Planning for Christmas

Season of Peace
The days are getting shorter and cooler around here and the leaves are falling. I can't believe it's time to start thinking about Christmas! Past time really. October has come and gone in a flash.

Every year I want our Christmas celebrations to be peaceful and relaxing. It somehow never seems to work out that way. We get so busy and I get stressed wondering how I'm going to afford everything on our tight budget. We have to make sure we spend time with my mom and step-dad, my dad and step-mom, my in-laws, attend all the church activities and school Christmas parties and concerts (yes, they are still called Christmas parties at our school), and somehow fit in daily living. I'm feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it.

I am slowly creeping my way towards organization in my home. I've got a long way to go, but I'm way ahead of where I started. I can't change our budget, our families, or the number of activities that the school and church plan that we MUST attend, but I can change the way I deal with it. I'm setting up a Christmas notebook. I have a household notebook which is just a 3 ring binder where I keep my grocery menus and lists, bills to be paid, school calendars, cleaning schedule and some of my favorite recipes. I would be lost without it. A Christmas notebook is very similar. You can print out pages for your Christmas notebook here.

This week my goal for planning Christmas is to really think about what parts of Christmas are the most important to our family. It's so easy (for me anyway) to get caught up in being busy and not make time for what's really meaningful. I'm going to get my husband and the kids in on it too. I want to know what Christmas foods they really love and don't want to miss, what their favorite family traditions are, and any other ideas they might have. I'm going to write it all down and put it as the very first page in my new notebook.

Church Cookies

I love cookbooks. My favorites are the ones published by church groups and ladies auxiliaries. They are so fun to just sit down and read and see how cooking has changed over the years. I usually pay less than 50 cents each for them at garage sales. One of my favorites is called "Home Cookin' is a Family Affair". It was published through a cookbook company by a Mennonite family(the Mast family). It has over 200 pages and lots of great recipes in it. One of my favorite things about this cookbook is that many of the recipes are for large families. When all 5 of mine were still at home, I really needed those. I was usually cooking not only for my family of 7, but for the extra friends that they brought home. Some Sunday dinners I would feed 10 to 12.

This recipe is for Church Cookies. The note at the end of the recipe says "The Amish used to, and I think in some places still do, make these cookies to pass during church services to keep the children quiet" It is a HUGE recipe and makes 12 dozen cookies!

5 Cups Sugar
3 Cups lard or shortening
5 eggs
2 Tbsp. baking powder
3 Cups sweet milk
3 tsp. soda
lemon or vanilla flavoring
enough flour to make a stiff dough

I use 16 cups flour and just drop them, then flatten with a damp cloth stretched over the bottom of a flat-bottomed glass. A little more flour may be needed to make them manageable to cut out, but the more flour you use,the drier they tend to be. Chilling the dough before rolling it would help.

Cream sugar and shortening, then add eggs and beat. Add baking powder. Put the soda in the milk, adding it next, along with the flavoring, then the flour. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

These cookies are delicious plain or may be decorated with colored sugar, red hots, chocolate chips, nut halves, etc. before baking.

After posting this, I'm tempted to make them again. I just don't know what I would do with 12 dozen cookies! I know I don't need to eat more than one or two and with that many laying around I might eat more than I should. We still have lots of kids around, but not quite as many hungry teenage boys.

Today's Bargains

I am so thrilled with the bargains I got today! My husband has been really needing some nice work clothes. He is so hard on his clothes and wears them out quickly. I went to a nearby thrift store and found this brand new with tags shirt and a really nice pair of Banana Republic (made in Italy) pants. He will look so handsome! I also found a pair of PJ pants for my daughter and a cute Ralph Lauren skirt for myself. Guess what I paid for all of it? $12!!!

I've made one Walgreens trip already this week, but here are today's bargains. I got 8 boxes of bandaids and used the 99 cent coupon from this week's Walgreens ad. I also bought the Crest toothpaste (priced at $1.99)with the 99 cent coupon from the Walgreens Easy Saver Catalog and a $1 maufacturers coupon. I used a $6 Register Rewards coupon from my trip earlier this week. I paid $1.91 out of pocket and received another $10 in Register Rewards! A very succesful day I would say.

What have I done?

Oh no! I've created a blog! What was I thinking? Now I have one more thing on my "to do" list...create blog post. I'm at the computer already, so I might as well.

I'm hoping this will be a fun project. I love to read blogs, but most of the "mommy blogs" that I read are by mothers of young children. I have 5 children and 2 of them are grown. My other 3 are teen and preteen. I know very few SAHMs with older children. It seems that once your children reach a "certain age" you are no longer allowed to stay home. Especially if they are (gasp!) in school.

Hopefully through this blog I can connect with other moms of school age children and we can learn together and encourage one another.