Day 2 of Carols

Today I choose Away in a Manger because I'm hoping to teach these songs to Zoe each day as well.  Away in a Manger is a bit more manageable for her little spirit.

Have you ever gone caroling? What are some of your favorite memories caroling?

"O Come, O Come Emmanuel" 25 days of Carols

This December, in order to help me focus on Christ, I'm posting a hymn a day. This hymn makes me think of our artisans because Christ came to "O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny." Many of our artisans have been set free! Praise God!

In our Cottage, I plan on making a wall hanging using these beautiful carols.

What are some images that come to mind for you?

What carols help you to reflect during this time of year?

Merry Christmas Friends

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

I leave you with this song that I think TRULY describes Christmas very well: 

May the Joy of Christ's Birth, Death, and Resurrection fill you with HOPE this Christmas!

Today you'll find me

barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen.  Ok, only really 2 of those three! =P (I hate to be barefoot.) Today I'm trying to get most of my Christmas baking done.  So far the white chocolate covered pretzels are in the fridge to set and peppermint has been crushed for a few different projects including:

These peppermint marshmallow hot chocolate stirrers, except I don't have sticks OOPS!

Funny, I sent my husband to the store for candy canes, and he came home with a 2 lb candy CANE it was huge. Thankfully, I could just bang it on the table to get it into small enough pieces to put in the blender :). 

and I'm making a variation of these:

Which I'm hoping will turn out well.  

I'm also making some brownie trees, white chocolate gingerbread cookies, and some eggless cookie dough so that I can eat it! 

What are you baking up this Christmas season???

Oh and of course there will be some coconut creations ;). 

Reminiscing of Christmas Past

When Sarah of Yes, Teacher shared about some of her Christmas traditions as an MK in France, it made me think of some of our old Christmas traditions with my family.

When we (my sisters and I) were growing up, my grandparents always spent Christmas Eve at our house. It was so special to go wake up my grandpa at 5 in the morning and snuggle with him until my parents woke up, just staring at the tree.  My mom always had a very adult tree upstairs, it was mostly covered in blown glass ornaments/very breakable ornaments and covered in white lights, white garland, and white beads.  I always loved to admire that tree.

Even though we don't plan to do "Santa" with our kids, as a child we did celebrate Santa coming. My grandpa would "go to the mall" on Christmas Eve, which meant he went to the basement to get dressed up like Santa, then would come and knock on the upstairs door and give us a quarter. He did this for everyone in the neighborhood. One year, I asked my mom, "Mom why is Santa wearing Pap's glasses?" I was about 4 so I don't remember her answer, but I think the cat might have been out of the bag then ;).  He also made one of our neighbors so afraid she locked herself in the bedroom on Christmas Eve.  Oops!  He totally didn't mean to scare her.  He was the greatest pap ever!  We'd also usually eat pizza from my mom's favorite pizza shop that evening. 

On Christmas morning, we had gifts from my parents under the tree upstairs. Then we would eat some breakfast (usually some nut roll, date roll, and other sugary goodness) and then open the presents "from Santa" under the tree downstairs (aka gifts from my grandparents.) Then our parents would finish up lunch while we played/put away our new gifts. 

(I realize now the tree always looked so much more majestic when I wasn't allowed to touch anything).

At lunch our aunt and uncle would come, we'd all sit down to eat lunch.  Afterwards, we'd open up our stockings and gifts from them after lunch. It was a very special time. 

Normally our tree had more decorations but I don't know why we didn't that year.  This was my last gift from my grandpa.  He passed on the following October.  He was the best paper catcher/thrower awayer ever! ;)

my sister loves beagles so she got some beagles that year

Then we'd head to my dad's parent's house after all the dishes were done and put away.  We'd eat some dinner down there, exchange gifts, and then head to our neighbor's house.  They would offer us the most delicious assortment of cookies.  There's one I have no idea what it's called but it has chickpeas in it and it's soooooo amazing (perhaps because I grew up on it).  

I'm not sure what our new traditions will be as we start our own little family. I sure do miss though being able to wake up on Christmas morning (even in high school) at 5 am and snuggle with my grandpa. Those were the days! I'm sure though we'll start focusing our family traditions around Christ after our little one gets here.  He truly is the reason for this Season. 

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. - Luke 2:11

For to us a child is born, 
   to us a son is given, 
   and the government will be on his shoulders. 
And he will be called 
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
Of the increase of his government and peace 
   there will be no end. 
He will reign on David’s throne 
   and over his kingdom, 
establishing and upholding it 
   with justice and righteousness 
   from that time on and forever. 
The zeal of the LORD Almighty 
   will accomplish this. - Isaiah 9:6-7

What are some of your Christmas Traditions??? How have they changed since being married?

Not here, but there

Today you'll find me over at Jana's blog doing a post on some holiday baking (which I've yet to start)! EEK!  I need to get some eggs pronto! ;)  I  really can't wait to make these:

Source

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If you are interested in guest posting for me while I take a little break in January, please shoot me an email mrsawood 08 at gmail dot com. 

Looking for posts on: 

First time mommyhood tips

DIY Tutorials

Faith

Make-up Tutorials (cough Lanie cough)

or if you have something different you'd like to post on, please share it with me ;)

Be Our Guest

Hello Everyone!!! 

I hope that you are all doing well. I'm sorry to have been out of the loop for so long on blogging, but I think that I will be back enough to at least finish out this month.  I am hoping to still blog until baby is born (or almost born) but am just not sure exactly when that will be.  Supposedly in 44 more days but we'll see. 

Have you gotten into the Christmas Spirit yet?  Are you like me and have been playing Christmas music since November 1st the day after Thanksgiving?  I love Thanksgiving and truthfully, as much as I love Christmas, Thanksgiving is up there pretty high as well.  We'll say they're tied for my favorite.  

I'm hoping to make these for some gifts
via Pinterest

We live in a small apartment with no real room for a large tree, I tried that once and it just took up half the living room and now our couch is larger than it was back then.  So we just have a small three foot tree, but it suits us just fine.  I put it up about a week ago and just love sitting and looking at the pretty lights. :) 

Someday I will make these as well. So pretty!
via Pinterest

I also have 2 nativity sets displayed in our living room.  I love them both.  They are a great reminder that Jesus is the reason we celebrate!  I can't wait until next year and we can talk to our little one about Jesus and share about His birth using our nativity sets.  

More than all the decorations though, Christmas is about Christ and His Birth and why He had to come to Earth.  So if you've made it this far into my ramblings, GREAT and thank you!  

via Pinterest

What does Christmas mean to you??? 

I would love to have some guest posts this month on what Christmas means to you, some traditions you follow, and how you celebrate Christ through this season.  

If you are interested, PLEASE shoot me an email at mrsawood08 at gmail dot com.  I would love to hear from you.