Soooo, how’s your holiday preparation coming?  As I admitted last week, I’ve felt quite behind after being away, but I had the blessing of help in the kitchen yesterday!  Alli offered to come over and help me so I could be free to enjoy this week.

We had so much fun in the kitchen together!  It reminded me of all the years in the past baking with my girls; sprinkles and flour flying faster than glitter in a snow globe!  Baking with someone else just makes it so much more fun!

It make take you longer, and it may make a bigger mess for you if you let your little children help you, but those cookies decorated with their little hands will taste the best!  The dough they roll out will be the prettiest because they will have created a memory snapshot in their heart and in yours!

As you finish up your preparations this week, be sure not to let the stress of all you have to do rob you of time to create special moments with your children.  When they’re grown like mine are, you’ll welcome them back into the kitchen where you’ll laugh at the funny things that happened when they were small.  The warmth in your kitchen will be from something far more special than the 350 degree oven; it will come from what you shared together during their childhood.

Make time to create memories this week!

With love and a sprinkling of colored sugars,

Last winter my husband and I loved sitting by the fireplace to eat our dinner on cold nights.  We would pull the table over close and enjoy the ambiance and the warmth it provided.  This year we’ve decided to go ahead and pull the table over and leave it there for a bit.  Since our living room and kitchen are all one big open space, we can simply move the furniture back to make room for the table right in front of the flames.  Love it!

Last week we rearranged the furniture in time to have our neighbors over for a soup supper.  It was no fancy meal – just soup, salad, biscuits and pie, but it was made a lot more special sitting in front of the fire, lights dimmed and Christmas music playing.

The whole invitation and meal was a little spur of the moment kind of thing.  I had most everything on hand, and decided this would be a good day to invite friends to join us.  We made the call to invite them over and then set out to make it an enjoyable, relaxing evening.

This Spinach Salad is a great change from a normal tossed salad.  The Water Chestnuts give it a nice crunch and the dressing is sweet and tangy.  

 Fresh Spinach
1 Can Water Chestnuts, drained
Bacon pieces
2 Boiled Eggs

Dressing:
1/2 Cup oil
2 Tbl. vinegar
2 Tbl + 2 tsp Ketchup
6 Tbl. Sugar
1 Tbl. Worcestershire Sauce
Dash salt

Combine and shake well in ar.  May pour or pour over salad and toss just before serving.

For dessert, I made a pie my mom had brought to Thanksgiving.  It was the best dessert we had!  Wow!  Super yummy!

Laura Bush’s Buttermilk Coconut Pie

1 unbaked nine-inch pie shell
½ stick melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sweetened, shredded coconut, plus ½ cup of toasted coconut for garnish
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups whipped cream

Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, coconut and buttermilk, and pour into pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

In a dry frying pan set at low heat, toast the coconut until it is golden brown.

Garnish pie with whipped cream, and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

I love having guests –  and when you don’t fuss and plan forever, it’s not stressful!  Have you had guests in spur–of-the-moment recently? 

With love from my country kitchen,

To Freshen up your Friday and your holidays, I’d like to share a few ideas with you today of ways you can keep Christ at the center of your Christmas celebration this year.

1. Make baby Jesus in the Manger cookies.  These are the haystack cookies, one bag of butterscotch chips and 1/2 C peanut butter melted in the microwave and then poured over 5 oz. can Chow Mein Noodles.  Place in mounds on baking sheet, lined with waxed paper.   Place a small gingerbread man, sugar cookie man (or Teddy Graham, as I had to do!) on top, to represent Jesus sleeping on the hay, then place in fridge to harden.  Talk to your children about how Jesus was born in a barn, and laid in a manger. 
   

   I didn’t have time to bake little gingerbread men for Baby Jesus, but that would be a great addition to this yummy snack.

2. Read a little of the Christmas story each night.  Have your children act out that part of the story.  You might even come up with some props and costumes using sheets, a cane for a staff, etc.
3. Focus on giving to others, remembering that God gave to us at Christmas the best Gift when He gave us His Son to be born.  Find a family you can be a blessing to – either with gifts or acts of service.  
4. Go caroling to your neighbors.  Be sure to sing some of the songs of Jesus birth, and finish with “We wish you a Merry Christmas!”
5. Look for people you could invite over for Christmas Day.  Is there someone who would be alone unless you invite them?  Welcome them into your home as Christ welcomes us to Him!
6. Add touches of the Christmas Story in your decor.  Manger scenes, stars, Shepherds, etc.
7. Teach your children a new Christmas Carol and sing it at supper each night.
8. Make crafts about Christ’s birth.  Something like this…

There are plenty of other craft ideas on the Internet.  Use the craft time to talk about Christ’s birth.
9.  Read a Christmas plan from You Version.  
10.  Spend time reading God’s Word,singing and praying before opening gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

I’m going to end with a song that is so fitting for the theme of longing to keep Christ at the center of your Christmas.  Lord, I want your presence for Christmas.  Enjoy…

Stay refreshed,

Knowing the rush of the Christmas crowds and my dislike for them, I rose early yesterday and was in town by 8 a.m.  I needed to finish my shopping before the weekend when it would get really crazy in the stores!  I only had a small list of things needed to finish up, one item being a nativity for children.  I was in hopes of finding something like I purchased many years ago – a wooden set that was “play-able” for children.  It was to be a gift for my little Bible club children.  Prior to my early morning shopping trip, I’d had no success in finding a set such I described.  I was happy to settle with vinyl clings, or a snow globe even – something that would remind the children of the real meaning of Christmas.

In my looking I found firemen nutcrackers, reindeer dressed in every possible costume, snowmen, penguins, Santa’s from every nation, gingerbread, Disney characters,  sleds, ornaments, stockings, kittens and dogs with red furry hats, garlands, lights, tinsel, trees, lights and candy canes, but no nativity sets.  (Excuse me, there was a Fisher Price set with three pieces at the Bible book store for $55 – not in my price range and not at all what I wanted.)

By 10:30, I found myself walking through the last store and thinking to myself, “What must all this do to the heart of Christ, the One Who left heaven’s glory to be born as our Savior?”  Tears filled my eyes, blurring the sparkling lights and glitter around me.  It made my heart so sad.  Now please, don’t think me a Scrooge or a legalist.  My girls were as enthralled in their early years with Santa as any child on my street, but we tried to never let that be the overshadowing theme of Christmas.  It was just a pretend story, like Cinderella.  We strove to keep Christ at the center.  I’m beginning to think that that is more and more difficult to do, because of the influence of the world.

While in one store this week, a salesman asked, “Have you been good this year?” I knew where he was coming from and his reason for asking.  My response was, “Oh, I’ve tried!  But you know, the Bible says none of us are good, and that’s why we have Christmas in the first place!  Jesus came because we needed a Savior!”  He smiled.  I had no intention of being smart with him, but only to bring in the Truth and talk about Jesus, because He’s all that matters!

All through the season of Christmas, we must constantly bring our thoughts back to Christ.  He is what matters.  Spend time adoring Him, like the shepherds did when they heard the announcement, and if the cookies don’t get baked, it’s okay.  Think about Mary’s response to being the mother of God’s Son.  Imagine her heart, so filled with awe and wonder at what God was doing in her life, and if you can’t get to sending out cards this year, you will have instead sent up your gratitude in prayer to the God Who loved you enough to send a Savior into the world.

A little baby came to take your place and pay for your sin.  He is Jesus.  Have you seen Him already this Christmas?  You’ll have to determine to look for Him yourself ~ He won’t be in the store window, or in a reminder in your newspaper flier.  He will be in the pages of your Bible, in the recesses of your heart.  Find Him and then share Him with others.

Tomorrow I’m going to share some practical ways you can keep Christ at the center during this season.  In the meantime, tell me – how do you keep Him your focus while you prepare for Christmas?

Because of Jesus,

I thought I’d give you a peek at the Christmas decor I’ve managed to get up.  When you leave home on the second of December and come home on the 11th, you find out that time to prep for Christmas is SHORT!  We did get our tree up before we left, so that was a blessing, but as far as other decorations, I’ve limited myself to the mantles and a few other touches.  I usually put lights outside and add Christmas touches in nearly every room, but I’m good with what I have up at this point.  At least all the fall decor is down (I think!).  Nothing like finding a gourd on a shelf among the holly and ivy!  At some point we each have to decide what’s really important and what isn’t.  We do the priority things and let the rest go!

I have lots of decorations, even with not putting everything out.  Anyone else out there have decor for every room of the house?

Thanks for coming to take a peek!

With love from my country porch,