Christmas Notebook

menu plan monday ~ november 26, 2012

November 26, 2012 – 8:23 pm

Now that the living room tree is done, we can move on to other projects. The girls decorated the scrapbook room tree for me. I have a few smaller trees to finish and two trees that need some finishing touches. Other than that, the trees are done. Now on to other things. Like baking the last of the cookies for the Open House. My granddaughter made the dough for these Spiced Shortbread Cookies last week and put it in the fridge for me to bake when I had time. I made it into little gingerbread boys and girls.

With all the work to do before the weekend, meals are going to be quick and easy this week.

Monday
Ham and Turkey Sandwiches
Homemade Bread
Pretzels

Tuesday
Chicken and Dumpling Soup

Wednesday
Tacos
Homemade Tortilla Chips
Avocado Sour Cream

Thursday
Homemade Pizza

Friday
Fridge Food

Saturday
Alton’s Pot Roast in the Crock Pot
Homemade Buns
Chips and Dip
Red Grapes

Sunday
Ham or Turkey Sandwiches
Homemade Buns

You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Comments (0)

decorating the living room tree

November 25, 2012 – 10:48 am

DH has the week off to help with the last of the Christmas decorating. We still have a ways to go, but I think we’re on track. The girls were a big help yesterday with the living room tree. It takes several days to complete it. A big job! Buttercup, our youngest daughter’s cat, wanders in now and then to see what’s going on.

And the girls took some time now and then for extra fun…do you know what they’re doing?

Blanket tattoos!

After stringing the lights, which takes five or six hours to complete, the red beads are added to the tree. We use two strands of red beads in two sizes.

The beads are attached to the branches with ornament hooks.

Then the popcorn and cranberry strings are placed. It takes six bags of cranberries to make enough garland for this tree. This year, the berries were very small. Tip for making popcorn and cranberry strings…pop the corn a few days ahead of when you want to string it. Stale popcorn won’t break apart like freshly popped will.

After the bow topper is in place, it’s time for the ornaments. This tree holds the ornaments we’ve collected over the years. Vacations and trips, family events, etc. And the girls personal collections are on this tree as well.

When the ornaments are done, the tinsel goes on.

We were eager to be done at this point, but everyone took time to place the tinsel carefully.

I’ll get a better picture at some point, but here’s the finished tree.

I’m going to make valances for our middle daughter’s room today. That won’t take long. I also plan to make a tree skirt for the blue and silver tree, using a round table cloth and some pale blue snowflake tulle. I’ll let you know how that goes.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas | Comments (1)

candy turkeys and a happy thanksgiving day

November 23, 2012 – 1:31 pm

We have much to be thankful for. God proves Himself faithful and generous in every way. This year, we are particularly grateful for the fact that our son and his family now live nearby.

Thanksgiving Day started early. DH picked the twins up a bit after 8:00 and took them to church with him and our three daughters for the annual Thanksgiving Worship service. At home, I waited for my Dad to arrive. It was great to have him join us. Genny was supposed to come, as well, but was unable to make it. She joined her daughter and son-in-law instead.

Dad brought a special gift to me. I drew this sketch of the little barn behind our house on the wall of my closet when I was perhaps 14 year old. Dad and Mom saved it when the house was torn down and Dad had it framed to give to me. Something I will treasure.

After church, the twins took part in a family tradition. We’ve been doing this for many years. Making candy turkeys!

For Thanksgiving dinner, we headed to the family farm where our older son and his family live. The twins are the seventh generation of our family to live on the farm.

A candy turkey for each dinner plate…

The turkey was delicious! As were the other dishes…stuffing with oysters, sweet potatoes, au gratin potatoes, mashed potatoes, pasta and cheese, homemade rolls, green beans with mushroom sauce, corn casserole…I’m forgetting dishes, I’m sure.

After dinner, we played Apples to Apples. Fun!

Rose Red showed the kitty to Great-Pa.

Then dessert. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake.

And chocolate chess pie.

Not to mention the pumpkin pie, the apple pie or the peach pie…

After we came home, we worked on stringing more popcorn and cranberry strings while we watched Brave.

We plan to put up the living room tree today.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in family | Comments (1)

menu plan monday ~ november 19, 2012

November 20, 2012 – 1:40 pm

We are grateful for the holiday set aside for thanking God for His many good gifts and blessings. We hope your Thanksgiving Day is one of joyful thanks and gratitude.

Christmas decorating continues at our house. This week and next will be very busy. The household cats don’t seem to mind. Buttercup does not bother the trees at all, but she sure does love to nap under them.

Cedar is content to lounge around the kitchen, watching DH make fudge.

We won’t be doing much lounging the next few weeks, though. The menu for this week reflects the rush we’ll be in.

Monday
Hamburgers or Tacos / diner’s choice

Tuesday
Ham or Turkey Sandwiches
Pretzels
Red Grapes

Wednesday
Chicken and Dumpling Soup
Rosemary Bread

Thursday / Thanksgiving Dinner
I’m taking:
Green Beans with Mushroom Sauce
Homemade Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cheesecake

Friday
Fridge Food

Saturday
Homemade Pizza

Sunday
BBQ Chicken in the Crock Pot
Homemade Buns
Celery and Carrot Sticks with Ranch Dip
Red Grapes

You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Comments (0)

chalkboard Christmas tree

November 20, 2012 – 1:11 am

Genny was here this weekend, helping with Christmas decorating. She worked on the chalkboard Sunday and made an amazing Christmas tree. I found the idea at the blog “A Legg Up” which is no longer available.

Our chalkboard starts about a foot above the floor and is just over eight feet tall. Genny began by dividing it vertically and then marking the horizontal branches. Then she started at the top and began drawing in the figures and decorations. The twins took the opportunity to climb up and down the ladder a few times.

“Sisters. Sisters. There never were such devoted sisters…”

We duplicated a lot of the tree I found online, but made some changes.

It took seven and a half hours to complete the tree. All that detail takes time!

We added a nativity to the bottom of the scene. The final product…

Genny promises this is the only year you are going to get to see this tree. Now all we have to do is keep the twins from drawing on it…

Update: Genny relented and drew another tree in 2013. Twelve Days of Christmas Chalkboard Tree 2013

And another in 2014. Nativity Chalkboard Tree 2014

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas, Uncategorized | Comments (10)

popcorn and cranberries and little helpers

November 17, 2012 – 10:36 pm

This evening we started making strings of popcorn and cranberries for the living room tree. Snow White was entranced. She stuck with it until I told her it was bedtime. She told her great-aunt Genny, “I helped you because you needed lots of help!”

By the way, she did her own hair-do, in case you were wondering…

More stringing another day…bedtime for Ma, too.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas, family | Comments (0)

working on the glass tree

November 15, 2012 – 8:50 pm

The tree in our upstairs guest room is decorated with ornaments made of spun and molded glass. Today, our son and daughter-in-law came by to help decorate the tree. It took all afternoon, but they stuck with it.

The twins are fascinated by the whole decorating process. Today was no different. It’s fun to watch them taking it all in.

They are also fascinated by Pa’s ladder…

Watching the tree go ’round…

Both twins loved turning the revolving tree stand on and off.

She said, “It’s sooooo pretty!”

It’s done except for putting the ribbon on the tree. We’ll do that in the morning.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in Christmas, twins | Comments (3)

menu plan monday ~ november 12, 2012

November 12, 2012 – 2:19 pm

We accomplished more Christmas decorating this week. Genny was here to help over the weekend. The library tree is done and the silver/blue tree is also finished. It doesn’t have the tree skirt under it yet, but I’ll get that done this week.

We put up the snowflakes in the kitchen on Sunday afternoon. The ceiling is 12′ high, so the hanging snowflakes make a very pretty display.

Here’s a bird’s eye view from the top of the ladder.

My middle daughter made the cookie dough for Lemon Shortbread Cookies and for Sugar Cookie Crisps. That was a big help. She put the dough in the fridge and I made the cookies a few days later, when I had a window of opportunity.

Here’s the menu for this week of decorating and Christmas prep.

Monday
Homemade Pizza
Didn’t get to this one last week, as the girls were all gone that evening. DH brought take-out home for a nice change of pace.

Tuesday
Friends are bringing Chinese take-out over for supper. Looking forward to spending some time with them!

Wednesday
Pork shank and Lentil Stew
Cornbread

Thursday
Creamy Bacon Crock Pot Chicken
Garden Salad
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas

Friday
Chicken Quesadillas
Avocado Sour Cream
Homemade Tortilla Chips

Saturday
Spicy Shredded Pork
Homemade Buns
Pretzels

Sunday
Spaghetti
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
Homemade Rolls
Garden Salad
Peas
Corn

Just so you know…there are only ten days left until Thanksgiving! We are looking forward to dinner with our son and his family, my sister Genny and my Dad.

You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

By ~~Rhonda | Posted in menu | Comments (1)

after-school coffee break

November 8, 2012 – 9:49 pm

After two years of homeschool, our youngest daughter now goes to public high school. When she gets home, we usually take some time to chat. Coffee was the order of the day, today. Chilly out.