Visions of Sugarplums-day 5-Traditions

I hope you've enjoyed Visions of Sugarplums just as much as all of us have!  Today is the last day, if you haven't been able to join us this week go take a look at all of the wonderful, amazing, talented bloggers that joined in the hop.  

Lori at Choux-Choux

Mika at Mika's pantry

Lauren at The Past on a Plate

Ira at Ira's Crea Corner

Regina at Hand to Paper

Linda at My Happy Place

Cassie at Something from Cassie

Christina at I Gotta Create

Jennifer at Just Wedeminute (that's me)

We have a lot of just random traditions that we always do like go look at Christmas lights and end the night at Rhema.  We even did this when we were dating and before that with my parents so it's definitely something I hope to pass on to my kids if they still live in the area.  Rhema had more than 2 million lights last year and they add more each and every year, it's always amazing!

We always go get a pic with Santa and even thought they are growing up I'm hoping they will still want to carry on this tradition but we will see...

2010

2008

2007

2004

I don't have time to go back and find every year with Santa (I have a sick kiddo) but this is a fun tradition.

My kids favorites

I asked the kids what their favorite tradition is each Christmas season so you can get a kids perspective on traditions.

Kylan's favorite tradition is that I make Sausage souffle each year for Christmas breakfast so in honor of Kylan's favorite tradition here is my sausage souffle recipe that was passed down from my wonderful mother in law, Marilynn.  I make it the night before and it just sits in the fridge waiting for me to pop it in the oven first thing in the morning. While opening gifts we can smell this wonderful smell.

Wedemeyer Sausage Souffle


1¼ hours 15 min prep

SERVES 8

1 lb sausage, cooked and drained
6-8 slices white bread, cubed and no crust
1 cup swiss cheese, shredded
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
5 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup half-and-half
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 (3 ounce) can chopped mushrooms, drained
salt and pepper
Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
Arrange bread cubes in pan, put sausage over bread.
Mix remaining ingredients and pour over sausage.
Cover and refrigerate over night.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour or until golden brown and the center is no longer wiggly.

Kylan also said he loves our game/movie day.  We stay in our PJ's all day long and watch movies and play games while drinking hot cocoa this has come to be known as The Polar Express Party.  We will wear our pj's and watch the Polar Express. I print out tickets and they have to give me their tickets to come to the party, purchase hot chocolate, or a train cookie it's a lot of fun and we look forward to it every year also.

Polar Express train tickets in hand!

Makenzie said she loves them all but one of her favorites is decorating the cookies on Christmas Eve and the Girl's Club Christmas Tea party.  Every year Miss Lisa hosts a beautiful Christmas Tea and I always go take pictures but this year I'm sad to say I won't be able to take pictures.  I'm hosting a Boy's Club and that's the day of our Christmas party so I'm hoping another mommy with take pics of the tea party and share them with me.

2008

2009 

 Lisa really goes all out for the girls, it's fabulous!

2010

 This was just made out of spray painted tree limbs but it looked like a winter wonderland.

Both kids said they also love that we pick an angel off the angel tree and go out together and buy the gifts for their angels, one year we did the shoeboxes and the kids loved that as well.  In the spirit of giving please help others if you are able to.  Jesus was given to us a most special gift from God and we always want to keep our focus on HIM during this time of year and so our final tradition that we always do is have a special birthday cake for Jesus since it is in fact a celebration of HIS birth.

Every year it's different, it might be cupcakes it might be a cake and sometimes it's super simple but that's ok.

Thanks for reading,

 

Visions of Sugar Plums-Day Three- CookieTraditions

Hi, and welcome to the first day of "Visions of Sugarplums"!  

Join us all week long for wonderful recipes, paper crafts,

family traditions and even some giveaways!  Be sure to

follow the links below to visit my friends who are also

participating!

I know you've been enjoying all of the fun things going on with Visions of Sugarplums and today I'm going to share about our sugar cookie tradition.  Do you have a special cookie that you make each and every year by yourself or with somebody special?  I'd love to hear about it, leave me a comment or even a link to your blog so I can read about it.  

Every year our family goes to church on Christmas Eve and then we head home to bake our Sugar Cookies and decorate them, it's a tradition we've had since the kids were teeny, tiny and I look forward to it each and every year!

The recipe we use is from my step-mom Deena and everyone always ooohs and awwws over it but it's all I've ever known!

Deena's Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

5 cup flour

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

2 tsp salt

Cream shortening, sugar and butter together, add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Chill for 1 hour then roll out onto floured surface until 1/4" think. Cut out with holiday cutters

Cook at 350 degrees for ONLY 5-7 min. and NO LONGER then 7 min. Cool and decorate!

The pictures are from Christmas Eve's in the past (please ignore my messy kitchen because we were having too much fun baking).

2003

Grandma Deena with Makenzie and Devin (they were both 3 yrs old)

2004

 2004 was a rough year, my step Dad had just passed away the month before this and I think we were all still in shock but traditions help with consistency in childrens lives so we kept going!

2005

2006

2006 this was the year we learned that Makenzie's hair could actually be curly if we tried hard enough...LOL!  She had to have spiral curls for cheerleading and it was a pain in the patootie!

Look how little Kylan was in 2006 he was 5!

2007

2007 was the year that Kylan broke his little arm and was in a camo cast!

2008

 Kylan wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty and neither was Gigi.

2008 this was the year Makenzie discovered that she liked to decorate cookies, cakes, cupcakes, etc

2009

The kids have taken so many homeschool cooking classes that they can almost make the cookies and decorate them without me but I won't let that happen!

Makenzie's REALLY into decorating and cooking in 2009 check out the flour on her face!

2010

Grammy stayed the night with us and helped decorate sugar cookies, the kids are getting better and better at decorating.

I hope you enjoyed our Christmas Cookies tradition thru the years!

This week one of my BFF's Mika from Mika's Pantry is hosting Visions of Sugar Plums and with Mika it's all about the food, she's what we like to call a FOODIE so head over to her page and see what type of food satisfies her for the holidays.

Lori over at Choux Choux is all about Holiday decorating and crafting so if you would like some new ideas head over see just how creative she is!  She also offers a giveaway!

Lauren from The Past on a Plate is sharing too, you won't want to miss her post!


Linda from My Happy Place has these amazing Jeweled Coconut Drops

Thanks for reading,

 

Visions of Sugar Plums-Day 2-traditions

Hi, and welcome to the second day of "Visions of Sugarplums"!  

Join us all week long for wonderful recipes, paper crafts,

family traditions and even some giveaways!  Be sure to

follow the links below to visit my friends who are also

participating.

This is the time of year that my camera gets a workout.  It seems like I'm snapping pictures left and right trying to capture all of the special traditions that our family has but, with everything going on it's easy to forget some photos that I like to capture each and every year.  Simple as That offers an adorable Holiday photo checklist so you won't forget to capture some traditional holiday pictures each and every year.

 One fun tradition is holiday parties  Every year our homeschool co-op has a fun Christmas party.  

We also started a new tradition this year, an Ugly Sweater Christmas party.  It was a HOOT!!!  We had the best time and laughed so much that our stomachs were hurting.  Enjoy some pictures of these UGLY sweaters.

The guy in front with the santa hat on has lights on his sweater and they really worked!

This week one of my BFF's Mika from Mika's Pantry is co-hosting Visions of Sugar Plums and with Mika it's all about the food, she's what we like to call a FOODIE so head over to her page and see what you can do with cranberries for the holidays.

Lori over at Choux Choux is all about Holiday decorating and crafting so if you would like some snowflake craft ideas head over see what she made, you will be breaking out the glue, paper and scissors.  She also offers a giveaway!

Ira over at Ira's Crea Corner

Regina at Hand to Paper is making all sorts of useful boxes out of paper, you really won't believe some of them!  Head over and see if you can spot the lifesaver box...too cute!

Christina at I Gotta Create is sharing how to create simple holiday napkin rings, I just love her creativity with aluminum foil.  I can't wait to try some of these unique ideas.

Visions of Sugar Plums-Day One-Traditions

Hi, and welcome to the first day of "Visions of Sugarplums"!  

Join us all week long for wonderful recipes, paper crafts,

family traditions and even some giveaways!  Be sure to

follow the links below to visit my friends who are also

participating!

Family traditions are very important to me because I grew being shuffled from one house to the other every other holiday, you see my parents were divorced and of course had to share the time with my sister and I.  It wasn't that great but each parent tried to make the most of it.  Now, that I have my own family I just want to cherish each and every moment that I'm able to spend with my hubby and 2 kiddos.  We've made a LOT of traditions for Christmas and we make sure to do them each and every year or it wouldn't be a tradition!  I'm hoping that when my kids grow up and have children of their own they will keep the traditions alive in their own house.

Every year we get up early on the first Saturday of December and head to the movies, we meet my sister and her kids and Grammy (my mom).  We watch an animated movie then my mom takes the fab 5 which is the nickname of the 5 grand kids that live in the Tulsa area and they head off to her house to decorate gingerbread houses and to make surprise gifts for their parents (that's me).  Kevin and I always take this time to have a  date, we go out to eat and try to finish up some Christmas shopping.  

This year we saw Arthur Christmas, which is sure to be a new holiday favorite!

This year I won the Candy Cottage so my kiddos will be able to decorate it over and over for each and every holiday!  If you are looking for a great product this is well built and will last forever it taken care of.  You just wash the icing and candy off and it's ready to be used again.  Do you have a tradition of making a gingerbread house each year?  If so leave me a comment (each comment on each blog in the hop is an entry to win) Tuesday-Friday's giveaways! 

This week one of my BFF's Mika from Mika's Pantry is hosting Visions of Sugar Plums and with Mika it's all about the food, she's what we like to call a FOODIE so head over to her page and see what type of food satisfies her for the holidays.

Lori over at Choux Choux is all about Holiday decorating and crafting so if you would like some new ideas head over see what she made with a tin and some books.  She also offers a giveaway!

Lauren from The Past on a Plate is sharing a delectable recipe for some Chocolate Kriss Kringle Cookies that you won't want to miss.

Thanks for reading,

 

P.S.  Tomorrow's post will be about some of the fun traditional parties we attend each year and about taking pictures throughout the holidays.