Ladies Christmas Dinner

I understand that this post is a bit past due, but I wanted to share one of my favorite Christmas activities.  Each year my church hosts a Ladies Christmas Dinner as a way to start off the holiday season and also a way to minister to ours friends and neighbors what the meaning of Christmas is all about.

For the past several years, I co-host a table with my mother-in-law.  She has all the dishes and most importantly the serving dishes we need.  The church provides a table, chairs and dinner, we bring the table setting, a gift for each lady at our table and the serving dishes for the dinner.

The day starts out with two hours of glorious, free baby-sitting to let the mommies set up the tables without little ones to "help"  My MIL and I have done this so many times and usually my husband's grandma is in town during this time so between the three of us, we can set that table in about 30 minutes.

The theme this year was Let Heaven and Nature sing, so our table had a burlap table cloth (nature) and the dishes were blue and silver (heaven).  It had a very Swedish feel to it.  Our gifts were silver, glittery ornaments and it was just a wonderful evening.

This is just a few pictures of other tables that night.  This event is special to me and I always enjoy seeing the other tables, seeing friends that I only get to see once or twice a year and an evening out with girlfriends celebrating the birth of our Christ, our Savior.

Road Trip 2011

So instead of spending wads of money we don't have to fly 5 people from Seattle to the middle of no where Oklahoma Panhandle, we drove 3,400 miles round trip in my big, bad, black SUV. Nope, no mini van around here. Anyhoo, here are some pictures I took with my phone along the way.

Dinner the first night in Ellensburg, WA and I happen to read the ingredient list of the apple juice.  Why is our apples coming from other countries when the state of Washington is known for their apples.  Just saying People.

My oldest wearing his In-N-Out hat.  We drove 20 miles out of the way for a double-double on the second day of driving.  Love me some In-N-Out.

My second born son showing us his sticker page courtesy of the gal who took our order and handed over the goods :)

MMMMMMM, dinner

Our third day of travel. I-80 cruising eastbound through Wyoming

Just east of Green River, WY. Crystal clear blue sky and white snow covered plateaus.

My little man listening to his big brother's ipod.  He wasn't a happy camper being strapped down in a 5 point harness for days on end, but he still loves me :)

It seemed the further south we drove....

the colder the temperature.

Western Kansas around 2 am.  Brrrrrrrr!

Now for the return drive home. This was Western Kansas, flat land and lots of snow.

Not the best picture, but as we entered I-70 westbound to Denver, the moon was just beautiful against the darkening sky.

DINNER!!!!! Oh, how I love Chick-fil-A but despise the fact they are no where near me at all :(

After 11 hours in the car, we had finally arrived to Laramie, WY where we stayed the night.

More beautiful Wyoming landscape.

And even more headed westbound on I-80.

Oh yes we did :)

Hello normal winter temperatures.

We had a great trip seeing 8 states, driving 3,400 miles round trip, loving on grandparents and cousins and Praising Jesus for a SAFE trip too.

Homemade Christmas Gifts

I have two new nieces this year and I am so excited to get to make girly things now.  Both my brothers each had a girl, one in January and the other in April.  So this year for Christmas I wanted to do something fun for Christmas gifts rather than some cute outfit from the mall or a toy.  A gal on Etsy sells these absolutely stinking cute ballet shoes and I purchased the pattern from her to make my nieces gifts.

All I have to say is I had SO MUCH FUN making these shoes.  One of my sister-in-laws was a dancer and I'm sure she will  *hopefully* love these shoes.  I have another niece from my husband's side of the family that I may try to rework the pattern to fit the other sister-in-law i.e. straps versus the ribbon.

I may have three boys and am truly thankful for how crazy filled my house is, but I am also very thankful that God gave me some nieces to spoil too and get my girl fix in :)

Christmas dinner

The other night was the annual Ladies Christmas Dinner at Crossroads Bible Church. I usually host a table with my mother-in-law and we decide on a theme and run with it without going garishly over the top.  We ended up doing a winter white theme with these really cool frosty plates from Pier One and white dishes to accent.  I have no idea as to why I have no pictures from that evening as I had my iPhone, but alas, I took no pictures.

I did get to sit at the table with my mother-in-law, Mike's grandma and my lovely friends from our home fellowship group.  Some of these gals are friends that I have known almost as long as I have lived in Washington and others are newer friends.  I am super blessed to know each one of these ladies.  It was a fun evening to chat with one another without our passel of 21 children asking us questions, requesting food and needing our attention like they do every other Friday when we get together for bible study.


We had a yummy dinner and then fun entertainment courtesy of the local Christian university's jazz ensemble. I am thankful that this year we were able to eat dinner together and begin our Christmas season together.

Peace, peace, no peace in a house of boys

Tonight I decided if I was going to get any Christmas decorating accomplished, then I better get a move on and do something.  This is my something.

Yes, it's only the stocking and the pretty Pottery Barn stocking holders, but it's about all I'm excited to do.  If I had started decorating before Thanksgiving, then my house would have been all decked out for the season, but once Thanksgiving came and went, so did my motivation for Christmas decorating.

I have to laugh that Mike and I ended up buying the PEACE stocking holders. At the time we only had two boys and because discussions about a third child were underway, Mike chose the peace.

Yup, there is lots of peace in my house with three boys.....I do love each and every one of my boys.

Day 359

Content. Thankful. Blessed.

This is how I described myself on my Facebook status tonight. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to capture these feelings in a picture, so you get a picture of the wire jewelry magazines I received for Christmas. It was a lite Christmas for us this year and it's been one of the best Christmas' too. Mike and I have been teaching out boys that life is not about stuff and it seems that we have been successful in planting those seeds. After Andy opened up two gifts, he declared himself done opening gifts and was completely content with his game and matchbox car set. Aaron was more than happy with his Cars semi truck and spent the day clutching his truck like someone was going to take it away. Don't worry, we did open all the gifts from nana and papa and aunts and uncles. The boys are thrilled and excited and tomorrow we begin our thank you notes.

Day 357

Three stores later, I have finally secured these little pods of star anise. One of my friends had a little get together and made the best drinks, so I got the recipe from her and decided they would be great for Christmas dinner. The recipe calls for a simple syrup with star anise steeped in the syrup and it's amazing how difficult it is to find these pods. I found them at whole paycheck in the bulk section and was thrilled to have located them at a really good price.

Day 356

I figured since we were nearing the end of the year, there should be a little updated photo of me and all my glory. This morning I went to the grocery store to finish up my shopping for Christmas day and of course the comments are beginning because I am not due for another 14 plus weeks. So here I am at 25 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

Here's to another 9 pounder!

Day 353

This afternoon, my guys and I headed out to do a little Christmas shopping. This year, Mike and I wanted the boys to pick out gifts to each other to start planting the seeds that Christmas is about giving to others and not all about ourselves.
As I was wrapping the gifts, I discovered I didn't have any labels and with my pregnancy brain of late, I needed to figure something out because two of the gifts are practically identical and even though I wrapped them in different paper, that doesn't mean I'll remember whose is whose. Lucky for me, I did remember that I have these really fun stamps that my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago. After digging all of my items out of my stamping box that hubby retrieved from the top of the closet, I got busy stamping away. I think I'll be making my labels from now on.

Day 350

I have ever so slowly been decorating my house for Christmas. This year, I just don't have the stamina and motivation to decorate my house and keep my two year old from dismantling all my work. Today, I managed to get out the stocking holders and stockings and hang them on the mantle. It's kinda funny that my stocking holders are the word peace as some days there isn't much peace going on with all my boys in this household.

Day 347

This evening our family spent some time with our bible study fellowship group celebrating the Christmas season. The kids were all in the basement with the baby-sitter while the adults were able to chat with one another without being too interrupted by the little ones.
We also had a book exchange with both the children and the adults. The kids, with lots of help from the parents, chose numbers and then went in order to pick out a book. My boys are very excited about the new books they received and spent some extra time tonight reading them before bed.

Day 342

I wonder how many pictures my little budding artist will be taking of the Christmas tree this year. This one was taken with my iPhone and I thought it was kinda cool.

Day 340

The tree has been unwrapped, lit up and decorated with the help of a couple of excited little boys. I'm wondering how long it will take for a certain two year old to undecorate the tree.

Day 339

This year we are having an actual live tree for Christmas because we aren't traveling during the holiday season. Mike found out through a coworker that Costco was selling trees this weekend for a really good price.
You gotta love how Costco sells just about anything. We went inside to pick up a few items and purchased our tree. Right across the street from the warehouse at the corporate office are two large truck trailers filled with trees wrapped up ready to be picked up and taken home. I had quite the time people watching while Mike took our ticket and receipt to pick up our tree and attach it to the top of our SUV. It must be a requirement of those who drive minivans to shove the tree inside the vehicle between the rows of seats all the way to the front. It was just funny watching several minivans of families doing this.

Day 337

Every year, Crossroads Bible Church hosts a Ladies Christmas Dinner for an opportunity to bring friends and family who may not know the true reason we celebrate Christmas. My mother-in-law and I have hosted a table for a few years and this year had a little hitch. We still hosted a table, but my mother-in-law ended up doing the bulk of the work due to my ill behaved children.

Our church is very blessed to have kitchen facilities and a wonderful lady who has a fantastic team that made our very delicious dinner. Our theme was blue, white, silver with snowflakes and the evenings gift was a ceramic loaf pan filled with chocolate topped shortbread cookies. After our meal, we were entertained by The Three Wisemen and one of the wisemen is our very own worship leader, Timothy James Meaney.
It was a wonderful evening of seeing various tables decorated, seeing friends I hadn't seen in awhile and meeting new people as well. The evening is usually one of the first parties of the season and I'm glad I get to be a part of it.