Homemade Christmas

As I've mentioned before, I really love crafting! It's a great outlet for me and I love seeing a finished product. I especially love a finished product when it's a gift for someone else and I can see their reaction. That's why I decided to do a few homemade Christmas gifts this year!

For our Craft Fair at church, I decided to make these cute fleece scarves, but they didn't really sell well. I had already decided to give them to friends and family for Christmas if they didn't sell and that's just what happened.

Then I made these for the women in my family. Each one is quilted with colors in her kitchen. I got the different patterns here. This was my first time to attempt free motion quilting. I hated doing potholders. It was just too small scale I think. I just did the binding on the machine instead of by hand. Much easier, but it doesn't look great!

All we could get Grandpa to say that he wanted for Christmas was a pie, so we decided to make him and Pop a plate with D's handprints on them. Ben designed the plates and we both painted them. I think they turned out great!!!

I made Nana a quilt. She said the only way she was going to get one was if she had a baby. What a surprise!!

It was my first attempt to free motion quilt on a quilt. It was a lot of fun and went much faster than the other ways I've quilted before. I think it turned out pretty good for the most part. It measured 48 x 64 and was designed by me--spools and pinwheels--my mom's favorites.

Aunt L graduated from A&M in December. How exciting!! That deserves a quilt too. Free motion as well. It measured 50 x 60 and is a disappearing 9 patch.

Here are both of the quilts stacked and folded. Love them!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

White Christmas

We have enjoyed our TWO white Christmases this year...in TEXAS!! What a fun 11 days we have had so far and we still have several days left with our family. Hope each of you are enjoying the time you have had with family and friends!

Always Faithful

I pray that you and yours had a blessed Christmas last week! We are quickly approaching 2010 and as I reflect on the past year I can't help but think about how faithful the Lord has been to us in both the big and small things. I want to share with you a story of his faithfulness in my life recently.

Tim's return from sea was delayed indefinitely just before his scheduled homecoming. To make matters worse, it was only days from Thanksgiving and we had no idea if he would make it home in time. It was too late to plan a trip home to see family and even if we did, it could mean missing his return from sea. I knew that throwing a pity party wouldn't help and that I need to remain strong and positive for the boys. But I knew it would be a struggle. I just wanted my husband home - NOW! I asked the other ladies in my Bible Study if they would pray that God would encourage me in my marriage, to specifically remind me how blessed I am to have Tim, and that I would be able to focus on those things rather than how much I missed him.

That next morning the boys were grouchy and fighting so we headed to the playground to get some fresh air and play for a little while. I had gone back to feeling sorry for myself when another mother showed up with her 2 year old little girl and 9 month old little boy. We were the only ones at the park and we chatted briefly about the "terrible two's" and our kids. Out of the blue, she casually mentions that her last pregnancy was unplanned and that her husband had left when she was 7 months pregnant.

It became very difficult to wallow in self-pity thinking about this young mother. I might not know when he was coming home, but I could be assured of two things. 1. He would be coming home to me. 2. He wanted to be home even more than I wanted him to be there! That conversation was exactly what I needed for some perspective. God was faithful to answer my prayers for encouragement just when I needed it most.

Thankfully, Tim made it home for Thanksgiving and we have had a wonderful time of adjustment with him home since then. But even if he hadn't, I know that God would have been faithful to sustain us. He always has and always will.

I pray that as you reflect on 2009 that you ask God to reveal areas in which He has been faithful. And praise Him for those! For He is great and worthy to be praised!

Our Three Christmases

This year, we celebrated "Thanksmus" (a combo of Thanksgiving and Christmas with Lee's family in North Carolina).

Christmas #2 was at our house!

And finally, Christmas in Texas with my family!

Christmas Carol Conjecture

We did this at our church's Christmas Tea.
See if you can figure out what Christmas Carols these are:

1. Boulder of the Tinkling Metal Spheres

2. Coetaneous-colored Seed Vesicated in a Conflagration

3. Singular Yearning for the Twin Anterior Incisors

4. Righteous Darkness

5. Arrival Time: 2400 hrs - Weather: Cloudless

6. Loyal Followers Advance

7. Far Off in a Feeder

8. Array the Corridor

9. Bantam Male Percussionist

10. Monarchial Triad

11. Nocturnal Noiselessness

12. Jehovah Deactivate Blithe Chevaliers

13. Red Man En Route to Borough

14. Frozen Precipitation Commence

15. Proceed and Enlighten on the Pinnacle

16. The Quadruped with the Vermilion Proboscis

17. Query Regarding Identity of Descendant

18. Delight for this Planet

19. Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial

20. The Dozen Festive 24 Hour Intervals

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas Traditions

One of my fondest memories of childhood is the way we would celebrate Christmas. Sometimes we traveled and other times we stayed home, but there were some elements that never changed. With our crazy military life Tim and I are working on forming some traditions for our own family that we can use no matter when and where we celebrate Christmas.

●One of those traditions is incorporating Advent readings into our family worship time. I've written about family worship before, but during the Christmas season it our hymns and scripture focus on the Incarnation.

●Another tradition is decorating our tree as a family. We do as soon as possible after Thanksgiving and we drink egg nog and watch Elf while we hang ornaments. This was the first year that Mark got to help us put all the ornaments on and stay up to see it all lit. (The other part of this tradition is that I then move all the ornaments to make them more visually appealing!)

●We are also striving to limit the amount of presents the boys receive. We want to help them to focus on the birth of our Savior instead of material gifts. While we don't have a lot of control over outside family members we have tried to encourage them to help us stick to a 3 present limit on Christmas morning in honor of the 3 gifts Jesus received from the wise men.

Obviously these aren't our only traditions, but they are a few that I feel are important and shape our season. There are so many traditions you can begin as a family. I encourage you to be intentional about the way you celebrate the season. It's the little things that your kids will remember when they are grown.

What traditions do you have that you do no matter where you celebrate Christmas?

Use Those Photo Christmas Cards!

Don't you just love getting photo Christmas cards from friends and family every year? Don't you hate to throw them away?

Well, I have a solution! We keep the photos and use them as prayer cards. It helps my little ones be able to see who they are praying for. You can put them in a small album or just keep a stack near the Bible you use for family devotion time. When you pray for friends and family, use the pictures you have to visualize those you a praying for!

This Week

We're taking a semi-break the next two weeks as we worship, celebrate, and travel! Ok, well at 38 weeks pregnant, Kama isn't traveling, but the rest of us are.

We do not have set topics, but we will be stopping by with quick posts and pictures through the end of the month.

Beginning in January, Kama will be on "maternity leave" and long time reader and friend Kristi from Run the Earth, Watch the Sky, will be filling in on Thursdays in Kama's spot. Get to know her by visiting her blog and following her on Twitter @kristi_runwatch. Our January topics are up on the side bar. The theme is "Looking Back and Moving Forward." We would love to have you guest post! Just email and let us know if you are interested!

Have a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year! Thank you for another great year here at Today's Housewife!

Me Time

As much as I enjoy time with my husband, friends, and family, sometimes a little time to myself is just what I need in order to relieve the stress of everyday life. I (unoriginally) call this “me time.”

There are a variety of things I like doing for “me time” including reading a great book, knitting, taking the dog for a walk early in the morning, or indulging in a junky entertainment magazine, but my ultimate favorite is an at-home facial. I attempt to do this once a week. My facial regime is not fancy or expensive. Using samples I pick up at the mall or receive in the mail make my facials even more exciting. I love trying new beauty treatments! My facial is a short fifteen minutes of bliss that includes warm water, cleanser, mineral scrub, mud mask, toner and lots of lotion and under-eye cream. When I am finished, both my skin and my mind feel rejuvenated!

Meghan is a newlywed who lives in Frisco, Texas with her wonderful husband (Alicia’s brother) and two dogs, Bandera and Dixie. She works as the Lower School Testing Coordinator at a school for children with learning differences. She enjoys blogging about her couponing experiences, her duck hunting obsessed husband, and her nutty dogs at Getting Our Ducks in a Row.

Needed: Creative Outlet!

Over the past few years, one of my biggest stress relievers has been doing some type of crafting. I enjoy all kind of things--sewing, quilting, cross stitching, scrapbooking and the like! I always look quite stressed (focused) while I am doing the craft, but I always have a sense of accomplishment when it is finished! I guess it gets my creative juices flowing which helps me forget about what I was really stressed about in the first place! Taking a little time each day to work on something really helps keep me sane!

What is something I can do as Baby #2 arrives and I won't have as much time or energy to do my crafts?

Let's Go to the Movies

We are heading out of town on Friday...in two days. I have clothes to wash, a house to clean, dinner to make, teacher gifts to sew, family gifts to sew, shopping still to do, and to pack for our two week Christmas vacation! Stressed? Who's stressed?

My little girl is sick again. Therefore we have lots of time in front of the TV with the nebulizer going. I hate that she is sick, but I find joy in the snuggle time we share everyday. The last couple of weeks we have been watching Christmas movies. Since our house isn't decorated, it is what fills our home with the magic of Christmas and allows our minds to escape the to-do list.

Here is what is in our DVD player this month:

The Very First Noel-- A short (22 minutes) story of how the wisemen traveled to meet the Baby Jesus. So, not very biblically accurate, but cute none the less.

A Wowie Bozowee Christmas--Boz the Bear and the Baxler family take a look at the sights and sounds of Christmas realizing the best gift if the gift of Jesus.

The Nativity Story--Just that, the story of the nativity, the birth of Christ. (True confessions--we haven't watched it yet this year so I am not sure if it is preschool approved. It is PG. But I loved it last year.)

The Polar Express--A boy lies awake listening for the sound of Santa's sleigh. As he is lying awake he suddenly hears the roar of a steam engine in front of his house. He heads outside to find it is going to The North Pole.

What Christmas movies take your mind off your to-do list and allow you to enjoy the holidays?

Happy Birthday Dad!

Grown Up Time

There are so many things that stress me out, but I think the constant demands of motherhood are one of the major ones. I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay home with my boys and raise them. But do you know how many times a day someone yells, "Mommy!" at me every single day? It can be exhausting! Add the pressure of having a husband who leaves for months at a time and I get more and more tightly wound.

One of the best ways to combat that particular pitfall is having time with adults. There are lots of ways to do this. KLee has blogged about being a part of a Ladies Bible Study or small group. One of my favorite outlets right now is Book Club.

This particular group is a social club of a larger military spouses organization I am a part of. We meet once a month over snacks to discuss a book that we have previously voted on. This month we are reading The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory. I think I enjoy the challenge of reading and discussing something other than rhyming works by Boynton and Seuss. It's quite refreshing to get to engage my brain for a few hours and be someone separate from my roles as wife and mother. We don't always read books that I enjoy, but it's also nice to read books that I wouldn't normally choose for myself.

Being a mom is both an incredibly rewarding and stressful job. But I never want to lose myself completely in that role. I'm also a wife, sister, daughter and friend. Having friends who challenge me and allow me to be myself help me to be a better mom!

Do you get stressed just being a mom? What do you do that helps you to take joy in your role at home?

Stress Is Not in My Schedule

From the end of November through the middle of January we celebrate Thanksmus (our Thanksgiving/ Christmas combo with which ever side of the family we travel to see for Thanksgiving), Lee's sister's birthday, my dad's birthday, Lee's birthday, Christmas (either in NC or TX, depending on the year), my sister's birthday, New Year's, my mom's birthday, and finally my mother-in-law's birthday!

Plus, no time of the year is busier for a pastor (and his family!) than the month of December! Every weekend we have Christmas parties (That require white elephant gifts; anyone else hate those as much as I do?), church activities, programs, concerts... and that is in addition to all we do as a family to celebrate Advent and Christmas!

I know you feel the same way this time of year- like you need extra hours in your day to get it all done (or sleep!). The biggest stress reliever I can recommend is to write it all down! I know it sounds simple, but I'm much less stressed if I can open my planner and see what's coming. I use the MomAgenda Desktop calendar. It has enough room each week for me to have separate columns for everything I need, including menu planning and upcoming blog topics. Lee and I sit down at the beginning of each week and talk about what's coming up. I write it all down (and take deep breaths if necessary!).

If you already write everything down and still feel stress, schedule some time for chocolate and coffee, or in my case, hot apple cider! It makes a huge difference in my outlook!

Christmas with a Toddler and Baby on the Way

I asked my husband today if he could get out the tree and we would just put it up with no ornaments. It will be in our front window where I have some huge poinsettias that I found on clearance for $3 at the grocery store. Dietrich hasn't messed with them too much yet, so maybe he'll leave the tree alone. I also plan to put up a wreath on the front door, but it is still in the garage. Other than that, we won't have Christmas decorations up.

I just didn't feel like decorating while being this pregnant and with a little guy that still does not understand the word "no." By the time we got it up, it would be time to take it down and I just would not feel like doing that in my current "nesting" stage! Maybe next year! Besides, I figure that Christmas isn't really about decorating a tree or my house. It's about the birth of Jesus and God's amazing gift to this world! I can celebrate that with or without all the glitz and glam. This year, it will be without!

It is beginning to look like Christmas at all the shops around us though! We recently took some pictures by the tree in our town. Here they are!

Dietrich really wanted to play with the ornaments!

He thought pulling the tree down sounded like fun too! Here he is pulling on the wire that holds the top of the tree steady while screeching like a mad man!