1 Week till Christmas

Coloring gift tags for The Legend of the Candy Cane

Even as I write this it just doesn't seem like we only have 10 days till Christmas. But it is true. As you can tell, on the right,  I haven't gotten everything done yet. Christmas Cards still need to be addressed, handmade gifts aren't sewn for my kids yet but I do have all my ingredients for Christmas dinner bought and with a bit of an adjustment my make and takes are almost done.I am almost set to finish up this year by relaxing a bit and penning some goals I have for next year such as:

• 365 Less Things
• A Lifestyle of Thanksgiving
• Becoming Radical

After all this blog really is about my path to sanctification and I must confess I have gotten distracted by the to do list. I look forward to slowing down and just being instead of  doing. You can't experience God in the future and the past is over but in this very moment, right here and now is where we experience God. I have no idea how that is going to look but I would love your encouragement and company as I walk this path in the New Year!!!!

And so it is with great anticipation of what God is going to reveal as I just rest in His presence. Giving up on trying to fix myself and letting Him work out His transformation in me that I finish up this 12 weeks till Christmas journey. As you finish up this last week, think about ways you can turn your focus away from earthly treasures and more to heavenly treasures. Taking the Less is More approach and being present in the right here and right now!!!! Which is actually one of the items on our to do list this final week:

• Schedule your bake day
• Prepare Freezer Meal 5
• Schedule your Delivery Day
• Write down Reflection Goals for 2012

Be blessed this week and may God's peace, which surpasses all understanding, fill up your cup this week. And if it doesn't may you be moved to ponder why not!!!! 

2 Weeks till Christmas

Can you believe we are really so close to Christmas as well as the end of the year? Yikes we are!! So if you are like me the craziness has already begun and you are not going to want any extra surprises, so I'm going to go ahead and give you the game plan that will complete our 12 Weeks till Christmas!

I am all about beating the lines so we are going to do most of our shopping for our Christmas Meal and mailing off Christmas cards this week and begin or finish up Christmas gifts. I'm going to be working on a couple of cool gifts for LJ and JJ and CJ. And I think I am going to stay simple with make and takes this year and do some chocolate dipped spoons!!!!

At our one week mark before Christmas we will have our bake day, prepare our final freezer meal and plan to deliver gifts and baked goods.

And finally, here are a couple of pictures I managed to get this week. It was one of those crazy weeks and it is going to flow right into the weekend. Fun, huh!!!!

Freezer Meal 4

Trying to make a volcano for Homeschool Group, what a big flop!!!

CJ helping me with Christmas cards.

So a quick recap of you list for this week

• shop for Christmas meal
• mail off Christmas cards
• start or continue on Christmas gifts

and hopefully I will have better luck with my chocolate spoons than I did my volcano, lol!!!!

3 Weeks till Christmas ?!?!

Seriously?! Is it really that close. Yes my friends it is. I did not make my deadline for Christmas cards but thankfully I still have plenty of time!!!!! When I was pulling out Christmas decorations I realized I bought Christmas cards on sale, last year,  for 25 cents a box!!! So I splurged and bought some glitter pens and am sprucing up the cards just a bit.

I only have 5 more boxes to go!!!!

If you still need an Advent count down, head on over to MorningStar Academy for a simple chain to print off to start your count down tonight!!!

The kids and I worked on what was suppose to be our Advent Christmas Tree but I just didn't have enough time or resources to finish it, so it will have to wait till next year. We did have fun putting it together though!!

CJ got bored with spray painting the match boxes and moved onto the newspaper.

LJ working on his graffiti!

And I managed to get Freezer meal # 3 done. Yeah!!!!

And for this week we will be working on

• Handmade gifts
• Finishing up Christmas Cards and addressing them
• Freezer meal #4
• Buy pantry items for Baking Day

So I guess I will see you same time and same blog next week!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving and 4 Weeks till Christmas

Our big turkey day is here!!! Hopefully you all have your aprons on and are ready to cook and welcome family and friends to your dinner table and give thanks for all the wonderful and even not so wonderful things that have happened this year. Hopefully this weekend will find you with some time on your hands to enjoy family, catch up on any preperation you haven't gotten to yet or allow you some time to start working on your advent devotions. And with that in mind here are some that caught my attention this year:

matchbox tree

paper bag garland

a craft/activity a day

Quilted count down

Advent mittens

Count down Calendar

Advent galore!!!

The blogshere is such a big place, if you have seen or have a cool idea I would love for you to leave a comment with the link! As we head into 5 weeks before Christmas, take it easy and enjoy family BUT if you are a busy bee there is a running to do list over in the right hand corner to keep you busy!!

Be thankful!!!  Be blessed!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Christmas Week 5

I'm super excited to announce that Beth B. is the winner of the Christmas Advent Garland Giveaway. 

Thank you Carmen for participating!!!!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

3

Timestamp: 2011-11-16 21:33:42 UTC

And 12 Weeks till Christmas keeps on inching closer to the Holidays. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week!!! If you have been keeping up with me over the last 7 weeks you should be about ready for Thanksgiving and just have to buy your Turkey and any last minute produce items!!! Doesn't if feel great to be prepared a whole week ahead of time!!!! Knowing that Thanksgiving is all taken care means we can move right along and start working on Christmas!!!

Last week you should have cooked at least 1 freezer meal. If you are just joining in on the fun you can take a look at some quick and easy ways to store away freezer meals for those crazy nights you know you are going to have in December.



But for this week lets put up the Christmas Cards and Family letter because we will want to work a little bit at a time on getting our homes cleaned up for our guests. Here is a neat little trick my Marine husband taught me: walk into a room and look right to left and jot down anything you see that needs to be cleaned or taken care of. Because our brains are trained to read left to right, when we look right to left we are more apt to notice details we would normally over look. Now applying that to house cleaning, I go through every room and make a list of things that I notice right away and then break that list down into a to do list with only 2 to 3 times per day. (Its also a good time to make a list of improvements you would like to do so that when winter comes you will have lots to keep you busy until it is time for Spring cleaning!!) But I am getting ahead of myself because we haven't even gotten to winter. Alright, lets refocus with this weeks list of things to do:

• Freezer meal #2
• Start buying postage for Christmas cards
• if sending emails double check your address book to make sure they are current
• Start planning Christmas dinner

And that will see us through till Thanksgiving!!!!www.oldhousekitchen.com

Christmas Week 6: Giveaway Reveal

OHM Christmas Advent Garland

Yeah I'm so ready to let the cat out of the bag!!!!! Did you get a chance to go over to Old House Mercantile and guess at what this week's post is going to be about?!? Well if not, it has to do with Advent!!!!!! And if you go over to Old House Kitchen today, she is posting a tutorial on how to make your own Christmas Garland Advent!!! But that is just where the fun begins because not only is Old House Kitchen showing you how to celebrate Christmas with a fun tradition she is also giving away one of her Christmas  Advent Garland Kits. How awesome is that?!

Christmas Advent Garland Giveaway starts November 10th and ends on November 16th 12pm(EST).
Winner will be announced on November 17th.
You can enter in one or all of the following ways:

1st Entry: Head on over to Old House Kitchen to say thanks for the wonderful giveaway by leaving her a comment or liking her post on Facebook, come back and comment with what you did. (This way those without a Facebook accounts can still participate!!!!)

2nd Entry: Ideas, ideas, ideas: I want to know how you count down the days till Christmas so leave a comment with what your family tradition is.

3rd Entry: Blog about this giveaway on your own blog and then leave the link in the comments of this post.

It's that easy BUT you do need to leave 3 different comments to get 3 different entries. Best Wishes!!!!


Okay, now we have to get back to work. How are things going for you? Last week I asked you to come up with 5 freezer meal recipes. How did you do? Starting this week and continuing for the next 5 weeks, I want you to cook one meal and freeze it. This is going to be an emergency meal. We all know how busy it's going to get in December, so lets plan ahead and have some meals on hand to pull out and pop in the oven or crock pot so we don't waste any of our Christmas budget on eating out!!!! Here is my plan for my freezer meals:

(You can also do this all in once cooking session, whatever works best for you!)

Week 1: Hawaiian Chicken adapted from Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer
Label freezer bag with following directions: Thaw mixture and cook in crock pot on low for 4-5 hours or if frozen cook in crock pot for 7-8. Shred and serve over rice. 
Next add following items to freezer bag and freeze.
6-8 Chicken breasts (frozen or fresh) I'm using frozen cause it is what is on hand.
1 can crushed pineapples
2 green bell peppers sliced
2T cornstarch
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 T soy sauce
1T lemon juice
to taste salt, ginger
dash of ground red pepper
*don't forget to cook rice on the day you serve this

Week 2: Lasagna
(We will be having lasagna this week so I am going to prepare two, one to cook and one to freeze.)
Use your favorite recipe but instead of baking it, freeze it.  Southern Living has a great article on how to freeze lasagna. (For easy assembly, I'm going to use canned spaghetti sauce.)

Week 3: Turkey Enchiladas by Mom's Budget
Or any way you like to use up your Turkey leftovers. Simply slicing it for sandwiches would work as well!!!!

Week 4: Mexican Beef and Bean Crock Pot Meal adapted from Betty Crocker
Brown, drain and freeze 2 pds ground beef and season with chili powder, cumin, and onion powder.
Have on hand:
16 oz tomato sauce
2 cans pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
2 cups of chunky style salsa to your flavoring (we use mild)
On th day you want to serve this put ground beef in crock pot and add all on hand items and cook on low all day. I like to serve this with cornbread or corn chips and top with shredded M.Jack cheese

Week 5: Ham and Pineapple Sauce by Freezer Meals For Us
Cook and freeze Pineapple sauce with cooked sliced ham in same freezer bag. Cook pasta noodles of your choice, cool and freeze in different bag.
On day you are serving this meal, thaw sauce and noodles. While warming up sauce, boil a pot of water to warm up noodles by adding to boiling water for 1 minute and then draining noodles.Serve pasta with Ham and Pineapple Sauce.

And a quick no cook idea: Stop by your favorite pizza joint when pizzas are on sale and buy a couple to freeze. We love CiCi's Pizza and their carry out pizzas are a great price and cheaper than frozen pizzas at your local grocery store.

Alright, lets recap what we have going on this week:

• Enter for a chance to win a Christmas Advent Garland from Old House Kitchen
• Start your freezer meal cooking this week
• Start working on Christmas Cards if you are going to make them
• Finish up Christmas Letter this week

We are trekking along just fine and can you believe it is only 2 weeks till Thanksgiving? Don't forget to stop back by next week to see who won the Christmas Advent Garland Kit and what busy work we will be doing right before Thanksgiving!!!!!  

Christmas Week 7: Freezer Fun

So are you freaking out a little? I am!!! Every year I wonder if I've forgotten something that will cause my well planned preparation to crumble into a big mess.

Okay, forgive me!! Thank you for letting me stress just a little!

Last week I encouraged you to get a spiral calendar for 2012 and I found one for myself at Dollar General. I also whipped up my Thanksgiving Dinner Menu since we WILL be at home after all. I have my shopping list divided into Pantry (buy after 1st of Nov), Freezer(buy after 15th of Nov) and Fresh (buy a few days before Thanksgiving.) This helps us keep within our normal food budget without destroying the rest of our budget.

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

Home style Turkey, the Michigander Way 

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy (homemade)

Mac n Cheese (boxed)

Never Enough Green Bean Casserole

Cafeteria Carrot Soufflé

Dinner Rolls (store bought)

Homemade Apple Crumble (w/out almond meal & flaked coconut)

I also did a trial run of some things I am thinking about making and baking for Christmas gifts:

Make idea 1: Mini Christmas Stockings:

I didn't have a needle to hide the leftover yarn but it still looks cute!

Bake idea 1: Bread in a Can

I used cake mix instead of bread batter and it looks like I'll stick with the little cans! Everyone got to taste test at dinner and they all said it was a big hit!!!! I'll use card stock to decorate the cans after I've finished all my baking. I'll be perfect!

So with that, we are ready for Week 7: Stocking our freezer with meals for those busy nights during the holiday rush. There are lots of ways to do this and here are a few of my favorite ways!

• One of the easiest ways to do this is double a dinner and freeze half of it. 
• Don't Panic, Dinner's in the Freezer has some great recipes to freeze and has a nifty double, triple, and on up on all their recipes!!!! 
• Make 5 Dinners in ONE hour has some awesome recipes as well as a free week sample. I subscribe to her menu planners and they are a life saver not only for cooking time but shopping as well!!!!
• Or try a new recipe! Head on over to $5 Dinner Mom and try out her yummy Golden Raisin- Apple Stuffing Cups. Thanks Erin for joining in on our holiday preparation!!! 

You also need to pull out your pantry shopping list and buy any items you don't already have on hand. I like to beat the rush and have what I need right at the beginning of November. 

Take this easy week to finalize your Make and Bake list. We want to give ourselves enough time to joyfully make and bake all these items. Our bake day wont be until December but you can still make a grocery list of all the ingredients and supplies you will need. We will go shopping for these after December 1st!!! 

I'm really excited about next week cause its all about a great giveaway perfect for Christmas?  And if you head on over to Old House Mercantile and look around you just might figure out what's coming up next. If you think you know what it is why don't you play along and leave a comment as to what your guess is. With all this hard work, its time to have a little fun!!!! See ya next week!

Planning to Save: Week 8

Okay, its time to bring out the Master Christmas Card Roster and get all that information you didn't get filled in on Week 12. My goal is to have all our Christmas Cards done before Thanksgiving!!! Hey you think that is crazy? I know a friend who has hers done by Halloween!!!!!!!

Next thing on our list is to set our budge!!!! To do this you are going to need to write down everyone you think you want to give or make a gift for and put a cap on what you are willing to spend per person. If you have young children, set a limit of what you are going to spend on them. Once you get all these numbers plugged in, add them up and see what the total is. Be honest with yourself: is it realistic? If it isn't, adjust!!!! Once you work out your number, make a contract with yourself and/or spouse committing to that amount. Print it out, sign and date it and hang it up where you both can see it every day from now until Christmas. You can also get an index card and put that total on it and every time you buy something, subtract it from your total so you see your Christmas fund going down and hopefully ward off all the impulse buying.

Next we are going to work on our game plan for making and baking Christmas gifts. The Happy House Wife is doing an awesome series on Christmas gifts you can make and well worth looking into. Some of my other favorite Craft sites are Make and Takes, Moda Bake Shop, and Sweet Verbena just to name a few. And don't over look baking gifts!! Last year I did fudge and Cookies in a Jar. This year I will be trying Bread in a Can. I've been saving my aluminum cans and lids for the last couple of months. Once we get our Christmas picture, I will show you what I am planning on doing with the lids to accompany the bread!!!!! Until then, go have fun and look around for some creative ways to let your family and friends know you are thinking about them; without breaking the bank!!!!

So this week your to do list is:

• Completing Master Christmas Card Roster
• Committing to a budget
• Gather ideas for make and bake gifts

This week lets link up fun make and bake gifts!!! Next week we will be working on stocking our freezer for the Holiday rush!!!!! 

A time for reflecting: Week 9

I had to double check after I wrote week 9 in my title, but yes that is right; we only have 9 weeks till Christmas.  It's not too late to jump in and here is a quick recap if you are just joining us:

Week 12

Master Roster for Christmas Cards

Christmas Card Design

Week 11

Christmas Devotion

Christmas Budget for gifts and celebration

Decide where you will have/host your Thanksgiving Fest

Create a cleaning plan for your home

Week 10

Pick recipes to use for Thanksgiving dinner

and decide how you will organize them. 

This week will either be fun or stressful. For me it will be a little stressful because I completely forgot a lesson learned several years ago when it come to drafting up our Family Letter. So I will share it with you in hopes that you might benefit as well next year. I have found that it is easier to write up our family letter when I have a calendar in front of me that I have noted all our family activities. But I never keep those calendar pages unless it has a spiral binding and you can't just tear off the pages. They already have the 2012 calendars out and I even saw one at the Dollar Store. So if you can, go get one this week to help you out next Christmas. But if you are like me you will need the next 2 weeks to help figure out what you are going to add into your Christmas Letter. Take your time and make sure you make it fit the personality of your own family.

One year I had a friend who sent a page of pictures showing what her family did that year and it was fun to look at. You can recap the highlights of each family member's year or write a joint family letter. Whatever puts your family in the homes of those you send it to is what you want to do. In fact you don't even have to send a snail mail letter. You can email it, blog it or even start up a Christmas Blog for your family and send out the link!! Here is my blog post for 2009 and 2010.

If you like to send the photo cards for Christmas start thinking about the photo you will be using. Do you need to make an appointment for a professional photo or will you have a friend snap it for you?  One of my favorite things to do is edit the photo in paint and then print the picture off at my local print shop.

And the final thing you need to do this week is to print off or write out all the recipes you will be using for your Thanksgiving dinner. And that will move us one step closer to having a stress reduced Christmas celebration!!!

Alright before I go this week here is a quick look at what we will be working on this week:

• Starting your family letter (with the goal of having it completed in 2 weeks)
• Make arrangements for your Christmas photo
• Print off or write out all your Thanksgiving recipes
• And if you are really motivated go out and get a spiral calendar for next year!!!!

And for those who are itching to know what is in store for next week it will involve pulling out your Master Roster for Christmas Card List along with Make and Take ideas!!!!! Hope to see you back next week!!!!

Stocking Up

Alright, its time to get down to the planning part of our 12 Weeks till Christmas. This week I want you to start thinking about what you will be cooking for Thanksgiving and start gathering your recipes. Our goal is to make a list of all pantry items that we can buy ahead of time. There are many different resources out there for wonderful Turkey Day recipes, just Google Thanksgiving recipes and you will have an slew of sites to chose from.

For me personally, my first successfully turkey was when I used the recipe Homestyle Turkey, the Michigander Way from allrecipes.com. I also like to do the basics of mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, dinner rolls,  apple crumble and sweet tea!!!! I know it isn't too fancy but its all our family favorites.

There are tons of ways to organize your recipes. The first year I did 12 Weeks to Christmas I printed off my recipes and used contact paper to laminate them. Then when I started cooking I wrote down the start and done times on the different recipes with a white board marker. The next year I didn't have to worry about cooking because we visited family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year we will be visiting for Thanksgiving but not Christmas. So although I wont have to worry about Thanksgiving Dinner I will be preparing Christmas dinner. And this year I will be using my much loved, don't know how I did without Big Oven!!!!!! Big Oven is awesome in Meal Planning because it not only stores your recipes while making a weekly or monthly menu planner, it also makes a grocery list!!!!!! And because Big Oven is online, you can also get the ingredients to any recipe you publish with your program anywhere you can get online. So if you have a fancy cell phone, I don't, you can pull up your account and get a grocery list right there in the store. How cool is that!!!! Well worth looking into if you are wanting to stream line recipes and meal planning.

And since we are talking about recipes this week, I'll like for you to link up with your favorite Thanksgiving recipe!!! And don't forget to write out that list of pantry items you are going to need for your Thanksgiving dinner!!!!! You don't have to get them just yet, we just want to have the list ready when it is time to go grocery shopping!!!!! Alright, have a great week and drop me a comment or two and let me know how you are doing so far as we go into Week 10 of 12 Weeks till Christmas!!!!

What's your dream of Christmas

Alright, hopefully you have finished up your Master Christmas Card List. If not, take a break from it this week and we will get back to it soon enough. For Week 11 I want you to jot down some ideas about the following:
(I guess I should have suggested this last week but I get a three prong folder each year to keep my 12 Weeks to Christmas stuff in. By the end of the year you will have a nice keepsake for years to come if you put a copy of everything we work on week by week!!!!)

• What Christmas devotion/ advent you will be using
• What is your budget for Christmas gifts and celebration 
• Start thinking about where you are going to have Thanksgiving. 
• A cleaning plan to get your home visitor ready for the holidays

This week Linky will be open to any Christmas post from past. In 2009 I posted our Christmas Card picture from Tokyo Disney and a modified version of our Christmas letter on my blog. I did the same thing in 2010 and will do it again this year, lol. I look forward to reminiscing with you of Christmases past and hope to see you next week as well!!

Seriously, that time of year again?!?

Wow I can't believe that it is almost 12 weeks to Christmas again!!!!!!

Are you ready to get started with planning and organizing for Christmas with me? I hope so. I learned so much last year and hope to apply that knowledge to all we are about to do this year!!!!

It's time to get out those Christmas Cards from last year and make any changes or additions you need to your Master Roster. Don't have one, then let's work on this it little by little. First decide who you want to send Christmas Cards to and fill in their names and any information you already have. The info you don't have we will work on in a different week, so don't sweat it, O-K-A-Y!!!! Also decide if you are going to buy or make your Christmas Cards and start thinking about a design. So here is our offical Week 12 To Do List:

• Master Roster for Christmas Cards (edit or begin)
• Christmas Card Design ideas (if you are going to make them)

And with that we are off. Of course we don't want to leave anyone out of the fun so why don't you do one of the following to help spread the word!!!!

First grab a button:

<center> <a href="http://learntolove-lovetolearn.blogspot.com/search/label/12%20Weeks%20To%20Christmas"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8g7M7CExA8bO4nMABUqj5yFnbHTHUC50BAWnNLYc2a2rKlnVdKCSmmNJke6lR8eH3Aq_6vKjXs32k681OdcbbHCLUMkA6Ed4FezX2Oqc9TDOS7RDExdM5s7HPvnCEFehY8E9xhjb4oA/s200/star+of+bethlehem.jpg" width="199" /></a></center>

Next,sign up for the 12 Weeks To Christmas Blog Hop and check back each Thursday to see what new To Do List I have for you and if you are really motivated link up with a post on your progress. (This isn't neccessary and is just for fun, so no stressing over blogging about this; that's my job!!!!) Have a great weekend and I will see you next week or drop by for a visit if you link up to the Blog Hop!!!!!