A Christmas Blog Post in January :)

Every day, I am amazed at how God provides for my family.  Seriously.  Every time our family needs anything, we pray continuously and wait and God always shows us His providence.  My husband and I reflect often on how truly, abundantly blessed we are. When our family needs something, somehow God makes it happen. 

I try not to be a Scrooge, but I really have a strong desire to "simplify" Christmas.  We worship Jesus and celebrate His birth all year long, not just on December 25th.  My husband and I have had many arguments discussions about the necessity of giving our kids elaborate gifts and can't seem to agree on this issue.  In November, my children began talking about Christmas and which gifts they would like to receive.  As I listened, the gifts grew in price--my daughter wanted a Toy Story Woody doll, my youngest son wanted a really cool baseball bat and some throwing knives (I know, my thoughts exactly!), and my oldest son wanted a Taylor acoustic guitar.

In case you are unaware, Taylor acoustic guitars START at $600.  I immediately told him to choose something else because it isn't happening. Our son helps our children's librarian at our local library run a guitar club for kids and they give free guitar lessons to around twenty kids every Thursday and Friday.  He is a responsible, obedient, godly young man who loves the Lord, works hard at homeschooling and helps out around the house like no other teenage boy I've ever met and he loves playing the guitar.  We went to Guitar Center and let him play a bunch of different guitars and our good friend and worship leader brought over some guitars for him to play.  The joy on this little boy's face while playing these guitars was priceless. He even offered to put $100 towards this gift.  But spending this much on a single Christmas gift just didn't make sense for our family. 

My family jokes that if they need something, that I am usually able to knit them whatever it is or find a way to make it using Pinterest.  A few days later, we agreed that we would pray about this and see what God would do.  That's when the Etsy orders started rolling in. I was knitting non-stop and couldn't keep up!  I shipped birds nests and golf club covers and slippers and bunny rattles and hats all over the United States in December.  My sister got orders from some people locally and I knitted more slippers and more hats and gloves and stuffed animals.  A dear friend asked me if I would like to cater a brunch for her mom's group. More friends bought hats and birds nests.  A random check for $20 came in the mail because I'd purchased a certain kind of toilet cleaner (weird, right!?). I love that, in a way, I was able to knit my son a guitar!

During this time, other non-monetary bonuses kept popping up.  I "bought" Amazon gift cards with my Swagbucks balance.  If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks yet, please feel free to use my link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/sarahrobinson.  I used them to buy the really cool baseball bat and the throwing knives (these may end up being a temporary gift that is confiscated until he's a bit older!).  I even had enough left over to buy a Polly Pocket helicopter, two books, and a guitar tuner.   Then, Meijer had an mPerks offer for $30 off of my next general merchandise purchase.  Woody from Toy Story costs $39.99, so just $9.99 after the mPerks!  At this point, I am astounded that I've only spent roughly ten dollars of our "real" money on my children's Christmas gifts and gotten them everything they wanted.  I bought them a few other things as well, but I didn't spend anywhere near the amount I anticipated. 

24 Christmas Gifts for under $8!?

This year has been filled with many things that have literally drained my family's bank account.  From multiple surgeries that my husband has had to undergo, to growing children that eat more food than I ever imagined possible, household and car repairs, to ever-increasing medical expenses, this year was definitely one of "pinching pennies." Yet, I am deeply thankful for the financially unstable year that my family has endured.  A crazy thing to be thankful for?  It may sound that way on the surface, but thinking back over the last year, God has shown me so many new things about Himself that I definitely would not have been able to see if more money had been in my bank account.

I also love the creativity that comes from these seasons in our life.  In our house, things have been fixed, not replaced.  We've learned to grab a sweater or blanket, rather than heating the house a couple of degrees more.  My children have re-discovered things they forgot they had, like Legos, Play-Doh, Nerf guns, and model car kits.  And we're happy. :)

When thinking about Christmas gifts for our extended family, we knew giving gifts to everyone this year was going to be impossible.  But, after doing some browsing of craft web sites, I came up with a few ideas for things we could make inexpensively to give as gifts.  As a family, we decided on painted Christmas ornaments, using our fingerprints.  I already had paint that we could use and I found clear glass ornaments and frosted glass ornaments at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.  Total cost to make 24 gifts: $7.42.  God had provided us with an affordable way to give gifts!

As I dipped my daughter's little fingers in paint and then my sons', it became clear that these were not going to be just cute, they would be ADORABLE!  All five of us chose a character to create from our fingerprints and decorated each ornament.  Doug made a Santa Claus, I made a wreath, Ian made a penguin, Brodie made a snowman, and Ellery made a reindeer.  I then wrote our names and the date along the bottom and these little masterpieces are ready for gift-giving!

Favorite Christmas Cookies

Each of my boys has their favorite cookies that they love to bake or decorate with me at Christmastime.  We made Brodie's favorite cookies---Green Holly Cookies.  They probably have a fancier, official name.  My mom called them wreath cookies, as they are supposed to be shaped into little wreaths.  (This takes far too much time and effort to be worth it since they will be gobbled up quickly!  They are just as pretty and yummy as holly leaves.) 

This recipe was given to my mother by my dear preschool teacher, Miss Jean, when I was three years old.  My mom made them every year after that and my boys and I do the same.  Ellery will join in the fun some day, but this year she was much more interested in sneaking Red Hot candies to share with her Daddy, than actually helping with the cookies.

 

Green Holly Cookies

1 Package Marshmallows

4 Tablespoons of Butter

6 Cups of Corn Flakes

Green Food Coloring

Red Hot Candies

Melt marshmallows and butter in a large saucepan over low-medium heat.  When completely melted, add enough green food coloring to tint the mixture a deep green color.  Remove from heat and stir in the Corn Flakes.  Mix and stir until the flakes are completely covered in green goo.  

Work quickly to prevent the mixture from hardening and drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper.  Place three Red Hot Candies on each clump to resemble a holly leaf (this part is great for kids to help with and my boys' favorite step).  Allow to cool and harden slightly before enjoying. 

A Yarn Called, "Cranberry-Red" Must Be Knitted Into A Christmas Sweater!

I finally finished the cranberry-red, Christmas sweater that I've been working on for what seems like forever!  I started this sweater in September and kept making smaller, easy-to-finish projects instead of working on it.  Originally, this was supposed to be for Ellery (my adorable two-year-old daughter!) but it is a bit too big for her.  And I'm afraid it will be too small by next winter, so you can find it in my Etsy Shop! Here is a link:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/88130121/knitted-red-sweater

Christmas Tree Hunting

 

We got our Christmas tree on Friday, a sixty-degree day in late November, a rare treat in Michigan!  After searching and searching, we finally found "the" tree.  On our tree-hunting adventure, we ran into some dear friends.  I love how God always surrounds us with people we love.  They found the perfect tree as well--who would have thought that there would be TWO perfect trees right next to each other!?  :)

Our friends, Jay and Shannon, with their adorable boys, Brayden and Camden.

Watching Dad chop down the tree is always so interesting!

Ian, Brodie, Ellery, and I with our freshly chopped Christmas tree.

Visiting With Santa---A Thanksgiving Tradition

While we celebrate Christmas with our focus is most definitely on Christ and His birth, this has become a fun little tradition for us.  After years of waiting in line for hours to see Santa, we have made it our family tradition to visit with Santa the day before Thanksgiving.  A little backwards, I know, but it works for us.  We have done this for the past few years and there is no line at all!  Plus, Santa is more willing to chat with the kids for a while so that Momma can take lots of cute pictures.

My oldest son is thirteen this year, what he considers "way too old" to visit Santa, but he loves me and puts up with my crazy ideas for now!  My younger son is ten and is stuck in that "I don't believe in Santa, but I wish I did" phase, so he didn't mind (yes, he has a black eye in this picture--a backyard football incident).  My daughter didn't cry and even willingly went right into Santa's arms (if you have ever met my daughter, you know this is strange!).  When asked what she wanted, she replied, "presents."

I love my Santa pictures with the kids.  It's a fun way to see how much they grow each year; from babies in Santa's arms to boys too big for laps, who have to sit next to Santa in his seat.  I hope they continue to humor me for many more years as they pose with this jolly guy on the day before Thanksgiving.  Maybe their future spouses will join us some day!