It Still Looks A Lot Like Christmas

No, we aren't enjoying the white stuff that our neighbors to the north are, but we are still in pj's playing with all of our Christmas goodies!

Here's how the much anticipated weekend went down...

Kathryn decided on Thursday that she wanted to sleep with her brother on Christmas Eve. You can imagine my delight especially since this was a tradition for me and my brother many moons ago!

The kiddos spent the night before Christmas Eve at Tula and Pops' which gave me time to put fresh sheets on Walker's bed and lay out Christmas pj's complete with their own supply of reindeer food.

Of course by Christmas Eve night, Kathryn had changed her mind. I told her she had "Audrey Syndrome." And tried to convince her that if I used to sleep with Uncle Brad, she could definitely sleep with Walker (just kidding Uncle Brad...you know I love you;).

Unfortunately, she could not be swayed which was probably a good thing because after three days of no naps and Christmas Eve night spent opening presents at Tula and Pops', these two were T-IRED!

A good thing too because me and a little elf named Daddy had to get Christmas on! Here's the den late Christmas Eve night...

And here we are Christmas morning! The light sabers were an immediate hit!

Matt did all of the kids Christmas shopping, which is just one of the many things I love about him. He also did all of the "arranging" of the gifts! And set up Walkers car track (in the left of the picture). He not only bought the gifts, but he put some thought into them too. For example, he bought blue and green light sabers because the kids know the red ones are for the bad guys!

And what did our sweet, loving, innocent daughter say when she saw her light saber? I wanted a red one. I want to be Darth Vader. Oh my!

Kathryn asked for a Jojo the Rabbit for Christmas, and Santa delivered! On the box, it listed this toy for 18 months and up. Don't ask me why she wanted it, let's just say that's the danger of letting your kids look through the WalMart and Target circulars.

The breakfast table...

Looking for quick and easy decorations...use candy! I just dumped all of our leftover Christmas candy into a few glasses and compotes and there you have it! I even tied the napkins up with a ribbon and some ribbon candy.

Here's the kids' table with a few Christmas visitors!

The kids knew that shortly after opening presents and eating breakfast we would be heading to Nana and Papa's house, so Kathryn was determined to bring all of her new goodies with her.

She almost succeeded!!!

Christmas Round #4 takes place tonight when Uncle Brad, Aunt Mak and Addi Girl get into town! I'll be back with more pictures, so hang tight!

P.S. As for a run down on the Christmas breakfast menu, everything was delicious! I will say the eggnog butter should be reserved only for those who really love eggnog (like me!). It actually tastes just like the real deal and was yummy on the waffles we made!

And the Candy Bar Peanut Butter cookies were YUMMY! Definitely a new favorite cookie recipe!!!

On The Menu

This will be our first Christmas morning at home since the twins were born. I thought I would make it special by cooking a nice, big breakfast to go along with all of the present unwrapping! Here’s what I’m thinking will be on the menu…

Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole

1 lb sausage
6 eggs
2 cups milk or half and half
1/2 t salt
4 slices of bread,crust removed and cubed
1 cup grated cheese

Brown and drain sausage; set aside. Beat eggs, add milk and salt. Into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish, layer bread, sausage and cheese. Pour egg mixture over bread. Refrigerate over night. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Next on the menu...pancakes or waffles (depending on the kids preference that morning)! I'm a big fan of this mix from Fresh Market.

To fancy it up a bit, I thought I would make these toppings...

Eggnog Butter

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/2 t ground nutmeg

1 t rum extract

1/2 t vanilla extract

Beat butter at high speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating well. Stir in nutmeg and extracts. Cover and chill.

Orange Syrup

1 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup orange marmalade

Combine syrup and marmalade in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until mixture comes to a simmer and marmalade melts, about 5 minutes.

For something a little sweet, I thought we could round out the morning, with Paula Deen's Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits.

Pineapple Upside Down Biscuits

1 (10 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained, juice reserved

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

10 maraschino cherries

1 (12 oz) package refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 count)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 10 cups of a muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, combine pineapple, sugar, and butter, and mix well. Divide pineapple mixture among the muffin cups. Place a cherry in the center of each muffin cup. Place one biscuit in each cup on top of pineapple mixture. Pour about 1 teaspoon of pineapple juice over each biscuit.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden. Cool for 2 minutes. Invert the pan onto a plate to release the biscuits. Serve warm.

A Jolly Happy Soul

Now it's Frosty's turn in the spotlight!

I think my kiddos would enjoy creating this Paper Plate Snowman.

via Kaboose

Love these Snowman Donuts. So cute and so easy to make!

via Sharp Moms

How cute is this Snowman Cheese Ball? You could use your favorite cheese ball recipe and then mold and shape away!

Finally, I couldn't resist! A recipe for Snowman Poop:) Sounds pretty good to me!

Now There's Dasher and Dancer and Prancer

Thought you all might enjoy these reindeer crafts and recipes!

Perfect for all of those presents you are wrapping...Reindeer Thumbprint Cards!

An ink pad, markers, a few mini pom poms and googly eyes and voila! A homemade Christmas card or bag tag!

via Disney Family Fun

Looking for an easy recipe? This one is for you! I have been making these Rudolph's Christmas Sugar Cookies for longer than I can remember.

via Southern Living

I have not tried this project yet, but I think it's adorable! This might be on our list for class gifts next year! The Candy Bar Reindeer...

via Tip Junkie via According to Kelly

And from the Busbee Family Vault...Reindeer Sandwiches!

All you need is a triangular shaped peanut butter sandwich, small pretzels, raisins and a red M&M! Cute and yummy!

And one final little "reindeer" idea....A recipe for Reindeer Food! This recipe is actually for Santa's reindeer using oatmeal and colored sugar (although glitter or sprinkles work just as well!). As the poem goes...

Be sure to take this magic food and sprinkle on the lawn,
On Christmas, Santa's reindeer travel miles before the dawn.
The smell of oats and glitter path will guide them on their way
And you'll wake up to Santa's gifts next morn on Christmas Day!

But here's a great recipe for your little reindeers.

Magic Reindeer Food

Ingredients

• 2 (24-ounce) packages vanilla candy coating
• 3 cups mini pretzels
• 1 (12-ounce) can cocktail peanuts
• 1 (14.25-ounce) package frosted toasted oat O-shaped cereal
• 1 (12-ounce) package crisp rice cereal squares
• 1 (16-ounce) package holiday candy-coated chocolate pieces
• Red and green sugars

Preparation

Place candy coating in a glass container; microwave at HIGH 2 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring once.

Combine pretzels and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl; add melted candy coating, tossing to coat. Stir in chocolate pieces.

Spread mixture onto wax paper; sprinkle with sugars. Let stand 30 minutes. Break into pieces.

Reindeer Sighted

We are right in the middle of making a batch of this...

I haven't had "homemade" Chex mix in forever. My Grandmother used to make tins of it every Christmas, so just the smell of it brings back lots of memories! The recipe is plastered all over the boxes, but you can find it here too.

And while you are buying all of that cereal, don't forget to make some Muddy Buddies too. I mean is there anything more delicious? Peanut butter, chocolate and lots of powdered sugar! I think not!

May I Suggest

these recipes from Busbee Christmases Past to put you in the Christmas baking mood...

Toffee Crackle Cookies

Santa Claus No Bake Nutter Butter Cookies

And for this year, I can't wait to try the Candy Bar Peanut Butter Cookies from the December Southern Living.This recipe reminds me of my favorite recipe for Monster Cookies given to me by Aunt Cori. It's an easy recipe, I normally have all of the ingredients on hand, it has options for the addition of some healthy ingredients, and the dough freezes very well.

Monster Cookies
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cup peanut butter
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 oz. (or more) semisweet chocolate chips
4 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/4 cup flaxseed meal (optional)
1/4 cup wheat germ (optional)

Mix all ingredients together, shape into balls, place on baking sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees.

Gittin' R Done

My Christmas wrapping that is!

Trying to squeeze it in between Frances being asleep (or at least fed and happy) and keeping these two occupied is quite tricky! To help with the older two, I pulled out an old roll of wrapping paper and their art kits, and they went to town coloring, painting and cutting the paper. It bought me a few precious minutes of wrapping time!

This clever Mommy had some great ideas for occupying kids during the holidays! I especially love her use of old Christmas cards. Goodness knows I've saved enough of them:)

On a somewhat different note, I was wondering how many of you wrap your children's Christmas gifts? Growing up, our gifts "from Santa" were never wrapped. They were all displayed in the living room, so when walked in the room they were all there for us to see. Matt suggested doing a little of both (wrapping some, not wrapping others) which is what we'll do this year, but I'm curious as to how my lovely readers (all five of you;) either do it for your children or how your parents did it for you!

Wisemen Still Seek Him

The kiddos along with the other four year olds had their Christmas program last Friday. Here's Mary and Joseph...

And Walker made his debut as a wiseman. He even had a few lines to memorize!

We were quite proud to say the least!

The cutest little caroler you ever did see...

Run Don't Walk

to get a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate at Starbucks!

I promise you'll be glad you did!

Matt and I loaded the kids up last night to drive around and look at Christmas lights. But not before a stop off at the 'Bucks. Quite honestly, I have been on a self-imposed Starbucks Ban. You might think it's because they are SO expensive, and you would be right, they are! But I honestly don't mind treating myself to that luxury every once in a while if they would just get the order right!!!

The Starbucks nearest our house was the one to cause my "ban." And in typical fashion they proved their incompetance last night. They took our order (I asked for skim milk in my hot chocolate), and when we got to the window, the young barista said,"Um, there is not milk in your drink. It's just apple cider and caramel and..." Obviously, this poor little guy was clueless. To which Matt and I somewhat simultaneously replied, "There's no milk in the hot chocolate?" And then we realized the barista was whipping up some kind the Caramel Apple Spice concoction!

The good news is that in the end, I got my salted caramel hot chocolate, and even though the hunt for Christmas lights left us a little disappointed, the hot chocolate did not!

Finally...

We got a Christmas picture! Don't think it came easy. In fact, it probably took a couple of years off this momma's life or at least gave me a grey hair or two! Just for fun, here are a few more outtakes. Oh, and if you are tired of Christmas card outtakes, just think how I feel!

Yes, you're counting right in that last picture. I am missing a child. She didn't want her picture taken because she didn't like what she was wearing. I'm not real big on what they have on. I really am more interested in all three looking at the camera and not making a crazy face. Is that too much to ask???

So, how did I come up with a decent picture. I know you really want to know my secret. Well, it's DADDY! Matt helped and believe it or not the kids actually listen and obey him! What am I chopped liver. Oh well, on with the story. Matt is much more professional about photo taking than me. I just place the kids all together and start taking pictures. He actually pulls out the tripod, sets up the camera, clears out a space for them to "set up," takes a few trial shots. Patience is a virtue. I just don't have much of it these days. Thankfully, in this department, Matt does:)

You'll just have to wait for cards to go out to see the results...I will let you know that we increased the number of people in the picture from 3 to 5. That's right, Matt and I got in on the action. Don't normally like including pictures of myself. After all, my kiddos are a whole lot cuter than me, but we just couldn't resist!

Quick and Easy Advent

Looking for a quick and easy (and CHEAP) Advent calendar to help the kiddos count down to Christmas? Well, have I got the project for you!

You'll need the following:

twine
small brown craft paper envelopes (found in/near the scrapbooking section of Hobby Lobby)
small clothes pins (also purchased at Hobby Lobby)
computer/printer

Measure craft bags and adjust paper size on computer. You may want to make a trial run to make sure the paper sizing is right. Choose a font, type the number 1, center and print. Now repeat with different fonts through number 25. How easy is that?!? Of course, I always go here for cute fonts.

I fancied number 25 up a bit with a picture of Jolly Old Saint Nick!

Simply hang the twine, and clip the bags on the twine using the small clothes pins. Finished!

Now, the down side to these bags is you can't really put a large gift in them, so you have to be creative and think of small, light weight items that will fit! A piece of candy (if you are still munching on leftover Halloween candy like we are, it works perfectly!), erasers, stickers, coins, etc. You can also slip pieces of paper in there with fun things like "a trip to the park" or "a cookie at the local bakery."

Tomorrow, we kick the season off with a couple of peppermints!

I have used the Advent bags with the kids the last two years, and they love the count down! I found someone else who loves it too...

That's Georgia the Cat. She doesn't normally get much attention on the ole' blog, so I thought I would show her off! Happy December!!

Turkey Day P.M.

Hope everyone out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We were glad to simply survive with these six littles ones running around...

And I thought trying to get a picture of my three was hard! There was no way I was going to get all of these little guys and gals to comply! Don't forget Addi and Frances were around too! We had a house full--16 adults and 8 little ones!

Here's a picture of the "big" cousins (minus William who got away before we could grab a pic!).

Aunt Mak and Uncle Brad got in on the camera action...

And the Tew family did as well (don't think we've had a picture like this in a long time!)...

Getting some love from Pops!

It was definitely a fun family and food filled day. So much so that this momma is t-ired! I'm trying to get myself in gear for a little ole' game that 's being played this afternoon. I may have to grab a nap before then! WAR EAGLE!!!

Turkey Day A.M.

Happy Turkey Day, Everyone! We got started early around the Busbee house! So early, that we were able to work the gingerbread recipe in amongst all of our other Thanksgiving day cooking/baking! I have to admit, it was a success. It's actually very similar to pumpkin bread, so the kids were very pleased.

In other news, if the Christmas card you receive from us this year is plain and simply signed "Love, The Busbees" you'll know why....

These were just two of this weeks' failed attempts to get pictures of these three little ones of mine! Kathryn and Walker were actually cooperating. Of course, I did bribe them with leftover Halloween candy and a trip to the local bakery for a turkey cookie:) I'm beginning to think I may never get a good one of all three!

A Sign of the Season

I brought the first of this season's eggnog home last night! To ring in fall, I normally bake a loaf of pumpkin bread and make a stop of at the 'Bucks for a Pumpkin Spice Latte. But for the Christmas season, it's eggnog all the way!

Unfortunately, I'm the only one in the house who drinks it, so I at least try to buy lowfat so as not to make a complete pig of myself! Surely the organic version makes it healthy for you too:)

Just to mix things up a bit, in addition to eggnog, I think I'm going to add gingerbread (the actual bread version not the cookies) into my holiday routine this year. The kids are begging for more pumpkin bread, but I think I've had my fill (you know you've baked it too many times when you know the recipe by heart!). Time for something new. I think this recipe will do the trick! I hope to try it soon, so you know I'll report back with the results (That is if there are any "results" to show you. I may just gobble it up right out of the oven).

On the Road Again

This past weekend, we made a trip to Camden to visit with Nana and Papa and Cousins Daniel and Beau. We were so glad we were able to squeeze in one more trip before all of the craziness of the holidays settle in.

As you can see from above, Nana and I dressed up Little Miss Frances for her second official photo shoot. Thankfully, she was very cooperative!

The big cousins did a lot of this...




Unfortunately, the time change blues continued at the river. The big kids were up each morning between 5:00-5:30 a.m. On Saturday, they were begging to go outside by 7:00 a.m.! We may have been a bit sleep deprived, but we had a fabulous weekend topped off by a HUGE win from our Auburn Tigers. War Eagle!