Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

Christmas crafts!

I can't believe that I never showed my Christmas subway art that I did.  My friend Janna showed this idea on her blog for the fall and I loved it!  I did one for fall and then I made another one for Christmas.  I painted a canvas and then I added different scrapbook letter stickers and modge podged it.  Then I added some ribbon and hung it up! 

I also made this super easy craft that I saw on another blog. I added scrapbook paper to a frame and then hot glued an ornament on the glass.  It turned out super cute!  I am going to leave this up all winter.

Tonight we're off to a Christmas party!  Enjoy this special time with your family and friends!  This really is my favorite time of the year!  Happy Thursday. 

Christmas Trees!

For the last few year's Brock and Ava have had trees in their rooms.  This year I have been looking for red, blue, silver, gold and sports themed ornaments for Brock's tree and pink, turqouise, lime green and purple ornaments for Ava's tree.  Target had a lot of cute ornaments this year. I think they look so sweet lit up in their rooms.  To be honest Brock HATES his tree but he tolerates it because he knows that I like decorating it-ha ha!  Ava always helps me decorate her tree.

Ava's tree!  The flower on top is the flower she wore in her hair at  her First Communion.

Brock's tree!

Happy Wednesday!!  We are getting excited for Christmas!  We are going to go to Grandma Jan's on Christmas Eve and then we will be at our house for Christmas morning!  

Easy Christmas gifts

I made these Mason Jar cookies a few weeks ago to give as gifts to our neighbors and as little teacher gifts.  They were super easy to make I just added the burlap and the ribbon and added the directions on how to make the cookies.

Here is a link on how to make them. I made four of them in about an hour!

Here's the tag that I made

I also like giving Bath and Body works candles!  Last week they were 2 for $20!  I love when I find good deals like that!  I also LOVE that they wrap them up for you so they are ready to give!

Tonight Brock had his last basketball game of the year it's always fun to watch him play and I can tell that Graig is SO proud of him!  Brock and Ava have two more days of school and I have two more days of work until we're off for Christmas break!  I can't wait!



Christmas Recipes!

Over the weekend I made a few new recipes that I thought I would share.  Yesterday afternoon I made this corn and potato chowder for dinner.  It was delish!  Brock (who is the most picky eater ever) loved it!  He wants me to make it again this week!

Corn and Potato chowder
1 can fat-free evaporated milk
1 can chicken stock
3 potatoes cut into chunks
1 cup chopped ham
1 can corn (drained)
pour the chicken stock and evaporated milk in a pan add the potatoes and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are tender (about 15-20 minutes)  add the ham and corn and turn on low until warm.  Serves 5
It is such an easy recipe!

My Dad makes the best fudge ever so I tried his recipe and made some chocolate fudge for Christmas today. It is SO good!

The best Chocolate Fudge Ever!
3 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter or margarine (or 1-1/2 sticks)
1 small can (5 oz) evaporated milk (2/3 cup)
1-1/2 pkg. (12 squares) BAKER’s semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped ( I used a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips)
1 jar(7 oz) JET PUFFED marshmallow creme
1 cup chopped walnuts ( I didn't add these but my Dad usually does and it's so good!  My family wouldn't eat it if I added walnuts)
1 tsp vanilla

Heat sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3 quart heavy saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil on medium heat until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir in chocolate and marshmallow creme until melted; stir in vanilla and walnuts.

Spread immediately in foil-lined 9 inch square pan. Cool at room temperature at least 4 hours; cut into 1 inch squares. Store in airtight container.

Makes 3 lbs. or 40 2 square servings

Saturday I made Chex Mix, it's SO good! 

Chex Mix-The recipe can be found here or on any box of Chex cereal.  I left out the nuts.  I got some tins at the Dollar store and I am going to give some of this away as little gifts!

I still want to make a few other things this week for Christmas.  Brock, Ava and I are going to make sugar cookies and I am going to get together with my friend Sabrina on Wednesday night and we are going to make cookies and peanut butter fudge.

weekend wrap up!

This weekend wasn't too exciting around our house. I am still recovering from having my tonsils out.
 We did go to Sunday School and Church this morning and tonight we went to look at Christmas lights and that was fun!  I love looking at lights before Christmas.  Ava loves lights too so we try to go a few times during December.

At Sunday school we all stayed downstairs in our gym instead of going to our classrooms.  All the kids made ornaments which was fun to do.  Here are Ava's ornaments. 

Ava also had practice for a dance that she is going to do with some other girls on Christmas eve at our Church service.  She is an Angel.  She is going to wear her hair curled so we practiced today because I am not so good with hair-ha ha!  I did it with a curling iron and it took an hour but I think she looks adorable. 

Here she is with her friend our neighbor Sarah.

Here is the back of her hair, it's SO thick!

I hope you had a good weekend!



The cutest download!

There are lots of downloads for Christmas out in blogland. Tatertots and Jello did a great post on all the free downloads out there.   I love printing out these prints and putting them in our house for the holidays.  I found one that I absolutely LOVE here at the eighteen25 blog. It uses my favorite colors for Christmas red, lime and turqouise!  As soon as I saw it I knew that I had to print it out and put it up in our living room to celebrate the Christmas season!

I printed it out on photo paper and put it in a white frame that we already had.  Sorry for my weird flash in these pictures :(

Happy Wednesday!