Merry Christmas!!

- Merry Christmas! -

As we gather with family and friends, I hope that we won't forget the reason we even celebrate Christmas. God sent His only Son into the world so that He could save us from our sin...what love! 

I hope that you all have a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Yes...we have a white Christmas...a very white Christmas! It's so pretty :)

Merry Christmas!

- Rebekah

Fun Christmas Recipe: Reindeer Cookies

This is a really fun recipe for the holiday season! The little kids in our family especially like to make (and eat!) these cute treats.

So, if you feel like cookin' up a batch of reindeer....

 

- Reindeer Cookies -

1 Batch of “Best Peanut Butter Cookies” dough (recipe below)
60 mini Pretzel Twists
60 Semi-sweet Chocolate chips
30 Red Hot Cinnamon candies
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Best Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe:

Cream:
1 C. Butter
1 C. Peanut Butter
1 C. Sugar
1 C. Brown Sugar

Add:
2 C. Flour
½ t. Baking Soda
½ t. Salt
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Mix well. Shape into an 8” roll. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Unwrap and cut into ¼ inch slices. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Use thumb and forefinger to make a slight indentation 1/3 of the way down the sides of each slice. Press in pretzels for antlers, chocolate chips for eyes, and a red hot for the nose. Bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes or until light brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.
 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We have snow! Actually, I think that all of Iowa is under snow right now, as a few days ago the whole state was under a blizzard warning :)

When it was snowing really hard, my 5 year old sister Lydia looked out the window and exclaimed "Wow, it's a blizzard out there!" to which my littlest sister Miriam (2)  replied "Let me see...I wanna see the lizard!" Little siblings are just too cute....

I think that the Christmas season is a wonderful time of year...and I'm sure that  many of you agree. Snowflakes covering the ground in a blanket of fluffy white. Christmas songs playing over the radio. Lights twinkling on the tree. Curling up with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. Tis' the season!

The lighting of our county courthouse was a couple weeks ago, which really added some Christmas spirit to the town.  The lights were so colorful, and the trees inside were so pretty...but my camera just wouldn't capture it like I wanted it to *sigh*. Oh...to have a Nikon SLR instead of a point-and-shoot! I'll have to admit that on my last trip to Target I stood in the camera section for at least 10-15 minutes just holding and looking the Nikon cameras and dreaming of the day I would own one...

 

So between school, photo shoots, birthdays (my sister Lydia turned 5, and I'm now sweet 16!!), Bright Lights, babysitting, and getting caught up in the whirlwind of the Christmas season, I've been keeping busy the past few weeks. That is just a very, very brief description of what's been going on here, but I don't want to bore you with details.

And just kind of as a little side note for those of you who are looking for some delicious holiday recipes, check out the Taste of Home website (www.tasteofhome.com). I just found it today, and they have some really good looking treats on there (both photos are from the Taste of Home website)...

Holiday Cheesecake

Homemade Gumdrops

Ok, that is all that I have time for right now. Sorry that this post ended up being kind of random, but now you are sort of caught up on what is going on around here! I really need to work on being consistent in posting, but life just gets so busy so quickly. I've also had a hard time figuring out what to post about...so any suggestions are welcome! What do you enjoy seeing on this blog?