Christmas time is here again

For us, Christmas isn't just a day, it's more like a week!

On Saturday we celebrated with just our family.

We started the morning with presents, and ate

lots of good food.  One of the fun things we did

this year was giving everyone in the family a

Nerf gun, then we had several battles in the house.

 

 

Sam was feeling the worst, and spent a lot of time sleeping, poor guy.

 

In the evening it started snowing, after sleeting on and off

during the day, so we even got a white Christmas! 

The kids didn't get out in it too much since they were

still worn out from being sick.

 

Tonight was our church Christmas program, these are the

three boys that were well enough to go.  Sometimes life

doesn't turn out how you expect, but you just have to go with the flow!

 

We have three more Christmases this week, lots more fun times

with family and more memories to be made!  Hopefully we'll

stay well from now on too.

 

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace

to men on whom his favor rests.

Luke 2:14

 

 

White Christmas Roses

 

At Thanksgiving Andy's mom gave us this set of

white rose dishes, called Governor's Mansion.

They belonged to Andy's Great-Grandma originally.

Here is an old photo of Andy's family using them about

60 years ago- his mom is on the left, then his grandpa and aunt.

 

 

When I saw them I thought they would be perfect

for our Christmas brunch this year!

I love using family treasures.

Andy bought me some white roses for our centerpiece,

to match the white rose on the dishes.

 

I added in some cedar and red berries from our woods.

 

 

Our brunch was very tasty, the menu included, honey glazed ham,

hashbrown and egg casserole, gingerbread boys, cinnamon applesauce,

and grapes.  I posted the recipe for these gingerbread boys earlier

in the week, you can find it here if you like.  They were yummy!

 

We had a great Christmas, although some of the kids are still feeling sick.

You can tell which ones by their faces in this picture!

 

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has come and has redeemed his people.

Luke 1:68

 

Christmas Wishes

 

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow we celebrate here at home with our family-

starting with presents in the morning,

followed by a Christmas brunch.

I'm hoping to share pictures

in the next day or two,

however, we have 3 sick with the

stomach flu today, so if that trend

continues, Christmas might

end up being pretty simple!

 

I hope your home is filled with

music, children, and the love of Jesus this week!

Real Truth Doesn't Change

For the word of the LORD is right and true;

he is faithful in all he does.

The LORD loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of his unfailing love.

Psalm 33:4-5

 

 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

 

God never changes.  He remains the same through all of time.

God's Word never changes either.  What was true 6,000 years

ago when the world began was still true 2,000 years ago when

Jesus was born, and it is still true today.

 

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind;

for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.

1 Samuel 15:29

 

Cultures do change their mind though, don't they?  When you don't

base what is true on God and His Word, truth is constantly changing.

Consider Germany 100 years ago.  Would they have dreamed that

in 20 years time they would have decided that it was ok to kill

millions of people because of their race?  Truth changed.

 

The same thing is happening today in our culture.

Truth is being redefined.  The big headline today is

Phil Robertson being suspended from the TV show, Duck Dynasty,

because he said homosexuality was a sin.

 

This morning I read this article from Yahoo news,

and it contained this quote:

 



"Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil's lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe," said GLAAD spokesman Wilson Cruz.

True Christians?  Talk about redefining truth.

 

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie,

and worshiped and served created things

rather than the Creator- who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Even their women exchanged natural relations

for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also

abandoned natural relations with women and

were inflamed with lust for one another.

Men committed indecent acts with other men,

and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Romans 1:25-27

 

 

So what should our role as Christians be?

Should we be staging protests, announcing with loudspeakers

on the streets the evils of homosexuality?  I think not.

Homosexuality is a sin, just like pride is a sin,

lying is a sin, and cheating on your husband or wife

is a sin.  So what should we be doing?

I agree with Phil Robertson, when he said,

 

 "My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other."

Then we will no longer be infants,

tossed back and forth by the waves,

and blown here and there by every wind of teaching

and by the cunning and craftiness of men

in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love,

we will in all things grow up into him

who is the Head, that is, Christ.

Ephesians 4:14-15

 

 

I am so glad that God never changes.

Thankfully he made a way so all of us sinners could be

made right with him again-

he gave us Jesus.

 



Gingerbread Boys

 

When I asked our boys what they wanted to eat for our brunch

on Christmas morning, Grandma's Gingerbread Boys

was the first thing they mentioned- so I thought I'd share the

recipe with you as well, they really are very good!

 

Raisin Gingerbread

 

1 1/4 c. milk

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. molasses or syrup

1 egg

1/2 t. ginger

1/2 t. salt

1 pkg. yeast

4 1/2 c. flour

1 c. raisins

 

I mixed the dough up in my bread machine, so that made it really easy.  But if you don't have a bread machine here are the "by hand" directions. 

 

In large mixing bowl combine 2 c. flour, yeast and ginger.  In saucepan heat and stir milk, butter, molasses, and salt until warm and butter almost melts.  Add to flour mixture along with egg.  Beat on low speed 30 seconds.  Beat on high speed 3 minutes.  Stir in remaining flour.  Add raisins and stir.  Knead until smooth and elastic.  Cover, let rise till double. 

 

Here is where I picked back up with the recipe when my dough was done in the bread machine- Punch down and let rest 10 minutes.  Roll to 3/4 inch thickness.  Cut into gingerbread boys with cookie cutter.  Place on lightly greased baking sheets.  Cover, let rise till double.  Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.

 

Decorate with butter frosting~

 

In large mixing bowl beat 1/3 c. softened butter until fluffy.  Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar, beating well.  Slowly beat in 1/4 c. milk and 1 1/2 t. vanilla.  Slowly beat in an additional 2-2 1/2 c. powdered sugar.  Beat in additional milk to make of piping consistency.

Hymnal Snowflakes

 

The kids and I had a fun time this morning making snowflakes

from old hymnal pages!  I got the idea from Anita Diaz at Far Above Rubies.

She has lots of great ideas for using family antiques in her décor,

craft ideas, and beautiful photos of the Great Smoky Mountains.

 

 

They turned out great!  After we were done making them I ironed

them to press them flat, which worked really well.

 

This is my "homemade tree" in the kitchen.

Besides the hymnal snowflakes, I also have crocheted

snowflakes that I made this fall, and paper cones

my Mom and I made one year.

 

 

We decorated them with vintage buttons and trims,

stickers, and ribbons.

 

 

I also hung some snowflakes from the windows.

(AJ had a mouthful of candy when I took this picture...)

 

Christmas decorating is so fun, and being able to enjoy

it with the kids is an added blessing!

Tree of Memories

 

One of my favorite parts of Christmas decorating

is all the memories that come as I put up the ornaments

on the Christmas tree.  Our Christmas tree is not

a "designer" tree, with a theme and perfectly matched

ornaments, but rather, a tree of memories.

The toy train above was given to my husband when

he was nine years old.  It still plays Jingle Bells!

 

 

These are our boys- as God gave us each of our children,

I bought an ornament that looked like them, and so

they are on our tree every year and are some of my

favorite ornaments.

 

The homemade ornaments definitely bring back more

fond memories than the store bought ones!  Andy

made the ball when he was a boy in school, and I

have such great memories of making the other three

ornaments shown with my Mom.  I remember she

didn't really feel like making the ice skates, but

she did anyways, what a good mom!

 

I keep telling myself as I decorate, the house doesn't need

to be perfect- as long as our home is filled with love,

Christmas will be great.

 

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God,

and God in him.

1 John 4:16

 

I'm joining Sandi's Home party today.

A Colorado Thanksgiving

 

This year we decided to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado

with Andy's family, and we are so glad we did!

Thanksgiving day, after the turkey, we went on this

beautiful hike in Colorado National Monument.

 

 

The kids had a great time climbing around

on all the rocks, I think their hike ended up

being about twice as long as ours, with all

the running around they did!

 

 

This was the view to the west, just amazing.

 

Then, we drove up over the Monument and stopped at

the spot where Andy proposed to me almost 17 years ago... aww.

 

It was so beautiful with the sun setting!

 

We had a lovely time, now I have mounds of laundry to do

and a house to decorate for Christmas--

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving too!