Christmas Past

Reflecting on Christmas Past.

While I bustle around with last minute preparations for the holiday today I am remembering Christmas Past.

I am so thankful, for all of the beautiful Christmas memories I have in my heart.

From the wonder filled white Christmas mornings from my own Childhood to watching my children's twinkling eyes as the big day approaches.

First Christmases spent in new homes....

My husband and I closed on our first home 2 days before Christmas 18 years ago.  We actually moved in before we closed but I wouldn't unpack a single box until it was officially ours.  So I ran around that last day putting what I could out to make it our Christmas home.  

Because we had just committed to a new home our budget was very tight that year, and I made dried orange and apple slices to hang from our freshly cut tree hung with raffia.  Our house smelled so nice that Christmas, it's funny how even smells can be remembered!

Each of our babies First Christmases, 

so grateful for the new addition to our family.

Now I put out

nativities and ornaments handed down from loved ones no longer with us.  Items that bring my heart closer to the fond memories of Christmases spent with them. 

and

Through all of the Christmases...

we may 

add new loved ones to our family, remember those no longer with us, we can also,change our holiday decor, try new recipes, and search for the perfect gifts...

all a part of celebrating.

But, one thing remains constant with each passing year....

Our holiday has always been filled with....

love

hope

joy

peace

enjoying the company of family

making memories with loved ones

Excitement in the preparations

At peace with our continuous blessings one Christmas to the next...

Of all the Christmas gifts I have received over the years,

There is no gift that I treasure more than the memories that I have been blessed with...

I sure hope you don't mind taking a walk down our 

Christmas memory lane 

with us for a little while.... 

A Baby's First Christmas...

Visits with Santa

Decorating the tree....... 

(Years with braces on....braces off.  New glasses....contacts)

and crafting presents and decorations....

Chubby baby fingers swiping Santa's cookies, 

Babies more excited with the wrapping paper and packaging than the gift itself.

Posing for Christmas Card Pictures.....

Making a mess in the kitchen with my boy baking up some Christmas Cookies... 

The joy on Christmas Morning!

After Church, Quietly reading  

The Night Before Christmas....

Waiting Patiently on Christmas eve...

 Those are some of my favorite Christmas memories....

Well, I still have a lot of wrapping to do......
I'm off for now, hopefully I can share Christmas Present with you tomorrow.  I wonder if that is why we call it  
"Christmas Present".  Is it because we spend so much time wrapping it up...Ba-dum-dump...(Oh boy!).....lol.  

Thanks for stopping on by if you haven't signed up for the GBP cookbook giveaway there's still time.....head over to the last post to sign up!  If you have already signed up, I am truly enjoying your Christmas stories....thank you!

Take good care of yourself!

Dee

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

To all the Great Dads out there!

 

We are celebrating Father's Day this year with a full heart.  After months of chemotherapy and prolonged hospital stays we have my Dad home once again.  This last bout was a hard and long road for my father, taxing, scary and hard.  But he fought it.  We fought it.  With many, many, prayers.  All answered.  Because now, as of last week, we received word that his first scan since his last treatment showed that he is now clear of cancer, thank God.

I am so very, very, grateful.....To have him here.....

To have him healthy.



To be able to celebrate how blessed I have been having him as my father another year means the world to me.  Thank you for all the prayers, concern, and support you have shown us.

Now, I want to wish my wonderful husband a Happy Father's Day!  You are a GREAT father.

We've said it before and will say it again.....you are supportive, loving, guiding, funny, a great cook, a patient teacher, kind, an excellent fisherman, wrestler, and you know lots of things (according to your son),  a great study partner, and overall a great example.

Thank you for being a wonderful Father to our children.

We love you very much and we are your biggest  

's!!!!

(corny I know...but we are, lol.)

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

On another note, I'm sorry I've been so far behind in my blogging...along with everything else!  I am wrapping up things at work for the summer and will have more time now that school has let out.  Thank you for being so patient with me and understanding.  It has been a long year full of adjustments. 

I haven't forgotten the giveaway and I will be announcing the winner in a few days! 

Thank you all for entering!

Take care!

 Dee 

All you need is LOVE, LOVE is all you need

Happy Valentine's Day!

This one snuck up on me for sure.  I've been a very busy girl lately and have been so caught up in things that I realized a few days ago that Valentine's Day would be here and I just wasn't prepared!

Even though this holiday is for Sweethearts, I like to spread a little love to others as well.  I needed to keep it simple so I came up with a few easy and inexpensive things for my chicks and their class parties that I thought I would share with ya'll

For my son's class we made up Cupid's Cocoa packets.  If you have a printer and some festive paper you can easily throw this together in a jiff too.  I do the cocoa packets for alot of holidays.  It is something easy and inexpensive you can change with the seasons and I like it because even though it's a sweet treat the kids can come home and help their parents make it for them and they don't have to fill up on one more sweet at those classroom parties.  The teachers like it because they take it home lol.  I'll share how easy it is at the bottom of this post.

Here's my littlest Valentine...

This is the face that he made when I told him he had to hand out his valentines to the little girls in his class and asked him who was his Valentine, curious to hear his reply....

Which was....Ewww girls, no way......hehe....I will have to remind him of this in another 10 years lol. 

When I told him that I was a girl...he told me that it was alright if I was his Valentine because I'm not just a girl...I'm his momma...so sweet!

  

Because of that I made him a special heart shaped sandwhich for lunch...to which he replied cool....(teen sisters) and that I was an awesome valentine! (Again, another reminder in about 10 years).

Some white chocolate covered Marshmallow pops for a sweet lunchbox treat...

I picked up this adorable book of flocked Vintage Style Valentines from Borders for only $4.99, can you believe that?  That was the regular price too!

.It's filled with adorable little Valentines that I will use and reuse each year.

The above, cute, cupcake boxes are from the dollar store.  I love to pop in there for inexpensive holiday goodies.  These are for family and co-workers.  The people that I work with show love to so many children within our community that I wanted to send some sweetness back to them.  Some strawberry-pink icing, heart sprinkles and a paper heart, a small loving gesture.  If you were my neighbor or friend I would give you one too!

The chocolate bars above were purchased at Homegoods.  The vintage pictures are so cute.  One for each of my Chicks.

A little Bath and Body Work after holiday purchase from my husband to our girls.  I tucked them away for Valentines when I saw the after holiday price.  What gal doesn't like perfume for Valentines right? 

My Valentine, hubby, and I will be celebrating with a nice dinner in front of the fire and snuggling up for a movie afterward.  I am very easy to please, we don't need anything fancy to show our love for one another.

(Of course my favorite daisies wouldn't hurt honey)

I'm not into expensive roses, unless it is a bush that can be planted in the ground, hehe,.

I do like me a fresh bouquet of daisies though lol.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Easy Cocoa Packets...

Fill clear celophane bags with cocoa packet, a few marshmallows, and a couple of kisses or chocolate chips.

Print out a poem or saying that you like for your packets and cut them into appropriate sizes for the bags.  I make a 2 column word document for multiples.

 

Cut a 12x12 red (or coordinating pattern) piece of Scrapbooking cardstock found at any craft store into 3" wide strips and then cut each of those strips into 4" rectangles.  I then folded each one in half and stapeled to the top of each filled goodie bag.

Put a piece of double stick tape on the outside of cardstock and attach poem. 

There you have some quick and easy party favors or seasonal goodies to hand out.  I've done this for many birthday and class parties, halloween, and christmas.  They are inexpensive and easy to make and the moms are always so impressed....now they know how easy they are!

Oh, one more thing....

My exciting news!  I've been holding it in so long I almost forgot!  Back before Christmas I was sent an email from Gooseberry Patch, that ended up in my Spam folder and went unopened for many weeks (ugh)! 

I almost deleted it but was checking on some orders and happened upon it.  It was an awesome opportunity spelled out before me and I just couldn't believe that I was reading it so late!!  I replied right away, explaining why I hadn't replied the first time around and exclaimed my excitement and interest in their offer!  So now it is all official and I can't shout it out to you all......

I am an......

What does that mean for FHCS you ask?  It means that we will have the opportunity to get recipe reviews on the newest cookbooks from GBP...one of my favoritist companies!!  It also means giveaways of those newest cookbooks right here at FHCS for my followers and commentors! 

So gals I can't wait to get this thing started, I'm already a looong time fan of Gooseberry Patch and am so super excited about this and being able to share it with you all.  When it is my turn to review, you will have the opportunity to sign up for the giveaway.  There are others bloggers doing reviews right now on other titles, I'm in the process of making a link to some of those blogs in my sidebar. 

So with that said, the sign giveaway winner from the {long time} secret giveaway will be announced NEXT post.....promise!

Spread the love around.....

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Take good care!
XO, Dee

Happy New Year and a Christmas Rewind....

Happy New Year Everyone!

Hello Blogger Friends!

 I hope this New Year finds you well and I hope you all celebrated

a wonderful Christmas with loved ones. 

 

So you all now know, that I never did make it back on here for a pre-Christmas post as planned but such is life these days.  We all had a beautiful Christmas and yes, my father was able come.  We anticipated the day with much concern and then his doctors gave him the clear to come.  I spent a great deal of time taking care to sanitize my home top to bottom before he arrived.  He was tired and stayed a short while this year but we were so grateful to see him! Amen! 

He had a bit of a set back this week as he was to begin another round of his chemo they discovered pneumonia and he is being treated accordingly so we are of course worried but grateful the doctors caught it quickly.  Thank you all for your continued prayers, we certainly need them and I so appreciate you all. 

Christmas came rather quickly this year and while I was able to capture alot of it on film (hmmm...no more film more like, captured on the computer instead) I couldn't find a minute to post it all so I am doing a Christmas rewind  today, I hope you are not sick of it all already, if so I understand!  This is a long, picture-heavy-catch-up post....just to warn you.

The kitchen was decorated all up in it's holiday finery....

This guy below was made by me many Christmases ago.  With each child he would end up missing a few parts since he is toddler height, lol.  Although, quite battered it reminds me of the christmases when my girls were little and he gets sentimental rights to stay and each year he takes his rightful place in the corner of the kitchen. 

All around the Christmas Farmhouse.....a peek.

Of course we set up the Christmas Village too.  I think these are my younger children's most favorite Christmas decorations.  They will sit there in the dim light of the evening looking the whole thing over in awe once it's all been put together. 

 We spent a quiet New Year's Eve at home with Family and friends.  We have done this for the past several years.  We get together with cousins and friends and celebrate together in the safety of our home.  This year we all held out until the ball dropped, another memorable one for sure.  Resolutions?  Oh, we'll talk more about that in the next post....lol.

I have been around to several of your blogs recently to catch up, however, blogger was giving me a hard time each time I tried to comment (ugh)...it was such a treat to catch up though. 

I will keep trying to comment though so you will know I stopped by to see you...of course I have so much to say too, lol.

Well, if you've stuck it out to the end of this post, thank you!  Thank you for making it worth my while to continue to post, thank you for your support and prayers and

thank you for coming back to read my posts! 

Be sure to leave a comment if you can to let me know you were here and what you are thinking, your input is important to me.

Happy New Year to you all!  May you all be blessed with Love, Health and Happiness in the new year!

Take good care,

Dee