Christmas Treats

I teach a ladies Sunday School class and I like to provide a breakfast for them the Sunday before Christmas. This year I made Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. They are easy and fun to make, but they make so many. 

 The rolls are so good when you take them out of the oven. They freeze well and can be heated up later. I put one plate back for my family to have on Christmas morning. I took two plates to Sunday School.

 You can see I had plenty. I think I had eleven pans in all. Too many for this household. I shared with folks I wanted to remember this Christmas.

I put the ones that I was giving away in these cute little boxes. I was almost as excited about the box as I was the cinnamon rolls. I am sure you all are busy doing special things for your friends and family.
Enjoy the season!

Christmas Aprons

I shared earlier about the apron my daughter had bought me last Christmas. I made some fun summer aprons but wanted to try Christmas ones. My daughter, Katie, and I both bought Christmas fabric at our favorite store in Salida, CO. We were there at different times but bought the same print.....just different colors. Hmmm, our taste must be similar. This time I put an initial on the hand towel before adding the fabric and sash. I like how they turned out.

I hope these aprons make your Christmas baking a lot more fun!

Christmas Cheer

This Christmas we are trying to give more of ourselves and just enjoy the season and not get caught up in all the "stuff". On Thursday night my husband took me to a Christmas concert with Point of Grace and Phillips, Craig, and Dean. We both enjoyed it immensely and it really got me in the Christmas spirit. One thing that Point of Grace promotes is A Soldier's Hope sponsored by the American Bible Society. We live in a military town so this really interested us. Check out the link and see if it is something you might want to do.

Earlier in the fall we did boxes for Operation Christmas Child. My Sunday School class collects all year long and then we pack the boxes in October. Another opportunity for us was to adopt a child from WV. There are the military folks deployed that always get a box at Christmas too.I am telling all this so you can see the many opportunities there are to help others. There are CASA children that need adoption as well as those on Angel Trees. Some folks are using their couponing to fill boxes and provide gifts. Your local schools always know of students in need.

Yesterday two different groups at our church were getting gifts ready for the nursing home. It was a cold day and I really enjoy staying in by the fire and reading. I made myself get out to help those groups and I am so glad I did. I had to remind myself it is about giving your time as well and that has been our goal. Below are some pictures taken from yesterday.

We had to form an assemby line to make it go faster.

You can see we had some stacks going on.

  The men get a pair of socks, kleenex and candy.

 Here are some packages for women. They get fuzzy socks, colorful kleenex and some candy.

 The girls were putting red tinsel in ornaments. We added a fleur de lis stencil.

 Here are some notebooks that can be used as guest books for residents.

We also made smaller ones.

The finished ornament and a look at a fun day of doing for others.

 

Christmas Shirts for Stuart

I wanted to make something fun for Stuart to wear during the holidays. I have two daughters so I would usually smock a new Christmas dress, look for festive bows, and try to find a fun Christmas shirt every year. I am discovering it is a bit different with little boys. I found some cute appliques and got to work.

 Stuart needed a Christmas owl and I thought this was a sharp little fellow. I used gingham on the owl and he looks quite festive.

 This little reindeer has such a cute personality. I think we all feel the way he looks at different times.....especially during the holidays.

 Every little boy needs Frosty to be his friend. Stuart can wear this shirt throughout the winter.

 There are so many designs with the truck. This one reminds me of going Christmas tree hunting when I was a young girl. We would always cut a cedar tree from the woods.

I added his name to the truck rather than putting it over or under the design.

Have a good week!



Teacher Gifts

I started making these little aprons a couple of years ago for teachers. I am a retired teacher and I could have used one in the day. A perfect place to put pens, markers, etc.

 This is basically what was called a nail apron years ago. I bought these at Hobby Lobby, but sometimes you can pick them up at Wal-Mart in the paint section. I add a name and a design down in the corner.

 Ms. Carver has Scottie dogs in her classroom so I added one to her apron. Super simple gift but very practical! Hope these ladies like theirs.

Advent Conspiracy

Worship fully. Spend less. Give more. Love everyone. A young friend shared this from Advent Conspiracy. The words keep replaying in my mind and I wanted to share the link with you. Please take a moment to watch this short video and I think it will make you view things a bit differently. I know it did me.
Advent Conspiracy, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone. I have so much for which I am grateful and I need to remember that this advent season.
We had a great Thanksgiving. My daughter and son-in-law hosted our Thanksgiving meal and they did an outstanding job. It was their first time to cook a turkey and that can be intimidating. Everything was delicious and I must say I was impressed. I wanted to share a few pictures from our day.

 A few weeks back my daughter wrote about their new table on their blog. It was a perfect size and was covered with wonderful dishes.

 Susan made shrimp and grits dressing from Southern Living. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I will add this to my collection along with the following dishes.

 This is fried confetti corn from Southern Living. She used fresh corn kernels along with fresh bell pepper and onion. You can find the recipe in November's issue. I think it was my favorite.

 This sweet potato and carrot casserole also came from Southern Living. Once again she used fresh ingredients and it was delicious.

 The turkey was moist and seasoned well. They did a wonderful job on their first turkey.

Best of all was spending time with our family and especially sweet Stuart.
Now looking forward to Christmas.

Birthday Weekend

This weekend was my husband's birthday and all of our family was here to help celebrate. We enjoyed it so much. I want to share a few photos from the weekend. Some of the pictures are from our trip to the pumpkin patch with Stuart and others are from home.

Fall Fun For Stuart

The month of October is always a fun month and I wanted to have a couple of things ready for Stuart.

 I found this cute scarecrow and put it on a brown onesie. Stuart will be ready for the pumpkin patch.

 The scarecrow is such a happy fellow.

Another fall event in our area is the fair and rodeo. I pulled out my cowboy boots from 50 something years ago. I know they won't work for Stuart this year so I decided on a boot applique.

 I decided to use bandanna fabric for the  boots on a black onesie. I must tell you the thread looks much better in person. The color doesn't look good in the photo at all.

I thought they were fun little boots and how cute it will be with a pair of jeans.