From Busyness To Quietness....

For many of us, sadly, the spirit of Christmas is "hurry". And yet, eventually, the hour comes when the rushing ends and the race against the calendar mercifully comes to a close. It is only now perhaps that we truly recognize the spirit of Christmas. It is not a matter of days or weeks, but of centuries - nearly twenty of them now since that holy night in Bethlehem. Regarded in this manner, the pre - Christmas rush may do us greater service than we realize. With all its temporal confusion, it may just help us to see that by contrast, Christmas itself is eternal.
- Burton Hills

Oh what a busy month this has been...and here...the year of 2009 is winding to a close! I can hardly believe it! Can you? I have taken loads of pictures but don't have the time or the *capacity* on my blog to fit them all.

We all had a wonderful Christmas season. Our Christmas Eve service at church was beautiful and made me cry. (I can get quite emotional at times...). We had enjoyable gatherings with family and friends and enjoyed wonderful meals! :) The pics above and directly below this are the kids all dressed up for Christmas Eve service. :) My mom found them the cutest outfits!


The littles were full of excitement on Christmas morning....we opened presents together as the five of us...then got ready for my parents and my sister and Cory to all come out so we can have brunch together at our home.


I made French Bread Casserole (a tradition a few years running in our family. I made it once...and everyone was hooked!), my mom brought Breakfast Casserole and my sister brought the juice! :) It was all very yummy and we enjoyed being with each other that day as well as opening gifts! Madelyn and Xavier got dressed but Jaxson wanted to stay in his pajamas a while...and that was fine with me. :)

The kids were blessed with many things from all our loved ones...but one of the things I loved the most were the pajamas my sister sewed/made for each of my children!

Madelyn in her new nightgown....

And the boys in their new pjs *Jaxson's is Curious George...and X's is Kermit the Frog*......

Didn't she do a wonderful job? Oh how I wish I could sew more and with confidence. I get so frustrated by it and give it too quickly. Devon (my sister) bought me a gift card for JoAnn Fabrics and we went there together and picked out some fabric and things to make some skirts for me. I will go to her house one of these days and we will work on it together. :) I look forward to it!

The kids received Playdoh for Christmas and lots of it. They had a lot of fun playing with it on Christmas day! :) We had playdoh everywhere it seemed!




Now that all the busyness and hub-bub are finally passed....I have been working at cleaning. My house is always a disaster after Christmas. I can't quite figure out what goes wrong exactly...but it's like, all of a sudden, crazy mess everywhere! ;) So today I have been busy undecorating the tree and putting things away...doing laundry and dishes and just getting everything picked up. I look forward to this evening...lighting some candles and enjoy the quietness of the evening while the kids play quietly and Chris and I read or talk....and then read with the kids and then to tuck them into their cozy beds as they drift off to sleep! :)

Unfortunately, things around the house won't clean themselves up....so the longer I sit here typing...the longer my brain keeps telling me to *go clean*! :o) So quickly, I would like to share the recipe of the delicious dish I have pictured above. I saw the recipe in the Duggar book: 20 and Counting....but I didn't read the whole thing. I just saw the ingredients and just started throwing it together! So I am not sure...theirs may be different a bit....but here's what I did:

In a 9x13 baking dish I layered 10 icecream sandwiches along the bottom. (12 come in a box...but I could only get 10 to fit in the dish.) Then I put about 8 oz of Cool Whip on top and spread it around. On top of that, I scattered crushed up Butterfinger bars. Then I put on another layer of 10 icecream sandwiches and another layer of Cool Whip. To finish it...I drizzled on caramel sauce and chocolate sauce and also scattered some more Butterfinger on top as well!

It is absolutely a treat! It is probably the complete opposite of "healthy eating" but my-oh-my it tasted fabulous! YUM!

I hope you all had a really enjoyable Christmas season! Thank you so much for stopping by ~ now off I go to continue cleaning this house that for some reason just refuses to clean itself! ;)