Valentines day

Notice who is under the table in this picture!...lol



Elliot, the living couch! -- Yes, I added Kelsey's gifts inside of Elliot's
box! The things a mom must do to lure her kids home!




(Valentine morning heart shaped french toast)



Looking back I can't tell you how or why this started, but Valentines day has always been big in this family! I start out in January and put out what I call our "Valentines Love Boxes." There are five boxes, one for each of us with our names on the front and decorated with hearts and sweet stickers. ( picture above) From January until February 14th we all put sweet notes, hand made or store bought gifts in the boxes up until Valentines day for each member of the family.

Since my twins were born on February 13th, I'm not sure why or how I kept this up! But I did and I am so glad I have because it has become something we all look forward to doing every year.

Valentines day, I spend all day cooking simple yet fun and creative valentines dinners, decorate the table with flowers, balloons, candles, pretty valentine napkins, plates, cups, confetti, etc.

That evening we have a very fun, sometimes funny dinner, open our boxes of gifts and cards from one another and go to a silly movie that is playing. If a sweet love story isn't playing then I rent one...You've got mail is fun! When the kids were younger I'd rent fun movies at the Christian book store down the street. Or sometimes we'd read a story together.

Being a family and doing things together like this, in my book, is awesome!

Last year I decorated these water bottles with cute Valentine paper and
ribbons along with each family members names on them and put them into
their boxes....simple, sweet and fun!

Cupcakes can make any occasion fun and are so festive
looking on the table!

What I can't make, I buy!...lol

Special coffee for my friends



I decorated candy bars last year with really pretty valentines paper
and added a special sweet note on each candy bar for each family
member. These decorated candy bars are fun to decorate for other
Holidays as well, Easter, Christmas, Birthday and fun to sneak into the kids
lunch boxes as well!

~

Just a few menu items over the years....

~Pink mashed potatoes
~Lobster
~Heart shaped pizza
~Heart shaped pancakes, pink whip cream, strawberries
~Bottle of sparking cider
~Heart shaped meat loaf
~Fruit salad shape in a heart on a beautiful platter
~Open faced heart sandwiches

~


Gotta love the lavender mashed potatoes from last year...lol

I figure if life is what I make it, than I want to make it great!

~ enjoy

Christmas..a gift a day starting December 13th! aka The 12 days of Christmas

Day 1.) The gift is a pretty bag with pears in it.
The note attached to gift is:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me....
a Partridge in a pear tree.

This gift is not the partridge,
But rather the pears from the tree,
Given with LOVE from all of us
To all of ye!



Day 2.) The gift is a bag of Dove candy bars. I bought the mini bag
and put it into a pretty little gift bag.

The note attached to gift is:

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...
two turtle doves....

Turtle doves we do not know,
So chocolate Dove bars are the way to go,
Enjoy the PEACE that doves of all kinds bring,
Amidst the rush of the Christmas swing!


Day 3.) The gift is home made cookies. I put these in a really pretty
Christmas tin.

The note attached to gift is:

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...
Three french hens....

Since chickens three we couldn't send,
We wrote our own disjointed end,
And used their eggs for a surprise in store,
For those who open their front door!



Day 4.) A bag of bird seed. I found these really cute Christmas felt bags filled them up with bird seed! I thought they were really cute!

The note attached to gift is:

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me....
Four calling birds....

For birds that are a bit in need,
We offer them a bit of seed.


Day 5.) On this day we buy each one of the children
a special gift wrapped and marked with their
names on them along with the poem.

The note attached to gift is:

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me....
Five golden rings....

Gold is scarce and rings make us dizzy,
And we know you are excited and busy,
While Andrew,Alison, and Elliot are happily hopin'
Here's early presents for them to open!




Day 6.) Children's silly joke book

The note attached to gift is:

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Six geese a-laying.....

The singular of geese is goose,
But we know find them of little use,
We know them to be awfully silly,
So we hope these jokes don't make you dilly?
(See it is silly)







Day 7.) Mulling spice and apple cider.


The note attached to gift is:

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Seven swans a swimming...

In other words, seven superb swans swiftly swimming
Silently in sweetly spiced cider. Sounds silly so sip some soon!





Day 8.) The gift is crackers and cheese. I had a picture but hit the
wrong button and poof ugh! I had it in a cute gift bag.


The note attached to gift is:

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....
Eight maids a-milking...


Milk you know is quite nutritious,
But it can make other items quite delicious,
So enjoy these treats of crackers with cheese,
While gazing at your Christmas tree!





Day 9.) We dressed up a tin can to look like a drum filled with
Special Christmas cookies


The note attached to gift is:


On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me....
Nine drummers drumming.....

Bright red drums for you from me,
Filled with special cookies!





Day 10.) Hot cocoa, wrapped up in a pretty Christmas bag or box.

The note attached to gift is:

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me....
Ten pipers piping....

A "piping" hot drink is just right
On this a cold winters night!


Day 11.) The gift is a Children's Christmas story of our Lords birth.

The note attached to gift is:

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Eleven ladies dancing...

Celebrating the Savior's birth,
And His coming to the earth,
Here's stories from long ago,
Read them, read them nice and slow!


Day 12.) We buy them a pretty ornament to hang on their tree with the
nativity scene on it.


The note attached to gift is:

Here's a reminder of our Lords birth,
One that brought joy to all the earth!

And then I attach a note thanking them for the love shared
between our families and theirs! We each sign our names to the final note.
Just don't let them catch you before this point! It is a fun and exciting
time for our whole family to do this!

Our family has had so much fun with this tradition! You start on the 13th of December and every day you leave one of these gifts on their front porch until December 24th! But you have to be sneaky...you don't want them to know who you are until December 24th!

What a great way to share with your family the blessing it is to.... give!

Special people are coming for dinner

One day I decided to make a big fuss over my family. I mean I got the house shinning, the dinning room table was set in my finest dinnerware, and the fresh flowers from the garden were set in a beautiful vase that my grandma had given me in the center of the table.

The kids all of a sudden realized that something big was about to happen and they wanted to know right away, who was coming for dinner. I looked at them with an excited smile and told the three of them, "Three very Special guest were joining us this evening!" I then asked if they'd like to help me by running up stairs and making three very special crowns out of paper and glitter.

The excitement level was at a high right now and they couldn't wait to be a part of the festivities that were going to take place this very evening, and the not knowing who these three special guest were really added an extra excitement to the atmosphere of that day!

As I worked hard to prepare this very special meal and atmosphere for my family I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with thankfulness to God for blessing me with this incredible family he had put me, of all people, in charge of!

That evening as the kids placed three crowns on the plates that they had made for our special guest they immediately noticed that there were only five place settings. All of a sudden the sadness struck each one of them as they thought out loud to me, "Mom, are we not invited to this special dinner?" I immediately smiled and told them, "well of course you are!"

As I looked at them, I told them, "You are my special guests!" Deep sigh of relief, as they all jumped up and down shouting, "we are special, we are special!"

What are we saving our beautiful china for? Let's pull it out of that china cabinet and use it on our special guest!

God is preparing a beautiful banquet table for all of his special guest one day,....us his children! I'll bet he uses all of His finest china for us on that special day and every day therefore after!

Lets lavish love on our families!

Setting the table,

Christine =O)

October ....

I love this picture of the twins and I on the deck last fall...they have grown up so fast!
Every year since the kids were in Kindergarten, we have had family and friends over on Halloween night. We rent silly movies, Dave makes his famous chili, our friends make a lot of really cool food and bring it over, and we all just have a good old time together.

It just occurred to me that no one will be here this year. Times are a changing for sure. Last year this house was jam packed with the kids and all their friends! We have done this for so long that everyone just automatically shows up here.
Last year we took the kids and some of their friends met up with us at Remlinger Farms for the day.
I decorated the back deck so we had some pretty color to look out at from the family room and kitchen. I love the fall colors!
Alison and I made up these eyeball cookies last year for our party. Easy to make, we used store bought chocolate mint cookies and then decorated them with icing, gumdrops and red food coloring in a tube.
The Smith family brought over these cute cookies to share with all of us.

With all the kids gone away to college this fall, looks as though we will be starting some new traditions around here.

Water bottles and Candy Bars...oh Boy!

I made these fun water bottles and wrapped candy bars for Easter and Valentines day gifts and they seemed to be enjoyed by all and are so easy to make! So save all your extra scraps of scrapbooking paper folks! I used the smaller candy bars for little gifts for our guests on Easter day. I'm sure that Alison will remember all the wrapping of these for ever! You don't think Martha works alone do ya?...lol

I am excited about having a spot to save all these fun ideas and share as well!

Traditions are a part of what pulls our families together....