THE CHRISTmas gift...

"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift."  II Corinthians 9:15

Thinking back to the very first Christmas night I can't help but wonder did Mary and Joseph realize what a gift of eternal life they were giving through the birth and life of their son?  As we exchange gifts with one another and engage in the many festivities, may we be ever mindful of God’s greatest gift to us - His Son, Jesus Christ!

We do love this time of year, it seems to be just about everyone's favorite.  It's exciting to celebrate and make sweet memories of the birth of the Savior of the world together with family and friends.  We couldn't get pictures of everything we did during the Christmas season but, here's what we did capture...

One of Mom's favorites of her collection of 30 nativity scenes!

Gray made a nutcracker... lego version!

Our hanging Christmas Nativity advent calendar - homemade by Abigail, Mom, and Madelyn.  We have a daily Bible verse to be read with each piece as we add them on.

Homemade wheat rolls by Madelyn!

We love to cook together and we wanted to share one of our Thanksgiving and Christmas-time recipes.  This Cranberry Salad recipe has been in our family for 3 generations...definitely a family fave!  I have fond memories of this beautiful and tasty dish always being at every family gathering during this season!

KELLY'S CRANBERRY SALAD

2 - 3oz. cherry jello

2 - 15oz. cranberry jell

1 C hot water

2 C chopped celery

2 C chopped apple (with skin)

2 C chopped walnuts

Combine cherry jello, cranberry jell and hot water in a sauce pan and simmer on medium until well blended and/or just brought to a low boil.  Do not continue to over cook, just get ingredients combined.  Carefully press out and "mush" cranberry jell as combining it all together.  Pour into a bowl then sit the bowl in the freezer while chopping the next ingredients.  Chop celery, apples and walnuts.  Pour them into the cranberry mixture and gently stir (mainly because it will stain if you aren't careful to not splash it!).  Chill in refrigerator overnight and serve cold.  Enjoy!

This is what it starts out like when put on the stove:

After carefully "mushing" the cranberry jell and stirring in the water it looks like this:

After cooling a few minutes we pour it into a clear crystal bowl (because it's nice to see all the pretty colors of the dish on the table, it adds alot)!

 

After putting the above bowl into the freezer we start chopping the following items in tiny bits:

Then, we carefully stir in the chopped goodies and after chilling overnight....wa-lah!

We loooove getting Christmas cards from family and friends - especially the PICTURE ones (because we love to see y'all)!  We put them on our front door so we can enjoy them.  We pray for you every time we walk by them, all month long.  Can you spot yours?? :)

Our Mimi comes to visit every year for Christmas.

 

Church Christmas party! 

The guys just chillin' by the upside down Christmas tree!

December means birthdays for Daddy (10th) and Mama (21st)

We filled the car with balloons that morning before he left for work!

The December birthday mommys going out for tea. :)  One of mom's friends shares a birthday on her actual birthday and the other on Christmas day! 

But, little did they know we had a surprise dinner party with all the families planned only a few nights later!  Daddy planned it and all the husbands picked out a cake for their wives....so sweet.  There were 20 people there all together!

Christmas Hayride "Through the Life of Christ" with friends! This church does a phenominal job of acting out what our Savior's birth, life and death was like.  An intimate reminder of His continual sacrifice and gift!

 Our family was asked to be the music and testimony for a local church's Christmas dinner.

Bundled up riding around in the back of the truck (with Mom and Dad having a date in the front) to look at Christmas lights with our mug o' hot chocolate!  We look forward to this every year! :)

Aahhhh, alas we come to the end of the month, the end of the season and the end of the year 2012.  It has plum tuckered us out - including Doodle Bug, as you see below :)