Winter Wonderland

Snow-  cold, wet, white, fluffy, fun, and beautiful.  These are the words that describe snow and they are the reasons why I love it.

Saturday morning, before I even opened my eyes, I hoped that when I looked out the window I would see a winter wonderland.  I opened my eyes and what did I see?  A winter wonderland.  Instead of seeing grass I saw snow, a smooth shimmering sheet of white snow.  It had fallen on the tree limbs and now weighed them down.  When the wind blew, from the movement of the trees came snow to the ground.  Looking out the window was like looking at a black and white picture.  There was no color, just the contrasts of white and black

Later in the morning, Isaac, Cody, and Seb got all bundled for sledding.  Isaac hocked a rope up to the four wheeler with a sled attached to it.  I had to get bundled also, so I could take some pictures.  It was ten times more beautiful actually being outside than just looking at it from the window.  I had to squint my eyes because it was so bright out, with the sun reflecting onto the snow.  When I stepped my feet sank 6 inches before hitting firm ground.  It was stinging cold outside with an occasional breeze.  The tips of my ears became numb and my nose, scarlet.

Snow- it makes me happy.

This is what I woke up to

P.S. A random picture of Bruno and I to finish this post off. :)

Christmas recap

Hello!  I hope you had an awesome and cheery Christmas.  Mine was wonderful and jam packed with food, family, and of course, movies...  Let us look back at what my Christmas was like, shall we?

My oldest sister, Rebekah, came home last Friday night in time to go to Isaac's first basketball game.  Then Mary and her family got here on Christmas Eve.  When Mary and her family got here we each opened an Eve gift that we always get.  It is articles of clothing that we get to wear to my Grandma's that night.  Unfortunately, my grandma got the stomach flu and had to cancel.  After we heard the news our hearts dropped a little.  My grandma's Christmas is always so fun and marks the beginning of the many Christmas gatherings, so to not have it was sad, but we were able to reschedule to last night.  That night we ended up eating Dominoe's pizza (the best by the way), drinking hard stuff (pop), and watching White Christmas.

After having a restless night's sleep I woke up at eight o'clock feeling overly giddy.  I went down stairs to see our table filled with festive decorations and a fresh bouquet of white hydrangea.  My mom had woken up at five o'clock that morning just to make us a feast of a breakfast.  After a most delicious breakfast we started opening our presents, one at a time.  We were all a little tight in our small living room, but managed to fit.  After two and half hours all of the gifts were revealed from the packaging.   The rest of the day was spent relaxing, and for me, watching I Love Lucy which I got for Christmas.

We didn't get a white Christmas, but we did get a day after Christmas white Christmas!  It made me so happy to see big snow flakes falling thickly to cover the ground.  Right when there was enough snow to amount to anything, Isaac went outside and made a snow man (I have a picture of it below).  Even to today, three days later, there is still snow on the ground and the snowman in tact except or an eye falling out... It makes me happy, not that the snowman lost his eye, but that there is still snow on the ground.

This week has been so fun, especially with having all of my family together.  It is going to be sad to see most of them leave and have to get back to school.  On the bright side, I am going on a DC trip in February.  I'm looking forward to it!  Have you ever been?  I think it should be really fun.  Our local Christian school opened up this trip to homeschoolers.  My brother, Noah, teaches at the Christian school, so he and his wife are going to be able to go also!  Other than the trip, I don't have much planed for the new year, but I do hope to take more pictures. :)

P.S. I just woke up to a truly winter wonderland outside.  We got at least three more inches of snow last night.  The trees are weighed down by snow.  Everything is white!

"O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shinning. It is the night, of our dear Savior's birth..."

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you have a wonderful day, and take time to refect on the reason for the season. If you would like to know what I will be doing today, check out this post.  And if you do not see this post until after Christmas, I hope it was wonderful. :)

"I'm dreaming of a white... Christmas"

"O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shinning.  It is the night, of our dear Savior's birth..."
"I wish you a merry Christmas.  I wish you a merry Christmas.  I wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!"

P.S.  Hopfully I will be able to post later this week with details from my Christmas, but it might not be until after the New Year.  So, if you don't hear from me until after theNew Year... Happy New Year!  My next post might be published in 2013... that is crazy!



Beeswax candles

Aren't these candles adorable?  I have fallen in love with them... yes, I have fallen in love with beeswax candles.  I love the organic and tectured look that they have.  I think they would look lovely in different height candle holders, clustered on a side table.  Don't you?  You can make them by using this tutorial!  This is totaly on the top of my list of 2013 crafts...

Thank you, Kelsie for guest posting!

christmas traditions // guest post by kelsie

traditions and christmas go together at our house like coffee and my mornings (see what I did there?;). they just go, and without them something seems wrong. tradition during the christmas season is a big deal for us.

Christmas in our family really begins weeks before Christmas. We like to say it is  pretty much just a month long holiday. Every year when we were kids the Christmas traditions would start on Christmas Eve. We would go to grandma and grandpa's house around midday. All of us cousins would usually just play around or help grandma out with last minute Christmas cookies (we take our cookies very seriously, folks.). Once evening would arrive we would go to our church's candlelight Christmas Eve service. I looked forward to this ever year for it brought singing Christmas hymns by candlelight, a story from our pastor, and usually a delicious candy cane or two.

Once the service would get over we would all get back to granny and grandpa's house where the mini houses are lit (my favorite),  the abundance of Christmas decorations happily greet you, and the delicious smell of potato soup would await us. It sounds weird to have potato soup on Christmas Eve, huh? Well that's our meal every year, and it's one of the most delicious traditions. Usually we would have to wait a good amount of time for the soup to finish cooking. So while we wait we would track Santa. Yes, we would track Santa. There is a website called the Norad Santa tracker . It sounds silly, but it was one of my favorite things to do with my cousins every year.:)

Once we would finish the delicious potato soup (we had to eat every bite in order to open presents) we would go and read out of  the book of Luke in the Bible, the real Christmas story. We usually would go around and each read a verse. We did this before we opened presents so we could get our focus on what's really important and be reminded of the real reason for the season, not presents. Of course though, once present opening time came around, it was quite fun. After we would open all the presents from each other after reading it was time to go home. On the way home every year I would get so anxious that we wouldn't make it home before midnight and that Santa would skip our house.:) But thankfully, of course he made it ever year. :)

Then we would usually anxiously greet Christmas morning with jumping on my parents bed letting them know what the day was! And the day usually follows with lots of food and time with family.

that's our Christmas.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

kelsie is the name. 

northerner gone southerner, lover of the ocean (mountains are cool too), and happy journal-er. 

writer + coffee drinker at bella ragazza. 

(also really excited for christmas!)

blog/twitter/pinterest

(thanks Jo for asking me to guest post, her blog is the best you guys, and she is pretty much awesome)
what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?

Have a Merry Christmas!

Holiday Mints Recipe

HOLIDAY MINTS       This recipe is very very old and I do not where it is from

6 oz. pkg. cream cheese (room temperature)

food coloring (the amount depending on the color you want)

1/4-1/2 tsp flavoring (I used a mint extract flavoring, but you could also do something like lemon extract if you wanted)

4 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Beat cream cheese until soft in a stand mixer.  Add coloring and flavoring.  Gradually add the powdered sugar.  It should be slightly sticky.  

Fill a pastry bag (that has a very large holed tip) with the mixture. On sheets of wax paper, gently squeeze the bag with your hand and make as big of a mint as you want.  The mixture might be a little tough to squeeze out at first, but eventually it will warm up and become easier to squeeze out.  After you have shaped all of the mints set the sheets of wax paper (with the mints on them of course) in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  When I made them I let them set in the fridge all night.   

Pour the granulated sugar in a small bowl.  When the mints are firm and come right off the wax paper, take them out of the fridge.  Remove a few mints at a time from the wax paper and drop them in the sugar.  Gently coat them with the sugar and put them in a plastic storage container.  Repeat until the mints get to soft and won't easily come of the paper.  When this happens put them (and the mints that are already coated) back in the fridge for about 20 minutes.  Repeat this process until all of the mints are coated.  (You should only have to put the mints back in the fridge a couple times.)

Store the mints in the fridge until a few minutes before serving.

Top 5 Christmas Movies

Christmas movies... Oh, how I love them. They make the Christmas season even merrier... Don't you think? We have an abundant supply of movies, but somehow we seem to be lacking Christmas movies.  Which is sad, because when everyone comes home for the holidays, we all want to gather around in our living room and watch a few LOT of Christmas movies.  I must ask, is anyone as excited for Christmas as I am?   I just get so giddy thinking about it and all that it brings.

p.s. Do you have any movies that you would like to add?  List them away!

1/2/3/4/5/

Visitors and Football

Last week my sister Mary, her husband Cody, and her two kids, Sebastian and Bruno were unexpectedly able to come up from North Carolina for a visit.  They where here for *counting with fingers* six days.  It was a nice little visit.  Sebastian was able to help us milk each night, which he loved, and he also loved when Grandpa would give him a ride on the tractor!  Bruno... he just laughed at everything, but he particular loved it when you would make unattractive and ridiculous faces at him.  While they were here we were all able to go to my brother's state football game last Saturday.  It was a long trip to the game, so to occupy ourselves, Sebastian and I watched Cars on the way there.  We arrived to the stadium, ate cold meat sandwiches that we had packed, and then slowly bundled up.  It was nice that it was 40 degrees out, so we didn't need to bundle up too much.  We took a little "hike" to find our seats and waited until the game started.   Now, I'm not very good at explaining sporting events, so I'm just going to keep it short and sweet... we won!  It was an exciting game with the scores being close the whole time.  Each side of the stands were full of energy and excitement.  People yelled, clapped, and waved pom poms in the air to show support to their team.  After the game, we went down to the field and waited for Isaac to come out of the locker room.  We stood around for a while, talking about the game and taking a family picture.  After we left, we went out to eat for a late supper.  On the drive home, Sebastian and I watched Cars again... and both fell asleep.  It was twelve o'clock by the time we got home.  We were all tired and ready for a good night's sleep... 

 The rest of the weekend was nice and relaxing.  On Monday morning we had to say goodbye to Mary, Cody, and the kids, and had to start back up with school and the usual.  On the bright side, we Christmas decorated yesterday!  Now we have twinkle lights and garlands in about every room!  And another exciting thing is that Christmas is in 19 days! Oh, I'm excited all right!

P.S. If you're curious, Isaac is  #40

Jordan (sister-in-law) and Bruno

Cody, Sebastian, and Isaac

I'm that girl

I'm that girl...

who's room is filled with blue.  My walls, my comforter, everything... is blue. Hey I like the color!
who is sarcastic 99.9% of the time.
who is not very photogenic.
who has white skin... very white skin I'm afraid.
who loves to bake anything with at least a pound of butter in it. :)
who is terribly shy around strangers.  I get awkward...
who loves cows and doesn't know why.  Seriously, they are slobbery, they tend to cough on me, and tonight one of them went to the bathroom on my foot!  (that might have been partly my fault actually...)
who likes to sing ALL THE TIME!  I can go through the whole day without shutting my mouth.   Now I just wish that I had a good voise! My favorite right now is "I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas." 
who can not play a sport to save her life.
who is short.  Here I always wanted to be 5'7, hah, not happening.
who laughs a lot
who can only do a messy bun.
who likes autumn the best.
who likes to eat snacks all day.
who is liking the weather right now.  it's 60 out...
who is missing her little nephews. 
who was a little excited when her brother's team won state football last Saturday.
who is really not liking her biology this year.  I think it has beat math for becoming my least favorite  subject. 
who has green eyes, with one of them having a big brown spot in it.
who doesn't like "The Grinch".  He has just always creeped me out for some reason.
who can't wait to send somebody this scarf.  Tonight is the LAST night to enter, so hurry up!
who just saw "Brave" last night.  It was pretty good, but not as good as I expected.
who likes old movies better than new ones.
who hopes you like this post!