Show Us Your Life ~ Christmas Traditions

We love Christmas time. Not because of the busyness of the season and the buying of presents, but because of the celebration of the birth of our Savior! If there is one "tradition" that I want our girls to remember when they get older it is that they truly understand that this season is really about rejoicing that God made a way for us to be with Him forever! I really don't think that there is anything wrong with decorating and buying presents, but if we don't understand WHY we are doing those things then why do them?

I'll admit that I have gotten caught up in all of the hulabaloo of the crazyness that is buying the perfect toy and making sure the girls have exactly 10 presents apiece to open, but that is so not what it is about. It is really about celebrating the fact that a little over 2000 years ago God took on human flesh and came into this world as a baby to give us a way for salvation!

We usually put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving.

For our Christmas we usually go to my Dad's on Christmas Eve and Brian's mom (Nana) usually has something on either day at her house.

Her house is so pretty decorated for Christmas!

Christmas morning we wake up and open presents and then head to Brian's dad's store where he always cooks a big Christmas breakfast.

Last year Anna drew Poppy a picture with apples for him to hang in his store!

We get a Honey Baked ham to eat on Christmas Day and then I fix a simple meal to go along with it. I usually fix tins full of different candy's to give to our family when we have our get togethers. These are the candies that I fix:

*Peanut Butter Fudge
*Chocolate Fudge
*Puppy Chow (Rice Chex mix with melted choc & PB tossed in powdered sugar!)
*Chocolate Covered PB&Crackers
*Chocolate Covered Pretzels
*Chocolate & PB Buckeyes
*Cookies

I didn't get pics of the candy last year, but here is one of the cheese balls that we love to eat every year. We love snacky type foods that we can just munch on for a few days!

We love this dip/cheese ball! It has three simple ingredients and it is so yummy! You can add different sauces if you want, but it is just as delish with just this:

Cream Cheese

Ham

Green Onions

How much you need is according to how much you want to make! Usually you can use just 2 blocks of cream cheese, but I wanted to make a larger portion this time so I used 3.

Finely chop the ham & the green onions and add it to the softened cream cheese.

You can either eat it right out of the bowl or form it into a ball and roll it in some crushed nuts. Then serve with your favorite crackers!

We hope you have a truly Blessed Christmas!

Cumberland Falls

A few weeks ago we took a drive down to the Cumberland Falls. The fall leaves were at their peak color and the drive down was absolutely gorgeous! Here are some pictures from our day!

This leaf was stuck on my window before we pulled out of the driveway.

The edge of Lake Linville from the interstate.

Anna at the overlook.

Ahhh....the falls! This is one of our favorite state parks. You can see why!

Down from the falls there are these huge rocks. This picture does not do them justice.

Another view.

Anna and Daddy

This was up on the other end of the Cumberland River before the falls.

The water here is just so calm and peaceful.

John 4:13-14
"Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

White Hall State Historic Site

This summer we went to White Hall, home of Cassius Clay!

His father, General Green Clay owned most of the land in Madison County and some surrounding counties at the turn of the 19th century.

They are almost constantly doing renovations on the house.
Heading to the house for our tour to begin.

A really old tree that they are trying to preserve.


We were not allowed to take any photos inside the house :( It is very beautiful inside with so much history and a lot of original pieces owned by Mr. Clay and his family.

That is the chicken house on the other side of this cooking site :)

(Click to enlarge)



Ice House

Back view of the house.

Side view with the sun porch beside the Rose Garden.

Rose Garden

Traveler's Rest ~ Isaac Shelby's Home

We had surprise field trip back in the summer! Brian would only tell us that we were going southwest. We ended up at Traveler's Rest near Danville. It is where Isaac Shelby (1st and 5th Governor of Ky) lived and raised his family. He, his wife and several of their children are buried here.

The road leading into the property was so beautiful.

Nana and the girls getting our picnic ready.

You can click on these to enlarge them.

This is Isaac Shelby's grave and beside him is his wife, Suzanna's grave.

His original house was destroyed by fire in 1905.

This was a private residence across the field on the adjoining property.