Making Your Home a Haven, Week 4

Okay, this week's challenge to make our home a haven, is to decorate for Christmas.  This should be pretty easy for most of us.  We have our Christmas decorations in storage, in preparation for the big move, whenever that's going to happen, so I had to pick up a few things.  I didn't go crazy or anything. We purchased a small (4 ft.) white prelit tree and placed in on the back of the kitchen table, closest to the window.  We bought red and blue ornaments to make it a real American Christmas tree.  I have a cute little decoration of a cross that says peace hanging on the front door to welcome all and a Merry Christmas plaque with dangling snowflakes hanging above the fireplace.  Since our stockings are packed away, I may just place baskets on the heart with our name tags on them for our little Christmas stocking stuffings.  I just love the stuffing!  I have some awesome smelling candles from Bath and Body Works which makes the house smell like Christmas too.  Not sure what else I may do, but anything I purchase will just be incorporated into all the decorations I have collected over the years and when we get into a new house, it will be so much more fun to pull all those items out and make our home festive.

So, go to Women Living Well to find out more about making your home a have. 

Blessings,

Pam

Saint Patrick's Day

Here are the recipes I used on St. Patrick's Day:

Punch: I mixed 1/2 gallon of Fat Free Lime Sherbet with one large can of Pineapple Juice and one 2 Liter of Diet 7-Up in a punch bowl. We all loved it except my 12 year old. I think the pineapple was a little tangy for her taste. Next time I'll just put the sherbet in a glass and pour the 7-Up over that.

I made this soup:

I cut up two pounds of smoked sausage, chopped up about 8 or 9 Yukon potatoes, two bags of shredded cabbage (too lazy to shred my own), and one cut up onion in a pot. I added about four cups of broth from the freezer and a couple cups of water and cooked all this. When the veggies were tender I added three cups of milk with 3 teaspoons of flour added for thickening. I seasoned it with salt and pepper. When ready to serve, I added several cups of shredded sharp Cheddar cheese. It was very yummy and made a big pot of soup.

I served brown multi grain rolls with this.

I made confetti popcorn. I popped two bags of butter popcorn and spread it on two sheet pans. I drizzled about 1/2 package of melted white chocolate bark over this and M&M's. It was a big hit.

I also took Mint Oreos and regular Oreos and dipped them halfway up in melted white chocolate bark and sprinkle them with green sugar sprinkles. Delicious!

My MIL brought a much needed punch bowl for me to use, cupcakes, sausage rolls (yummy) and scones. Aunt Pat brought veggies and dip.

Needless to say, we were all stuffed by the end of the afternoon. We enjoyed watching the Quiet Man the the Lady Vols beating UT Martin. It was a nice day.

Holidays, Schmolidays...

This year the holidays will be a little weird. First of all, Halloween was weird. Daughter didn't dress up and was visiting her aunt and I had to call her and ask her to come home so she could hand out candy here. My hubby was at another house that was hosting a party for kids from church and he was guarding the bounce house. It was just weird not having him here but he was doing a good deed with his dicipleship group.

Thanksgiving we will be in another state and eating our dinner at Cracker Barrel. I hope to host Thanksgiving again one day in my new home. I like a traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings and I must say that Cracker Barrel does a good job, but there is nothing like having this feast at home and getting to enjoy all those leftovers days later.

Christmas. Where do I begin? We have been paring down the house and storing things in a rented storage unit and I had hoped we would be out of this house months ago and the house would be sold or at least listed and on the market. Guess what? That ain't happening. Hubby's health has taken precedent and he isn't supposed to do anything strenuous so we are still storing stuff but things have slowed waaay doown...Hubby thinks most of our Christmas decor is stored away. Ugh. We sold our dining room furniture, so no Christmas dinner in there this year. I am hoping my Mother-In-Love will be hosting Christmas this year. Even so, it won't be feeling much like Christmas around here. My house isn't going to look very festive without the lighted deer in the yard, candles in the windows, Christmas tree twinkling in the window and Christmas decor strewn throughout the house. It is just gonna be kinda weird.

I guess we should just focus on what Thanksgiving and Christmas are really about this year. Daughter is 12 years old and can truly understand the true meanings of these holidays and we should emphasize that this year. I'll get back with you with some ideas later. In the meantime, if you have any ideas, please share.