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I hope you and your family had a Merry Christmas. We had a great Christmas. Our Christmas Eve service at church was a little different than usual. It was an object lesson on the symbols of Christmas with classic Christmas hymns sprinkled throughout. It was very interesting.

We spent the next 3 days visiting my parents who live 30 minutes south of us. My sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew round out the celebration. Thursday is filled with presents, food and video games.

Friday we spend most of the day playing board games, card games and video games. Friday night my niece and nephew sleep over with my kids. Saturday morning is filled with more video games. At about noon we head to the bowling alley.

My mom wasn’t going to bowl so that left 7 bowlers. Since my boys bowl on a homeschool bowling league and my husband and I bowl fairly regularly we decide to put the 4 of us on one lane and my dad, who hasn’t bowled in over 30 years and then it was candlepin bowling, and my niece and nephew on the lane next to us with bumbers. We bowled 2 games and had a lot of fun.

Then it was back to the house for lunch and more games. We headed home around 8pm ready for a good night’s sleep in our own beds. We will be back at my mom’s this week to ring in the new year and watch a lot of college football bowl games. I hope your Christmas was filled with family, food and fun too!

I have been blogging for 6 months now. I love to blog! Today I received my first blog award. A fellow blogger and twitter friend Mary Lutz nominated me for this award. Now what I have to do (and you will to if you are nominated) is:

• Pick 7 blogs that I love and list them here
• If I mention your blog, take the “I Love Your Blog” graphic and announce on your blog that you have received this award
• Link back here to my blog in your post, since I am the one who nominated you
• Choose 7 blogs that you love to read and pass this award on to them
• Go to those blogs and leave them a comment letting them know about the award-or somehow let them know

Here are the blogs I am giving this award to (In no particular order)
Jessica Knows
Reviews by Heidi
Resourceful Mommy
Life from my Laptop
Short Pump Preppy
From Dates to Diapers
Cool Mom Guide

Making Christmas sweets is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I love to bake and I love to try new recipes. My friends at Dinewithoutwhine.com have given us these recipes for Christmas sweets to download and make this holiday season. So click here to get your copy of these great recipes.

We are completing our countdown today with my family’s choice for number 1 Christmas book for children. The winner is…The Small One written by Alex Walsh and illustrated by Jesse Clay. This book came into our lives when my boys were very young. I first learned of it on television, Kathie Lee Gifford wrote the introduction for the printing of the book. She had been talking about it on “Regis and Kathie Lee”.

I knew I wanted this book for my children. I gave it to my boys with this inscription, “Aaron & Jordan, May this story always remind you of the importance of love in your life. Love, Mommy & Daddy Christmas 1995.” Aaron was 2 and Jordan was 4 months when I gave them this book. When we were deciding on which books to feature on this countdown, and I asked the boys for their input and teenage wisdom, both boys said “The Small One is the number 1 book for Christmas.” We read it aloud together just a few minutes ago. It is what you do with a book like this. This isn’t your typical Christmas book. You don’t even realize it is a Christmas book until the last few pages. If you are the kind of person who cries at movies, tv shows and sometimes even commercials-then you just might tear up at the end of this one. I know I’m not telling you about the plot line, I want you to read it for yourself. It is a story of a boy and his donkey; a story of love.

The Small One was also made into a Disney short film. We saw it once on television Christmas morning. In September of 2005, Disney released this film for the first time on the DVD “Walt Disney’s Classic Cartoon Favorites Volume 9-Classic Holiday Stories” This DVD also featured “Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Pluto’s Christmas Tree.”

If you can’t find the book, check out the movie-you can probably rent it from your local video store. I pray that you enjoy the story of The Small One.

Tonight at 5:00pm ET we had the drawing for Christmas Giveaway #3, the beautiful Cookie Lee necklace. The winner was Mary Lutz, you can congratulate Mary on Twitter @marylutz. I have had a great time hosting these giveaways and getting to know all of you! The giveaways will continue in the new year.

Coming up later this week I will reveal and review my number 1 pick for Christmas books for children.

My friend at CottageMagpie is hosting a Virtual Cookie Exchange. I am so excited to take part because I’m not going to any local cookies exchanges this year and I love to get new recipes. Here is my recipe for Toffee Bars. Try this recipe and then click on the link above to check out everyone else’s recipes.

Toffee Bars
1/2 cup margarine or butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1 14oz can (1 1/4 cups) sweetened condensed milk
2 TBS margarine or butter
2 tsp vanilla
6oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• In a mixing bowl beat the 1/2 cup of margarine or butter, sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until thoroughly combined.
• Stir in flour.
• Press into the bottom of an ungreased 13×9x2 inch baking pan.
• Bake in a 350 degree oven about 15 minutes or until edges are slightly brown

• In a medium saucepan heat the sweetened condensed milk and the 2TBS margarine or butter over medium heat till bubbly, stirring constantly. Continue to cook and stir for 5 minutes more (mixture will thicken and become smooth).
• Stir in the 2 tsp vanilla
• Spread over baked layer
• Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden

• Sprinkle chocolate chips over the cookie immediately after removing from the oven. Let stand 2-3 minutes or until softened.
• Spread evenly over top
• Cool, chill 5-10 minutes until chocolate is set.
• Cut into bars

Enjoy these delicious cookies.

This is the second in a series of three articles about our favorite Christmas books for children. The number three book was B is for Bethlehem. Today I am reviewing our number two book which is One Wintry Night which was written by Ruth Bell Graham and illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson.

There are only two characters in this story. Zeb Morris who is a young, mountain-smart buy and “the woman” who is the narrator and a grandmotherly figure. Zeb gets caught by a winter storm while hiking in the mountains and he comes upon the home of the woman, who takes him in. She spends days telling Zeb the real Christmas story.

The woman tells the Christmas story by starting at Creation. She calls the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the “Testing Tree”. As she shares with Zeb about the Fall she says, “From the beginning of time, we needed Christmas.” (pg 23) She weaves her story through the Old Testament visiting Noah, Moses, Samuel and Daniel along the way. When she arrives at the birth of Jesus the story is told from the viewpoint of Aaron and Anna, two children who lived in Bethlehem. Zeb doesn’t understand how a baby could save the world so the woman continues the story-fast forwarding to when Aaron and Anna are grown and observing the Passover, and they hear the news of Jesus’ arrest.

Beautifully written and illustrated, One Wintry Night, is the perfect family read-a-loud. Whether you know the Bible or not, you can’t help but be captivated by Mrs Graham’s lovely storytelling. Mr Watson’s hand painted egg tempera illustrations are breathtaking.

Christmas Giveaway #3 is for mom. This giveaway is for a beautiful 18″ adjustable Cookie Lee CZ necklace. It is new with tags and retails for $28.00. This would look beautiful around your neck this Christmas. This contest will end Monday, December 15th at 5:00pm.

To enter this giveaway:
~1 entry for commenting on this post just wishing my family a Merry Christmas. Also let me know which of the other methods you are using to enter this contest

~3 entries for twittering the following “check out giveaway 3 for mom by @MomMaven http://mommaven.blogspot.com”

~5 entries for following my blog

~5 entries for stumbling this post

~5 entries for linking to my site

~5 entries for subscribing to my RSS

Merry Christmas and Good Luck!

Congratulations to @jillnfilm! She won Christmas Giveaway #2, the scrapbook album and page kits. I will write up the page directions tomorow and get this shipped on Friday. Check back tomorrow for my last Christmas giveaway. Christmas Giveaway #3 is something just for mom.

There are two and a half weeks until Christmas. This is crunch time. The calendar is full with parties, rehearsals and activities. How to we get it all done, enjoy the holiday season and continue with our normal responsibilities as well? It isn’t easy-but it can be done. I am currently using a few different organizational tools to keep me on track. I am using Google calendar for my main calendar, I’ve even created sub-calendars for my husband and the boys (now if they would just use them). I am also using a service called Remember the Milk. It is a free online task prioritizing and reminder service.

Here are some ideas to help your holiday planning go smoothly;

1. Plan your week in advance. I try to put all my know tasks for the week into RTM (Remember the Milk) on Sunday evening. Then I have the RTM widget that displays in my G-mail so I know what I need to do when. I schedule my blog posts, special activities and planning I need to do for upcoming events. So far, it is working.
2. Have a daily focus. I tend to work well my compartmentalizing things. Monday’s focus is Girlfriends Unlimited planning, Tuesday’s focus is Works of Wonder Planning etc. Now don’t get me wrong, there will be some tasks that don’t fit the main focus but have to be accomplished on a certain day and that is fine. I have always loved checking things off my to-do list so checking the “completed” box in RTM makes me feel good.
3. Keep the kiddos schedule as close to normal as possible. Children thrive in a scheduled environment. We know rigid scheduling is impossible to live with but keeping nap time, bed time and eating times as consistent aspossible-even while traveling and visiting relatives, will cut back on tantrums and cranky children adding to the holiday stress.
4. Allow yourself to take a time out. Watch a holiday movie with the family, read a holiday themed book, soak in the tub, breathe deep and relax for an hour or so. It is amazing how much more productive you will be when you get back to work.
5. Focus on the real reason for the season. Worship together as a family. Read Luke 2.
   
6. Make memories. My kids favorite Christmas presents have always been activities we do together not toys they play with for a week and then gets lost under the bed for 6 months. A few years ago we let our passes to Disney World lapse. The boys were 11 and 13 and all they wanted for Christmas was their Disney tickets back. When I asked them why, their answer was simple, “We like having fun as a family.”

I pray you thrive this Christmas season. When that stress starts creeping in, breath deep and thank God for his Son; born in a manger, died on a cross and saved me from my sins-the true meaning of this Christmas holiday, Love.