“I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”

For whatever reason I have had a hard time completely getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I love Christmas music so I thought it might help me get in the mood if I shared and listened to some of my favorite songs.

1. “Candlelight Carol” (The arrangement by John Rutter.)

2. “Angel’s Carol” (The arrangement by John Rutter.)

3. “Mary Did You Know”

4. “O Holy Night”

5. “What Child Is This”

6. “Jesu Bambino” (This is a beautiful violin rendition done by none other than our Lei of My Many Colored Days.)

7. “Do You Hear What I Hear”

8. “Away In A Manger”

9. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”

10. “Heirlooms” (The version by Amy Grant.)

11. “The First Noel”

The following two are my current all time favorite Christmas songs, mostly because of the beautifully penned lyrics:

12. “In The Bleak Midwinter”

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Last year while visiting my family in California in December, my father told me the following was his absolute favorite Christmas song. For whatever reason, finding out that my Dad and I have this in common made me feel special. I just can’t believe it took me 31 years to realize this.

13. “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.

What are some of your favorite Christmas carols?

Keeping The Spirit Of Christmas – Stocking “Stuffers”

During this time of year it is so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the season. We need to put decorations up, we need to buy gifts, we need to wrap gifts, we need to bake yummy treats, we need to deliver all the baked goods, we need to go to this Christmas party and this Christmas program and we need to address and mail all of our Christmas cards. When we have so much to do it sometimes gets hard to keep the true spirit of Christmas.

To combat the craziness, I like my family to do something that my mother taught us 9 kids to do when we were little children. During the month of December (ideally we would try to do this every night) we would write notes to each other, including to the parents, and put them in each other’s stockings. We weren’t allowed to read them until Christmas, although I remember some years I would sneakily take down my stocking and run to the bathroom so I could peek at the notes I had. (Sorry mom !)

You didn’t have to write a note to everyone every day, but you were supposed to write at least one note and you were supposed to rotate to whom you wrote. They could either be simple notes about thanking someone for doing the dishes when it was supposed to be your turn to do them, or they could be more involved letters where you told your sibling or parent why you were grateful to have them in your life. There would be times when we would really get into it and we would write several notes throughout the day. And of course some years we did better on writing these notes than other years.

On Christmas morning it was a tradition in our family to “open” our stockings before we opened any presents. I still remember the special feelings of love and warmth I would get when I read all these notes that had been written just to me! Writing these notes and receiving these notes really did help us to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas and it also taught me many valuable lessons. Above all it taught me how to enjoy doing quiet/anonymous service for others and it taught me to love the feeling I got inside when I did something nice for someone else.

**This post was originally published in 2006.**

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For more Christmas activity ideas, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar. For more Holiday Traditions, check out Banana Migraine.  For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday ideas, please visit Shannon of Rocks In My Dyer.

Our Christmas Giving Tree

At the beginning of November our family started a new tradition where each night we added leaves to our Thanks Tree and Giving Tree. This experience was such a raging success that we decided to implement another new family holiday tradition, a Christmas Giving Tree.

Every night we add a paper ornament to our paper Christmas tree. You are probably much more creative than I am and can come up with a more festive tree – my tree is very basic. However, you get the point .

On the ornament we list an act of service we did that day. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. It could be as simple as smiling at your neighbor or saying “I love you” to a family member. It is a wonderful way to remind everyone daily what the holiday season is truly about.

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For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday ideas, please visit Shannon of Rocks In My Dyer. For more Christmas activity ideas, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and memory filled Thanksgiving. And don’t forget, the calories don’t count today … let’s just make that the entire weekend .

We are overly excited to hang out with our good friends on this special day and indulge in an over abundance of delicious foods. I just hope 2 year old Cory gets the memo that Thanksgiving is not supposed to be a repeat of his behavior the day before – a no napper, cranky and inconsolable terror. If he doesn’t get the memo, our warm welcome might not be there anymore.

One Thanksgiving tradition my husband and I started when we first got married, is on or before Thanksgiving day we like to set a timer for 3 minutes and brainstorm the myriad of things we are grateful for. It is insightful to see what makes the list every year and what new things come to mind based on the experiences we have recently encountered.

Here are a few things from my list:

• My caring and supportive husband.
• My miraculous children.
• All my family and friends.
• Time.
• My health.
• My eyesight so I can read.
• Good books.
• My faith.
• Hope.
• Forgiveness.
• Freedom.
• Sleep.
• Warmth.
• Giving and receiving service.
• My home.
• Modern medicine.
• Exercise to keep my sanity in line.
• Most technology.
• Love.
• Light.
• Learning.
• Scriptures.
• My Savior and His remarkable Atonement.

The Thanks and Giving Tree

I love the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving. Whenever I think about this November festivity, my mind instantly reverts back to all the Thanksgiving holidays I enjoyed when I lived at home in California.

Even now I can smell the buttery aroma of my mom’s famous monkey dough rolls, I can hear the cheery laughter and loud voices of the 20-30 people who were always crowded into our warm yet cozy home, and I can taste the sweetness of the homemade punch my Grandfather made year in and year out. I truly cherish the traditions and family togetherness this holiday consistently creates.

Now that it isn’t so easy to spend this holiday with my entire family, my husband and I are building our own traditions. One thing we like to do is focus on gratitude for the entire month.

This year, and hopefully every year hereafter, we will have a Thanks Tree and Giving Tree displayed in our house. Every night each person in the family will take a turn to write on a leaf something they are grateful for. This leaf will go on the Thanks Tree. Every night each person will also write on another leaf an act of service they have given to someone else during the day. This leaf will go on the Giving Tree. The act of service could be as simple as smiling at someone, saying “I Love You” to a family member or writing a letter to a friend.

I can’t wait to see our trees grow bigger and I am eager to see the things we will each share, especially my children. I know my heart is full of gratitude for all the tender mercies the Lord continues to bless me with on a daily basis.

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The idea for this activity originally came from Cocoa of Chocolate On My Cranium and she kindly gave me permission to tell about her family tradition on my site. If you would like to start your very own Thanks and Giving Tree, then please visit her blog to download the necessary graphics.

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For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday ideas, please visit Shannon of Rocks In My Dyer.  For more Fall and Thanksgiving activity ideas, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar.

The Lowdown On Trunk-or-Treat

One of the moms in Keri’s first grade class recently asked me what we were going to do to celebrate Halloween. I casually replied that one of the things we like to do is attend our Church’s annual Trunk-or-Treat party.

She looked at me with this incredulous look on her face and asked, “A what kind of party?”

“A Trunk-or-Treat party,” I explained. Apparently this social phenomenon isn’t understood by everyone.

So what is a Trunk-or-Treat party? It is when a bunch of people get together (i.e. through a Church, neighborhood or school organization) to celebrate Halloween, but instead of going door-to-door trick-or-treating, you go trunk-to-trunk trick-or-treating. People park in a big lot, decorate their trunk and hand out candy to those dressed in costumes.

**Picture courtesy of Google. I was too busy following my trunk-or-treaters to snap any outdoor shots of my own.**

There are a myriad of benefits to this type of activity. For example, it prevents people from getting hit by cars (the parking area is normally roped off), the candy is safe (everyone knows everyone since you are part of a community) and it is an extremely family friendly environment.

If you don’t have one in your area, you should really think about starting this new tradition.

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For more Fall activities, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar carnival. For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday participants, check out Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer.

Egg Carton Spiders

This Halloween craft is incredibly easy and the kids really seem to get a kick out of it. You most likely have all the necessary supplies on hand, scattered throughout your house: an egg carton, crayons or markers, colorful pipe cleaners, scissors and a thick sewing needle. Optional items could include paint or googly eyes.

**These spiders have seen a lot of trauma from the sometimes-not-so-gentle hands of toddlers. Please excuse their overly bent legs.**

1. First you need to separate one or more cups from an egg carton.

2. Next, using a thick sewing needle or scissors, make 8 small holes (4 on each side) on the base of the cup.

3. Then insert four, 4-6 inch piece pipe cleaners into the holes for legs.

4. Draw on a face and decorate the body.

Happy Halloween!

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For more Fall activities and recipes, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar carnival.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

If you haven’t noticed by now, Autumn is my absolute favorite time of the year. One of the myriad of reasons why I cherish this season is because it is the time to cook and bake with pumpkin. Yum! I have a whole array of pumpkin foods that I find utterly heavenly … more on that subject in a few weeks.

Today, though, I want so share with you a recipe that not only involves pumpkin, but chocolate, too. Who can argue with that?

Well, maybe Liz can. She is the one who got me hooked on this recipe in the first place. She is not really a chocolate fan. I know, pretty hard to believe. But if she won’t eat these, I will gladly eat her share!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

3 cups canned pumpkin (I just use one large can.)

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 cups white sugar

6 eggs

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons cloves

mini chocolate chips (as many as your heart desires)

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, vegetable oil, sugar and eggs. Mix well by hand or use an electric mixer. Blend in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Mix thoroughly. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven. For baby muffins bake for 15-18 minutes. For muffins and small loaves, bake for 30-35 minutes. For medium and large loaves, bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Always use the minimum amount of time and check for doneness.

For variation you may add any of these: raisins (yuck!), mini chocolate chips (yum!), pecans or walnuts. You can also sprinkle the top with chopped nuts or drizzle with a powdered sugar glaze.

The key is to not eat too many in one sitting.

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For more Fall activities and recipes, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar carnival.

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday participants, check out Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer.

Mess Free Pumpkin Activity

If you are ever in the mood to do an enjoyable pumpkin activity with the kids, but you aren’t in the mood to be cleaning up slimy messes (i.e. pumpkin guts and seeds), then this activity is just for you. Instead of carving a jack-o-lantern, create one with soft gummy candy and pins.

Shoestring licorice or gummy worms can be used for the hair. Junior mints can be used for eyes. Tootsie rolls make excellent eyebrows. Gumdrops, marshmallows, gummy bears, gummy lifesavers, fruit by the foot, jelly beans … the creative possibilities are endless.

This is also an excellent idea for a Halloween party, a school activity or any other large gathering involving kids!

Enjoy!

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For more Halloween activities, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar carnival.

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday participants, check out Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer.

A Simple Fall Centerpiece

This centerpiece is so incredibly easy to make that even I don’t have problems messing it up. First you cut off the top of a smallish pumpkin. Then you clean it out. Add some soil to it, plant a flower, add some more soil and then water it. Voila! You now have a gorgeous and festive Fall decoration.

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For more Halloween activities, check out Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar carnival. (Isn’t the button classy? My brother designed it!)

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday participants, visit Shannon of Rocks In My Dryer.

Keeping the Spirit of Christmas Stocking Stuffers

During this time of year it is so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the season. We need to put decorations up, we need to buy gifts, we need to wrap gifts, we need to bake yummy treats, we need to deliver all the baked goods, we need to go to this Christmas party and this Christmas program and we need to address and mail all of our Christmas cards. When we have so much to do it sometimes gets hard to keep the true spirit of Christmas.

To combat the craziness, I like my family to do something that my mother taught us 9 kids to do when we were little children. During the month of December (ideally we would try to do this every night) we would write notes to each other, including to the parents, and put them in each other’s stockings. We weren’t allowed to read them until Christmas, although I remember some years I would sneakily take down my stocking and run to the bathroom so I could peek at the notes I had. (Sorry mom !) You didn’t have to write a note to everyone every day, but you were supposed to write at least one note and you were supposed to rotate to whom you wrote. They could either be simple notes about thanking someone for doing the dishes when it was supposed to be your turn to do them, or they could be more involved letters where you told your sibling or parent why you were grateful to have them in your life. There would be times when we would really get into it and we would write several notes throughout the day. And of course some years we did better on writing these notes than other years.

On Christmas morning it was a tradition in our family to “open” our stockings before we opened any presents. I still remember the special feelings of love and warmth I would get when I read all these notes that had been written just to me! Writing these notes and receiving these notes really did help us to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas and it also taught me many valuable lessons. Above all it taught me how to enjoy doing quiet/anonymous service for others and it taught me to love the feeling I got inside when I did something nice for someone else.

[Note to self: I need to make Cory's stocking before Christmas comes next year!]

For more Works-for-me-Wednesday ideas, please visit Rocks in My Dryer.