Christmas Day

 Christmas Day was beautiful.  Although I know some churches opted to not have services on Christmas Day, I loved going to the Lord's House on His birthday.  It just seemed fitting.  Every Easter is on a Sunday and my vote is to have Christmas do the same.  What a great way to continue to keep our holiday focus on Him.  The Fish Sticks were told they could get up no earlier than 6 and could get into stockings at 6:30.  Here they anxiously await.

 For breakfast this year I was daring and tried a Swedish Kringle.  One was filled with brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans, the other with cherry pie filling.  I think it might need to be a Christmas tradition!

 This Little Peanut got an oinking piggy flashlight in her stocking and was proud as punch!

 Caleb is the best kid to have around on Christmas because he likes to assemble.  Where was he 6 years ago when we almost pulled an all-nighter putting together that stinkin' playground for Christmas??  Lego sets, swivel chairs, desks, bookcases, exercise equipment, bikes...he's the best and out for hire too 

(parents' commission included!).

 Lunch included a hodge podge of Christmas dishes collected over the years with brunch and my beautiful Christmas cactus from my 2 oldest Fish Sticks.

Supper was at G and G's with Nonie, Pops and Papa too.

It was the perfect conclusion to our "pioneer Christmas of 2011!"

Christmas Eve

 For Christmas Eve, we carried on Fish tradition and opened Fish gifts at G and G's house.

My eldest wanted a hamster ball, football mouth piece and Lego set...quite an odd combination.

 We bought G a canvas print of our family photo from this summer.

 Hovering is always a Christmas MUST in our family.  :)

 Overeating always seems inevitable too.

 AB loved her new magnetic/cork board to hang in her room with all her lists.  Just like her Mama!

Roofie Poofie's been wanting pink legos for 2 years now and she finally received them.

I'm expecting an architect one day from all of our passionate Lego Fish Sticks!

4th Annual Formal Anniversary Dinner

 For Grandma and Grandaddy's 4th Annual Formal Anniversary Dinner, we did things a little different this year.  Tim and I joined the meal.  I put AB in charge of my kitchen.  I typed out directions, did as much prep work as possible and let them have at it.  I loved seeing them at work, hustling and bustling in the kitchen, serving others and having fun doing it.  They loved setting the table in china with candles and making it look pretty.  Leah was in charge of making the appetizers and she did a great job, after I kept reminding her not to lick her fingers.  :)

 Caleb and the little ones served and cleared plates as each course was finished.

I was so impressed, I told them I had high expectations for my next anniversary!

 Afterward AB played Christmas carols on the keyboard as we sang. 

Grandaddy shocked all the Fish Sticks when he started playing songs he remembered from his childhood.

 Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad.

We are so blessed to have you live so close and share our daily lives together!!

December 25

Merry Christmas from the Fish Family!

The Advent Jesse Tree

My church does a Jesse Tree Ornament exchange that I have missed the last 2 times.  If you are not sure what that is, you can check the post that I did last year about the Lent Ornament Exchange.  They are very similar.  This year I decided to host one with the moms from school.  I sent out an evite and was able to get 25 families to participate with me.  We met at the school one Sunday afternoon and exchanged our ornaments.  The ornaments were each so unique and creative.  We couldn't wait for December 1st to come.

We purchased the book The Advent Jesse Tree, Devotions for Children and Adults to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child at Christmas by Dean Meador Lambert from Amazon.  Each day we read a passage from God's Word with a devotion, sing a song, pray and put up the corresponding ornament on our Jesse Tree.  It traces the prophesies of Jesus from the OT up to the fulfillment in the NT.  We have really loved this special time as a family.

What I have loved most is that this is another small way in which we shift our focus off of ourselves and gift receiving and back to where our focus should be:  on the birth of Jesus.

Christmas Hugs in Mugs

 We are so grateful for our church here and all the nursery workers and Sunday School teachers that we utilize each and every Sunday for all 6 Fish Sticks.  I always want to give them a little Christmas Happy but I have yet come up with the perfect gift that I give each year.  Some cost too much. Some take too much time.  Last January I found Christmas mugs on clearance and so I bought 20 in anticipation for SS teacher gifts.  I found this easy recipe for Christmas Hugs on Pinterest (a web site I just found and if I'm not careful, I might need to admit myself into a Pinterest addiction support group).  All it is is a pretzel with a candy can Hershey's kiss melted on top with 2 M&M's.  They are the perfect combo of sweet, salty and minty.  With Fish Stick helpers, we were able to crank out 20 filled mugs in no time.  Just wanted to pass on goodness (copied from other smart gals, of course!).  Try them!

Pretties

 Wanna peek at some of the pretties I recently got from my Mimi??

 My Papa was a Captain in the Navy and served in WWII.

He loved bringing back exotic things to my Mimi while overseas.

After his service, they loved traveling to every continent and touring.

Such diversity.

 What finery for our tea parties!!

Thanks so much, Mimi!  We Fish Girls couldn't be more pleased.

Got Egg Nog?

Who can trim a Christmas tree without eggnog?  It's like drinking a Starbucks frappuccino without whipped cream!  It can't be done.  So what's a mom to do when she is without?  Whip out the ole family cookbook and make it from scratch just like her Mama used to do.  

I think the Fish Sticks liked it.  What do you think?

Payne Family Eggnog Recipe

Beat 2 eggs until light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in 1/4 cup sugar, a pinch of salt, and 1 T. vanilla.  Stir in 13 oz. can of chilled evaporated milk and 2/3 cup cold water.  Serve cold sprinkled with nutmeg and cinnamon.  Makes 1 quart.

Pioneer Christmas

 Each year it is our Christmas tradition to put up our real tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Due to some unusual circumstances, our tree did not get up that weekend.  Nor the next weekend.  Next thing we know, it is 2 weeks until Christmas and  you would never know it at the Fish House.  Even the mention of not getting a tree produced all kinds of mourning and wailing around here.  So on Sunday we drove out to cut one down (who wants to pay for one for just 2 weeks of enjoyment?).  Here are the girls next to the only possibility My Man could spot in our woods.

 And so he saws it down, hauls it on the truck and we head home to make it our own.  It's kind of a small step-up from Charlie Brown's.

 There was much merry making when I brought down the one box of ornaments (and NOTHING else) as I prepared them for beforehand.  Putting on of the lights would have been great had one certain Mama not put the wrong end of the plug on the TOP of the tree, going down and realizing 5 strings later that there was no plug to go in the outlet.  UGG!  (Didn't I do that 2 years ago too?)

So this Christmas will be remembered as our SIMPLE Christmas.  We have a very homemade looking tree with the majority of ornaments hung from 4 feet high and down, thanks to all my Fish Stick helpers.  We have one nativity set sitting on our kitchen bar to constantly remind us WHO this holiday is all about.  No holly, lighted garland, snow houses, ceramic snowmen, table-sitting-santas, or red and green finger towels.  I like to think of this Christmas as our pioneer Christmas.  A simple imperfect tree, covered with paper glittered ornaments and smiling photos of children from years gone by and loaded with memories, Andy Williams singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," a warm house, hot cocoa, smiling Fish Sticks, laughter and best of all a constant reminder where we eat our meals as a family of why we do what we do and we are who we are.  It is because of the ONE who came down on our behalf.

ABC Fishy

 The day after the play our school hosted a craft fair as one of their big fund raisers.  They had a booth for students to sell their wares and AB and I decided to make flower hair accessories of all kinds.  For the last month we have spent about 30 minutes after the little Fish Sticks go to bed to create.  It's been a sweet time with my little budding crafter.  We made about 45 accessories and sold $45 dollars worth.  Unfortunately I totally forgot to take a photo of her at our booth, so this was taken in our school room with our left overs.

 We named our "company" ABC Fishy for Anna Blair Cassie Fish.  

(Fishy is Caleb's nickname by all at school)

 We've got quite a leftover inventory but I figure between little girl birthday parties and 5 girls in this house, surely someone will be sporting a flower or 2 at any given moment.

A "Happy" from Jesus

 I believe that God loves us so much that He enjoys giving us "happies" every once in a while.  A "happy" is that little, unexpected gift that means so much and shows that someone cares.  My AB received a wonderful "happy" from Jesus last week. 

As I've mentioned before, she's been my caterpillar-turned-butterfly this past year.  Last Christmas, she did not try out for the Christmas play.  It wasn't that she didn't want to.  She would have loved to be in the play.  It was because she was mortified to try out.  Since turning into a butterfly, she couldn't wait to try out this year.  She made the mistake of only auditioning for one part.  It turns out that many kids wanted that part and she did not make it.  DEVASTATION! 

Six days before the Christmas play, one of the directors told her that a cast member of the play was leaving our school and they needed that spot filled....pronto.  She would have 6 days to memorize her lines and practice.  It was pure excitement around here when I received her squealing phone call from school.  This made for an unexpected busy week here, but she did it and we are so proud of her.  This "happy" was even a bigger part than the one she auditioned for.  Thanks Father!!  It was so sweet of you to do that for AB!!

She was also one of 4 girls who led the cast members in motions to a song.

She had a brief duet with one of her friends also.

And I can't leave out this 2nd butterfly who refused to sing with the church Christmas choir just a few short years ago, but shone like a star in the play with the choir, doing hand motions and singing her heart out.  We couldn't have been prouder!