Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

The best hot chocolate mix I have ever come across cam from my mother-in-law.  She typically makes it every winter.  This year I was the one to make it for everyone.

2 cups powdered sugar
8 quart box dry powdered milk
3 cups Nesquik
6 oz dry coffee creamer
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix thorougly and store in airtight contain.  Use 1/4 to 1/3 cup per serving.

This makes a HUGE amount, great for giving as gifts and keeping around the house.

A Different Kind of CHRISTmas

This year, we were challenged by our church to join what they called "A CHRISTmas Conspiracy."  The idea was to keep three things in mind during this Advent season.

1.  Spend Less
2.  Give More
3.  Love Everyone

We weren't asked to completely give up spending this year, just to spend less on the USELESS, obligatory gifts.  We were challenged to give more, of ourselves, more thoughtful gifts, more to those in need (with the money we didn't spend on the useless).  And finally to love everyone, even the hardest to love, and the lowest of low.  Yes, God called the Magi to pay a visit to a very young Jesus, but the ones He called FIRST were the shepherds, the ones who NO ONE wanted around, the thieves and homeless of the time.  They were the FIRST to see Jesus, and the FIRST to get a glipmse of the Good News.

Paul and I took the challenge very seriously this year.  Instead of buying gifts for everyone, we tried to make most of our gifts, using things we already had, and set a limit for each other.  For aunts and uncles we made a basket with treats in a jar...cappucino, hot chocolate, brownie mix and pancake mix.  And what a hit it was, and so easy to be done (and they looked pretty).

For each other we set a $40 limit.  At first it was very difficult for me to figure out what to get him for just $40.  It's not even that $40 is a small amount of money, it's a fairly substantial chunk of change and it challenged me to be more purposeful in my giving.  After much mulling and considering, I settled on a date night in a bag, and a way for us to document what has gone on over the past year, every year. 

The date night in a bag had the movie "Date Night," some boxes of our favorite candies, a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of salsa con queso.

The second gift I gave Paul was a scrapbook that we can use to document every Christmas with a little blurb about what went on that year.  I thought of this because we take pictures in front of the Christmas tree pretty much every year, and I wanted us to be able to share these with our future children and eventually grandchildren.  The most fantastic part of this project what that the only thing I had to purchase was the photos.  I had EVERYTHING else already at home (and Paul tells me I spend too much on scrapbooking supplies).  I was fairly certain that we had taken pictures during our first six Christmases together, although I could only find three, so I had them printed, and put them in the book with their dates, then started a "page" with the 7th.  That was the year Paul proposed at Disney in the presence of our families.  Because our first official date was to go see "The Incredibles" Paul proposed at the meet and greet with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible.  The background to that page had the Incredibles logo on it.  This year the page was left blank, allowing us to write our memories together.  I used paper from our wedding invitations for the background and one of the extra cards from our memories jar as a place for us to do our journaling.  I am so excited to see how this turns out as our family grows over the next few years!

Christmas Preparations Continued

The tree skirt and stockings have been completed.  The skirt is A LOT larger than I thought...for whatever reason I didn't think that a 36" radius was going to be that big.  The cat's love it, that's for sure.  The stockings are also done.  For a while I thought that Paul's wasn't going to happen because I broke 2, count them, 2 needles for my sewing machine trying to get his put together.  Teaches me to try to tear through projects I guess.

Next project to tackle....blankets!

Christmas Preparations

Two weeks ago, the first Sunday of Advent, we decided to pull out the Nativity set that we have.  It's a good thing that my Black Friday escapades went well and we were able to get a new TV because the Nativity set now fits VERY nicely on our mantle, under the TV.

This past weekend, we went to find our Christmas tree.  We found a farm that sounded promising online.  Well, if we wanted a 20 foot tree it would have been very promising.  Because we wanted a 7-8 foot tree, it was not promising at all, and we ended up leaving to go to another farm.  We were MUCH more successful there, found our tree and it's now at home, waiting to be decorated. 

Well, finding the tree wasn't that easy.  We found one we liked almost right away, but decided to walk around more to see if there was another we liked better.  We found a couple others, but kept thinking about that first tree.  Finally we decided on the tree, then, couldn't find it.  It still amazes me that all those trees look the same, even when you take a picture of it so you remember what it looks like.  Needless to say, once we made our final decision, we walked around for a while trying to re-locate the perfect tree for our house.  We even got to the point that if we couldn't find it, we would go back to our second pick.  Finally it was found!  And then promptly cut down.

The cats aren't so sure about the tree.  They like it, think it's their new chew toy, and the water for the tree is their new water bowl.  Hopefully the tree skirt will help deter them.

Projects for Christmas are starting to add up. Stockings are being made (1 down, 1 to go), the tree skirt needs to be made, blankets have to be tied, gift jars have to be assembled, cookies have to be made....

A to Z

This past Sunday, Mountain had a guest speaker who preached on the fact that God STILL changes lives.  He has never stopped.  And we might need to ask ourselves who WE say Jesus is.  At the end of the sermon he left us with this.

Jesus is the...

Alpha
Beginning
Christ the conqueror
Deliverer
Eternal God
First born from the grave
God Almighty
Healer of our hurts
Simply Incredible
Jesus
King of Kings
Lord of Lords
Messiah, my master
Name above all names
Overseer of our souls
Prince of peace
Quiets our storms
Ressurection
Savior
Truth
Unchangable
Way
X-factor, eXalted to His Father's side
Your hero and my hero
Zealous for His kingdom and zealous for your soul

One Fruit

After breakfast this morning, as we do every weekday morning, Paul and I were reading Scripture together.  Today’s reading came from Galatians 5:13-26.  In this section, the Apostle Paul is speaking to the church at Galatia about the living by the spirit.  As we read verses 22-26 specifically, I was reminded of the way it was explained to me one time.

The passage reads, “ ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

I was reminded that so many times we read this as, “But the fruits of the Spirit are…” rather than, “But the fruit of the Spirit is…”  Paul is not talking about many fruits, as we often refer to, but one fruit with many parts.  It was once described like an orange, rather than a fruit basket.  We often think of it as a fruit basket, each characteristic its own fruit.  By thinking of it like an orange, the fruit of the spirit is the orange, which each characteristic a wedge of the orange.  We need each characteristic to fully have the fruit, not some of them.  If we strive to pick and choose which characteristics we want, it is as though we are picking and choosing the nutrients we get from a particular food.  In this day and age we want all the nutrients from foods for our physical bodies, why wouldn’t we want the same for our spiritual self as well?

Full of Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving and while we are busy preparing Thanksgiving dinner (or at least most of it) for the first time as husband and wife, I realize there is so much for us to be thankful for.
One of the things I am most thankful for at the moment is that I have a very loving husband, who I had the pleasure of making a covenant with just 3 weeks ago, on our seventh anniversary in front of our closest family and friends.  For Paul's sake, I am so thankful that his grandfather's nurse was wrong, and that not only was he alive for our wedding, but that he was able to fully participate in all the wedding activities.  I am also thankful for my loving family, and the fact that it has grown and so has the love.  They all are looking out for the both of us, and are willing to help in whatever way they can.  This morning it was so nice to have a nice conversation with Dad, talking turkey and talking about how things are going.

The turkey is in the oven, and all the "fixings" are well on their way to being done!

Wedding Memories

Everyone told me that the day would go by crazy fast, and for wahtever reason, I didn't believe them.  That is, until Paul and I were on our honeymoon and looked at each other one day saying, "Do you remember what the cake looks like?"  Yeah, it went by fast.

The wekend started Friday with a luncheon for out of town guests.  It had a "Welcome to Maryland" theme with some of both of our favorites, along with Maryland cuisine.

After everyone ate WAY to much food (and there was WAY too much left over), Paul and I hosted our own version of Jeopardy, a way for our families to get to know each other and a way for them to find out some interesting stuff about us.  After all the questions were answered, and the prizes given out, Paul and I shared our story, how we met, how we felt about each other and how we started dating.  We realized that many of our families members had not heard the story, and they were all excited to hear it and were glad that we shared it.

After the party, and after everyone went home, we were able to relax a litle before the rehearsal.  The rehearsal went great.  It took a long time to hang the new banners that Paul's mom made for us.  Our musicians sounded great (even with a change of music at the last minute), the girls did a fantastic job, the guys were great, and Dad even made a joke!

  

 

Pastor Craig asked, "Who gives her away?" and Dad responded, "The milkman."

At least he got a few laughs out of that one.

After the rehearsal we shared a wonderful meal before heading to our respective beds to try to get a couple hours of sleep before the "Big Day."

My day started with hair and makeup at 6, I was up at 4.  Fortunately I was able to get a cup of coffee and a little bit to eat before getting going for the day. 

    

 

At this point the day really becomes a blur, and as of right now I have very few photos to help remind me of the day.  Us girls got dressed, then headed to the church.  Dad and I were fortunate enough to be able to ride in a classic car, a nice quiet ride through the country.

   

The service went very well.  Couldn't have asked for anything nicer.  After the service Paul and I piled back into the car to drive to the reception.  The reception was especially a blur.  Eating, socializing and doing all the "normal" reception stuff led to a very busy day before coming back to the condo for some more family time and gifts to be opened.

Then off to our honeymoon!