Christmas Verse

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It is at last the week of Christmas! I hope all of your days are merry and bright, full of joy, peace and thanksgiving as we celebrate Christ the Lord.

 

Christmas Verse

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Are you starting to get a little bit more excited about Christmas? I can hardly believe it is just over a week away. Let us not get caught up in the hustle and bustle of buying last-minute gifts and forget the real meaning of this special holiday, the birth of Jesus. Enjoy this wonderful Sunday, friends!



12 Beers of Christmas Advent

The past few weeks I've been trying to figure out something fun to do for Bryan this holiday season. I thought about doing 12 Dates of Christmas or some type of homemade chocolate advent calendar for each day of December. Then, I came up with the best solution yet: 12 Beers of Christmas Advent.

 

With advent calendars, you normally open up a gift each day of December. And we all know that in the song the 12 Days of Christmas you end up with 24 gifts at the end.  I made up my own rules to form a 12 Beers of Christmas Advent.

 

I went to the liquor store and picked out twelve different beers. Some were Bryan's favorites and some he hadn't tried before. Ideally I would have loved to have gotten just holiday ales or winter lagers, but there wasn't a huge selection of those.

 

 

Next, all you need is Christmas paper and a hot glue gun. I have gobs and gobs of Christmas stickers, paper and embellishments all in storage, so I made a quick run to Michael's and purchased a 12x12 stack of Christmas paper. {The paper had a sheet with the dates of December!} With my handy Cutter Bee I quickly and easily cut strips of paper to wrap around the beer so that each night the brand and type would be a surprise. I tried a couple of different ways trying to get the paper to stay on the bottles and figure out that using a hot glue gun was the best.

 

 

To semi-disguise the bottle caps I used a snowflake punch with some of the paper and adhered them to the top with 3D pop dots.

 

 

Time is precious to me right now, so I didn't have a lot of time to put a lot of effort into this. I think I spent about an hour and a half total. It is a little something extra special for my hubby to enjoy each day this season so that he knows how much I love him.

 

 

And it is nice to have a festive and happy fridge full of beers to enjoy.

 

 

Do you have an advent calendar that you are opening each day this month? Or are you doing any form of gift giving for the 12 days of Christmas? If so, please share!



Holiday Gift Guide: for the Food Lover

 

Christmas Verse

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Growing up I remember playing with the nativity set that my mother had placed on our buffet each year during the Christmas season. There were three angles hanging at the top and I always imagined them saying this verse. My mother loves telling the story about how my little sister would pull out her Barbies and have them worship the baby Lord Jesus. Do you all have a nativity set somewhere in your house? I realized last year that I didn't have a full set anywhere as decor. Back in October I found a Fontanini set at Tuesday Morning! It's the little things that add such special touches here and there.



Holiday Gift Guide: Outdoor Guru

How is the Christmas shopping going? Thank you to all of you who have sent me messages or left comments about items you have found through my Gift Guides. It does take me a while to get them together, and it really encourages me when I get positive feedback from you. Picking gifts for people who love the outdoors can be difficult since there are so many outdoor activities. Let me tell you, it is much easier to find things for men than women! Here are a few of the things I've found. Have a wonderful Tuesday!
   

 

Christmas Verse

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My favorite time of year at church is the Christmas season. I always enjoy the seeing the red poinsettas, singing Christmas songs and hearing about the events leading up to our Savior's birth. I hope you all are blessed during this wonderful time of year.



Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts & Accessories for Him

 

{Click on the pictures for links to purchase.}

Accessories for Her

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday weekend. We spent Thursday night with a group of friends, celebrating with turkey, pumpkin pie and lots more other delicious dishes. Bryan got to hunt and fish, while I had to spend my days at the boutique. I was wiped out after the craziness of Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. Did you all find any good deals over the weekend or on Cyber Monday yesterday? I could not get the Gifts for Him up on Friday so I'll combine it with Accessories for Him this week. Here are some accessories for your sister, mother, friends or even yourself!



 

 

Tibi + Ebay Holiday Collection

Did you know that Tibi is a part of Ebay's Holiday Collection this year? Designer Amy Smilovic created five different comfy tees and sweatshirts that are reasonably priced, by Tibi standards. There is a limited quantity and will only be able for purchase for a short time during the holidays. Personally, I love the simplicity of the grey and black. How cute is the penguin?!

 

 

I'm leaning toward this last shirt, the one above. I think that these could easily be layered under sweaters or cardigans, or you can wear them alone for a casual, comfy look. Pair any of them with red jeans or leggings for a very vestive outfit. I can imagine wearing this Christmas morning while opening gifts.

 



What do you think? Is it just me or are these tops cute? I hope you all are enjoying  your weekend!

Simple Christmas List

First of all, it is killing me, KILLING me to be talking about Christmas this early. Like I said last week, I like to get through one holiday at a time. I actually have two to get through before I start celebrating the Christmas season, Thanksgiving and then my birthday. Once those two are over I pull out the Christmas decor, turn on the carols and start lighting the eggnog candles. The reason that I am posting about Christmas today is because I am staring my holiday shopping guides tomorrow and wanted to talk about this before I started posting gift ideas.

 

This year is going to be a bit different around our home since we recently made a huge move across the country and will not be going home for either of the upcoming holidays. Bryan and I have decided that since we are going to be spending so much money on buying ski equipment and passes that we will let those be our main presents to each other. Fun! Right? Not so much in my mind. I'm the person who LOVES to buy gifts and likes the tree to look nice and full with pretty presents surrounding it. Seriously people, I am going to struggle with this.

 

My parents are doing one big gift for each of us, which will make it easier when mailing gifts. I already know what Bryan is getting {he wants it right now so he can play with it}, but I haven't made up my mind as to what I want. My sister and I have set a specific amount to spend on one another, too. Another thing that is very hard...I like to spoil her rotten with tons of gifts and don't care if I spend more on her than she does on me. Gifts are my LOVE language, folks.

 

Have you heard of giving just three gifts to your kids? They represent the three gifts that were given to baby Jesus. Have any of you moms done this? I think I would struggle keeping it to three actual gifts. It is a huge reminder of the real reason for the season.

 

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We all wrote letters to Santa and made Christmas lists growing up. Some of us still make actual Christmas lists and post them so they are clearly seen. {Don't judge me, I'm guilty.} I love this idea of a simple Christmas list, not only because we aren't having a big Christmas this year, but because it makes the holidays special. For the person filling their list out it includes:

 

 

I'm not going to lie, this makes me super excited. It allows for wiggle room and creativity, gives you some direction and helps you not blow all of your hard-earned money on meaningless things that take up space.

 

 

I wish that I had come up with this concept and cute graphics on my own, but it was originally posted on Somewhat Simple. Click here to read about it and find the printable version of this list.

 

Way too much money is spent each holiday season on stuff that will easily break, get pushed aside or never even be actually used. Don't buy things just to buy them. Reconsider how much and what you plan on purchasing for this Christmas.

 

I know there are many different ways to help others during the holidays, but one way that is very dear to my heart is by packing a shoe box filled with toys. Samaritan's Purse has a program called Operation Christmas Child. This is a great way to get your children involved and teach them about the importance of giving to others who are less fortunate, and sharing the love in Jesus at the same time. I grew up packing a shoe box every Christmas season. Five years ago I was visiting my parents in the Balkans, and was able to actually hand out the boxes to the children there. It was amazing to watch about how the simple efforts of those of us in America bring joy to children all around the world. This week is the national collection week, but there is still plenty of time to participate this year. Click here to learn more about it.

 

 

And last, but not least, I saw this and thought it would be a great to print and frame or hang on the fridge throughout the Christmas season.

 

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If you are still reading this...Bravo! I promise this will be my only Christmas post other than the gift guides until after Thanksgiving.



Holiday Gift Guides

I like to get through one holiday at a time, but it seems like each year I am rushed blogging about great gift ideas for Christmas. This year I am going to be on top of things and start early giving you some suggestions. Starting next week I will share two gift guide themes per week. Here are the dates and what I will be sharing.

Tuesday, November 13th: 50 Under $50
Thursday, November 15th: Stocking Stuffers
Tuesday, November 20th: Gifts for the Wonderful Woman
Friday, November 23rd: Gifts for the Marvelous Man
Tuesday, November 27th: Accessories for Her
Friday, November 30th: Accessories for Him
Tuesday, December 4th: Gifts for the Outdoor Guru
Thursday, December 6th: Gifts for the Food Lover
Tuesday, December 11th: Gifts for Kids, Teenagers and Tweens
Thursday, December 13th: Gifts for the Traveler
Tuesday, December 18th: Gifts for the Avid Reader
Thursday, December 20th: Gifts for the Pet Lover

If there is anything specifically that you are looking for or if you are having a hard time coming up with ideas for a certain person leave me a comment and I'll see what I can come up with to help you with your gift buying.

Christmas Review

Helloooo!! Home at last, everything is a chaotic mess and I think everything needs a good deep-cleaning and re-organization as soon as I am able to take down all of the Christmas decorations. Laundry is washing and drying, dishes are cleaning and Ivy Belle is snoring happily on the floor at my feet. Somehow in the past two weeks my camera has managed to disappear...no bueno. Thus, I hardly took any pictures at Christmas, minus a few that I snapped with my phone.

This could have quite possibly been the most relaxing Christmas ever had in our household. Most of my extended family did their own thing this year, leaving a quiet, intimate holiday for us at my parents' farm. Emily arrived home late Friday night, and as per her wish, we ate duck gumbo for Christmas Eve and drank home brewed Holiday Ale. 

As a family tradition, we all sat around the fire on Christmas Eve, sipping eggnog and reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.



Christmas morning started with the reading of the Christmas story and the opening of stockings. After a scrumptious holiday brunch, we all gathered around the tree to open our gifts. I received a ton of wonderful presents, but my tippy top favorite was my Kindle from my sweet hubby.

Bryan and I drove halfway across the state to be at his parents' house in time to go with them for Christmas dinner at his grandmother's house. The food was wonderful and the gifts were beyond generous. I do not know what time we crawled into bed, but it was pretty late that night.



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A new recipe I made for our brunch was Cinnamon Toast Pudding. I cannot believe that I do not have a picture of this to share! It was delicious beyond words. Pinterest and Google do not show any pictures that look remotely similar to the one I made, so trust me when I say you just need to make it.

Cinnamon Toast Pudding

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for baking dish

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 (1-inch) thick slices day-old brioche bread (or French)

5 eggs 1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup orange juice

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup grapes, halved

Powdered sugar, for garnish

1/4 cup maple syrup

8 by 8 by 2-inch baking dish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Butter baking dish and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine butter, 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and salt.

Generously butter both sides of brioche bread with butter mixture.

Toast on a baking sheet in the oven 5 to 10 minutes, or until bread turns golden brown.

Cut toast on a diagonal into triangles and arrange in the prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, heavy cream, yogurt, orange juice, salt, remaining sugar, and vanilla.

Stir in grapes and pour over bread slices in baking dish.

Let rest 10 minutes for bread to absorb some of the egg mixture, gently pressing down a few times to help absorb.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes until crust is golden and crispy in parts and custard is set.

Remove from the oven, dust with powdered sugar, drizzle with maple syrup and serve.

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Tomorrow I will post about our New Years Eve weekend. There are a ton of wonderful recipes that I cannot wait to share!

Christmas Story

Merry Christmas! Before stocking are taken down from the chimney, and before any presents are stolen from under the tree, we always sit down as a family to read the Christmas story.

Luke 2: 1-20

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Happy Christmas to All

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

by Clement Clarke Moore - Published in 1822

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Colorful Christmas

When I think tons of color and fun cheer, I think of the one and only Kate Spade. She makes every color a Christmas color. Prepare yourself for some beautiful eye candy. Have a very merry and colorful day!