Snapshots of Christmas

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Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Bars

 I met my husband when I was just 15 and I can still remember my very-young-self standing in the kitchen next to my future mother-in-law making "Peanut Butter Balls" for the first time.  The first thing I realized was that these peanut butter balls were nothing like the peanut butter balls that I had ever had because they were not covered in chocolate.  The second thing I realized was that my would-be husband really liked them.  Thus, I wrote the recipe down on an index card and we have been making them ever since...well, at least we have been making a tweaked version of the recipe.

 Ingredients

5 cups of rice crisp cereal

1 cup sugar

1 cup kayro syrup

1.5 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 First, measure out your 5 cups of cereal and set aside.  Trust me, when it is time you will want to have it ready.

 On the stove top, mix all other ingredients and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.

Once your peanut butter mixture is boiling, quickly mix in the cereal.  And this is the part that you have to call in extra enforcement and act FAST!  Everyone gathers in the kitchen, quickly grabbing small bits of the burning hot peanut butter cereal mix, rolling them into balls and then throwing them onto waiting wax paper.  If you don't act quickly, the mixture will cool and crumble and no longer stick together.  So just accept the fact that you'll be burning the fingerprints off of your finger tips.  There will be screaming and peanut butter cereal will be flying all over your kitchen.

OR

(and this is where I tweaked the recipe)...

 You could simply pour the mixture into a greased baking pan, press firmly, let cool, and later cut them into bars instead of rolling them into balls.

Less screaming.  Still just as delicious.

(See my previous post for simple directions for those Christmas Kiss Treats.)

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Been There, Pinned That ~ Christmas Kiss Treats

 Last week I participated in an annual cookie exchange with friends.  Unfortunately, as much as I love to eat sweet treats I really dislike baking....and cooking....really, I prefer to stay at least 10 feet away from the stove at all times.  I use my crock pot.  A lot.

  Thankfully, the world of Pinterest has opened up a whole new world of discovering new "recipes" that are actually easy to make and yummy.  (Unlike one of those fancy cooking magazines that claim "simple" recipes, yet have 20 ingredients and 35 steps.) 

  Now, if you are on Pinterest, you've probably seen the directions for these easy Christmas treats as it has been a popular Pin the last few weeks.  A Pin I found linked to these directions on Cooking Classy.  And if you haven't already tried it yourself, I am here to tell you that these little candies really were simple to make and super tasty!  Here's what to do...

Preheat oven to 200.  Place chocolate kisses on top of square pretzels.  Bake for 5 minutes.  Top each kiss with an M&M.  Let cool and set in refrigerator.

  Funny story...the original Pin called for Hershey's Hugs instead of kisses.  I sent my husband to the store to get the ingredients and soon received this text from him...

"Pinterest is of the devil...how else can you account for a SUPER Wal-Mart being out of both square pretzels and hugs?!?!"

  :o).  He eventually found the square pretzels at another store, but we opted for the kisses as they were also out of hugs.

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More Christmas Memories

I know that posting Christmas pictures on my blog in February is sort of like leaving up Christmas lights just as long...but I'm just getting around to it and since I haven't scrapbooked in so long, I really need to record these memories somewhere.

It's absolutely forbidden to take early Christmas morning pics of Mama, but this picture of L1 is pretty much exactly what I looked like. We all got up before 6:30 am...no, I'm not kidding...to open presents at home.

(Insert picture of Chad reading Luke 2.) I actually took this picture, but I'm afraid that Chad would be really upset with me for posting it as it was a rather close-up picture of his morning face. So you'll just have to trust me that we're not heathens.

Just a joke. :o)

This is why I love Christmas morning. It doesn't matter what the gift was, L1 looked exactly the same every time she opened a present.


Ahhhh....Nerf guns, a present for daddy...I mean, from Daddy.


Notice the shirt? 'Nuff said.


I love our homeschool group. I got a great deal on two gameboys with games and accessories from another mom for a really great price. Our kids could care less if they were new or not. We gave one to A7.


And one to G9.


H4 has inherited my inability to show any emotion while receiving a gift. This is what I will look like if someone ever shows up on my doorstep with a million dollar check.


Step over Partridge family!


E2 is ridiculous handsome.


My big sis and my nephew.


My little sis in the headsock I crocheted for her. I got the pattern here.


And because Christmas is not complete without 104 family group photos...above is my mom and stepdad and the 5 siblings.


A horrible group shot where most of us have our eyes closed, or are unintentionally making a silly face, or are hiding behind someone else.


This picture represents the Christmas party we hosted for Chad's family. Hey, only half of the kids are mine.


And this picture represents the Christmas party we hosted for my Dad's family.

We visited just two places on Christmas Eve. Two on Christmas Day. Hosted a party the day after Christmas and hosted another party the day after that.

And then I slept.

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Christmas Memories - Decor

Christmas is truly such a beautiful holiday. It's really a shame that twinkling lights are so closely associated with this one holiday. Otherwise I think I might keep them up all year...on purpose I mean.

I thought I'd make sure to take some photos of the pretty little things that I just enjoy seeing around my house at Christmas.

Okay, so the rest of my living room looks horrible but at least the tree was pretty! I actually didn't have any gifts wrapped until Christmas Eve after the kids went to bed.


Stockings filled after a visit from St. Nick.


A beautiful angel to announce the birth of Christ. L1 actually screamed with delight when we plugged in this angel's lights.


I love the ruggedness of this statue of St. Nick. He stands by our fireplace all through December.


Two gifts sit under our tree all during the holidays. One is to Jesus and one is from him. We have a tradition that each Christmas morning we "offer a gift" to Jesus...it's usually a commitment of some sort. One might say they resolve to spend more time in prayer or bible study...much like a New Year's Resolution. The little kids often draw pictures. Then we open the gift "from Jesus"...it is a two sided coin. One says 'Eternal Life' and the other says 'Abundant Life'. We talk about the gifts that Jesus gives and read Luke 2.


The Christmas tree at church because its just so pretty.

It's Foto Friday, so you'll find more 'Holiday' themed pictures at Renaissance . Pin It Now!

Christmas Movie Unit - Day 2

It's A Wonderful Life

Our second day of our Movie Unit was focused on the classic Christmas tale, It's A Wonderful Life. Now, I have to admit that I had not actually seen this movie until today...I know, I know it's like blasphemous or unpatriotic or something equally as terrible...and we actually didn't get to complete the whole thing as our movie was interrupted by Baby L's speech therapy appointment. But we will be finishing the movie later.

It was a little hard to prepare lessons for this movie, since I hadn't seen it. There are a couple links on the site that I got the Christmas Movie Unit idea from, but they are geared towards older kids. I knew that the main character in the movie had a guardian angel, so I decided to theme our lessons around angels.

First we read about biblical angels at this site.

Then we did an art study of famous paintings with angels at this site. We continued to dialogue about biblical angels, specifically the descriptions of what angels look like (and the lack of biblical descriptions) and how artists have given their own interpretations.

The kids then drew their own angels.

We also worked on some simple spelling and copywork worksheets (Christmas and angel themed) from Enchanted Learning. Some worksheets are available for free there, but we have a membership which allows us access to all of thier worksheets.

BTW, here's a picture of our Who Pudding that we made for our Grinch study yesterday:


I've never had rice pudding before and the best I can really give it was that it tasted ...interesting. The kids seemed to like it, but I think it was really just the novelty of it that they liked.

Tomorrow: Miracle on 34th Street

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Christmas Movie Unit - Day 1

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

I recently came across these homeschool lesson plans for a Christmas Movie Unit. This is a perfect time of the year to do a unit based on movies because we're just too busy to do a unit based on anything else! Besides, its impossible to get through the season and not curl up to watch a few Christmas classics, so we might as well turn them into a homeschool lesson.

The hardest part was narrowing it down to just one movie a day. Our plan for the week:

Monday: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Cartoon)

Tuesday: It's a Wonderful Life

Wednesday: Miracle on 34th Street

Thursday: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Friday: The Nutcracker Prince

So this morning we all gathered around to watch the Grinch's heart grow three sizes and then discussed these questions about the movie. We also took an online quiz about the movie here.

To add a little living math and home-ec skills, we also made Who Pudding. It'll be ready in the morning.

While we were waiting for the pudding to cook, the kids made these Grinch Masks and worked this Whoville Word search.

Our big project of the day to create a Whoville newspaper. The kids searched through our own local newspaper to see what a newspaper should look like.

Here they are with their finished product:

Yeah, the masks are a little creepy. Anyone have a handgun and a getaway car?


The Whoville Chronicles based out of Whoville, Onthespeck (get it?) turned out great though. G9 and A7 were both assigned articles to write and all four of the oldest came up with Who advertisements.


Advertisements:

G9: Flying Dee Stoogle for only $1.

A7: Buy your Rainbow Tree today at Toys-R-Who.

E5: The Sock Walk. It's Remote Controlled and helps you walk when you've broken your leg!

H4: The Dora Who Doll. She talks, walks, and moves her hands. Buy at Who-Mart!

Articles:

Miracle on Who Lane!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
and came back with it.
By: Gavin Wavin Who

The day before Christmas the Grinch heard everybody getting ready for Christmas. That night he decided to steal Christmas!

He dressed up as St. Nick, using red paper and pillow stuffing. He put a horn on his dog Max which made him look like a reindeer.

"Well, I was just jealous of everybody," the Grinch told reporters. "I was thinking that if I stole the Who’s Christmas, then they would all be miserable like me."

The Grinch rode down to Who-Ville on his sleigh and began to take everything.

Six year old Eli Wiili Who said, "He took all of my toys! My bang-boogle, my airplane with a exploding dee-stoogle. He even took our roast beast!"

When the Grinch was going through the Who houses, little Cindy Lou Who almost caught the Grinch. She saw him trying to take her Christmas tree and asked him what he was doing. But he thought of a lie, and gave Cindy Lou Who a glass of water and sent her to bed.

Then the Grinch drove his sleigh full of Who stuff to the top of the Who Mountain to wait to hear the sad cries of Who people.

"Instead of Who cries," the Grinch said. "I heard the singing of Whos. They were singing and singing. It made my heart three sizes bigger!"

After his change of heart , the Grinch decided to take the Who stuff back down to Who-Ville. He gave all the toys back to the children. Then the Grinch himself carved the roast beast during the annual Who Christmas feast.

Grinch Almost Caught!
Cindy Lou Who’s Story
By: Aubrey Wabrey Who

When the Grinch was stealing from the Whos, he stopped at Cindy Lou Whos house. Cindy Lou
Who is 2 years old and is very small. She has short blonde hair and wears pink dresses.

As the Grinch was trying to stuff the tree up the chimney, an ornament fell and woke Cindy from her sleep. She went downstairs to see what was going on.

"I saw Santy Claus trying to stuff my tree up the chimney!" Cindy Lou Who explained.
But it really wasn’t Santa Claus that Cindy saw. It was the Grinch. But he told Cindy a lie.

"I told little Cindy that the light was broken on the tree and that I needed to take it to my workshop to fix it." the Grinch told reporters.

"I believed Santy Claus - I mean, Mr. Grinch. He gave me a glass of water and sent me to bed." said Cindy Lou Who.

In the morning, little Cindy Lou Who woke up to no presents and no tree. "I felt really sad that Mr. Grinch tricked me. But even though we didn‘t have presents, we still had love." Cindy then went out with her family to sing Christmas songs.

"I was so surprised when Mr. Grinch came back with our presents. I always forgive my friends, so I forgave Mr. Grinch." Pin It Now!

Kids make gifts...again

I posted earlier about the Kid's Craft Bazzar that our children participated in and the Christmas stockings and scarves that they made. Here are two more simple crafts that they made for the Bazaar...


First, they made beaded bookmarks. I pretty much just handed them some craft string and beads and let them do their thing. They sold these for 50 cents a piece.


They also made Christmas Tree ornaments from pine cones. I got the directions from Enchanted Learning. It was a simple project but very messy. Needless to say, the kids loved it.


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