holiday prep

Happiness is.... a freezer full of peanut butter balls.

Last night we baked cookies and wrapped gifts and watched Elf and had lots of Christmas fun until well past our usual bedtime.


Making peanut butter balls is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of messy-hands action involved. The kind where I take off my rings, roll up my sleeves and go through two aprons.

Steve managed to get a little bit messier than I did. And, as I was cleaning up the counter, I heard him declare, "I think that this baker's chocolate is my favorite kind of chocolate!" I turned around to find him happily licking his hands at the sink.

Later, when he was feeling a bit ill, I asked, "How much did you eat?" and he said, "It's kind of hard to tell when you're eating it off your hands." True that.

We also made snickerdoodles, to satisfy someone's love of plain cookies.



And we wrapped a million little gifts. Doesn't it looks like Steve is the fastest gift wrapper ever in this picture? Today I had the pleasure of taking the stack of packages to the post office and putting them in someone else's hands. I love it when my part of the job is done.

As we speed towards the excitement of the weekend ahead, I am thinking about the words from our advent calendar last week:

He did not wait
till hearts were pure.
In joy he came to a tarnished
world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of
anguished shame he came
and his Light would not go out.

This Christmas season, that's what I'm banking on- that no matter how deep the darkness, the Light will not go out.

the answer

Six years ago, on a cold night in Virginia, Steve insisted that we take a walk. He wanted to look at Christmas lights. I wanted to stay inside, like normal people do in the winter.

But I gave in. We walked and talked and ended up at a large Christmas tree on campus. And then Steve did something totally surprising: he asked me a question that would change the course of my entire life.

The answer, of course, was yes.

The answer still is.

Every day I wake up next to him, and the answer is yes. I mop the floors and do the laundry, and the answer is yes. We have a misunderstanding, and the answer is yes. We laugh until we cry, and the answer is yes. We change jobs and buy groceries, rake leaves and go to church. The answer is yes.

Life doesn't turn out the way we thought it would, and the answer is yes.

I coudn't have known then what our life would look like today. I can't know today what our life will look like in six more years, or ten, or forty.



But I knew the right answer. I didn't have to puzzle it out or phone a friend or check my notes. The right answer had been staring me in the face, waiting on the tip of my tongue, for quite some time. So when the moment arrived, I was ready.


I'm still ready.


Sometimes life seems like a test. I scribble in the margins and do some long division and try to apply what I've learned. And under all the little questions that make up a day, there is the one big question that now mostly goes unspoken. But it's still there and it's still just as important as the first time he asked.


And today, I am thankful that I still know the right answer.

finally something to show

Yesterday we had a "snow day". It was cold and rainy and Steve worked from home and I worked from home and all in all it was very cozy and nice. I accomplished much in the way of cooking and sewing. In fact, all of the things that needed to be sewn before Christmas are now lined up in a neat row.

My biggest project of the day was finishing Riley's apron. The idea of making an apron for someone who is only two feet tall was, as you might imagine, very appealing to me. Isn't everything cuter when it's mini?

And who can cook without ruffles? Certainly not me and Riley seems like a girl who would appreciate a ruffle or two.

I hope she makes lots of soup this winter in her play kitchen and that she enjoys looking cute while doing it.

Oh my gosh- did you mention soup? Oh, that was me? Well, whatever. The soup of the week is chicken noodle and it is darn tasty. I'm trying to kick a cold and I do believe every myth out there about chicken noodle soup. It's better than NyQuil. And lots tastier.

To accompany the soup, I whipped up some crescent rolls from scratch. They were surprisingly easy, taste nothing like the ones that come in a tube, and made me wonder why I had never tried making them before. I love that chubby crescent shape.

I think that today's episode of "Kick the Cold" will include some reading, a little hand stitching just for fun, and a large dose of hot chocolate. Round that out with a weekend of cookie-baking and Christmas movies and I'll be back in action by Monday.

what I can and cannot show you

I wish that I could show you pictures of all I've been working on this week. But most of the things I am working on are Christmas gifts for my family. And since I think that my family makes up at least half of my blog readership, I'm gonna have to save the pictures for a post-Christmas treat.

So I can't show you the gifts I completed over the weekend.

I can't show you the gift I am currently hand stitching in my spare time.

I can't show you the apron I am working on for Riley Grace. Not because I think that toddlers are big blog followers, but because I don't have any pictures of it yet. But soon. Very soon, I think.

However, to make up for all the things that I can't show you, here are a few that I can:

I can show you this picture, taken at the Billy Graham Library last Saturday night. We went for the lights and caroling.

We stayed for the live nativity. I wish you could see more of the animals in this picture. They were all chewing. If only I could show you the chewing, because it was cute.

I can show you this picture of our lifegroup Christmas party last night. Our white elephant gift exchange requires you to find something in your house that you no longer want. Somebody else's trash = the best kind of gift.

And I can show you a very pregnant woman wearing a very tacky outfit.

I can show you someone who sleeps in a twin bed, and, as luck would have it, got a whole set of dinosaur sheets to go on it.

I can show you some of the ugliest Christmas outfits you are likely to see this holiday season, unless you happen to attend a Red Hat Society luncheon.

I also cannot show you how cold it is here- you'll just have to take my word for it. I find that vacuuming keeps me warm, so I think that our house will be very clean this week.

the best way to spread Christmas cheer

We have reached a new level of holiday cheer over here. Steve gets 100% of the credit for the idea and I get 100% of the credit for actually doing it and between the two of us, we are unstoppable. I am in love with this red coffee table. It's a good thing I ran out of paint, or some of our other furniture would be in danger.

This year I did not buy any decorations (except the tree) and I didn't even use all the ones we pulled out of the attic. Simple and homemade is the name of the game. Lots of fresh greens. Lots of ball ornaments, collected over the years, used almost everywhere but on the tree. I like to mix things up a bit.

We have a special love for advent calendars around here. In December, I don't want a single day to sneak by without being noticed. We are going to savor every one.

I spent several hours last week creating this new advent calendar for our family room wall. It is loosely based on one I saw in the Pottery Barn catalogue and I love how it turned out. The actual days were created several years ago, but the hanging apparatus is new. Made out of garden twine and sticks from our yard.

These felt flowers are sprucing up the pillows on the green sofa and are also for sale in the shop. I love being able to easily turn a neutral pillow into a Christmas decoration. If I had time to make more of these flowers, I would string garlands of them around the windows. Maybe next year.

We don't have stockings on the fireplace, but I put a couple in the guest room, just in case anyone wants to stay here on Christmas Eve. I'll bet Santa could sneak in the window just as easily as the chimney. I'll even leave it unlocked.

I'm telling you- nothing is safe from the decorating squad (which is mainly just me, and a little bit Steve, but "squad" sounds so much more official). Even the wall hangings got gussied up for the month. I like to buy fancy ribbon on sale during the week after Christmas. There is no shortage of ribbon around here.

The dining room is ready for meals with friends and lingering over a second helping. Or maybe just Steve and I and some soup. Which, by the way, was french onion this week, but there are no pictures because french onion soup isn't very attractive. But she has a great personality.

The tree was decorated courtesy of Mia and Uncle Steve, mostly. We just used the straw ornaments this year, which are very kid-friendly. Now that Mia's gone, I need to find some more kids to pull stuff off the tree.

The family room is my hang out spot of choice these days, for obvious reasons. If only you could smell the pine and spice candles or hear the choirs singing on the radio. Pictures don't even do it justice.

The days are already slipping by too fast and I try to catch them as they swirl away. The 8th will quickly become the 15th and before we know it, the moment will have passed.

Good news though- the Reason we celebrate doesn't fade away on the 26th like all the music and lights. He settles right in for the long winter- sleet, muddy boots, and all.

W is for...

Who wouldn't want to find this bundle under their Christmas tree? We were lucky enough to spend the whole weekend with this little gift and enjoy every last bit of her cuteness. The girl can eat. And it shows.

This one was a little harder to please, but a bucket of fabric scraps did just the trick. She had three days of fun with those scraps. I think I know what she's getting for her birthday.

Uncle Steve pulled out all the stops to make this the best weekend a toddler could hope for. There was lots of hide and seek, reading, and a surprise favorite game that involved sitting on the kitchen floor pretending that they were driving in a car. And sometimes they would stop the car and go into the grocery store for a few necessities.

Don't let the Precious Moments eyes fool you though- she doesn't even sleep. Sometimes I started to believe that she was some type of loud, demanding robot with a long battery life. But then she would do something different, like kiss my boo-boo or smile at me while I scratch her back, and all those moments added together more than make up for all the loud. And the demanding.

She is a little bit her mom and a little bit her dad and a whole lot herself. And I love her like I always knew I would, even before I knew her.

Sweet cheeks here was even more charming than the last time I saw her and I must have put my nose to her head to inhale her sweet baby smell at least 30 times. She smiles constantly, loves to cuddle, and makes little grunting noises just for fun. She was the perfect house guest, except for all the spitting up, and nobody really minded that.

There is no picture of the best part of the weekend though- my confidante, encourager, helper, and friend of the past 22 years and I spent an entire evening by the glow of the Christmas tree, talking. We shared losses and victories, frustrations and joys. No sorrow is as bad once I've shared it with her and no joy is complete until it reaches her ears. Sometimes I wonder how I was chosen to receive the gift of her friendship. I've said it before, and I'll say it again- my cup runneth over.

And speaking of blessings, I am also blessed with a husband who truly gets how much I like to decorate for Christmas. So much so, that when I said "let's go all out this year" he replied with "we should paint the coffee table red". So that's what we did. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of all the holiday cheer around here.

wrapping things up

We finally made it to dinner time. After a couple of fun hours in the kitchen with Mom, everything was ready and relatively hot.

A buffet line was formed and plates were filled. And filled again.

We toasted the year and settled in for the evening together. How many days do we get to spend every hour together? Not enough, that's how many.

We cleared the table, dishes were done courtesy of one amazing sister, and we got down to business. It's just not a holiday without a fierce round of Nerts. And I'm telling you, things can get pretty intense. At one point I was up on my knees in my chair for a better angle. And I may or may not, but probably did, tell Steve that I would bite his arm if he put it in front of me again. Maybe.

We took a "break" for dessert, but then were in such a cheesecake coma that we could not continue the game. So Corbin won, but we all know it's just because he has the longest arms.

This was just one day. I haven't even mentioned the Black Friday shopping or the haircuts. The time that my sweetheart and I snuck away to the tree where he proposed almost exactly six years ago. The visits with old friends. The dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way home that raised Cracker Barrel a whole three notches in my opinion of road trip stopping options.

I could go on and on. But it is December 1st today and time to move on to December things. And just so you know, my love for the first of the month is multiplied by 100 in December. It is, by far, my favorite 1st.

Next week, I will have lots to share about all the holiday prep that is going on around here. This week, I have lots left to do. Especially because tomorrow night will bring a sleigh full of visitors, one of which will be making her inaugural trip to our house. So we want to have everything just right.

Will she care about the red and white pillow covers or the fresh greenery on the mantle? I think she just might.