It’s nice to have family blogging now. My sister-in-law just posted a fun video clip of the kids doing sparklers. So I get to cheat and just post the link here:

Happy 4th of July

You’ll hear Blake in the background as well as some crazy sparkler happy kids.

If I were at home with my mom today I’d be on day two of putting together flower arrangements and visiting cemeteries for deceased family. She’s done it my entire life and taught me how important it was to remember and honor my ancestors and all their sacrifices.

I’m a thousand miles away and so can’t help with the grave decorating, but I can pay tribute in my own way here on my blog.

I come from a noble heritage on all sides and I’ve always tended to take that for granted. Just this past month I’ve been reading through family history documents that I have copies of. I love history and when I read these personal accounts and stories it’s like I get a little taste of what it was like in their time. I am so grateful my husband’s grandmother gave me a copy of the family civil war letters because I dearly love reading them. I’m also supremely grateful for extended family who have compiled entire books of family history and genealogy. Without these I would not have any way to know my ancestors. I never knew my mother’s father as he died before she was married and without these histories I would have no way to connect with him or learn who he was.

I often wonder if our ancestors weep over us in our day. They gave their all for us to enjoy all the things we do today. Many of them struggled and sacrificed deeply that we might never know those same struggles and sacrifices. Thanks to them we live in a time of abundance when all we could ever want or need is readily available. We’ve become fat and lazy, feeling entitled to the instant gratification that is so plentiful today. Sometimes I think of this as a love mistake scenario. As a parent you never want your children to suffer any of the same things you did - you want them to have it all, every opportunity and every happiness. Consequently we as parents may overdo it sometimes in giving to our children and in removing painful lessons or experiences. Unfortunately, with no personal experience in painful learning and growth too many grow with ingratitude and cause their parents more pain than they thought imaginable. I hope I’m finding a balance for my children and I think often on what my self-sacrificing ancestors would have to say to me today. I hope I’m showing my gratitude and love and passing it on to my posterity. Maybe we’d do well to have a few more days a year to reflect on a picture bigger than us. There are thousands of years of history above us, ancestors that paved the way for us to be here today. Too often I find myself getting stuck in the rut of my personal here and now - thinking only on my own family that I’ve known in my life time. So just for today (and hopefully many more to come) I’ll spend some time and effort getting to know my ancestors and the heritage they’ve given me.

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I’ve gotten most of the Christmas projects done, thanks to the push of the mailing packages time line. But I still had a few ideas for simple food items in mind to finish off the neighbor gifts. I was going to do some small bags of half dipped chocolate pretzels, maybe a jar of homemade jam or syrup, or a few simple baked goodies to go with the personalized soap pumps for neighbors but somehow the energy really starts to drizzle at this point in the game for me. And then I had two unexpected and simple successes yesterday.

The First: Class Gift Bags

He wanted to do something for his classmates, all 17 of them. I needed simplicity as well as an activity that would keep him busy. So I stopped on the way home from school yesterday to get some pretzels for the half dip. He also picked out some tissue paper for wrapping. When we got home I showed him how to dip half the pretzel in the melted chocolate and then he sprinkled them with red sugar crystals. He loved it and did it all by himself.

Then he cut out plain strips of tissue paper and crinkled it up to go inside some little snack bags.

He counted out some Santa chocolates and put 4 pretzels in small sucker bags to stuff all the bags.

He sat on my lap and typed in a Christmas greeting and picked out a picture. Then he helped me tape on ribbon to each and we stapled them to the bags.

He was so pleased with himself and loved handing them out today being sure to tell all his classmates how special they were because he made them all himself! It was the perfect activity for a 5 year old including dipping, cutting, counting, typing and taping. Better yet was the whole thing took less than an hour. Happy kid, happy mom.

The Second: Happy Homemade Solution

As the energy dwindles for doing anything more, I thought about what I really wanted to learn how to make - English Toffee. I love the stuff. I thought earlier in the year I’d tackle more homemade chocolates but that was when talk was easy and ideas sounded simple. So yesterday I sat down and Googled “homemade toffee” and clicked on this link: Awesome Homemade Toffee. I read the following and thought surely it couldn’t be THAT simple:

1 pound butter
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
16 ounces milk chocolate chips

But it was! I already had all the ingredients (by the way, the milk chocolate chips were perfect for melting and dipping too!) My first ever batch turned out wonderful. As I looked at my pretty glass jars I saw the perfect solution - putting the toffee in the jars. Voila! One batch made 10 jars!

I think I just came up with a new Christmas gift tradition/solution for years to come. *wink*

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I love Kohl’s. Don’t get me wrong, I hate shopping but I love saving money. A few weeks ago my husband and I braved the store for some shopping. With all their 40-60% off sales we not only got more than we had planned but kept shaking our heads walking out the door at how little it cost and how in one stop we’d done nearly all our shopping. From that trip I got $30 toward my next purchase at their store and a 20% off coupon in the mail to boot. So yesterday I forced myself to go out again so as not to waste the $30.00 which expires today or the extra 20% off coupon which expires Monday.

The kids are getting their toys for Christmas and this year my hubby and I are getting a dining room table - a nice one. It’s being delivered on Monday. My daughter is so excited to use my wedding china for our Christmas dinner and on a new table to boot. So I was thinking a great place to put the $30 was toward a nice table cloth/setting for our Christmas dinner. Well at first I was intimated because our table is huge and the size table cloth I’d need was $49.99 by itself. Then I saw the 60% off signs everywhere. So I got all this (over $100 of price tags) for…..drum roll please……

….a whopping $13.40! Now that’s my kind of Christmas surprise.

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I get so many questions and comments this time of year about my gingerbread houses and cookies. It seemed appropriate to share what I do here for anyone interested!

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‘Twas a week before Christmas and where have I been?
Let’s take a little photo tour. Oh where to begin…

On Thursday I hosted a progressive dinner but the tree tipping over was by far the winner. I can’t complain as for 16 years it has brought holiday cheer!

No worries though mates the main tree is fine, the other is just telling us it’s done it’s time.

Friday was spent in the classroom with Tay helping the kids learn and play.

Saturday morning was here too soon bringing a choir performance to be to by noon.

The rest of the day we kept the kids busy building bath kits for their school teaching buddies.

After church on Sunday mom baked gingerbread in masses. Finishing projects is going slow as molasses.

Monday brings a ray of light as the final projects are wrapped up tight. But the real fun comes on Monday night when the kids decorate to their heart’s delight!

I thought about sharing my kitchen’s state and explaining it’s why my blogging was late. But I lost the nerve and cleaned it first. Now you can see my spoils which are no longer being cursed.

So as you can see I’ve been rather busy, but it hasn’t gotten me all in a tizzy. This is the season for busy and crazy but after New Year’s it all gets hazy. To you and yours I wish a wonderful week, thanks for dropping by my corner to have a peek.

p.s. Bring on the Calgon!

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Thanks to my friend, Jamie, I have a wonderful holiday find to share!

The question is Christmas cards. In years past I’ve done everything from custom cards and photos to all out letters and even a few years of generic bulk cards. Last year I didn’t get any done and I was okay with that! It’s not that I don’t care but because I’m cheap I like to do as much myself as I can and that means more work and hassle thus more procrastination, etc. I do enjoy seeing updated pictures from friends and family and so I was giving this year’s cards some thought when I read Jamie’s post last week. She made it sound so easy that I decided I’d check into it.

So I went to winkflash to see what their specials were and how hard/easy it would be to make a postcard with a photo. It was easy and inexpensive enough but I couldn’t find a decent picture in the recent archives. So I drug the kids in (grumping all the way) from outside play to take an impromptu picture on the stairs. Their shirts were showing a day’s wear and had their favorite logos and writing on them. So I had them throw on a jacket and coat. 5 minutes later I had at least a few pictures to choose from and they were back outside playing. Here’s a short reel from the efforts:

I took a few back to the site and played with a few templates. 10 minutes later I let my kids help me pick their favorite and ordered 50. This was all last Thursday, December 6th. Yesterday, just two business days later I got my package in the mail. The quality is excellent and the cost was a whopping $18.00!

So this year family and friends will be getting this in the mail:

Oh, and the stamps came yesterday too. I’m going to get decent cards out after all! And all for 15 minutes of effort and $18.00 from the piggy bank. Merry Christmas to me!

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It felt like Christmas came early at my house yesterday. My kids love family and it’s hard during holiday times not to have any around. So it was a fun thing to have my aunt and uncle come have dinner with us yesterday during their visit to Arizona. We had a wonderful dinner and went to look at the temple lights and nativities after. The lights were beautiful and the international nativity collection was really fun. We even caught some of a performance outside while walking around.

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