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.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
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!
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....
Friday, December 2, 2011
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
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
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