Decorating Ideas for Your Christmas Tree

Each year at Christmas-time, we have such a wonderful time decorating our tree together, and we treasure the bonding and the memories we create. We place each ornament delicately on the tree and fondly reminisce about past Christmases, vacations that certain ornaments represent, and friends and family who gave us ornaments as gifts. We stand back to adore our creation, and rejoice that the wondrous season of joy is beginning. And then . . . certain children rearrange the ornaments, bunching them all up into one side, or categorically grouping them by type or color. The ornaments become barbie toys, hair accessories and projectile missiles. I grudgingly put them all back on the tree where they belong, only to have the same process repeated on a daily basis.
Now I know this is all hard evidence of my lack of parenting skills. I really should be able to control this behavior. But reading "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" regularly makes me averse to any Nazi-mom behavior around the holidays. So this year I spent $20 on a 3 foot lighted tree that the kids can do WHATEVER they want with, as long as they DO NOT touch the big tree. Here are some pictures of what they have done. Maybe you will want to recreate their decor on your own trees:

New Book Blog

I have gotten my blog on books started--Chain-Reading. Check it out!

Crockpot - Taco Chili

In the last month I've only tried three crock pot recipes--things have just been whirlwindish and I also have joined a group that exchanges dinners monthly, so I have been using those for dinners and the dinners from our family casserole exchange (only my own are left!) We've also had quite a few "eat-what-you-can-find-and-make-yourself" nights. My scanner is not working so I'll just type in the recipe that was good:

Taco Chili

1 lb. lean ground beef
2 cans (15 oz.) petite diced garlic seasoned tomatoes
1 can (15 oz.) chili beans, undrained
1 can (15. oz.) whole kernel corn, undrained
1 envelope taco seasoning

Brown beef. Drain fat. Combine everything in crock pot. Cover and cook on low 4 to 6 hours.

This was so similar to Taco Soup that we all like, only easier. Half of us liked this better, half liked Taco Soup Better. But since everyone ate it, I'll go with this easier version. We served it with tortilla chips, cheese and sour cream.

The other two recipes, Brown Sugar BBQ Chicken and Citrus-Salsa Chicken, were both the kind that you just stick the chicken in the crockpot and cover with sauce. They were okay, but I wouldn't make them again.
I was just counting how many recipes I have left to try (47!), and realized I made another recipe that we liked, and it's way easy:

Cheesy Ham and Potatoes

2 pkg. (5.5 0z. each) au gratin potato mix
2 cups diced cooked ham
1/4 cup roasted red pepper, drained and chopped (we didn't add this but it sounds good)
3 cups water
1 can condensed Cheddar cheese soup

Coat slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Place au gratin mix, ham and peppers in cooker. In large bowl, stir water and soup to combine. Pour onto potato mixture. Cover. Cook on low 7 to 8 hours.

This recipe is only as good as the potato mix you buy. We liked it, but the mix I got seemed a little salty. I grew up on packaged au gratin potato mix--I would make it as my dinner a lot growing up-but if that sounds gross to you, you probably wouldn't like the recipe.

Listening Library: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

(This may be the last book review I do on this blog--I think I'm going to set up a separate blog for all of my literary excesses. After vacation, though.)
This book was the Pulitzer Prize winner in 2004. I've tried a few other winners, but had come to the conclusion that these prestigious book awards usually indicate a pushing of the envelope in disturbing ways that I don't care to read about. But with this one, I was pleasantly surprised. It was pretty much G-rated material, uplifting and deeply thoughtful. John Ames, a preacher in 1956 Gilead, Iowa, knows he is nearing the end of his life. The novel is a letter to his almost 7-year-old son who will not know or remember much of his father. He writes of his family's history, his thoughts on life and religion, and tells of some difficult experiences he has had learning forgiveness. This is one of the few audiobooks I've listened to that I loved the voice of the narrator. This was a good one to listen to, and reading it around Thanksgiving was appropriate, because you see the things that are important to John Ames at the end of his life. I checked out the books so I could quote some of my favorite passages, but there were just too many. It's far from a plot-driven book, but I see it as one that can sit on your nightstand and be read a little bit each night.

Hair

I got my hair done on Tuesday, and it's quite a bit lighter than normal. When I got home, the kids all looked at me as if I'd sprouted broccoli for ears. When I went to Mutual, many of the fifty some people there commented on my hair. A fourteen-year-old boy asked me, "Did you dye your hair, it looks pretty." But did my husband notice in the three hour span of time before I pointed it out to him? Of course not. Should I be feel overlooked or neglected? This all made me think of the movie Sabrina. Pre-Paris Sabrina is a little nerdy looking, and when she returns, hair cut short and sophisticated, nobody recognizes her except for Harrison Ford (whatever his character's name was). He knows it is her, because presumably he sees her as having always been beautiful. (Insert romantic sigh.) So I'm just trying to give Dan the benefit of the doubt, and assume he did not notice the difference in my hair because he just saw me as the sophisticated, beautiful wife (LOL) that I always am, whatever color my hair may be. And I am hoping that I don't look too much like a freak.

Book Review: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This is a simple, direct, and short read, and yet it makes you stop every so often and ponder your own life for a few minutes before you continue on with the fable-like story. "To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation" is the central theme of the novel. It is about a young Spanish shepherd boy who sacrifices many things in order to go on a quest for hidden treasure at the pyramids of Egypt. Along they way, he learns to follow his heart and not give up his desire to discover his Personal Legend. He learns to trust in himself and the power of the love of an Egyptian girl. And of course he learns that the treasure is not what he imagined it would be.

I learned that I am only vaguely aware of what my "destiny" or Personal Legend might be. In an interview in the back of the book, the author (a Brazilian Catholic) says, "Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend." Blogging? Reading? Blogging about reading? That can hardly be considered "destiny" material can it? Many more personal questions arise as you read this book, and it's a good opportunity to reevaluate where you are in your life, and if you are headed along the right path--the path that God intends for you to be on.