My Family's New Year's Day Tradition

We started this when my oldest was 3. It is fun to look back on previous years and see what the children said. So, what is the tradition?

We ask the children 5 questions every year. They are the same questions. That is what makes it so fun to look back on previous years' answers.

The questions that we use are:

I am lucky because:

If I had 3 wishes, they would be:

I am a little afraid of:

Favorite color:

Favorite toy:

I don't remember where I first saw this idea or got the questions, but I love doing it. One thing is that I don't remind them or give the older kids the questions in advance. It is fun to see the spontaneous answers.

What are your New Years traditions? If you don't have any, start one this year. Remember, it is never to late to start a new tradition!

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My Favorite Christmas Gift

We all love getting gifts, but some of my favorites are books. This year our family received a wonderful gift of Family Fun Cookbook: 250 Irresistible Recipes for You and Your Kids.

It is full of recipes that I know my family will love. Not only that, but the recipes are those that the children can help with. I will definitely be using this when I plan my January menu.

The chapters include:

Breakfast: Rise and Shine

Lunch Specials

After-School Snacks

Soup's On

Breads We Love (I need this!)

Dinner's Ready

Side Dishes and Salads

Can I Have Dessert?

Home For The Holidays

Family Fun Cookbook: 250 Irresistible Recipes for You and Your Kids will be a great addition to my cookbook collection.

I will be writing more later about my January goal to clean out and go through my recipes.

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Fruit of the Spirit

I have recently started reading Monica's The Homespun Heart blog. She is absolutely wonderful!

She has a preschool series going on called: Fruit of the Spirit for Preschoolers. It is daily activities to teach the fruits of the spirit to your children. She has completed 3 fruits already. I am getting started late (this week). But here is what she has covered so far:

Introduction and Love

Joy

Peace

Although this is a preschool series, I plan to do with all 3 children. This is such an important topic that I feel they can all benefit.

Thanks, Monica! Be sure to visit her regularly for new additions to her series.

Please join my family in learning the fruits of the spirit!

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Schnucks- Free Knife Sharpening and Samples

Schnucks offers FREE knife sharpening at most area locations. Just stop by the meat department for a sleeve. Return the knives in the sleeve. They will be ready for pick-up in 24 hours!

They also have FREE samples on their website. Click here to check out the recent ones.

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A New Challenge- Reading the Bible in 90 Days

Alyssa over at Keeping the Kingdom First has a new challenge for the new year. She is accepting MomsToolbox.com's challenge to read the Bible in 90 days.

Please visit her link for all the details. My husband and I have decided to try this as well with the Bible that we currently read at home. Neither of us has ever read through the whole Bible and we are very excited to do this together. I will be sure to update you as we go. I would love updates from those of you accepting the challenge, too.

I downloaded the reading schedule and have it here for you to download, as well. It has daily starting and stopping points.

What a great start to the year for all of us! So, do you take the challenge? Have you ever read through the whole Bible?

If you wish to purchase the book and participant's guide, it is minimal cost:





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St. Louis Zoo FREE Children's Zoo Admission

During Visitor Appreciation Days, visitors to the St. Louis Zoo will receive FREE admission to the Children's Zoo. This runs through December 31, 2009.

Congrats to them on their record attendance. We visited many times this year.

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FREE Coffee Friday's in January

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. We had a nice time staying in. My husband ended up working for a little, because we had some snow. But it wasn't too long. We still had most of the day together.

I found this FREE coffee promo in my inbox this morning and wanted to pass along. It will be nice on cold winter mornings! I hope you all have an Oberweis in your neighborhood.

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Free Missouri History Museum Programs

Be sure to check out Missouri History Museum's FREE programs for over Christmas Break. They are fun for the whole family!

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A New Christmas Tradition In My Home

We are going to do it this year. Although a very unpopular idea with our extended family, we have made a decision after toiling over it for 1 year. We are going to stay home on Christmas.

This means we are not going out for dinner at anyone's house or to open gifts. Even though my husband and I have been married for 13 years, we still struggle to make our own family traditions from year to year.

I can't wait to read Robin McGraw's new book, which focuses on her family traditions. I need inspiration and this looks like the book to do it.



Anyway, we will be home and not hustling out and about in the cold this Friday. Our families are not too happy with this, but we are happy to have decided together. Our children are so important to us and based on past experiences we are doing this for all of us.

Do you stay home on Christmas? If not, do you have alot of hustle, bustle?

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$5 Dinners Cookbook Giveaway

Erin has a new cookbook! In celebration of it's release, she is having a giveaway for 2 weeks. Please visit her site to enter. Good luck to you and me!

$5 Dinners Giveaway

Congrats to Erin! She has a great site. While you are there, be sure to browse around. For those of you new to visiting me, I aim to make dinner meals for $5 or less ($1 per person in my case). Her site shows you many ways to do this.

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Last Minute Stocking Stuffer

A great gift for any time of the year is a book. We love books in our home. But there are many books without good quality, so we seek out those that are good for the children to read and discuss.

Two wonderful books that we have purchased for our children are:

Gotta Have God: Fun Devotions for Boys: Ages 2-5

God and Me! : Devotions for Girls Ages 2-5

Each include daily stories, questions and activities to teach children about the Bible. Great for children of all ages!

I have received some wonderful books from my husband for Christmas already this year. They look great and I requested every last one for various reasons. The first one I have posted on before and read already. The other one needs to be read in the upcoming year. I will post after I finish reading:

Family Fragrance: Practical intentional ways to fill your home with the aroma of love (Heritage Builders (Chariot Victor))

Sandpaper People: Dealing with the Ones Who Rub You the Wrong Way

Happy reading! Are you requesting any special books for Christmas this year?

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Conclusion of my Holiday Baking

I finished my baking over the weekend. My list got condensed and modified, since we were only baking for us this year. Here are the last 3 yummy items:

Mini Kisses Chocolate Blossoms

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Snowmen Cookies

I hope you try some of the recipes that have a link included. Those without a link I hope to post the recipe soon.

Now to Christmas dinner, I forgot to set my turkey down in the refrigerator this morning. I will do that now. I pray that I have room in the refrigerator for the 20 lb turkey!

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How Did My Baking Go Yesterday?

I felt like I was in the kitchen all day with non-stop dishes. However, I only completed 3 recipes. Here they are:

Cinnamon Ripple Muffins

Chocolate Crinkles- my all-time favorite!

Peanut Butter Cookies

I will try and get some more done this afternoon. I have a brunch this morning-that is what the muffins are for!

How is your holiday baking? Please share any yummy recipes!

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Tuesday Tastes-Holiday Baking

I know that I did not get around to posting my monthly menu for December (Sorry!). I do have one that I am working with. However, I finally made my holiday baking list (my baking should be done by now!). Anyway, here is the list:

Streusel Muffins

Zucchini Bread

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

Brownies

Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Crinkles

Fudge

Banana Bread

Peanut Butter Cookies

Pretzel Wands

I plan on working on my list today and Friday. Anything that I don't finish will need to be completed Monday or Tuesday morning. After that, the kids will be home from school. They do like to help, but we will have special items to make together.

Wish me luck!

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A Busy Couple Weeks Leading Up To Christmas

I have not been posting, because we have been busy. It is such a wonderful time of year to celebrate with family and friends. Our family has been blessed with many opportunities the past couple weeks. I wanted to share them with you:

1. Christmas Caroling at a local nursing home

2. Working and shopping at our school's Santa Shop

3. A visit to see Santa at the Oakland House

4. Breakfast with Santa at my parents church

5. Christmas party with friends

6. Boar's Head Festival (our first time attending and well worth it!)

7. A play date with Momslikeme.com- we went swimming at the new Carondelet YMCA on the coldest, windiest day of the year. It was a blast!

8. Practice for our Children's play at church this week

9. Visit to the Mary Engelbriet Christmas exhibit

The best part about all of these activities is that we spent very little money and they were for the whole family. What a great holiday season we are having!

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Tuesday Tastes- Recipe and Question

Below is a delicious recipe that I received from a friend last year. The children loved and so did my husband!

Easy Wassail

2 qts apple juice or apple cider
6 cups cranberry juice
4 T brown sugar
2 T cinnamon
2 oranges sliced into 1/4 in slices
1 lemon sliced into 1/4 in slices

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat to simmer and simmer for 45 minutes. Enjoy!!

I am still seeking some traditional German recipes. Anything would be great! In addition, I have never made Chicken and Dumplings. I know there are many recipes out there, but I would love to hear about yours that are easy and delicious. Feel free to leave in the comments or put your blog link in the comments. Thanks!

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