Going Primal

It once again has been weeks since my last post. My afternoons, which I used to use for blogging time, have been recently taken up with graphic design work and doing a Wordpress site, which I've nerded out on completely and had a TON of fun with.  So MUCH fun in fact I'm considering taking my blog over to Wordpress, but I'm a little freaked about the transition...

Anyhow onto my food journey.  My husband was struggling with his diet and I didn't know exactly what to do.  This week at bible study I lifted him up in prayer, when I did so I also asked that they pray that God show me how to help him and support him.

Funny things happen when you pray.  God will push you out of your comfort zone.

Ok, let me get totally real here and yes, I'm gonna air my dirty laundry.  I've always tried to be real here, and it's time for me to make a confession.  I've been a horrible un-supportive wife to my husband.  For over a year now we have both been working out, trying to eat healthier, but I've been kinda smug and nasty about it all.  I've totally thought "this is HIS battle.  He is the one who needs to loose the weight, not me.  I can eat what I want within reason and I won't gain, so why should I quit the foods I love?"

I know people.  I'm ashamed of myself.  VERY ashamed.

So I would still buy the vanilla wafers, the graham crackers, cookies, treats and sweets.  I'd bake brownies on the weekends and smother them in ice cream and caramel syrup.  I'd make cookies when I felt like it and claimed that it was for the children.  I'd buy fruit snacks, chips and cookies and explain it was for the kids lunch.

Even though I was cooking grilled chicken for dinner with broccoli and salads, and offering some healthy choices in there, there were still cookies in the pantry.  It was like blowing smoke rings into someones face that was desperately trying to quit.  I didn't even realize what I was doing.

So, as I prayed. God began to reveal to me how I'd been behaving.  Not only has he revealed this but he gave me a desire to take our whole family into a Paleo/Primal lifestyle.  (if you haven't heard of it, you can see what it is about here) We can't do it if we all don't do it together.  I can't expect Jamin and I to eat one way and the kids to still have all kinds of grains and sugar in there just calling out to us.

I repented.  I apologized.  I'm trying to change.

As I started scouring the internet looking for recipes and snacks I became more motivated.  My BIGGEST concern was the kids lunches.  What on EARTH would I send with them if I couldn't give them a sandwich in their lunch box?

So I started Googling Paleo kids lunches and came up with quite a few great ideas:

www.paleoparents.com

www.everydaypaleo.com

Look at those cute little cucumber sandwiches!  Rolled lunch meats, little smokies, apples, pickles, olives, etc...

I came up with a schedule of meals for them next week.  I think the biggest challenge for the kids will be cereal and bread.  Lucy eats a PB&J sandwich EVERY day.  She is my most picky eater.  Evie won't have a problem with the fruits and veggies, but she doesn't really like eggs, so that will make breakfast difficult.  I plan to try this breakfast hash and seeing if that will satisfy her:

I've also found some recipes that use coconut flour and almond flour in lieu of white flour so I can try my hand at some Paleo pancakes and waffles.  We will see how it goes!  I'm gonna try making my own almond meal because I just don't feel like forking over $9.99 a pound for it at Whole Foods. 

I'm considering buying my own coconut to make coconut flakes, but depending on the cost I may or may not go this far.  Since I'm doing more primal than Paleo I am going to keep SOME dairy in our diet, but very very little.  For the most part Jamin and I will go without but I do plan on having some in there.  For dairy I'm going for hormone free, full fat dairy (rather than organic because of cost).  Braums milk is very good and hormone free, and their eggs are also cage free I believe!  Later this summer hopefully we can get a freezer and buy a side of grass fed beef from Jamin's uncle.  For now I'll keep buying the Fit and Active from Aldi.  It's not organic, but it's "natural" which is the next best thing and means it's free of hormones.

Anyhow I'm not sure if we can be 100% strict and I'm not sure I want to be crazy strict, I believe you do need to allow yourself some freedom now and again, but for now I'm getting ALL the junk out of my house and I think that will get us eating good like 95% of the time. 

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I'm hoping that this will be a REALLY positive change for our family.

Family FUN Day!

Ok, I know I haven't written a post in forever.

We've been REALLY busy around here. Not with home stuff with just life, and being sick, oh and reading the Hunger Games and stuff like that.

I mean SERIOUSLY how GOOD are these books?  I'm half way through Mockingjay and I'm DYING to know how they end.

 I digress.

Friday my husband took the day off from work and we decided to unwind and have a family fun day. I'm SO glad he did because it was one AMAZING day.

We started out originally planning a zoo trip, but when we got in the parking lot The OKC Science Museum seemed to be calling our name. We changed our plans in a split second and decided to go for it, because that's how we roll. (Disclaimer, that's how my HUSBAND rolls. Normally the control freak in me will spaz out at a last minute change of plans such as this, but I was actually pretty cool with it).

We have a seriously AWESOME Science Museum here in OKC.  They have this HUGE indoor play area (like a three story tree house).  The little girls liked that.  They got a bit scared at the science live show with the explosions and such, but eventually they started to warm up to the place.  Good thing I bought a season pass.  That will come in handy I'm sure!
 
Anyhow we had a fun morning there and I think the grown ups may have had more fun than the kiddos did.

After the science museum we decided to still hit up the zoo.  Since we have a season pass it's nice to be able to drop in for a few hours and not have to stay the ENTIRE day.  It's been worth EVERY penny to have that family pass.  I HIGHLY recommend it.  That's why we decided it would be worth it to spring for the family pass to the science museum as well.  It will be great in the winter when it's too cold for the zoo!

At the zoo of course I had to stop and satisfy the crazy cat lady living inside me.  We have THREE new baby tigers at the zoo.

Isn't it seriously the most beautiful animal EVER?  I joke that God is gonna give me one in heaven, but I swear when I get to heaven God better have one of these babies waiting for me.

Of course we had to check on mamma and baby elephant too.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our zoo.  I would dare say it's one of the best ever.

After the zoo we decided to head toward downtown and see what fun we could find down there.  We didn't know exactly WHAT we were gonna do, but this ended up being my most favorite part of the day.

Down by the Crystal bridge in the arts district they have this really artsy crazy looking kids park.  At first I thought it would be kinda lame, but it actually ended up being SUPER cool.

Brett with the new Devon building behind him

They have these large cool rock formations and beautiful gardens.

The slide is a big green hill with metal poles going down it.

They also have these weird little balls all over the place for climbing on.

And my favorite photo of the day, my kids on their GROW letters.

We then left the park and went exploring around the crystal bridge.  It's really neat down there and they have a LOT of cool spots to take photos (or goof off) as our family does.

This is our SUPERSTAR pose on the stage

Jumping OFF the stage

My itty bitty ones

I always get annoyed with my husband making goofy faces in EVERY photo.  I showed him this time that I can make goofy faces too.

After we left there we headed toward Sara Sara Cupcakes.  Seriously,  BEST. CUPCAKES. EVER.  (and I am NOT a cake person). 

They had one cupcake called "Sir Elton John."  I snapped a photo and sent it off to my BFF Lanie in Phoenix.  To say she LOVES Elton is a gross understatement.  She has his initials tattooed on her.  NOT.  KIDDING.  Love that gal.

After eating our cupcakes. We headed to the new Whole Foods that just recently opened here in OKC.  My husband had been there since it is close to his work, but I had not yet checked it out.  I LOVE the place.  It's pretty pricey, but we did pick up a few items (banana chips, some fresh almond butter that we ground ourselves and some chocolate peanut butter and of course Lara Bars for the husband).

After seeing all that yummy food, we decided to grab dinner.  We went to Shogun for dinner, and the kids enjoyed watching the chef cook in front of us.

After that, we went home and crashed of course because even though we had a TON of fun, we were EXHAUSTED.

Best family day EVER.

Randomness

I feel like I haven't posted in forever, because well I really haven't.

It's been a crazy few weeks here on the home front.  We all came down with some kind of cold and mine is still lingering on.  I just can't shake this sinus stuff. Problem is when I have all this pressure in my head I just can't make myself work out.  It's been THREE weeks since I've been to the gym and the more the time passes the more I begin to stress and stress that I haven't been going.

I've GOT to get back into it next week.

Last week also why we were all sick, my oldest played Little Red Riding Hood in her school musical "Into The Woods."  SUPER proud of that girl.  She is such a sweetheart and has so much talent, and she is absolutely gorgeous.  Her inside matches her outside though, she is wonderful through and through.

One of my dear friends asked me if I was wearing flannel pajamas.  NOPE just my big long thick jacket. (though as sick as I was and as cold as it was in there that may have been a better solution.  I think if you look close I have icicles hanging from my nose.)

Last week I also ordered my girls bunk bed.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of it.  If you missed my post I rationalized not building a bunk bed because we are just SO busy right now.

It's probably a good thing.  Remember my entryway bench?  Yup, still working on that.  I have ONE more coat of paint then poly to put on it and I'm done.  This project has been slow going for me but really I'm hoping to finish it this weekend.

Back onto bunk beds.  Yesterday I went out to buy the girls comforters and everything is CRAZY expensive for the cute stuff.  I found one at Kohls 65% off.  It's SUPER cute but has not ONE bit of purple in it, but the colors seem to blend.  My girls walls are a purple/lavender color.  I went ahead and bought them but I'm freaking out that they won't look well in the room.

It seems like it may blend ok.  I don't think Lucy is gonna let me take them back.  She seems to REALLY love her new comforter.

Also I've been in the middle of a pretty great parenting bible study by Andy Stanley.

It never ceases to amaze me that God puts me exactly where he wants me.  This is SO completely relevant to areas of our parenting life right now it is great.  It's so simple, yet so wonderful.  I'm learning SO much about the importance of relationships in my kids lives.  It talks a LOT about how this generation tends to be experience rich but relationally poor, and how to fine tune/dial in and out certain relationships in the kids lives.  I'm loving it.

The ONLY hiccups is the memory verse memorization that comes along with the bible study.  Arrgh that has me sweating bullets come Monday morning group time ;)

As if we were not busy enough last week my husband had drill (for those of you who don't know he is in the National Guard) AND we had our cub scouts blue and gold banquet.  Blue and Gold is like our BIG event of the year, and I was the chairman in charge of getting the banquet put together.

Thankfully it went off pretty well.  I'm so proud of my son he earned his Webelos badge!

My husband pinning on his badge

Sorry for the blurry photo, that's the best I got.  (as you can see my husband was still in uniform...came straight from drill to the banquet).

Isn't he just the most handsome boy scout ever?

Ok, him and Bear Grylls.  Behr Grylls may be the most handsome boy scout ever, but my son is right up there ;)

img from the scouting pages.com

I kid, I kid.  (My husband can't get jealous because I'm pretty certain he has a man crush on Bear Grylls).

Also we have been strongly thinking about cutting the cord on our cable.  I'm still in the research phase to see if I can actually do this, but it's looking promising!  The only hiccup right now is the stupid data caps that Cox has placed on their internet service.  I could write a whole blog post rant on that but I'll spare you the agony of me on my soapbox.

So, needless to say we have been pretty busy.  I don't ever see it slowing down anytime soon, but hopefully I'll start feeling better and get my train back on the track.

A Work In Progress

Ok.  Take a step back.  Breathe.

Something is terribly wrong in this home, and I'm pretty sure that it's me.

The more I try to let things go, to let go of perfection, to care less about what people think the more it eats at me.

The more that God tries to work on this area of my life, the more it hurts.  The harder it gets.

People will be coming into my home in the next few hours and I'm freaking out over the crayon on the walls, the dog hair on my sofa and the clutter in my home.

So I get up and I start cleaning.  As I start to clean I notice a pair of my husbands shorts next to the bed on the floor.  I pick those up.  After I pick those up I realize laundry needs done.  I start collecting a mess of dirty clothes that was strewn about my house.

I come downstairs to load the laundry and notice about a dozen pair of shoes in my basket by the door.  I throw those on the stairs and start making a "go upstairs pile".  I notice pieces of paper that my daughter has thrown all over the floor.  I pick up all the little pieces of paper and I can feel myself getting more frustrated.

Every room I go into has a mess to clean up.  Once I get a room clean, and move onto the next, by the time I go BACK into the first room, there is a NEW mess, a new blanket fort, something else to pick up.

I'm truly chasing a tornado.  My effort is all in vain.

So what do I do rather than give up on perfection?  I cry.  I yell.  I get angry.  I give into my sin and disgusting behavior rather than pray, work on it and do what I need to do.  I take my frustration out on those closest to me, my kids, my husband, my WONDERFUL family.  Those who it will effect the most.  Those who are watching me and learning what it is to be like Christ. 

Then I hate myself.  So I cry more, I feel shame. My sin disgusts me.  It makes me physically ill.  I feel pain in my body, I feel an ache in the pit of my stomach when I allow it to take control.  It hurts.

Then it hits me.  A song I haven't heard in about 25 years.  A song I sung in Sunday School as a kid.  A sweet little tune.

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.

I'm currently taking a parenting class at church.  The other night they used an example of a blacksmith forming a horse shoe.  Sometimes the blacksmith has to bang on it gently to get it the shape that it needs.  Other times he has to apply heat, put it in the fire, to really shape it to where it needs to be.

Right now, I think that God is putting me under the fire.  It burns.  It hurts.  But he is shaping me.  He is making me the wife, the mother the woman I am supposed to be.

Rather than worrying about the way my home looks, I need to worry about my homes atmosphere.  I want people to feel the love of Christ as they walk through my door.  I want them to feel joy.  The wonderful joy that comes from my amazing kids.  I want them to roar with laughter like we do at times.  I want them to experience the feeling of family.

I can't do it on my own.  I need Christ every day to give me strength, and patience.   I need him to make me less selfish.  Because on my own I will only fail.

Most of all I need to realize that He's still working on me.

 ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^{[a] 2} For the law of the Spirit of life has set you^[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,^[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
 ⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 

 -Romans 8:1-11

 

Home Goals

So there is this amazing blog that I stumbled upon one day. I think I found it as a referral from another site, and honest to God I can't remember from where.

It's called the Nesting place, and as I read her story (the Nester) and as she opened up her heart to her readers I just fell in love with her. Her testimony was amazing and her advice was so poignant to my life at that moment I became an instant fan.

So next Wednesday January 11th she is having a home goals linky party. Where I will link up this post about my goals for my home this next year. I think it's an amazing idea because when you read her post she comes up with some really thought provoking questions.

Here is what she says:

• What’s my favorite room in my house? Why?
• How and where does my family hang out together?  What’s working for that room? What’s annoying in that room?
• Is there something in my home I want to do but I’m afraid?  What if I take that risk?  What’s the worst that can happen?
• What’s the purpose of my home?  Is that obvious by how we use it and what is filling it?
• Do the objects in my home reflect our family or do I just have things because someone told me it looked good, gave it to me or bought it for me?
• Am I neglecting my home and not putting money into something that is needed?  Am I squandering money on something I don’t need or enjoy?
• Stop apologizing for your home.
• Say more kind things than negative things about your home.
• Your home is for the people who live there first and foremost, honor them and also think about your guests.  This means you can ignore what your well-intentioned neighbor, 80-year-old male painter, and kind-hearted father in law have to say about your paint colors and furniture placement. Make it work for your family for this season of life.

I can't even begin to tell how how relevant this is to me in my life right now.  So I started pondering this and came up with MY goals for the following year. (now, keep in mind MY goals sometimes seem a bit lofty, but I'm REALLY trying to be more realistic about the budget and our capabilities to handle renovation at this time in our life.)

So here goes my goals and thoughts for this year, and answers to The Nester's questions:

WHAT IS MY FAVORITE ROOM IN THE HOUSE AND WHY?

I would have to say that my favorite room in the house right now is my den.  Painting those cabinets white has been such a HUGE transformation in my home.  It has made it feel cleaner, crisper and brighter.  It's the room that has helped me find my style and figure out what I want my home to eventually look like.  Though the room is not quite finished yet, I still love coming in here.

Before

After!  So MUCH brighter.

Although I still have more to complete in this room I love it and it works right now for us.  My goal (hopefully this year) is to get rid of the overstuffed furniture.  Also waiting in my garage are two wing backs.  My plan is to recover the two wing-back chairs in a charcoal/gray fabric and place them under the window with a table in between.  I plan on getting curtains for the window, and on the north side of the room put a desk like this Ana White plan underneath the some shelves.  SOMEDAY (not this year) I would like to close off some room with some pocket doors, that we can open/close whenever we wish.

Image from Pinterest/Conspicuousstyle.com

Wouldn't those pocket french doors just be TO DIE FOR?  Even better would be barn doors, but I can't convince my husband to jump on that bandwagon yet, and since this is his home too, I guess I have to consider his opinion ;)

Hmmph.  Whatever I think they are gorgeous.

Img from Pinterest

HOW AND WHERE DOES MY FAMILY HANG OUT TOGETHER?  WHAT'S WORKING IN THAT ROOM?  WHAT'S ANNOYING IN THAT ROOM?

Our family hangs out now in the front main living room (we used to have the TV in the den, but had to move it to get the computer out of our master bedroom).  The ONLY place that we had to place the TV was on my mothers cedar chest in an odd corner.  I'm not at all thrilled with the placement of the TV.  I think that room was meant more for a sitting room, because there is really NO great place for a television set.  Problem is it works better for us to have the tv in the front room.

I love our fireplace.  During winter we love to chill out in there, watch movies and have a roaring fire going while we pop popcorn and drink hot cocoa.  As you can see though, the TV is just a HUGE eyesore in that room.  It REALLY needs to go above the fireplace, so our goal is to get the cedar chest OUT of that room, and add a mantel and trim work to the fireplace and mount the TV up there.  I know MANY people are either FOR or AGAINST a TV mounted above a fireplace, especially one as large as ours, but it really needs to happen for my own sanity in that room.  We also need some type of storage solution for our DVD player and cable box.  My husband and I are still formulating a plan for that one.

Below is our vision:

Img from Pinterest/DIY Chatroom

ALSO...

After putting the TV in there we realized you can see EVERYTHING going on in that room from the street so I recently ran across black out curtains for $7 each at Target.  A total steal, we LOVE the privacy they give us. Problem is they are a smoky blue/gray and just are not working with the color of the room, so I have to find some new wall color to match these curtains.  Since my husband has never really been fond of the wall colors in this room I chose, it's a good opportunity for us to make that change over.  So I'm hoping for this room to get a small renovation this year.

IS THERE SOMETHING IN MY HOME I WANT TO DO BUT I'M AFRAID?  WHAT IF I TAKE THE RISK?  WHATS THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?

I'd have to say without a doubt it's my staircase.  You can read about my vision here.  I want to rip up the nasty gross dirty carpet and go for a clean fresh look.  I want to paint the rails espresso and the treads espresso as well, with white balusters and white trim.  There are some issues that I need to work out, but really the worst that could happen is that we live with some wood stairs for a while until we re-carpet the house.  I think anything has GOT to be better than the carpet we currently have.

 

Also this year hoping to get my entryway storage bench/coat rack complete.  If not this winter, maybe in the fall! 

Here is my vision:

Img from Pinterest/Remodelaholic

Gorgeous, I mean, WOW, I just need to go for it.

WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF MY HOME?  IS THAT OBVIOUS BY HOW WE ARE USING IT AND WHAT IS FILLING IT?

This is a strange question.  I guess I could answer this by saying our purpose is to be comfortable and relaxed in our own home.  I want my home to be pretty but we actually have to be able to LIVE in it and keep it reasonably clean with four kids, two dogs and two cats!  Also we do LOVE to entertain and have people over, and I think that we have updated our seating and dining area enough to accommodate guests comfortably.   I would like to get the kids bath/guest bath complete this year (we had a water leak issue, the floor is sagging and come spring we need to repair the floor and start working on that room).  I want to get that up to code for our guests to use.  Oh, and I really need to get better about having more guest towels and washcloths.  MAKE MY GUESTS FEEL WELCOME AND COMFORTABLE.

DO THE OBJECTS IN MY HOME REFLECT OUR FAMILY OR DO I JUST HAVE THINGS BECAUSE SOMEONE TOLD ME IT LOOKED GOOD, GAVE IT TO ME OR BOUGHT IT FOR ME?

Yes and no.  I'm starting to replace artwork with things that are my own, rather than store bought items.  Also some furniture was given to us or was passed down after my mother and grandmother passed away, but it's working for now, some my husband has made, some I bought myself before we were married (can you say purple overstuffed sofas?) , but some like our dining table we bought together.  It's a work in progress.  I'm learning to let go of things that were my mothers but don't reflect my style.  For the longest time I would hold onto things of hers because they were hers, even though they didn't reflect my particular taste.  I'm learning that my home is MINE, not hers.  She would want me to enjoy my home and be happy with it, rather than just holding onto a piece for sentimental reasons.

AM I NEGLECTING MY HOME AND NOT PUTTING MONEY INTO SOMETHING THAT IS NEEDED?  AM I SQUANDERING MONEY ON SOMETHING I DON'T NEED OR ENJOY?

Ok people, here is where I get real and honest.  We have a BAD eating out habit that needs to be broken, and we are TRULY getting better about it.  I wonder just HOW much could we have done to our home last year with that money?  Instead, we just ATE it.  

STOP APOLOGIZING FOR YOUR HOME

Stop griping about my tile when guests are here and apologizing for it.  Stop apologizing for our bathroom upstairs, hey, it's not pretty but at least it works and it's clean.

My husband has a great saying "Those that matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter."

REALLY good saying.  Those who truly love us and care for us don't mind that our home is a work in progress.

SAY MORE KIND THINGS THAN NEGATIVE THINGS ABOUT YOUR HOME

Stop griping about my tile.  (See above).  Stop pointing out all my homes imperfections and show them what I'm proud of and all that I've accomplished in this home on a very small budget!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my home, and there are times that I forget how much I love it when I see the stains on my carpet, the scratches on the trim, and the fingerprints on the walls.  Every once in a while I'll get a glimpse of my home through a strangers eyes, and what I see is absolutely beautiful.  After all it's not the walls, furniture, paintings or carpet that make this house our home, it's the people living in it, and I honestly couldn't be happier.  This is our home, and I love it.

Linking up to the Nesters Home Goals Linky Party!

Christmas Traditions

In our house we have a LOT of Christmas traditions, some conventional, some unconventional and some are just plain fun.

I'm REALLY learning and trying as I get older to make Christmas more about Christs birth, spending time with our family and the spirit of giving more than about the gifts. It's difficult, but we are trying.

Our traditions though we remember year to year.  Our traditions keep us more focused on spending time as a family and the fun of Christmas rather than the gifts, our traditions are important.

One of my favorite traditions/useful Holiday tips that I thought I'd pass along is an idea my husband gave me that his Aunt Kathryn  used to do with her kids and I thought it was just such a brilliant idea.

She would get each of her kids a different wrapping paper and wrap all the gifts in them, and wouldn't tell her girls who's was who's until Christmas morning.

Can you guess who's is who's?

It's a lot of fun to watch my kids try and guess who's is who's (usually wrong because I'm sneaky like that).  It also keeps them from digging under the tree shaking gifts trying to figure out what their gifts are.  I love it and look forward to it every year.

No peeking until Christmas!

My mother in law's birthday is Dec 15, so we always go over to her house on or right near her birthday and get her a real tree (I do an artificial one here at home).  She always makes a big crock pot full of apple cider and has Christmas music on while we all decorate her tree.  I tend to get a bit nutty watching my kids cluster too many ornaments next to each other (my OCD kicks into overdrive), but she is so relaxed and chill she just let's the kids have fun with it.  I need to learn to be more like her on things.  She is one amazing lady.

Kids hanging the lights

the little ones with grandma

 Another fun Christmas tradition that we have is my baking during the week before Christmas (usually Christmas Eve and the day before).  I make white chocolate pretzels, rice crispy treats, fudge, sugar cookies, gingerbread men and sometimes other things, but those are my staples.

My kiddos in the kitchen making sugar cookies

The best part (other than eating them) is decorating them!

My gingerbread men

I think I almost enjoy Christmas eve more than Christmas day.  There is just something magical about that night.  We start out the evening by eating pizza.  Yes, I said pizza.  It's something that my family did when we were kids, and my husband and I carried the tradition on.  We even carried on the tradition in blizzards.

My husband, nephew, and brother in law's going to get pizza in the blizzard of 2009

Yes, we were all trapped in my mother in law's house in the OKC blizzard of 2009 and the men in my family walked about a mile in the snow to Target to get frozen pizzas to carry out our tradition.  You can read all about that Christmas here. It was one of the craziest and best Christmases ever!

After pizza we settle down and get the kids and read about Christ's birth out of Luke.  While we are reading we let the kids take the nativity pieces and move them around to the story.

Each Christmas the kids look forward to this

After we read the Christmas story from the bible, we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

My MIL makes a cake each year

After they do that we let the kids open one present each.  If we were at my MIL's house, we do this when we get home and my husband puts a big fire in the fireplace.

Waiting to open his one present

It's ALWAYS been PJ's

Every year I get the kids new Christmas jammies.  My son still doesn't remember that each year he gets new pajamas.  Every year he thinks it's a toy.  I think this may be the first year he actually remembers. 

After the kiddos go to bed my husband and I bring down all the "Santa" gifts.  The Santa paper I try and find always has an image of Santa on it and is the traditional red color.  I love waking up Christmas morning and seeing the kids faces.  Every year my husband and I are so excited we usually have to wake the kids up!

We take our time opening presents, mixed in with Christmas music, and have pigs in a blanket for breakfast.  For lunch I usually make a ham and we spend the rest of the day enjoying our time together as a family.

This year we have added Advent to our list of traditions we will be doing.  I look forward each Sunday night to our family bible study together when we do Advent.  (Advent is not biblical, it's just tradition to help remember and anticipate the coming of Christmas and to help us keep focused on Christ during this season).

Our first Advent wreath

When it comes down to it, it's not the presents we remember but the traditions and time spent with our kids and family that sticks in our memory year after year.

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?  I'd LOVE to hear about them in my comments! No matter how your celebrate Christmas this year, I hope you and your family have a wonderful, awesome VERY Merry Christmas.  God Bless.