3 hours ago
Attitudes matter.
I keep starting and re-starting this post, because I'm not exactly sure how to say what I want to say here. I've written before about the problem with venting and about being careful not to spout off careless words. But this week I was reminded again of how much I stink at controlling my tongue. And my attitudes - because the venting, careless words ultimately come from my poor attitudes.
What I hadn't thought about before was how much my bad attitudes can wear off onto those around me. And it's becoming painfully obvious as I think over the last few weeks.
This has mostly taken the form of me over-explaining my woes to those I love, to the point where they start to get irritated for me. Although sweet in a way, it's not good that I'm recruiting others in my life to carry my self-imposed burdens.
Most of the things I'm frustrated about or disappointed with are indeed frustrating or disappointing things. But does that mean I have to display my frustration for all to see and to pour my burden onto someone else to the point where they start to adopt my attitudes about the whole situation?
Something happened this past week that made it all the more obvious to me that my bad attitudes don't just affect me. They affect those around me, especially those within my own household.
The truth is, complaining about certain situations can make it more difficult for those close to you to remain at peace with the circumstances. In my case, though they try to encourage me, I just won't be encouraged, and my complaining eventually changes their attitudes as well.
It's a power I never consciously realized I had - to affect the attitudes of those in my family in a negative way through my own attitudes. I haven't been handling that power responsibly.
It's a fine line to walk - the difference between bearing one another's burdens in marriage and unnecessarily burdening one another with our complaints. We really aren't supposed to be complaining anyway (Philippians 2:14). Even to our spouses.
I think it would be much better to discuss situations with my spouse, take it to the Lord together in prayer, then let it go.
It's the letting go part that is hard. Instead I continue to sit there even after supposedly handing it over to the Lord - griping about things I can't change. That's not helping anyone - not me, not my family. I need to give it to Him and then stop complaining. Just stop.
Goodness knows the psalmists did quite a bit of venting to God when they were scared or frustrated or lost. But one thing I noticed as I was reading through some of the "complaining" psalms - once they poured out their hearts to God, they remembered God's power. They remembered His faithfulness. They let Him be the one to bear their burdens.
He needs to be the One I go to first - I need to give Him my burdens from the start instead of letting the default be dumping things on my family (and then maybe remembering to pray about it).
If I'm feeling irritated or overwhelmed about something, a little private "venting" time to God would be okay I think.
Because I can't change God's attitude, but He can change mine. And that's what I need help with in the first place.
When we were getting ready for Christmas, I really wanted to have some sort of popcorn treat for Christmas morning. An idea had been floating around in my head for a while, and I decided to give it a try. I basically took a couple different jello popcorn recipes, smooshed them together, changed and added a couple ingredients, and this is what I came up with! White chocolate caramel corn.
I have a disclaimer - this popcorn is less white chocolate and more caramel. Even though I used white chocolate pudding mix, I felt like we couldn't taste the white chocolate much - it ended up tasting more caramel-y to me. If you are looking for something more chocolate-y, see the variation at the end of this recipe!
White Chocolate Caramel Corn
8 cups popped popcorn, plain
3 tbsp. light corn syrup
1/2 stick margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
3.3 oz. package white chocolate pudding mix
Nutmeg (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit). Line a baking pan with tin foil and grease with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Put margarine and corn syrup in saucepan over medium heat.
3. Once butter has melted, stir in brown sugar and pudding mix. Continue to heat, stirring constantly.
4. Once mixture has reached soft ball stage (if you put a little of the mixture into cold water you will be able to form a soft ball with your fingers - you can also tell when it's getting close to this point when the boiling mixute looks like it is pulling away from the sides of the pan), remove from heat and pour over popcorn. Mix well.
5. Spread popcorn into prepared baking pan.
6. Bake popcorn at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and stir popcorn. If desired, sprinkle nutmeg into popcorn. Let cool and break apart if necessary. Serve immediately or store in plastic bag.
Variation: If you want this to be more white-chocolate-y, I think one way to accomplish that would be to let the popcorn cool, then melt some white chocolate chips and mix them in with the popcorn, lightly coating it with chocolate! I haven't tried it personally (yet), but I think it would be a pretty yummy addition!
Enjoy!
For Gwen's party I decided last minute that I wanted to make some punch. When I say last minute, I mean the morning of the party.
I went on a hunt for a good, simple punch recipe, but I didn't like any of the ones I found. Most of them were too complicated (like requiring freezing some of the ingredients beforehand, which I didn't have time for), or they wouldn't go well in my drink dispenser because of sherbet or ice cream that had to be added to it, or the ingredients would just be expensive. I wanted something fairly inexpensive, something that I could prepare in five minutes, and something that wouldn't clog my drink dispenser.
So I invented my own recipe!
I wasn't sure if it was going to be good or not, but it actually turned out pretty well - several people at the party told me they liked it! So I thought I'd post my recipe here.
Easy Birthday Punch
1 can of pineapple juice concentrate
1 packet of strawberry-flavored Kool-aid
2 liter bottle of ginger ale
1. Prepare pineapple juice according to directions.
2. Mix kook-aid in with the pineapple juice.
3. Add the ginger ale to the juice mixture. Serve cold.
That's it! The good thing about this punch is that if you have to add ice to it, it's just strong enough that it will still taste good even after the ice waters it down a bit.
When I added the ginger ale it fizzed up really nicely and made it look more party-like, but my ingredients weren't cold. I had to add the ice, which also took down the fizz a bit. If you want it too look more foamy, just start with cold ingredients and mix it right before serving!
Last weekend was Gwen's first birthday party! As I've mentioned previously, I went back and forth on themes for a while. Having a birthday right after Christmas makes it a little tricky to me - I wanted it to be wintery and fit in with the season, but without being Christmas-y.
I finally settled on a "These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things" theme!
For those of you who are not familiar with the song, it's from The Sound Of Music, and you can read the lyrics here.
For those of you who are not familiar with the song, it's from The Sound Of Music, and you can read the lyrics here.
I tried to incorporate as many of the things from the song into her party as I could! We had:
-Brown paper packages tied up with string.
-Whiskers On Kittens, Bright Copper Kettles, and Warm Woolen Mittens candles, from Yankee Candle (which I already happened to have).
-Snowflakes "that stay on my nose and eyelashes" (actually they just hung from our chandelier and her birthday banner). I made the mosaic snowflakes with Wyatt several weeks ago.
-Sleigh bells, which I strung along with the balloons and spread onto the table for decorations.
-Schnitzel with noodles (otherwise known around here as Chicken Noodle Soup - I was just trying to think of something with noodles in it).
-Crisp Apple Strudel muffins (which I thought were going to be a disaster when the first batch flopped - thank goodness for the mason jars to make them look pretty! I just baked them straight in the jars).
-The weather even played along and we had a "silver white winter" that will eventually melt into spring!
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Overall it was a really fun and easy theme to do, and I'm really happy with the way everything turned out!
If you have any questions about any specific elements, let me know. Aside from Gwen's birthday banner, I made the rest of the decorations, invitations, etc.
We had a really nice time, and Gwen especially enjoyed her birthday cupcake! It was nice to be able to celebrate our sweet girl with our closest family and friends!
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Punch recipe here.
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Punch recipe here.
To see cake and present pictures, head on over to my photo blog.
(If you aren't a follower of my private photo blog you'll have to request an invitation here first.)
For our ugly sweater/gender reveal party, Derek and I painstakingly came up with a bunch of different Christmas trivia questions and tasks. I tell you, it took us forever! We wanted to include questions that had to do with the nativity story, Christmas songs, and Christmas movies, and then we had to figure out good "easy", "medium", and "hard" questions.
It's tricky trying to come up with questions of varying difficulty that aren't too easy or too hard! Personally, I think our easy questions were too easy, but a lot of the difficult questions I wanted to include would have been too hard, so I'm probably not the best judge. It's a good thing I had Derek there to help me, because I was surprised at how many people had a hard time with questions that I thought were fairly easy! I'm glad Derek was there to rein me in.
We also had such a wide range of guests, in age and Christmas knowledge. I knew some people would probably know the answers to every question, and some might not know the answers to any! So this list ranges a lot in difficulty, but that's because it was tailored specifically to our guest list. If you are trying to come up with Christmas trivia for one of your parties, you'll probably have to tailor the questions to what kind of people will be at your party!
In the end I think we could have made every category one step harder. Many people picked from the "medium" or "hard" categories, so the "easy" category was rather neglected - if we upped the difficulty of each category a little I think each one would have had more equal use. But I'm glad we played it safe to start with, because I wanted people to have fun!
I'm posting them here just to give you ideas and inspiration for coming up with your own questions! These are the ones we came up with, starting with the easy ones and moving down to the harder ones. We kept all of the nativity story questions pretty easy because I didn't want those to be too hard to answer, regardless of category.
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Finish this song lyric: “Away in a manger, no _________.”
Answer: Crib for a bed.
Say the next line to this carol: “Joy to the world . . .”
Answer: The Lord has come.
Fill in the blanks to this song:“__________ night, ______ night, all is _________, all is ___________.”
Answer: "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright".
Say the next line to this carol: “Hark the harold angels sing . . .”
Answer: Glory to the newborn king.
Name your favorite Christmas song.
Answer: Any answer will do.
(We just decided to throw a couple "gimme" questions in there to encourage people to play!)
What was the name of Jesus’s mom?
Answer: Mary.
What was the name of Jesus’s (earthly) dad?
Answer: Joseph.
The wise men followed a _________ to baby Jesus.
Answer: Star.
Finish this movie title: “Miracle On ________ Street”.
Answer: Miracle On 34th Street.
What Christmas movie is this quote from? “From now on we won’t let Rudolph join in any reindeer games.”
Answer: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Finish this Christmas movie title: “It’s A ___________ Life”.
Answer: It's a Wonderful Life.
What was the main character’s name in Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”?
Answer: Ebenezer Scrooge.
What color is the Grinch?
Answer: Green.
Draw a Christmas tree.
Give me your best Grinch face.
Say the next line to this carol: “The first Noel . . .”
Answer: The angels did say.
Which Christmas song is this line from? “Until the other kiddies knock him down.”
Answer: "Walking In A Winter Wonderland".
(You'd be surprised at how many people had to think about this one! I guess it's easy for me since I came up with the question.)
Name a popular Christmas orchestra.
Answer: Mannhein Steamroller or Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Say the next line to this song: “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas . . .”
Answer: Only a hippopotamus will do.
What are the three gifts the wise men brought to baby Jesus?
Answer: Gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Finish the sentence: “There was no room for Mary and Joseph in the _____.”
Answer: Inn.
Finish this sentence: "They laid baby Jesus in a ________.”
Answer: Manger.
In the movie “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”, Rudolph and Hermie run from the _____________.” (Hint: Large, white, monster-ish creature).
Answer: The Abominable Snowman.
In what Christmas movie is there a pink bunny suit?
Answer: A Christmas Story.
Go out the downstairs door, grab a handful of snow, bring it back, and put it in the sink.
Using the paper and scissors, cut out a snowflake.
Give me your best Frosty The Snowman impression.
Which Christmas song is this line from: “You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel.”
Answer: "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch".
Do your best impression of a Christmas tree in the wind.
Do your best impression of an ornament falling off a tree.
What Christmas movie is this line from: “Don’t you touch that! You were always jealous of that lamp!”
Answer: A Christmas Story.
Stand in front of the fireplace and sing the first line of any Christmas song.
Which Christmas carol does this line come from? “All seem to say, throw cares away.”
Answer: "Carol Of The Bells".
(This is the one question that I am unsure if I would have known the answer if I hadn't written it myself.)
Attempt to sing the next line to this carol: “Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad Feliz Navidad . . .”
Answer: Prospero ano y felicidad.
(Our guests mostly do not speak Spanish, so they just had to attempt to sing it!)
What Christmas song is this line from:“Mom says a hippo would eat me up, but then, Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian.”
Answer: "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas".
What is a Christmas tree called in German? (Hint: “O ________”)
Answer: Tannenbaum.
Finish this sentence: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and . . .”
Answer: Goodwill to men.
Who were the first people to see baby Jesus (besides Mary and Joseph)?
Answer: The shephards.
Who did Mary go to visit while she was pregnant?
Answer: Elizabeth, her cousin.
Which Christmas movie is this line from? “The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear.”
Answer: Elf.
Which movie is this quote from? “Look Daddy! Teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings!”
Answer: It's A Wonderful Life.
What is the little girl’s name in the Christmas cartoon “How the Grinch Stole Christmas?”
Answer: Cindy Lou Who.
Neil, who always wears ugly sweaters, is a character in what Christmas movie?
Answer: The Santa Clause.
Put the red construction paper on your nose, stand in front of the fireplace, say in a loud voice “She thinks I’m Cuuuuuuuute!”
and leap at least once.
(Derek and I were absolutely cracking up when we wrote this one! If you haven't seen "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer", the old clay-nation version, you might not get it, but we thought it was hilarious!)
Step into the snow barefoot, and stay there for 3 seconds.
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(These are the snowflakes and Christmas drawings that some of our guests completed when they drew the slips of paper with those tasks. We decided to hang them up and display them, right under our ultrasound pictures since it was a combination Christmas/gender reveal party!)
So that's what we came up with. Brownie points for you if you think you could have answered them all! I think I could have gotten almost all of them if I hadn't known the answers beforehand, but everyone in my family are Christmas aficionados. And I totally would have done all the tasks (except the singing one might have been a little intimidating, but that was the point).
What do you think - were the questions super-easy to you, or difficult? Comment below! I need this information in case I ever need to come up with more Christmas trivia again!
Since finding out the baby's gender fell right at Christmas season this time around, we decided to do an Ugly Sweater/Gender Reveal party!
We asked everyone to wear an ugly or crazy Christmas sweater, and also to bring a wrapped ornament as part of a gift exchange/gender reveal.
For food we did Christmas cookies (including Snowdrop cookies - you can find the recipe here), Christmas punch, jello popcorn, and other snack foods. I wanted to keep it easy for myself this time, so sticking with snacks helped since I didn't have to get a whole meal ready.
When the guests arrived we had them decorate either a red sweater or green sweater name tag according to whether they thought the baby was a boy or girl. I had little sticky pins so that they could pin the tags to their sweaters!
Instead of doing individual gender reveal party games this time, Derek came up with a great idea that kind of made the whole party a game!
When guests arrived we confiscated their wrapped ornaments in a black bag so that no one would know who brought what. Then we had each person take a cup of Hershey's kisses (we did candy cane kisses, mint truffle kisses, and cherry cordial kisses, just because they were so Christmas-y). Each cup had seven Hershey's kisses each.
We explained that we were going to hold an ornament auction with all the wrapped ornaments everyone brought, except there would be one extra package that would contain the answer to the gender of our baby! They would use the kisses to bid on the package they wanted. One person would be allowed to win two packages (since there would be one extra).
Derek and I came up with a variety of different Christmas-related trivia and tasks. I printed them up on Christmas-y paper, and we divided them into three categories based on difficulty.
We also threw in a couple questions that had to do with Baby #3 - easy ones, like "Tell us what you think Baby #3 is and why," and "Look at the ultrasound pictures and tell us who you think Baby #3 looks like." It was a gender reveal party after all! It was fun to hear what everyone thought.
If the guests wanted to they could "gamble" some of their kisses to try to win more for the auction. Easy questions were worth one kiss, medium questions were worth two, and hard were worth three. If they got the question right or completed the task, they would win the appropriate number of kisses! If they got it wrong or didn't complete the task, they had to give up that number of kisses.
I wasn't sure how many people would want to gamble their Hershey's kisses, but we ended up having to form a line because so many people wanted a chance to win more! Either Derek or I manned the table, and we were there the entire time. Finally we had to cut it off because everyone just kept coming! I was glad there were two of us to tag-team it, because then at least one of us could be socializing and enjoying the party as well.
We also had a voting station for people to got for their favorite ugly sweater - one guy sweater vote, and one girl sweater vote. I printed the ballots up on fun Christmas paper. At the end we had a prize for each of the winners - "ugly sweater" s'mores snowman ornaments!
Finally it was time for the auction! We set out all the ornament packages and let people take a look at them so they knew which ones they wanted to bid on.
Then Derek played auctioneer (he actually has really good auctioneer skills) and we auctioned each ornament off one by one! I was surprised at how many kisses some people had gathered. The "winning" package that we snuck in, a red box with a red ribbon, went for 19 kisses, I think.
Once all the packages were gone, we had everyone open them at once! My cousin unknowingly won the gender reveal package. Inside, I had another ugly sweater ornament, but I wrapped it up in a baby sweater that announced the gender . . .
And it's a BOY!
We had a lot of fun with it! It was different than our other gender reveal parties, but I thought it was unique to make the whole party a game! Kuddos to my hubby, he always has such great ideas!
I'll post some of the trivia we used and more pictures of the party soon, so stay tuned!
P.S. In case you are curious, the results of my boy/girl blog poll were:
Girl - 67%
Boy - 33%
I was surprised at how many of you thought it was a girl! Definitely a significant majority (which I guess is good for those of you who voted boy - ups your chances of winning!).
I used a spreadsheet and Random.org to choose a winner and it was Rachel M! Who I actually know in real life too, so that's kind of fun. Rachel, I'll get your Starbucks card in the mail this week!
P.S. In case you are curious, the results of my boy/girl blog poll were:
Girl - 67%
Boy - 33%
I was surprised at how many of you thought it was a girl! Definitely a significant majority (which I guess is good for those of you who voted boy - ups your chances of winning!).
I used a spreadsheet and Random.org to choose a winner and it was Rachel M! Who I actually know in real life too, so that's kind of fun. Rachel, I'll get your Starbucks card in the mail this week!
Here is a peek at our gender reveal party invitations! We decided to combine it with an ugly sweater party this year since we get to find out at Christmastime - it should be a lot of fun!
To make the invitations:
1. I used some blank cards - brown paper served my purposes.
2. I took a basic t-shirt shape, traced it onto some scrapbook paper, and cut all the little "sweaters" out.
3. Then I got a big, thick needle and some colorful string and stitched around each sweater.
4. I used mode podge to glue each sweater to the paper, and I swept a layer of mode podge over the whole front of the card to seal it.
5. I designed the inside text using photoshop, then I had it printed on some semi-transparent paper.
6. I punched some holes in the cards tied the whole thing together with some red and white baker's twine!
I think they turned out pretty cute, and I'm really looking forward to our ugly sweater/gender reveal party! Full party recap (and gender announcement!) coming next week!
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