Have you ever been wrapping Christmas gifts at 12 midnight; and came to the realization that you had forgotten the batteries for all those wonderful "battery not included" toys that are now so neatly wrapped under the tree? Or ready to snap a pic or record a video only to see that annoying message saying "memory full"?

A while back I shared with you my finished Christmas tree. You can see that here if you missed it.

Now I'm back to give you a tour of our holiday home. I did two DIY wreaths this year that I'm very pleased with and look forward to doing again.

I kept it minimal this year, since we weren't expecting any guests. The major focus was on the tree.

Without further ado, here's our home.....




Here's another view of the tree

I love how this wreath turned out and I'm very happy I decided to do it.

Love the simplicity of this wreath and that it and it's counterpart aren't permanent so I can change them up each year.



Overview

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to share our family Christmas card with you all. I created it myself online using Shutterfly which is an online do it yourself photo creation site. I've been using this site for a few years now and I love it!

The quality and variety of the products and the ease of the site keep me coming back. Not to mention you can enter and keep all of the addresses of your family and friends into an address book and you can select which addresses to send and Shutterfly will send them out for you. I love that they have mobile and iPad apps and they are beautifully interfaced.


If you are in the market for something like this I strongly suggest you check them out.

My church's young adult group recently filmed a web series called Sinner's Anonymous. In it you find common issues that face not just young Christians but all Christians. It premires on Dec. 14th @ 7 p.m. If you are in the Northern VA, DC, MD area it will be screened live at Living Epistle COGIC same date and time. I hope you check it out and if you do, look for me in a cameo :)

Do you ever run out of ideas for getting rid of that thanksgiving turkey? Well today I'm going to give you one of my favorite go to recipes...

Fried Turkey Soup

I'm calling it fried turkey because that's what we had this year. But in previous years it's just been a regular cooked in the oven/roaster turkey. So the recipe is still the same. I managed to remember to snap a few pics of each step this time. Getting better.....


For starters you will need the following ingredients:

Leftover turkey meat shredded
Turkey legs, wings, and backbone
1 onion, chopped
4 large carrots, coined
2 cartons of turkey stock, substitute with water if you don't have
1 bag noodles of your choosing (I used egg noodles. If you use the egg noodles like me and you love lots of noodles in your soup, I suggest you get 2 bags.)
1 large stock pot or crockpot


1. Place your turkey stock or water in a large crockpot or stockpot along with the turkey legs, wings, and backbone. Bring to a boil and season to taste if necessary.

 2. Once you are satisfied with the taste of your base, then add in the carrots, onions, and the shredded turkey meat and allow to simmer for about 2 hours. If you have a crockpot it will be around for hours.



3. To thicken the soup mix about 1/4c of cornstarch or flour in a bowl with some of the broth of the soup until all lumps are gone. then add to the soup.

4. Based on the cooking times of the noodles you get, add them right when you are about to serve the soup to prevent overcooking.









I always make more than my family needs so I end up sharing every year. This year I took what we didn't need to church and they LOVED IT!

Try it out and let me know what you think.

This year I wanted to do something different from my traditional red, gold, and green tree. I fell in love with one of the White House trees from last year, seen here, and have been wanting to recreate it. I began to look around online to see what else I can use for inspiration and came across this, this and this on Pinterest. After some more browsing around, a quick trip to the store for colorful ornaments, and a sketched mockup; I was ready to decorate our tree.

I started at the bottom with the colored bulbs I had the most of and then just went up the tree
changing the colors as I went.

I wanted to do a ribbon around the tree but I didn't have enough on hand and was not up for another trip to the store. Maybe next year.....


I love how it came out! Don't you?