cars, (not the Disneyized just a regular car fettish) Trucks, and Bikes, and the occasional Dinosaur. Someday God will call my husband to be a pastor at "The Church" and we will move again. Therefore, I have plenty of time to downsize and sell things we don't need online or wherever. *Sigh* Therefore, I am going to buck up and sell it and preserve it in my memories and in pictures and on my blog. There done. Thanks for allowing me my trip down memory lane!