Merry Christmas!

My oh my has this Christmas season been a whirlwind! Between school activities, family activities, and all of the tasks that go along with holiday preparations, we have been a very busy family. I haven't been able to sit down and blog for that last two weeks, so I thought I would take a moment this Christmas eve to stop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and share a little bit about what we've been up to.

We had a wonderful time at the high school choirs Singing Christmas Tree, this year was a Christmas in Neverland theme. My husband spent a great deal of time at the high school helping to build the set which was pretty elaborate with a pirate ship and lost boys tree. The team who worked on the set did an amazing job! This is my son's senior year, so it was his last year performing in the Singing Christmas Tree as a student. He had an acting part as Wendy's brother John, as well as performing in the Concert choir and Socialaires which is like a jazz choir. A lot of work, but well worth the effort. The show was wonderful!

Joe also had the opportunity to sing with his choir at the hospital and on the radio, so that was also exciting. Last week we invited my littlest niece and nephew over for a Christmassy sleep over. We had fun watching Christmas special, playing, enjoying hot cocoa, and we did a fun glittery craft. I picked up some inexpensive plastic animals, and I gave everyone a brush and a paper muffin cup with a bit of mod podge, we coated the animals in mod podge and then covered them with glitter. They turned out really cute.

The glittered animals look great among all of my glittery floral picks in some of my Christmas displays, we even glittered some dinosaurs which are very fun and whimsical among the Christmas decor. I hope to make a whole glittery menagerie next year, it was a very fun craft! :)

I haven't had as much time as I usually do to bake cookies, I did spend the last couple days baking a pretty good selection though. One of my go to cookies this season was very quick cookies made from Cake mixes. Some I made with Andes thin mints as frosting, others are made by adding Cool Whip to the Cake mix along with an egg or two, but the easiest one are these Crinkle cookies. I made one with Devil's Food Cake Mix, and another with Red Velvet Cake Mix. You just add two eggs and 1/2 a cup of vegetable oil to a box of cake mix, blend it well, then drop a rounded spoonful of dough into a bowl of powdered sugar and really roll the dough around in the powdered sugar to get it very thoroughly coated, then bake on a parchment lined pan at 350 F. for around 8 minutes. Super easy recipe! I got these cute new Santa plates for serving cookies and appetizers throughout the season, and we'll be setting Santa out a plate tonight!

With all of the business this holiday season there have been moments where I was a bit Scroogy, which is really not normal for me, I love Christmas time, but I was definitely a bit overbooked! I have really had to purposefully refocus on the true meaning of this season and remember to keep that joy. I have spent the last few weeks with my Sunday school class walking through the advent stories and lessons. My favorite lesson and simple craft was one that reminded us about Jesus being a light of the world. The craft was a simple candle with a glittered candle light. I cut a red sheet of paper into four quarters, put glue along one edge then rolled up the candle. I made a simple candle light template and cut out that shape, which we stuck down in the candle tube and glued with a bit of glue stick. Then added glue and glitter to the candle light.

I really liked this lesson and the reminder of Jesus being our light in this world. Tonight we attended our church's candlelight service, it was so beautiful, when we pulled into our church parking lot, which is normally quite dark in the evening because we go to a little country church, the parking lot was lined with beautifully lit up luminaries, it was so pretty. We sang some carols, and heard the Christmas story, then lit our candles in our darkened sanctuary. All of the little candles looked so beautiful lit up, and lit up the whole room, a reminder of our savior, who is our light in this world. Tonight when we came home we took time to light our little battery operated light to put in our window as a reminder of that welcoming light.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

Linking to:
 Simple and Sweet Fridays
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