The Tradition of Traditions

Every family has it's quirks, peculiarities, and traditions. I wanted to take a moment and share some of my family's traditions. Now that my daughter is a year older to the big age of two, she was able to help momma make gingerbread cookies this year.

This cookie is a favorite of our little family trio. I made the dough in advance and after dinner Little Miss helped roll and cut them out! I've used this recipe for the past two years and it has been great! I am hoping next year we can decorate.

When I was a kiddo, my mom, sister and I used to buy my Nana a nutcracker every Christmas. She would proudly display them all over her living room. Good times. Good memories. Well, this year I decided that I wanted to start this tradition at my house! So I told the hubby I wanted at least one nutcracker this year for my Christmas decor. My hope is that as Little Miss gets older, she and Daddy can go out together and pick one out for Mommy each year! We'll see.

The one on the right is the one I got this year. The little bitty one was a surprise gift from my husband's grandmother after I told her about my hope of a new tradition. The one of the left is one I picked up at CVS on clearance! LOL I could help myself.

I usually host my hubby's family Christmas Eve. We eat ham and watch a movie later. My tradition is to make Fanny farmers twice baked Mac and cheese! Seriously delicious and totally not diet friendly. Here is the recipe I use.

At some point during the holiday season, we also watch our favorite Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." If you don't like this movie we can't be friends. Just kidding....we can be friends, but I'll keep my eye on you!

What are some of your favorite family traditions? Let me know in the comment section. The best traditions are simple, but significant!

Grown Up Christmas Challenge

Do you ever sometimes think that grown ups loose sight of Christmas magic and purpose? I will sheepishly and honest raise my hand and say I have at times. Buy, buy, buy. Wrap, cook, drive here and there. Drama, sarcasm, and maybe tears. Ugh. It very well might make you want to bury yourself under a mountain of blankets and sleep through it all out of avoidance.

 A lot of people get frustrated with themselves or their families. It's fairly normal depending on the extreme of it. While others have no family or few close friends to share the holiday with.  Perhaps, you lost someone you love this past year and the season just doesn't feel the same with out them. Where do you go from there? How do you handle it? I wish there was a simple answer because if there was I am sure it would have been said by now.

Here is a list, in no particular order, of things one can do, give, say or witness this Christmas season.

1. Watch a child open Christmas gifts and see the joy, wonder and love through their eyes.
2. Do something unexpected for someone else. Random Acts of Kindness are too few and far between. It doesn't have to be overly extravagant. Simple, small and significant might be a good rule of thumb.
3. Eat something delicious.
4. Invite someone over for dinner, brunch, lunch, snacks who otherwise might have been alone.
5. Give the gift of forgiveness. This gift is very much for you as well because carrying around hurt and resentments can change you. People can see it in you without so much a word. 

Love is the reason God's love to be exact. Let us not loose sight of that. Though we may have experience bitterness, heartbreak, loneliness, anger, awkwardness, and confusion. We can rest assured that love never fails. With love in our hearts there is little room for all the other "bad stuff."  It's not easy. My list of five could easily be much larger. Being an adult is not easy in so many ways, but this holiday season can be a chance to do and be something more.

Merry Christmas and God bless!

Teacher Love

I am extremely blessed at work. I love my job and generally enjoy all my students. Some classes are more difficult that others and many are unforgettable. I definitely experienced both ends of that spectrum this year.

As my Christmas break begin this afternoon, I wanted to share a quick pictures of my Christmas teacher love gifts and goodies from my students and secret Santa!

I've got enough cookies and candy to keep my sweet tooth satisfied for a while. My secret Santa got me a lovely picture frame which will display some of our new family photos beautifully. Now, where should I hang it?

I'll try to keep all the warm and fuzzy feelings in mind as I work over break on my AP class website and creating new tests for that class as well!

I want to also share with you this cute little Christmas break poem I found on the internet...so obviously I did not write it!