December Fun - Baking, Crafting, Lights, and Parties (OH MY!)

December is always full of fun and traditions, and this year was no exception. This is some of the fun stuff we've been up to this month.

As we usually do, we took one Saturday and had a baking day.

Ready to get our baking on!

We always begin with sugar cookies . . . the kids are getting to where they need very little help to roll out their cookies. It's nice in a lot of ways, but also a little bittersweet. 

Bren put his apron on and discovered that he'd grown this year . . . a lot! This apron matches Daddy's, so it's sad that Bren has outgrown it.

Having no apron didn't stop Bren from participating in the cookie making, though!

Cute 'lil bakers!

Brianna could pretty much lead this activity by herself!

Happy baking day!

Baking day is so much more enjoyable for us now . . . less chaos but still so much fun!

Our cookies turned out cute and interesting. I'm not sure where the brown frosting came from, but it made for a unique look, haha!

Baking day is always a MESS! Always, always! Brooke wasn't too impressed to be on clean-up duty :-).

After cookies, Chris made a batch of cinnamon candy.

We gave these containers of cinnamon candy to our Bible class teachers.

While Chris (and some of the kids) did cinnamon candy, almond bark pretzels, and puppy chow, I decided to try my hand at glass etching. This was the first plate I did for our neighbor, and it turned out better than I expected!

So, I made one for my parents, too!

After the cookies were frosted, we decided to put a few on the plates I made and hand deliver them. We agreed ahead of time that when Mrs. Mooney answered her door, we would sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to her. She was so surprised and happy that she covered her mouth and let out the biggest laugh. It was the best reaction! In fact, her reaction was so good that we decided to carol to my parents, too!

We make a lot of our edible goodies in time to take them to our December church luncheon. I love the tradition of having a "photo booth" at the luncheon!

The following week, I decided to make some gifts for Brooke and Brecklyn's teachers at school. We also did some things for a few others. This cookie jar turned out so cute! Of course, we included a gift card along with it and gave it to the school secretary. 

For each of the girls' teachers, I pressed Baking Spirits Bright onto an oven mitt and filled it with cookie mix, a spoon, and a gift card. We tied the mitt to a personalized glass plate, and the girls each helped me make an ornament to attach, as well. 

This was my first time to try ornaments like this.

I didn't love the metal look, so for myself I made an ornament out of an acrylic disc. It sparkles and looks perfect on my upstairs tree!

Because all that wasn't enough, I also decided to glass etch ornaments for a few friends. The Lewellen's sent me this photo of the ornament I made on their tree. 

I also decided to try to vinyl ornaments instead of glass etch them. I made about five of these for family. Lisa sent me this photo of the one I made for them. 

We always enjoy going to look at Christmas lights, but this year we went to Oologah Lake to see a new display that is being done out there. It was cute and hopefully it will grow as time goes on!

Another new thing this year was a light display being put on by the City of Claremore at Claremore Lake. It's so fun to have this in our backyard! And, the plan is for it to grow every year for the next ten years, so we're excited to see where it goes! We stopped by the Lake after church one Sunday evening, and Mom and Dad went out there with us.

The Nutcrackers were my favorite!

The bridge looked great!

Love my little crew!

I loved the idea of establishing some family traditions back when Chris and I were growing our family, and we've got some pretty great ones in my opinion. I'm always grateful for our time together. 

Anniversary Book

In my last post, I wrote all about the anniversary party we threw for Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. One of the special things we did for them was create a memory book as a joint gift to them (from their kids and grandkids). I had initially thought I would do a "love board" and asked people to send me memories, funny stories, meaningful quotes, and well wishes for the board. However, I quickly realized that I had a larger response than I could fit on a "love board". I also thought about what a hassle it would be to store a "love board" as a keepsake and decided to change my idea to a memory book instead. 

I had asked everyone in the family to send me something for the book and to help spread the word to anyone they thought might want to contribute. Like I said above, I had a great response. It was plenty to fill a book, for sure! It actually ended up being kind of overwhelming, so I called my sister and asked her to help me put the book together. We were able to get together one afternoon/evening and finish most of it in that time. We shared a similar vision for the book, and I think it came together well enough that it's difficult to tell which layouts I put together and which ones she created. 

Because I wanted to have the book completed in time to give to Mom and Dad at their party, I had told everyone that I wouldn't be accepting entries for the book after the Tuesday before the party on Friday. However, the Williams and the Gorings both sent something after my deadline, and I just didn't feel like I could leave either of them out since they have been friends of Mom and Dad's for decades. Thankfully, on the Friday morning of the party, Mallory helped me put together a few additional pages to include the tributes that had come later than I wanted.

We tried to keep things fairly simple, but I still think it turned out really nice!

The front cover

The first page in the book was the dedication page. 

It reads: 

"Leaving a legacy is like tossing a rock into a pond. There's an initial splash followed by ripple effects that continue on once the rock has disappeared. You might have a small rock to throw or a big boulder, but each one of us will leave something behind us. It's up to us to decide how far those ripples will travel! As Christians, we take the idea of legacy seriously. We believe that everything we have are gifts from God, and we're called to manage it well. For Christians, leaving a legacy is about doing things God's way, for His purpose, to bless His people." ~ Dave Ramsey

As we celebrate this wonderful milestone of 50 years of marriage with you, we want to recognize and thank you for the legacy you are creating by the way you live your lives. Your influence is far reaching as you strive to live for the Lord and shine His light and love in your life. The notes in this book are just a very small reflection of that. 

Happy 50th anniversary! We love you and are forever grateful for the blessing you are to us!

~ Your children and grandchildren

I'm certainly not going to write out what was written on each page, but I did want record of the dedication page. 

The pages weren't in any sort of order because how do you rank or order people who have all played important roles in your life? We did try to group people together on the same page that were from the same season of life or the same location. We also tried to group family together. 

Some tributes were long and got a page all to themselves!

The last page tells who put the book together and gives the date.

This project was one of those that kind of took on a life of its own once it got rolling. I had no idea what kind of response I would have - and while I was thrilled that so many people were sending me things - it was also pretty overwhelming. However, once Lisa and I started working on it, it came together easily and fairly quickly. 

I'm so glad we did this for Mom and Dad because it is a beautiful representation of their life together. We had people from all seasons of their life send tributes to be included, even if they don't have much contact with them anymore. It made me realize how much of my parents' lives have been dedicated to serving others and growing others. It was inspiring to me to see how far reaching and lasting their influence has truly been. 

December Fun - A Weekend of Festivities

Happy Monday, Everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend . . . we sure did! This time of year is always so fun, and this weekend we had several festive activities going on.

We had a low-key Friday night because we had been out late Thursday evening looking at Christmas lights (that will be a post of its own). On Saturday, Chris and I had talked about going out to Pleasant Valley Farms like we did last year, but ultimately decided against it. We loved going there for the pumpkin patch (sadly we missed it this year), but really couldn't think of a good reason why we would drive all the way out there for their Christmas village. Instead, we decided to have a nice day at home and attend our town's Christmas parade that evening. 

Since we had much of the day unexpectedly free, the big kids and I decided to do some Christmas ornament crafting. I had found some cute ideas for Christmas ornaments, so we got busy making those ideas come to life. 

I have been somewhat obsessed with black and white buffalo plaid this year, so when I found inspiration for these buffalo plaid ornaments, I couldn't wait to make them! We ended up making a dozen buffalo plaid ones with the miniature embroidery hoops, as well as about 20 wood slice ones. The kids had a long list of teachers and staff from school they wanted to make ornaments for, and we love how they all turned out! I wish I would have thought to get a photo of all of the finished ones together. 

I kept several of the buffalo plaid ornaments to go on the tree in my bedroom. It fits the "theme" perfectly! This tree is where we put all the ornaments we get when we travel (so we call it our "travel tree"), and they all go great with the buffalo plaid and burlap!

While I worked on ornaments, Chris did a little Christmas baking with the kids. The last few years we have made almond bark covered pretzels for all our bible class teachers, guitar teacher, piano teacher, etc. so Chris was working on that task. 

Brooke and Brianna

Daddy, Brooke, and Brianna (cuties!)

Brecklyn and Brenson

Oooops . . . caught sneaking a bite!

Saturday evening, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and bundled up for our town's Christmas parade. We invited Grampy and G-Jo to go with us, and one thing about our new van that we love is that everyone could ride together because it seats 8! Whoop-whoop!

Parades aren't really my favorite thing, but I love watching how excited the kids get. I can't decide if the kids were more excited about the actual parade or alllllll the candy they got, but either way they were happy!

Momma with Brecklyn and Brianna

Daddy with Brooke and Brenson

Yesterday (Sunday) was our annual Christmas luncheon at church. We don't celebrate Christmas in any of our worship services, but we do take the opportunity to have a luncheon complete with a silly gift exchange this time of year. Brecklyn and Brooke were dressed in their festive hand-me-down Christmas dresses, and they looked so cute! Brianna and Chloe wore these same dresses a few years ago.

As part of the fun, Lisa creates a photo wall in one of the classrooms. 

Brooke and Brecklyn

Brenson, Brianna, Brecklyn, and Brooke

I always love our family photos from this day!

We are so blessed by our church family, and we are so grateful for them. This crew of little people brings great joy to our lives!

So thankful for a great weekend!