Rocky Top Country Christmas CD

This CD is filled with 44 minutes of the most beautiful blue grass music I think I have ever heard. Country, Instrumental, and Holiday all come together with instrumentation from Fiddle, String Bass, Hammered Dulcimer, Dobro,  Autoharp and Mandolin. It is such a joy to listen to.

My kids and I love to listen to all different kinds of music while we are riding in our van, so when this came up for review from Family Christian, I jumped at the opportunity! I am so thankful I was chosen to do this review. As soon as it came in the mail, we popped it into our cd player and took a drive. We enjoyed this so much! We listened to the whole thing and decided to not listen to anymore until Christmas. We don't like to listen to Christmas music until the month of December. So you can imagine how anxious we are to get to listen to this wonderful cd again in about another week. We can't wait!!!

Here is the list of songs on the cd:

JOY TO THE WORLD

GOOD KING WENCESLAS

IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR

MARY'S LITTLE BOY CHILD

WHITE CHRISTMAS

WINTER WONDERLAND

JINGLE BELLS

ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH

THE WASSAIL SONG

THE FIRST NOEL

O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL

GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMEN

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

O CHRISTMAS TREE

Doesn't that sound like an awesome line up of songs to listen to the whole month of December!

If you love this kind of music, then head over to Family Christian and grab you a copy of this fabulous CD, Rocky Top Country Christmas. You won't be disappointed!

Also, Like Family Christian on Facebook.

Disclaimer: As a Family Christian blogger, I had the opportunity to review this CD in exchange for an honest review and a gift certificate.

Yummy Homemade Chili for the New Year....

 

Well, I decided to use my new Lodge Dutch oven to cook our chili in for our New Year's Eve party tonight. My sweet family got this awesome gift for me for Christmas! I love those guys so much.

 

 

I thought I would share this really good homemade chili recipe with you just in case you would like to make some of this yummy, hot, goodness on an upcoming cold night.

 

 

 

Homemade Chili Recipe



 

 

2 pounds of ground meat, I used ground vension

1/4 cup cooking oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small can of tomato sauce

1 can no salt added petite diced tomatoes

1 15 ounce can of chili beans

1 cup water

1/3 cup chili powder

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 - 1 Tablespoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 cup ketchup

 

In a large Dutch oven, saute your onions and garlic until translucent. Add your ground meat and cook until done. Add your remaining ingredients and cook on low for about an hour.

 

ENJOY!!!!!

 

 

GOD BLESS!

 

 

Day 2 - easiest peanut butter fudge ever.....

Today, my little Sadie bug wanted to help me make this peanut butter fudge. She is always the one that wants to help me cook. She has been wanting to fill the little plates on this Christmas tree stand I sat out on our table a few days ago. I have to say, we had fun making it but it didn't quite turn out like smooth, chewy fudge. It was very crumbly and brittle. I think I would change it up a little and add more milk or maybe a little cream.  I can't remember where I ran across this recipe. Anyway, here is the recipe!

EASIEST PEANUT BUTTER EVER

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add the sugar and milk to a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Let it boil for 2 1/2 minutes. Remove it from the heat and add the peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix well. Pour into a shallow dish and , your done! Let it cool and cut into squares!

Looking forward to Day 3! More cooking and hopefully decorate our Christmas tree!

God Bless!

2014 December Fun Days and Holidays....

December is here! We can't hardly wait for this time of year. Twinkling lights, baking cookies, singing and listening to Christmas hymns, wrapping gifts, drinking hot cocoa.

We love so many things about December and have so many fun things planned this month. Maybe you could join in on some of the fun.

Stay tuned because we will have lots of pictures to share, great recipes, crafts and more! We are also doing Christmas reading in our bibles. I know I am a little late posting all of this but I will post our scripture we are reading soon.

Here are the holidays and fun days for the 1st 25 days of December.....


Day 1 -  Decorate the inside of our home for Christmas.

Day 2 -  More decorating, putting up the Christmas tree and making No-Bake Fudge. Will share the recipe.

Day 3 -  Make some yummy microwave caramels. Not to fond of cooking in the microwave but my stove is out of commission right now.

Day 4 -  National Cookie Day! We will be making No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal cookies. Will share the recipe.

Day 5 -  We will be making No Bake Pecan Coconut Cookies.

Day 6 -  Make balls out of chicken wire and Christmas lights for outdoor decorations and go see a Live Nativity.

Day 7 -  Cotton Candy Day!

Day 8 -  National Brownie Day! We are going to make Nutella ones.

Day 9 -  Christmas Card Day!

Day 10 - Make some No Bake Oreo Truffles and if we have enough time, maybe some chocolate covered oreos.

Day 11 - Celebrate National Hot Cocoa Day. Its really this coming Saturday.

Day 12 - Make a Christmas Tree Hand Canvas and some fingerpaint canvases.

Day 13 - Ice Cream Day!

Day 14 - Make homemade wrapping paper.

Day 15 - National Cupcake Day!

Day 16 - National Chocolate covered anything day!

Day 17 - Make photo ornaments for the grands!

Day 18 - Make cookie baskets for our Christmas cookies and our annual Van Express Ticket Day!

Day 19 - Christmas Party with friends!

Day 20 - Bake lots of Christmas cookies!

Day 21 - Winter Soltice!

Day 22 - Deliver gifts to the local hospital to the children that are sick.

Day 23 - National Chocolate Day tomorrow! Make something yummy!

Day 24 - Christmas Eve Boxes and bake Jesus a birthday cake!

Day 25 - Celebrate Jesus' birthday and drink some homemade eggnog. Yesterday was National Eggnog Day.




As you can see, we are planning on having some fun this month. Maybe you can check back and see some of the fun things we will be doing!

God Bless!

Review: Christmas Comes To America

HOMESCHOOL LEGACY

 

 

 

Well, the month of December is just around the corner. Everyone knows what that means: Family, Food and the Christmas holiday! Our family loves Christmas. We first want to remember what Christmas is all about, the most important thing, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus! There is nothing like the joy of Christmas. During this time of the year, I like to make school fun. A month or so ago, I was contacted by Homeschool Legacy and given the opportunity to review their Once-A-Week Unit Study----Christmas Comes to America. I thought what a perfect opportunity to have tons of fun learning other Christmas traditions.

 

 

 

Once-A-Week Unit Studies are written for homeschool families, in my opinion, to make learning fun. Why Once-A-Week unit studies? There is no prep-time or work, easily incorporated into anyones schedule, very flexible and Biblically-centered, which is a big plus for our family. Once-A-Week means to do your unit study one day each week.

 

Christmas Comes to America focuses on the history of American Christmas traditions. This study shows one common thread among the cultures. Gift-Givers: Sinterklaas, Christkindl, Father Christmas, among others. These symbols represent the True Saint Nicholas.

 

I will give you an example of no prep-time or work. Each once-a-week study comes with a pick & choose read-alouds list for non-readers, optional books, videos and music list. There are books you read to go along with the study. Each week you are to read one of the books independently and one as a family read-aloud. There are four weeks in this study:

 

Week 1: The Dutch

Week 2: The English

Week 3: The Germans

Week 4: An American Christmas

 

Each week we learned the different names of the gift giver for each country. For example, the Germans have Christkindl (where we get Kris Kringle from) - Christ Child. There are so many activities in this unit study. From making and drinking hot cocoa and marshmallows to building a gingerbread house. We are having so much fun with this. I am looking forward to doing some of the activities we were unable to do. This is definitely  a unit study you don't want to miss!

 

This once-a-week study can be purchased at Homeschool Legacy for $17.95. Go get this study and have a fun Christmas Study for the month of December. They also offer other studies like the one our family used here while back entitled Lewis & Clark: From Sea to Shining Sea which we thoroughly enjoyed.

 



Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of the product in exchange for my honest opinion. All my opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.

Days 21, 22, 23 and 24

Well, as we get closer to the end of our Advent, I don't have many pictures to share. Most of our crafts were at the beginning. We are still having fun.

Day 21.......

This day we took a drive to the little town we live in and looked at all of the Christmas lights. We meet a friend with a few of her little children and enjoyed the lights together. It was a fun trip.

Day 22.......

Today we were suppose to watch "Merry Madagascar" and pop popcorn but we decided to watch something else. Still had a good family night.

Day 23.......

Tonight was our Christmas musical at our church. We had a lot of things to do all day today so I decided to make this a special day on our Advent! We really enjoyed ourselves at church singing beautiful hymns about our Lord Jesus Christ!

Day 24.....

Today on our Advent ornament is tells us to bake a birthday cake for Jesus. We will do this and enjoy it for breakfast Christmas morning. We always bake a cake for him and sing Happy Birthday!

Our last day of our Advent is today and on Christmas Day we will enjoy our family together and praise God in the process!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

God Bless!

Days 17, 18, 19 and 20.......

Well, trying to keep up and not doing to good of a job but here it goes!

Day 17.......

Make a Christmas craft. We decided to make more homemade ornaments for gifts and peppermint and gingerbread playdoh. Well, we only got the ornaments made and are planning on making the playdoh a little later. Maybe have a fun day!

We took a Christmas scrapbooking punch and used green, white and red construction paper to make these cute little Christmas trees to fill our clear ornaments.

This one is not quite finished but you get the idea! I just realized I don't have a picture of the finished one!!!

Day 18.......

This day we took our school and changed it up a little. We were suppose to learn about the North Pole, so I decided to make this fun and instead of doing our regular work, we focused on Geography, all day. We learned about the Arctic circle, the North Pole, Arctic animals and what a tundra is. We had a really good time. We even learned about real reindeer!

Day 19.......

This day we were suppose to make goodies for everyone but as you know, our plans changed! I forgot about an eye appointment for my oldest bug so, the two oldest bugs and I decided to finish our Christmas shopping after the appointment. We had a really good time! We are planning on finishing with the homemade goodies Friday!

Day 20.......

Today was a real busy day also. Thank goodness today I had something planned for the night. My three oldest bugs have all seen some of the Christmas classics that are shown on tv every year. Well, we have not had cable tv for almost two years, so, the two youngest bugs that are 3 and 5 years old either have not seen any or don't remember them. So, I decided to buy A Charlie Brown Christmas DVD and wrap it and put it under the tree for tonight.

As you can see, someone is really excited!

I am trying to keep up but it is really HARD!!!

God Bless!

Days 13, 14, 15 and 16

Day 13......

The Suburban Express!

Got our tickets and we are ready to go!!!

I found these cute little tickets here.

We had a ball! We went to town and looked at Christmas lights and instead of hot chocolate for our snack, we decided to get TCBY! Yummy! Lots of fun and memories!

Day 14.......

This was suppose to be family game night but the plans changed. I needed to finish my Christmas shopping so hubby kept all the bugs Friday night and I finished!!!!!!!

Day 15......

This day we were suppose to make a Rice Krispies Holiday Train but we had to change our plans again! We had to build a goat pen for our two new dairy goats! We spent the day together and made up for our family night and had a family day! Lots of fun. I will post pictures of our new farm animal members later.

Day 16.....

Today we had planned on singing Christmas songs together while our 2nd born bug played the piano. Instead, we decided to make our Rice Krispies Holiday Train and some Rice Krispies Christmas Trees.

For our train, I found this little kit at Hobby Lobby.

Everyone had such a good time with this!

For our trees, we used used the rice krispie recipe that is on the box of Rice Krispies and pressed it into a small plastic funnel for the Christmas tree shape. Then they decorated the trains and the trees. FUN, FUN, FUN!



I am really looking forward to tomorrow! I am the only one that knows what is in store, hehe!

God Bless!

Days 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Well, I think I am getting further and further behind with this! I really have good intentions on getting on here and blogging about this fun Advent we are doing this year but I run out of time every single day! I am really trying!

Day 8.......

Well, Day 8, we haven't done yet. I know it sounds bad but we will do it. We were suppose to make Christmas cards for the family. I still have a plan, we just need to take time to do them.

Day 9.......

We made homemade hot chocolate and put french vanilla marshmallows in it. It was yummy!

We used our cute little snowman mugs.

Day 10.......

We made pipe cleaner candy canes.

Here is one our tree. We also made some of these cute little guys for some elderly ladies in our community.

Day 11.......

Well, we are doing this day tomorrow. The plans for this day and Thursday changed. This day we were suppose to make Reese's Fudge for some elderly ladies in the community and take it to them. We are making the fudge tomorrow and taking it to them along with the pipe cleaner candy canes. I will post recipe and pictures of the fudge later.

Day 12......

Today was really the first day we didn't have some kind of craft or cooking to do with our Advent. I got the bugs a new Wii game the other day and  instead of giving it to them right away, I decided to let it be a surprise on one of their Advent days. They have really been enjoying it tonight.

As for Day 13, I think they are really going to enjoy what I have planned. Until then......

God Bless!

Day 6 and 7......

Well, as you know by now, we will be behind every day on this! I wish I wasn't a slacker, but, I am, when it comes to my blogging.

Day 6.......

 

PEPPERMINT ORNAMENTS

 

 

I got this cute idea from here. We had alot of fun making these.

 

 

First we decided what kind of shapes we wanted for the ornaments, then we put them on a foil lined cookie sheet.

 



This one is our first batch of ornaments and we forgot to leave a space some where, so we could run a ribbon through it and hang it. Our second batch looks like the one hanging on the tree.

After you have them on the cookie sheet, bake them at 250 degrees for about 10 minutes. Let them cool before attaching the ribbon. We decided to take our first batch and hot glue the ribbon to the back of the ornament and it worked fine.

Day 7.......

This day we baked Christmas cookies. The recipe we used was found on the back of a Hershey's Kisses bag. They are Hershey's Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms.

Here is the recipe off the back of the pack. This recipe makes approx. 4 dozen cookies.

Hershey's Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms

 

48 Hershey's Kisses

1/2 cup shortening(I uses coconut oil)

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon  vanilla extract

 1 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Granulated Sugar

 

Directions: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from chocolates. Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack and cool completely.

 

 

Day 7 and 8, coming soon!

Day 3 , 4, and 5.......

Well, as you can see, around this homestead I am not keeping up with this blog everyday! We are getting things done I just run out of time to post them!

Day 3.........................

CINNAMON-APPLESAUCE ORNAMENTS!

These were so much fun to make. We decided to glitter them instead of leaving them plain like this:



Here is the recipe for these yummy smelling ornaments!

I took 1 cup of cinnamon, 1/2 cup of applesauce and about 3/4 cup of Elmer's glue and mixed it all together and made a dough. We rolled it out and used Christmas cookie cutters for the shapes. We baked them for 30 minutes at 250 degrees. After they cooled, we decorated them with glitter. So much fun!

Here are some of these cute little ornaments hanging on our tree!

Day 4.................................

Well, Day 4, we had a change of plans. We were suppose to make reindeer fingerprint ornaments where you take a solid color glass ornament and dip your finger into brown paint and make a reindeer head with your finger print and press it onto the solid ornament. Well, I had a bright idea that clear ornaments would work for this, well, guess what.....NOT! We made a trial run and the finger print will not show up on clear ornaments. So, I had to go to plan B, in this house there is always a plan B!!!

This is what we did with the clear glass ornaments I bought.

Filled one with colorful sprinkles. Look how pretty! We were only able to make one, because of the amount of sprinkles it takes but our one turned out AWESOME!


Day 5.......................................

This day we had two things on our advent ornament. We were to make Root Beer Floats and watch "The Polar Express" after church. Everyone was really excited about this. In the morning, after we read the back of our advent ornament, we decided to make homemade root beer instead of using store bought. I had recently bought the root beer extract and had planned on us making some but it just got forgotten. Well, I thought this would be a great time to make some so we did.

The recipe on the back of the extract bottle said to use 1 quart of water or sparkling water, 8 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 tablespoon of root beer extract. We used club soda and it turned out delicious!



We have never seen "The Polar Express" before, so I decided to buy it , wrap it up and let them open it that night. We had a good time watching a new movie (to us) and drinking our homemade root beer floats!

I know this is Day 6 but, you know me, already behind. Except this time I have an excuse, Mommy is under the weather!

Stay tuned for Day 6 at a later date!

God Bless!

a little behind.......

Well, as you can see, we are a little behind on our Advent ornaments.

First, here are a few pictures of our Advent ornament garland.

So far, we have done Day 1 and Day 2 and worked on Day 3 today. We will finish Day 3 and Day 4 tomorrow.

Day 1 we made an Advent chain.

Macy bug is holding our chain and as you can see, there is a star at the top that reads:

One Christmas night, so long age

A star shone down so all would know

That in a manger, on that night

A Savior was born, our guiding light!

Now Christmas time is almost here

A very special time of year

When everyone anticipates

That night we can celebrate!

As you remove a link each night

Remember the star that shone so bright

And told the world of Jesus' birth

The Son of God, here on earth!!!

I found this little craft on  a website I found off of Confessions of a Homeschooler website. I , for the life of me, can not remember it right now but when I do, I promise I will share it with you.

Day 2 we made paper snowflakes. We have decided to only put our homemade ornaments on the tree this year. Here are a few we made:

As you can see in this picture, we have two proud little artists!

Day 3 we made Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments and as I type, they are drying, so I will have to do Day 3 and 4 together tomorrow!

For Day 4 we will be making reindeer ornaments.

We are having so much fun doing this and I think our tree with our homemade ornaments will be our best Christmas tree to date!!!

suppose to be my first day of Advent?!?!

Well, as you can see, what I planned for today did not happen. First, I just bought a new camera and have no idea how to use it. I did figure out enough to take a few pictures but my computer doesn't want to cooperate! I sat down tonight to get the pictures off of my SD card and was not successful. So, after church tomorrow I will be working on getting all of that fixed.

On top of not accomplishing what I wanted with our Advent ornaments, we spent most of  the day going to get two milk goats that a family so graciously gave us. I have been wanting milking goats for a little while now and when this opportunity came up, we couldn't pass it up. I am going to try to take some pictures tomorrow and hopefully will be able to post them with no problem in the next few days.

Wish me luck and maybe by this time tomorrow night, I will have everything up and running!!!!

God Bless!

It's been a while!!!!

Yes it has! I have been so busy around here that my blog took a back seat. Well, Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler has inspired me to blog every day until December 25th.




We, as a family, try to do some type of Advent calendar every year. Well this year we will be doing Advent ornaments. You can go here and see this fun project that my family will start on Saturday, December 1, 2012. We are pretty much going to follow her recommendations on each day. Some I changed that would better suit my family. This is going to be the most fun Advent we have done to this day! I am so excited.

Check back every day starting Saturday to see what we will be doing on that day and every day after that!

See you then.......