Xmas ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Merry Christmas (2020)

Finally Friday

Well, I have failed so far in taking any pictures but Lauren took some so I’ll get her to forward some to me so I can add them to this post later.

The donuts were a hit for our Christmas Eve breakfast, as was the breakfast burrito bake. We changed things up, just a bit this year and opened stockings and then ate breakfast and then went back and opened gifts. (Sorry about all those “and”s.)

It was fun seeing the gifts my sister’s family received. We exchanged ornaments and this year Tiffany painted the ones we gave. I’ll share a picture later. ;) I was going to buy it but the reviews said that they were on lightweight wood and not very brightly painted. So, odds are that we would have had to repaint them anyway. So Tiffany just offered to paint them to begin with. So I bought the ornament wood blanks and gave them a nice white base coat. Then she whipped them out like it was nothing. ;)

I got an old game out to play with Liam yesterday. It is called Pizza Party. It is really a lot of fun for children. I remember playing it with my nieces and they never wanted to stop playing.

This was the first time he’s played it and we had a ball with it. :) I had forgotten that pizza is his favorite food. So you can imagine, he loved it.

It was a fun Christmas Eve and I’m sure today will be both emotional and fun. Emotional because my dad is in heaven but fun, because we will be intentional and make it fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoyable weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Christmas Eve

Thoughtful Thursday

It’s Christmas Eve! And for us that means it is Christmas #1. :) When Michael and I were first married, we spent the night at my parents’ house on Christmas Eve and opened our gifts to each other there. When we had Brian, the first year we did as we always did. But around the 3rd or 4th year we got Brian and Sean some larger toys that we could not lug to my parents’. So I got the brilliant idea to get up Christmas Eve morning and act as though it were Christmas. Since Michael was already self-employed at that time, work was no problem. :)

It was great! We got up and did Christmas that morning and the kids were able to play with their new toys all day long! At my parents’ home they weren’t able to play with all their toys because there were too may people there and we needed to keep the mess to a minimum. So this was a huge win because if they got something they didn’t want to part with, like a stuffed animal or something else small, they could take that item with them.

Now twenty-five years later, we still wake up Christmas Eve morning and have Christmas here. Then on Christmas day we wake up and go to my sister’s home and have second Christmas. :) This makes our Christmas nice and full! :)

It is probable as time goes on that things will change. This year will be really different without my dad. :D But we will go with the flow as each change comes and let God help us through each one.

I feel sorry for those who have lost loved ones earlier this year. I imagine they have worked through their grief but now the holidays are here and they are having to work through it all again. I have prayed for them. I so appreciate the prayers that our family is receiving that I want to be sure to cover those other friends in prayer too. So Hardings  (Moores) and Roses, know that I am praying for you this holiday season.

I encourage you today to make this holiday memorable. Teach your children the blessing in giving and the blessing of family.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Long Lasting Nails the Quicker Way

Wonder Wednesday

Okay this is a real cheat for a post! But it is the only art I did this week other than wrapping gifts and I wouldn’t exactly call those a work of art either. :D

The week after Thanksgiving Lauren introduced me to the joys of nail stickers. She did them for me showing me how to do them.

They lasted for about two weeks. I just peeled them off last Saturday because I had scratched some of them pretty badly near the end. On one day I bent back one of my nails and I was pretty sure it broke. However, thanks to the nail sticker, it stayed together. When I peeled off the stickers I left on that one sticker because I wasn’t sure how bad it was.

Well, I took it off this morning and found that it did break but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. ;) See?

I’m struggling a bit with picking the right stickers for the right nails. Lauren started with the middle fingers, so that’s what I’m trying to do but I’m not finding a good match. So I’m switching to ring finger.

First you lightly sand all the nails, which I did already. Then you apply the sticker without getting it on your cuticle or the skin on the sides of the nail.

Then you stretch it over the end of the nail a bit.

Then use a course file on the edge to “cut” it off.

I really love the snowflake on the red glitter! So pretty.

Then I moved on to the middle finger.

Some of them I used upside down so that they fit my nails better. :)

Tiffany’s nails are too short, so she just used nail polish but she did put the cute little yetis on her big toe nails.

The final step is to put on a topcoat of clear polish.Here is the finished nails. One thumb has a snowflake and the other doesn’t.We watched this as we did our nails.

It’s the first time we’ve watched Elf this season. It has a few crass moments but it is a fun movie. :)

Well, that’s all for me today. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll get back to some Zentangle soon. I’ll be working on my bullet journal next week, so I don’t know if I’ll have a tile to share or will be sharing that instead.

I hope you have a very merry Christmas!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Christmas Week of Special Foods

Menu, Tasty Tuesday

Well, this week is Christmas and I’m making some things I’ve not made in a very long time. Christmas Eve morning we will have Breakfast Burrito Bake. This is a family favorite and so we are all looking forward to having it. Brian, Lauren, and Liam will be here early that morning and Lauren is the one that reminded me of this dish.

I used to fix Monkey Bread or Bubble Bread with it but I fixed it on Thanksgiving morning and although it was all eaten, it didn’t seem to be a favorite. Since we’ll be having that on Christmas Day at my sister’s house, I decided to make Baked Pecan Pancakes (they are in Trim Healthy Table (THT) page 338) as our sweet dish on Christmas Eve.

Tiffany will be making two apple pies, I think. One will be sugar-free and the other will be Apple Crumble Pie. Then she is also going to make the Pumpkin Trimtastic Roll. I’m so used to our sugar-free lifestyle that I forget that some of these recipes aren’t our old sugary desserts. I hope the pumpkin roll will be liked by my mom.

I’m making a turkey and dressing Wednesday. :D Our Christmas dinner this year was voted to be tacos. So, I’m making a turkey before Christmas. I’m just doing stove top dressing but we like it. :) I’ll fix something like green beans with it and call it good. I spent yesterday thawing the 16 pound bird that Sean got free from a church before Thanksgiving and decided he has had enough turkey at his house, so he gave it to us. :)

When we have had our fill of the leftovers, I’ll sub it in for chicken in some casseroles. Turkey nachos are good if you don’t mind the THM crossover. We always like creamed turkey with leftover turkey.

I’m still considering making cinnamon rolls at some point over the next week and a half. I know my family here would really like them and so would I. I just don’t want to commit to making them by Christmas day. :D

Actually, our family Christmas dinner is taco bar. We are going to have a variety of meats to choose from: salsa chicken, taco seasoned ground beef, and shredded pork. It should be a good variety. Of course we’ll have lots of chips and cheese available. :D

For breakfast Mom makes a hashbrown, egg, and cheese casserole. She’s talked about making some bacon and maybe some sausage with onions to add to it. We’re going to pick up some donuts too. So with the monkey/bubble bread (and Mom’s keiffle, which is small little nut rolls) we’ll have plenty for Christmas morning breakfast. :)

Then on Saturday, instead of our weekly pizza, I’m fixing LASAGNA!!! I absolutely love lasagna! We haven’t had it in years, so I’m looking forward to it. :D

Well, that our week of special meals. What meals do you do special around Christmas?

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Ask, Don’t Assume

Marriage Monday

This week is Christmas. We have some Christmas traditions, as I’m sure most people do. But in November I like to ask my family what are some of the traditions or activities they’d like to do again and if there is anything new they’d like to do.

I find it is best to have a conversation about these things rather than just assuming that everyone still wants to do everything as usual. And sometimes you find there is something new you can do instead of an old activity.

I’ve learned to reduce the number of things we do. With fewer commitments made during December, we are able to enjoy the month a bit more. It is important to communicate with your spouse about what he likes to do and what he really doesn’t–some can be dropped but some are unavoidable. For the unavoidable ones, talk about strategies to make it more enjoyable to you both.

Communication is soooo important! Take time to really share this week with each other and not so busy being busy that you are frazzled and frustrated. I got my wrapping done last night so that won’t make me all frazzled. Now I can focus on cleaning up the mess I made in my three day wrap-a-thon :D and really enjoy the week.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas week!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Disappointing Yet Happy Weekend

Finally Friday

Last weekend we were supposed to go to Yukon to see the lights with Brian, Lauren, and Liam. Mom was going to join us for the first time too. Unfortunately it got very cold and I didn’t think it was a wise idea to drive for two hours to go traipsing around in the cold.

The up side to the cold weather is that we got a good snow out of it! We must’ve gotten around five inches or so. It was so pretty coming down!

And it was pretty even after it was snowing heavily. Tiffany and I walked back to the pond, as we like to do.

It really is quite beautiful. But we definitely need to get to cleaning it all up! It has really grown over.

The cedars are soooo weighed down with snow! I tried to help them somewhat by shaking off some of the snow.

It really did help.

Of course, I got a bit of snow on me in the process. :D

I always love the pond when it snows.

The front yard looked pretty too.

Those cedars are still a bit heavy laden. Usually snow disappears the next day but since we got so much this time, it is staying a bit longer. I may have to go out and help them out today, at least the lower branches.

Tiffany groomed Hutch, my parents’ dog, this week. Mom said that Dad had planned to take him to the groomer back in the early part of November but just didn’t feel up to it, as they both got sick. Well, it has been another four or five weeks since then and poor Hutch has gotten really matted.

Tiff has been grooming Shiloh for a good long time now and even cutting Michael’s hair. So she felt pretty certain that she could groom Hutch decently.

Here is his before picture.

He’s such a cutie.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress and an after shot.

She did a great job for her first time and how matted he was. Neither Tiffany nor Mom wanted to skin him by doing a complete buzz cut. It’ll be easier next time. :) Even though it was tough, she enjoyed doing it. Hutch is a good dog.

Well, that’s it for me today. I have lots of Christmas gift wrapping to do today. I hope you are getting your shopping and wrapping done without much struggle.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Links ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Picky Eaters, Christmas Audio, and Sciency Links

Thoughtful Thursday

I have had picky eaters in my house at different times. For years I cooked with onion powder instead of diced onions because if my kids saw an onion piece they declared that they did not like the dish. And let’s face it, onion powder is easier to use than dicing up an onion. ;)

I saw this article about picky eaters and how what you do may be encouraging their pickiness. One thing that was mentioned was that you cannot expect your children to eat differently from what you eat.

I hopped over to HomeschoolFreebie.com to see what they were sharing and thought they were worth sharing.

I hope these will be a help to you and help you keep the kids busy and have some fun.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Silver Foil Cosmic Flower

Wonder Wednesday, Zentangle

I always like to use the scratch-off tiles when I’m not feeling much like doing any art or when I’m not feeling very creative.

I was tempted to try my hand at either the Frosty tangle or the gnomes I’ve been seeing around facebook. I looked at the suggested tangles in the Tangle All Around group and saw one that I have used before and enjoyed. :) So I gladly tangled away.

Of course, foil scratch-off tiles don’t photograph very well. So here are a few different shots.

The next one was taken without a flash and so it’s kind of blurry. ;) Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Chili ~ LifeofJoy.me

A Menu for the Week

Menu, Tasty Tuesday

Well, this week we’d planned to go see lights in Yukon but it was very cold, so we decided it was best not to go. Thankfully I’d planned Trim Train Italian Soup for one day this week. Since it makes a large pot of soup, I chose to make this that night. It fed the four of us and left enough for another complete meal.

I’ve also planned to make minestrone. We’ll have that tonight for dinner. I’ll make with it with seasoned boneless skinless chicken breast, ground up in the food processor. Consequently it will be low fat, so I will include some brown rice elbow macaroni in place of the ditalini but it has lots of veggies, so it will be yummy.

It snowed most of the day on Sunday. It was gorgeous!!! I hear it’s supposed to snow today too. So I’ll be glad for the minestrone soup tonight. :) I gave Michael his choice of soup Sunday. He quickly chose Chili. (I substitute Gentle Sweet and a bit of molasses for the brown sugar.) :) He also asked that it be a double batch. Thankfully I keep the ingredients for chili on hand since it is one of his favorite meals.

Of course, we generally have pizza on Friday or Saturday night. That only left a few meals for the week. We haven’t had tacos in a while and I was wanting them, so they made it on the menu and we had it last night. Yum! I used a low carb tortilla.

The remaining items on our menu for the week are Split Pea Soup and Spaghetti. We’ll use Dreamfields angel hair pasta for the spaghetti.

So this is the menu for the week:

I don’t think anyone needs a recipe for tacos but I intend to put up my latest pizza recipe sometime soon.

I hope this menu helps you create your weekly menu. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Handling Differences

Marriage Monday

Michael and I are very different. I like it cooler in the house and he likes it warmer. consequently I usually have a fan on me most of the time. ;) When it gets cold out, I love to keep it cooler in the house so I can actually bundle up and cover up with blankets.

I especially like our bedroom cooler so that we can snuggle for longer than a hot second. :D Of course Michael likes it warmer. The cold reminds him of bad memories but I try to give him lots of good memories in the cold. ;)

Of course, sometimes our temperature preferences causes things to get a bit heated. ;) But I’m trying to remind myself give and take–not to pull too hard for my way.

Michael is an early bird and I’m a night owl. Most of our lives I have gone to bed at the same time as he has and gotten up within a half hour. Of course then I was homeschooling the kids, so getting to bed and up and busy was a good thing. But as I’m aging, my body clock is changing; I no longer need as much sleep. These days I go to bed a bit later most nights and still get up about the same time as before. However, when it is cold and a night when he doesn’t have to get up early the next morning, he’ll stay up with me.

How do you handle differences? Do you use it as an opportunity to love on each other? Give each other grace? I’m learning to be a bit more gracious and giving. :)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº