Christmas '09

Merry Christmas from the Browns! Here are the kids waiting patiently for our Christmas Eve dinner, back from our candlelight service.

It's our tradition to have a nice dinner on Christmas Eve, something special that we don't usually make. In the past it's usually been shrimp dishes, but this year Randy wanted to do Prime Rib. Thanks to a Christmas surprise by my Dad and stepmom, we made prime rib, twice baked potatoes, salad and homemade rolls. Unfortunately, I'm not really good at this picture taking thing yet so I didn't get pictures of our candle light dinner. It was fabulous, just trust me. I do have pictures of desserts.... I usually don't forget to take pictures of that.

I made Peppermint Cheesecake Truffles, Peanut Butter Cheesecake Truffles, Chocolate Oblivion Torte and a  Raspberry Roulade. Yummo as Rachel Ray would say.

This is what we enjoyed on Christmas Day, all snowed in with just our family. The meat and cheese tray was thanks to my Dad and stepmom again. They know the way to my boys' heart! All the goodies are thanks to friends and co-workers. We were abundantly blessed with treats this year..... thank you very much. I woke up this year planning my New Years diet.

I hope your day was very blessed as well.

Decorating on a Dime

I've never had a room full of Christmas decorations. They've consisted of a fake tree and a tub for decorations. Years of moving, many children, and a small budget has been the reason for this. But, in our previous, very small home, it wasn't like we were having company or Christmas parties or teas or anything so I was content with it. This year, however, we moved into a grand three story house. My desires and expectations grew quite a bit. My measly box of decorations would look down right silly in this house.

I surrendered the matter to the Lord and unpacked my box of decorations and put up our little tree... in the third floor window where only passersby and family could see it. I think it looks pretty cool way up there. Who else has a tree in their third floor window?

Well, the first floor remained empty. I read of a tree farm that is selling any size Christmas trees for $25.00. I am excited and Randy and I go and find the loveliest 12 foot tree they have. After borrowing a tree stand because ours is too small we erect this majestic beauty and add the only decorations I  have left, lights. I determine to love this big and beautiful empty tree, just like our big and beautiful empty house. And I really do. The boys, Alex and Joel, were found sitting on the couch facing the tree at 7am the morning after it was put up singing "Oh Christmas Tree." They love it too.

But God isn't finished blessing me yet. A friend tells me of someone wanting to give away some Christmas decorations and this friend also has a few to spare. So on Saturday after work I go on a Christmas decoration acquisition mission. I first head to The Caring Cupboard to see what they have. Not only do they have a lot of Christmas decorations, but it is buy one, get one free! I load up with about $12.00 worth of stuff. I then go to Hanna Variety, our cute little variety store in town. They have everything. I spend about $10.00. Then I am off to the lady that wants to get rid of some of her decorations. She is a wonderful sweet lady that gives me a beautiful oval braided rug ( I am jumpy for joy inside as we desperately need rugs) and a small box of decorations.

I then head over to my friends house who hands me a huge box of lights, the cutest garland and a few other things.

I spend the afternoon going through my treasures and decorating the house. The kids help with the tree.

Here is our living room before. Well, we've painted since then.....

Here is our living room after..... (I just love before and afters.)

Okay, so it's not House Beautiful or anything, but you should sit in there. It's beautiful and cozy. The photo of the tree just does not do it justice. It is simple and beautiful with red and green ornaments, lights and four spools of really nice fabric ribbon I got from The Caring Cupboard for 50 cents, tied in knots all over it.

Here, can you see the little knots of ribbon I tied all over the tree? I just love it.

Here's the mantel:

I know its hard to see, but I have little reindeer baskets at the bottom with apples ornaments in them.... Caring Cupboard. Candles and candlesticks, Caring cupboard; lights, garland, and curly gold things... ting, I think she called it, from my friend. Two glass bottles from Hanna Variety and the rest I had. So cute in person, you must come see it!

I also got this lovely wreath for $2.50, or free, which ever way it went.

We have lights and snowy, sparkly garland for the window sills, and several other Christmasy  things to randomly place around the house.

Now, when you look at the front of our house, you see this:

So people can stop asking me if we are going to spend Christmas in the attic with our Christmas tree way up there.

I usually look forward to ridding our house of the Christmas decorations and have to force myself to leave them up for a few days afterward. This year I'm going to be sad to see them go as they really warm up the place.

Hope your enjoying your Christmas season and keeping your eyes on Jesus, the real reason for the season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, being the great photo journalist that I'm not, I missed getting pictures of Thanksgiving Dinner. I missed the beautiful turkey that was moist and yummy thanks to Elise at Simply Recipes. The yummy dressing also thanks to her. I even used the broth from the giblets. That made me feel way cool and it was so good! We also had Emeril's Sweet Potatoes that has been come my yearly tradition. So yummy with the added orange. And here's what is left of the pies when I finally remembered my camera:

The pumpkin pie

I had to make for him. He discovered the love of pumpkin at about age 3 when all he ate for dinner was 3 pieces of pie.

That little slice of Peanut Butter Pie I made for the others. It was delish. Thank you, Mindee

The Sour Cream Raisin Pie

Don't ask me why blogger turned the photo sideways...

I made for my Dad

Here are some more pie lovers

    

 

We had a great time visiting with my Dad, my step-mom Von, and my nephew, Chance,

Here's all the kids with Grandpa and Chance has the black hair in back.

And I had to take a picture of Dad's shiny red pickup. He always has the shiniest pickup around.

It was a lovely day shared with family with much to be thankful for.

Surprise!

So what do you do when someone calls you and says "I'm from such and such appliances and we have a refrigerator to deliver to you" and you didn't buy one? You cry. Well that's what I did atleast.

Who bought it for us. I have know I idea.

How did they know our old fridge was on the brink of death? Maybe they've seen it.

So what do you do when someone calls you and says they are delivering you a new fridge? You clean out the old one, scrub the nasty floor underneath and get ready for the new one and do a little happy dance!

It is such a surprise, but yet it isn't. Because you know who is really behind it all? My Heavenly Father. Why should I be surprised when he knows our needs and provides for them, exactly how he says he will. It should come as no surprise at all that he does immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. And its not the first time I've been so greatly blessed. So why is it so surprising and overwhelming each time it happens?

It's because I am so like the Israelites. Delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians, yet grumbling and complaining and in fear, not seeing the hand of God providing water from the rock and food from the sky.

I've been repeating over and over, "God works all thing for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." That would be ALL things, not some things. I need to wipe clear my ideas of how I think God should work and trust completely in Him, no matter what.

So, thank you Lord for the beautiful refrigerator and bless those that have so greatly blessed me.

Sheet Cakes

I finally have a computer up and running enough to b able to post on my blog. I feel lost with out my laptop. Its fixed, but I am missing the operating system CD. Unfortunately you can't just call Dell and ask them a question. Its a complete maze that I'm sure they create on purpose so they don't have to answer phone calls!

The first two sheet cakes were for a Bridal Shower. The only request was for black, red and white. I wanted to find a little more modern look than the traditional flowers and came up with this. I love how it turned out. My writing could improve.....

The following cake was for a 4 year old boy that wanted a Sportacus cake. He's a character off the PBS show Lazy Town. Unfortunately I did not realize he was a real person until about 10pm last night. I finished about 2:30am. Real people are MUCH harder to do. I'm happy with the result. I guess the proof is in whether or not the little boy recognized the face.  Just remember, its frosting people!

The last cake is a Chocolate Oblivian Truffle Torte. This is the second one... the first one ended up on the floor by one of my kids..... second kitchen please! After I acted like it was the end of the world, I made another one and all was well. The accents on top are white chocolate.

Thanks for looking!

I need therapy

I wasn't going to blog today. I have lots to get done. But I have just gone through the most horrifying experience and I  need to debrief.

So I decide to most innocently vacuum out the fireplace. It has been overlooked since we have moved into our 100 year old house and is full of old cobwebs ( or maybe its spiderwebs, are they the same?)

Here's the fireplace after the fact. Still a little dusty looking.

See this thing? It is above, blocking the chimney opening. Its all vacuumed out now. But before it was full of "dirt".  I have my nice big shop vac and begin vacuuming out the dirt between the crevices. Only the dirt isn't dirt. Its dozens and dozens of birdie skeletons and all their birdie stuff. Seriously, if you had been walking by my house you would have heard me scream above the very loud shop vac, more than once. Only it didn't end at just a few. Little by little horrifying things fell to the floor. The horror went on for about 10 minutes as I wriggled the loose brick and let the scary stuff fall out. Little birdie skulls and legs and wings. Why, oh why, I asked my self, hadn't someone else thought to clean this out over the two years they had been working on the house?!!

Then, on top of it all, I looked behind me to find the nasty black dirt blowing out the other hole of the vacuum all over my living room!! Fortunately I don't have much furniture in there yet.

And here is the scary trap door at the bottom of the fireplace. I don't like scary trap doors that lead down dark dirty places that who knows what else is living in there.

I've claimed to be adventurous, but never brave. I'm a wimp around dead things and am still a little shakey over the experience. It will take me awhile to get the vision of the birdie skull stuck in the crevice tool that I had to bang free out of my head and I refuse to be the one to clean out the vacuum.

Thrifty treasures

I've always been a frugal shopper and have been shopping at thrift stores since college. In high school I had a friend who bragged about how much her stuff cost and I would brag out how cheaply I got mine.

I love finding great quality name brand items for dirt cheap. Its like a treasure hunt. With a large family, this is more of a necessity than a game. One thing I have learned is buy for quality, not just for price. You don't want a bunch of cheaply made stuff all over your house.

In our little town of Alma, we have a nice little thrift store called the Caring Cupboard. I like to go in there at least once a month to see what great finds I can come by. A couple of weeks ago I found a like new Eddie Baurer jean trench coat for a friend for $1.50!

Today I did great. I got the mother load for $6.50.

 With winter bursting upon us we were in need of hats, scarves and warm socks.

Here's what I got:

• 7 Magazines... October 2009 and a couple of summer ones
• Teen devotional book, hopefully it will get read
• Tae Bo tape.... always wanted to try it and now I can for 10 cents!
• Nice zippered hoodie & shoes for daughter
• Pair of jeans for son
• 10 pairs of really nice heavy socks!
• Long underwear & boxers (very well laundered, people!)
• 5 cool scarves, and
• 4 hats

Things like this make me feel successful. But remember "A bargain ain't a bargain unless it's something you need. " ~Sidney Carroll, A Big Hand for the Little Lady

I also like this one "We are not to judge thrift solely by the test of saving or spending. If one spends what he should prudently save, that certainly is to be deplored. But if one saves what he should prudently spend, that is not necessarily to be commended. A wise balance between the two is the desired end." ~Owen Young