Wheew!  Monday is coming.... fast!!  Just wanted to spread the word about our plans to get together and celebrate what we have accomplished on December 1st!  We are changing the dinner tradition to lunch at Newk's at the Avenue at noon, due to several conflicts.  Hope you can make it and please come on for lunch even if you are not quite finished with all you had hoped.  You are soooo much better off than you would be if you had not gotten started!  Enjoy the rest of this glorious weekend and see you Monday!  Yippee!

FIRST CORINTHIANS 13--CHRISTMAS VERSION

 If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

 

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime: 
but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook. 

If I work at a soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity; but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing. 

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on love, I have missed the point.

 

Love stops the cooking to hug the child. 

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse.

 
Love is kind, though harried and tired. 

Love does not envy another's home 
that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love does not yell at the kids to get out of the way, 

but is thankful they are there to be in the way. 

Love does not give only to those who are able to give in return; 

but rejoices in giving to those who cannot.

Love bears all things, believes all things, 

hopes all things, and endures all things.

Love never fails.  

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, 

but giving the gift of love will endure.

Thank you Missy for sending this to me.

Hello to all of you!   I have wanted to post a few things, but now have finally figured out how to blog!   It may be a little late for some, but appropriate for others.  I do hope that it looks as beautiful as Laurie's always do!  

First, are all of you enjoying this preparedness as much as I am?  Remember, even if you are not completely finished by the goal of December 1st, you are still soooo much better off than if you had waited!  So, ENJOY whatever tasks you have completed!  Rejoice!

So, here are a few things that have kept me going this season.  First, I have been getting good use out of my crock pot.  On busy days, I just start that wonderful invention early in the morning, and our family enjoys a home cooked meal on days when I am out shopping.  It feels great to come home to a warm meal already finished!  

Next, it has been helpful keeping a wrapping station ready for wrapping.  If you haven't done this, find an area where you can keep all your goodies.  Some people just make one out of a "back of the door shoe hanging bag".  You can put tape, scissors, tags, ribbons and paper all in one.  A garment bag will also work if you have one of those instead.

Also, we have truly simplified our decorating at home this year.  The FlyLady recommends five areas ONLY to decorate.  I believe she says to stick with the tree, the mantle, the bannister, the kitchen OR dining room table, and a wreath on the door!  Can you believe it???  As far as our home goes, we pretty much stuck with this simplicity.  We didn't even put up our main tree! We are going to be out of town for Christmas and I just couldn't see doing all that work and not even being here on Christmas morning!  My children were a little disappointed while we were decorating, but I shared with them my goals about focusing on family and the birthday of our Lord, and they never mentioned it again!

Lastly, remember to keep your receipts in your December 1st notebook.  You will be so glad you did.  Also, keeping a record of your gift giving this year will really help you next year!

Christmas Blessings to all!  (And by the way,  I am really looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Moody Radio is presenting a Thanksgiving audio program to be aired at 8am and 4pm.  It seems like it will an interpretation of the first Thanksgiving.  We will be planning our mealtimes around the 4 pm program, so that we can all sit around and enjoy it as a family.)

Dec. 1st Club

I have a goal of finishing my Christmas cards and getting my hardwood floors refinished and moved back in by Dec. 1st. Merrill

When sending Christmas cards this year please consider sending a card to a recovering American soldier via this address:

A Recovering American Soldier

c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center

6900 Georgia Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20307

How wonderful to have a chance to thank one of these brave people for his/her sacrifice for our country and liberties.  Thanks for considering being a part!

I am sitting here by my fireplace getting myself geared up for finishing up plans to host Thanksgiving dinner at my house next week and reflecting on the fact that while I am not quite where I would like to be with Christmas goals, I am so much better off than I would be with out all of you!  I have stocked up on the things  I will need to prepare meals next week, have those menus planned, and best of all, I have accomplished the single most stressful task for our family each holiday season.  I just pressed the approval button for our Christmas card order.  (and a choir-like chorus of Hallelujahs immediately rang through the air!)  

But here is the BEST PART!!

As I sat down to complete my order I decided to check email first (procrastination) and low and behold in my inbox was a discount code for 20% off my Tiny Prints order.  We order a lot of cards, and I was ordering stationary for several gifts, so this was significant savings!  The code is 20gift and it can be used until the 19th.  If you have already done your cards, good for you! You might think about stationary or invitations from tinyprints, they are SUPER cute, if you have need of those things.

I am so proud of all the progress I hear some of you are making, especially our brand new December 1sters!   Let us know how you are doing, it is inspiring for those of us who are a little behind.  Let us know why you are doing all of this, how it is worth it.  We have lots and lots of visitors to this site, from all over the world.  I'll bet other people would like an idea of what this is about, as well.  Hope you have a wonderful week!  

Chili Recipe

I have been making this recipe for many years, and it is great. It makes a huge batch, which is great for leftovers. I have also gotten it started on the stove (browned the onions and meat) and then put it in the Crock Pot on low for 3-4 hours.


1 lg onion, diced
1 lb lean ground beef
2 T chili powder
2 t salt
1 t black pepper
5 t flour
Hot water
3 cans condensed tomato soup
3 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (16 oz) can diced, stewed tomatoes

Garnish with: grated cheese, chopped green or white onions, snipped fresh chives, sour cream, Fritos . . .
Serve with: corn bread

Spray 4 qt pan or Dutch oven. Heat to medium-high. Add onion and meat, breaking up clumps w/ a wooden spoon and cook until browned, about 15 mins.

Meanwhile, in small bowl, stir together the chili powder, salt, pepper and flour. Stir in just enough hot water to make a smooth paste.

Into the meat mixture, stir in the soup, beans and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Lower heat. Stir in chili powder mixture. Cover and let simmer for 30 mins, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.

Almost There!

First of all, I love the new look!

Second, I went to TJ Maxx yesterday and they have a huge selection of Christmas decorations and gifts. I bought gifts for all of our teachers, both at PCA and Wee School, and the Wee school aides...a total of 8! I also picked up some beautiful picture frames for 6-9 dollars apiece which is much cheaper than I have seen anywhere else.

I am almost finished with shopping...just the nieces and nephews left! It is going to be so nice to sit back in the evenings and relax with my family and a cup of Polar Express hot chocolate from Sams and not feel the time crunch during the month of December. Thanks, Laurie!

Linen-n-Things

Did you know that Linen-n-Things are going out of business nationwide? That means two things: Use up any gift cards you have and finish some shopping. They have Ginger Bread Houses and Cookies already made in a box for a fun family activity. You don't have to cook. Just bring them out and decorate. I have two boxes stashed away for a family night memory during the season. As of now they are 20% off. If you know of an item from there you have been waiting to get, this is the time to get it! Happy Shopping early!

Tiny Prints

I received a coupon code for cards from TinyPrints.com. If you place an order of $99 or more, you will get $10 off. The code is MSEMAIL2008. It expires 12/19/2008. Happy shopping!

I am looking for cute Christmas PJ's, must be very soft, for my family.  Teenage boys pose a challenge.  Any ideas?

More music to add?

  I have LOVED checking out the favorites shared so far, thanks to Tracy's post on the 2nd.  So keep those favorites coming!!  By the way, I would love to add more music to play on this blog, but I only have access to music that is stored at playlist.com, so our selection is very limited.  I'll keep looking for anything you suggest!  Nighty night! 

"Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live,

and in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied 

as with the richest foods:

with singing lips my mouth will praise you."

It's the little things...

This week I have added a very simple pleasure to my Christmas shopping, and grocery shopping as well.  I don't know about you guys, but the Newmans are not very good recyclers. We would like to be, we do some things sometimes,  but a lot of the time we are doing well just to get the trash out, much less getting it sorted and to the appropriate locations.  I am not proud of this fact, just honest.   

I do think about those things, though, I would like to do what we can toward caring for the earth.  I have seen reusable shopping bags around town - at Kroger - and lots of other places. But I have always resisted the idea, thinking that I would forget to take them to the store, and really just not finding the idea very appealing. :(

Until I spotted this shopping tote at Barnes and Noble when I was checking out. It was just so .... pretty. It is a great size, lovely, and cost $4.95 because I am a Barne and Noble member.  I bought three.  I took them to Kroger a bit later that afternoon and when I asked the checker to put my groceries in these bags, she gave me a small discount on my groceries. The bags are hanging in my hallway looking very pretty and festive, I loved using them at Kroger because 7 or more plastic bags of groceries fit in my three larger stronger bags, and I feel very recycle savy! I could carry my groceries in the house with one trip (the bags are heavier but no big deal:))  You guys may already be on top of this type of thing, but I just wanted you to know!  Have a wonderful Monday!

Another fun Christmas book to read

Every year, I sit on the couch with my children and read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It is written by Barbara Robinson. We cuddle up together, and I read about a chapter a night. We laugh and remember, in a different way, what the true meaning of Christmas is. We've come to treasure this time, and I even took it with us last year when we went to NH in December. I keep thinking that this is the year that Samuel will tell me he's too old for it, but as a mother, I want to hold on to this little tradition as long as possible.

If you've never read it, I encourage you to do so. Here is a little information about what the book is about: "It focuses on the poorly-behaved children of the Herdman family, who discover the true meaning of Christmas through participation in a church play about the birth of Jesus."

Satisfication in Christ

Yesterday when I went into a store and had them wrap the Christmas gifts I purchased, I was wishing I had my appropriate Christmas tags in my notebook so that I could go ahead and correctly tag the gifts...instead of taping names with scrap paper onto them...so put some gift tags in your notebook...I am almost threw with my shopping for everyone but the children! I cannot decide where to draw the line on how much we spend on them this year...I LOVE giving gifts so this is always difficult for me...but I want children who are satisfied in Him not things...
"Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, Listen to Me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare" Isaiah 55:5 ....praying we all find satisfaction in Christ Alone during these holidays... Also, the book, Christmas Jars, by Jason Wright might be a possible book to read aloud to your family. I think the premise is that money is saved in a jar and is passed on to those in need...it might be a story that could go along with what our family is doing this Christmas as we try to help others...just wanted to let ya know! Happy Holidays!!!

Does everyone already know about the wonder of buying shoes at Zappos?  Free shipping both ways, tons of unique shoes, stock always changing,  I could go on and on....   I know a person would rarely GIVE shoes as a Christmas gift, but you do need to WEAR shoes during the holidays, and I just couldn't stand the thought of ANYONE not knowing about it.  That's it! 

A little child

a shining star

a stable rude

the door ajar.

yet in that place

so crude, forlorn,

The Hope of all

the world was born.

-Anonymous

Samaritan's Purse

I have been meaning to post this for awhile, and I know it's probably too late for this year, but maybe it will help for next year. I try to accumulate small things for the gift boxes all throughout the year. In the summer, when the office supply stores have all the great school supplies for a penny, I stock up on markers, rulers, crayons, paper, etc., and save these aside for the shoe boxes. Also, just about every month, Walgreens or Rite Aid have "free with rebate" items, and many can be used for the boxes. I always get the toothbrushes for the boxes. Here is a link to a website that posts items that are free with rebate every month: http://salescircular.com/tn/free/freesp.shtml

Wish Lists

Hi everyone! I am trying this idea out this year...I'm pretty excited about it and hoping it works! Like most of you, my "normal-life" schedule is pretty much full as it is. So when it comes to adding another activity, it's really hard to fit it in. Even when it's something as fun as Christmas shopping for friends and family!! On amazon.com, you can create wish lists. Amazon has anything and everything you can imagine. I sent an email to all my family asking them to take a few minutes to create a wish list for themselves and their children. You can then go onto www.amazon.com and search for people's wish lists! I'm so excited about this...I always love to get out and do some shopping, but anything I can do online is so nice!! Happy Christmas planning everyone...looking forward to celebrating our Savior's birth all of December!!!

Fa La La La La, La La La La! Christmas Music!

Okay, the "Countdown until Christmas" clock at the bottom of this page cracks me up for some reason! Thankfully, it does not cause me stress! I am seriously getting in the mood for Christmas! It is about time to pull out the Christmas music!!! What is every one's favorite Christmas CD? Mine may be Harry Connick Jr.'s.

More Quotes for Christmas

I read this about entertaining...
"Your home is the canvas; your guests are the paint."
When entertaining, I want to be more focused on my guests than perfection in my home decor, food, and appearance.

Also I read a great reminder for my family and ME so that I have a spirit of thanksgiving and contentment every day and during the holidays...

"REFLECT upon your present blessings, of which every man has many..."
Charles Dickens

Thank you, Father, for our blessings.

  I just wanted to share with you the darling stationary company of my friend Dabney Herring Stevens. Dabney creates the design and will customize as well.  The products are wonderful, just wanted you to know.  Just for fun thought you should know that Dabney is a wife and mother of two darling boys, and is also the aunt of the McMullan quadruplets and Mollie and Kate McMullan for whom many of you have been praying.  

Mollie Pop Press 

Mollie Pop Press

Just what you had in mind.

Mollie Pop Press is a small stationery company in Alpharetta, Georgia. It was started out of a desire to communicate stylishly, whether by note, invitation or identification. For many people I know, Santa Claus brings a variation of the same gift every year; for my four sisters and me, it was stationery. As we got married, Santa continued bringing stationery with our exciting new names in print. Our husbands were soon included in such gifts from Santa because we loved seeing their names in beautiful print as well, sometimes just to distract from the actual handwriting! My mother is an AP English teacher, and she has mastered the fine art of writing, whether on a post-it note or fine linen paper. Thus Santa's gift. Each of us grew to love seeing our names in print.

 

Mollie Pop Press strives to create, manufacture and deliver personalized paper products that you will love as much as we loved the stationery we received for Christmas each year. Whether you are browsing our website for yourself or for someone else, our products will arrive neatly and beautifully packaged with a personal note attached at your request. And, as always, we offer a 100% money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied. Thank you for your interest in Mollie Pop Press.

A Few Christmas Thoughts

Merry Christmas! AM I really blogging? Okay, I have tried to put these tips onto the blog two other times, if this time doesn't make it, then you weren't meant to have the tips. They are not that profound anyway! I am just trying to encourage my friend by responding to her AWESOME Holiday blog!!!!!!!!!!! If these tips show up three times, I apologize.
1) Using cute ribbon, tie Christmas Cards on a Christmas tree each day they arrive. You can then pray for the families on the tree...and after taking them down...continue to pray for a few of them each day all year long by scrolling through them each morning during your quiet time.
2)Put out a holiday puzzle...I bought one on sale for half price after Christmas last year and can't wait for our family to sit by the fire and the tree and work it together. Isn't that why we are doing all of this?
3)Instead of saving entire catalogs, I buzz thru them daily and only keep the page I like with the gift idea I like circled. I put the name of who it would be appropriate for on it and I check to make sure there is a phone # or website address at the bottom of the page. Then I store it in my Christmas notebook. I am going to take a few of these to The Peanut Gallery tomorrow and make sure that they cannot order them before I go on-line...I really do feel it is important to shop locally if possible.
4)In response to Jennifer's question about something meaningful to have your kids do...I heard from Pete Newman (Kanakuk Kamps...go to their website!) that one idea was to give your child some money and have them find one person/organization to help over the holidays...I am going to try that this year. The International Justice Mission (IJM.org) is an organization to look into if you are seeking world justice...you probably will want to do something a little more hands on and locally tho for Christmas.

Calling for fun recipes

I think these little mice are the cutest and I think the Newmans are going to make these for neighbors gifts this year. (If you are a neighbor of the Newmans you must stop reading right now.)  If you decide to join us I have one little tip:  instead of dipping the cherries in chocolate that you have melted over your own stove in a pot that you will now have to wash including shortening that you had to buy just for this recipe and now you have a lot left over..... I suggest looking in the produce section of your favorite grocery store for the microwavable chocolate that I have used to make chocolate covered strawberries dozens of times.  There is NO mess and it is DELICIOUS!  

Do you have a simple fun recipe?  Send it over.  Another day we will call for classic holiday recipes, the ones for family looks forward to, the ones that mean Christmas.  

Christmas Eve Mice

SERVINGS: 24

METHOD: Chill

TIME: Prep: 25 min. + chilling

Ingredients:

• 24 double-stuffed cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
• 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 teaspoons shortening
• 24 red maraschino cherries with stems, well drained
• 24 milk chocolate kisses
• 48 sliced almonds
• 1 small tube green decorative icing gel
• 1 small tube red decorative icing gel

Directions:

Carefully twist cookies apart; set aside the halves with cream filling. Save plain halves for another use. 
    In a microwave or heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips and shortening; stir until smooth. Holding each cherry by the stem, dip in melted chocolate, then press onto the bottom of a chocolate kiss. Place on the cream filling of cookie, with cherry stem extending beyond cookie edge. 
    For ears, place slivered almonds between the cherry and kiss. Refrigerate until set. With green gel, pipe holly leaves on the cream. With red gel, pipe holly berries between leaves and pipe eyes on each chocolate kiss. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. 

From Jennifer:  "Something I would like to do and would love to get ideas for is an activity/ies that my children could do over break that would serve the community, the church, the underprivileged . . . I am looking for something a little different and a little more involved than doing a Christmas Angel from the mall (although I do think that is a great thing).

Please post ideas/input in the comment section below.  

Also, do you have a question for our group? Send it to laurienewman@mac.com or post it in the comment section and it will be transfered as a post.

Good morning everyone!  Is everybody off and running on this cool and sunny beautiful Saturday morning?  Hope you will take time this week to get your December 1st goals down on paper and on our blog so we can enjoy encouraging each other.  I have found that because I listed in writing what I plan to get done, my brain, which doesn't normally work very efficiently, sends off a little reminder bell when I am out to grab _____ for Christmas. (For example, I was in Reeves Saine buying strawberry cake and saw beaded cross ornaments made by senior citizens in Mississippi, my home state, and I picked them up for Sunday School teacher gifts.)  

Would you please:  1) send me your favorite online resources for gifts, cards, anything that would be helpful to our group.  Tell me a tiny bit about the site, what is great about it.  Either email them to laurienewman@mac.com or post in the comments section.  

2) send favorite scriptures, quotes, poems pertaining to Christmas.  Reading these things is inspiring as well as helpful when planning Christmas cards, scrapebooks, etc..

Finally, I just discovered something wonderful I want to make sure you know about.  Sara Groves, a favorite music artist of many of us, is releasing a Christmas CD.  On it is a lovely song she has written called It's True about the fact that the fantastic fairytale like love story of Christmas is true in the birth of Christ.    I heard her sing this song at Andrew Peterson's Christmas concert last year and have searched for it in CD since then. You may pre order it at saragroves.com or I am sure it will be on itunes when it is released on the 23rd.

"But it's true

kingdoms and crowns

a God who came down to find you

it's true

Angels on high

sing through the night alleluya"

Sara Groves ~ O Holy Night

A few questions......

"Now that my child is in middle school and has 7+ different teachers, how do I handle Christmas gifts?"

"Any new ideas for group teacher gifts?"  Individual?  Could the teachers out there please offer some wisdom?

"We have already done the photo calendar, what else can we make for our grandparents?"

My own additional question:

What are some creative gifts for sunday school teachers, piano/guitar teachers, mailman, garbage man (do not laugh, the garbage man at our house works VERY hard!) , etc... ?

Looking forward to hearing your ideas in the comments below!  

 We hope this page will be a place that we can post ideas and encouragement for one another, recipes and tips.  Please leave comments at the bottom of the posts and we will incorporate them into the blog as as we go!  Please forward this blog to anyone you think might like to join in!  The more the merrier!

Topic 1:  What are your goals for this 6 weeks?  Please reply in the comments section below.  It is fun to read the goals of each person to get ideas and inspiration.  This does NOT mean you need to take on all of them.  This is about helping your family and yourself, NOT being perfect.