I am finding it hard to believe that four days later I am still trying to recover from this

All while helping the new pup adjust to the madness.

Wishing I had ate one less of these

Just now after trying to zip up my jeans that somehow feel like they have been painted on.

Oh, but the smiles make it all worth it!


I will be back in full swing next week. Hopefully by then we will have recovered and un twist tied a million little toys!


Happy New Year!

"She shall bring forth a son,

and thou shall

call His name Jesus;

for He shall save

His people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:21

I pray you’ll discover

many beautiful new reasons

to praise God during

this holy season.

Blessings - Kate

Every year my family is in charge of baking Jesus’ birthday cake for Christmas Eve.



Some years I have made cupcakes. But mostly we make one cake for all.


And though I have yet to bake mine just yet this year, I wanted to share with you the story behind Jesus’ birthday cake and the great devotional it will provide your children and family.


Sorry  I don’t have any pictures to post from last year. As luck would have it I haven’t a clue where I put them.

A Birthday Cake for Jesus

Supplies Needed:


• 1 or 2 layer chocolate cake
• white frosting
• angel figurine or sugar cookie
• 12 red candles
• star
• plastic evergreens




1. Begin by talking about birthdays, what they mean and why we celebrate them.


2. Tell the story of Jesus’ birth either in your own words or with a story book. For older children have them read it from the Bible (Luke 1-2).


3. Now share with your children why Jesus came as you assemble and decorate your birthday cake.


Round Cake – The shape of the cake is round with no end, showing that God’s love is never ending. He loved us so much that he sent his only Son to die for our sins (John 3:16).




Dark Cake - Before knowing Jesus, our hearts are like this dark cake, and we couldn’t get into heaven with our hearts so full of sin (Romans 3:23).




White frosting – (While frosting the cake, talk about the meaning of the white frosting.) God did a wonderful thing when he sent his Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. Now all the darkness is covered up, and Jesus washes our sins white as snow. We are pure white in the sight of God. When we ask Jesus to forgive all the bad things we’ve done, we are white like this frosting (Romans 6:23).


Angel Decoration – (Place the angel decoration on the cake or have a child do it.) The angel reminds us of the good tidings that were brought to the shepherds that night. It also reminds us of the good tidings, or good news, that we can bring to others (Luke 2:10).

Star – (Place the star decoration on the cake or have a child do it.) The star reminds us of the star in Bethlehem and how the Wisemen followed it and worshiped the Lord Jesus. It reminds us that we should worship and follow Him everyday. We can do this by praying, reading our Bibles, and going to church.


12 Red Candles – (Place the candles on the cake.) The red color reminds us of Jesus’ blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Because He died and rose again, we can have eternal life and go to heaven if we believe (Romans 5:8).


Light the Candles – ( As you light the candles, say…) Jesus can shine in our hearts if we just ask Him to be our Savior. The 12 candles remind us to let His light shine every monthof the year, not just at Christmas time (Matthew 5:16).


Evergreens – (Place evergreens around the cake.) Evergreens around the cake remind us of something living and growing. If we have accepted Jesus into our hearts, we are going to grow and get to know Him more. How can we grow to know Him better? By praying, going to church, reading our Bibles, and sharing Him with others—(John 15:5 or 2 Peter 3:18).

This time of year it can be slim picken’s at Goodwill. And I’ll be honest  it has not been on my top 20,000,000 things to do.



But, I did happen to make it by a few times and picked up two little goodies I thought I would share with ya.


The first is a super cute set of mugs.

Not only do I love the lime green color

But I adore their shape even more. And for a $1.50, for the set of four, I was all smiles.


Then I found this pot perfect to plant my amaryllis in this year, $.50 cents.

Hmm…anyone want to take bets on this sucker blooming in three days?

Maybe by Valentine’s Day.

I'm OFF, not that I Was Counting!

Yippee I am packing up my briefcase and heading home with the next week and a half off.



I am not sure what I'll do first, that is right after we celebrate Jesus’ Birthday! There are so many things on my “to do list” nothing that HAS to be done just things that I want to get done.


Hopefully I will be sharing with you another fabulous review from CSNstores.com really soon. They have been so gracious as to allow me to review yet another product.


I cannot wait to share with you another fabulous product from their store, so stay tuned and see what I have to reveal this time!

B.C. Clark

In the big city, near where I now live, it’s just not really Christmas until I hear this little jingle.




I grew up here and for as long as I can remember {some days are better than others} this was a sure sign that Christmas was FINALLY here.


You know when you’re a kid and that count down till Christmas seems to take an eternity? When you think you just can’t make it to school one more day to watch Johnny pick his nose, AGAIN!


Then you become an adult and wonder just why we can’t get one more week in between Thanksgiving and Christmas? So you don't have to wait till the wee, wee hours of the morning to wrap gifts.

I just hum {no singing} this little jingle and all is well!

Gift Card Cuteness

This is the perfect way to dress up and gift wrap any gift card you have to ever give.

Taking a simple plastic frame  I purchased at Hobby Lobby for  half off  .99 cents.

Take any wrapping paper or scrapbook paper and cut out a piece to cover the inside paper frame.

Double tape the paper to the frame and tape on anything you want.

For the itunes card I used a Christmas dance theme and emptied out my hole punch for added texture.

Then placed the plastic frame back on and there you have it.

Fast, cute, simple and more than a million ideas you can do.


Linking up to all these great sites today Hope Studios - Trendy Treehouse - Toot -n- Tuesday - All Things

It's a Wrap

Secret's out, I L-O-V-E to wrap gifts.

Every Christmas I try and stick with some type of color scheme. Last year it was all about brown on brown.

This year it’s all about color and my love for all things turquoise.

I found my wrapping paper at a craft far in late October. Picked up my ribbon mostly from Hob Lob and a few added touches from the Dollar Store.

My tags were free from a lovely little blog I stalk follow.

Fingerprints our courtesy of my kiddos shaking everything to see if they can guess there contents. Know anyone who does that? {smile}

Can't wait to share with you tomorrow the cutest way to wrap any gift card!

Rolo Candy

Here is a little something new that we tried out this year.

Not only is this another no brainer recipe, if you can call it that, my husband LOVED them.

Using small pretzels, placed on a wax lined cookie sheet, unwrap and top each with a rolo. Bake in a 200 degree oven for about 5 minutes. Then push a half pecan on top of the rolo. Allow to cool and set before wrapping.

I put a few in a small clear sack and sealed with our Christmas label.

Tossed the sack into a .20 cent box I picked up out our local moving store, wrapped some bakers twine around them and sealed them with some FREE labels that I oh so wished I had tagged to share with you!


The kids delivered them to all those “extra” people that help out around their school, making it such a fabulous place to learn.

Kate's Gourmet Apples

Making these caramel apples has been a tradition around our house for about the last 6 years. Just when I think I can get away with not making them someone always starts to ask me “are you going to be making your apples again this year?”

It’s not that I mind making them. In fact they are really simple to do. I just enjoy trying new things to give for Christmas. I have been asked many a time here to please share the “how to” behind my apples so here you go.

First you must gather the goods:

1 bag coconut
1 package white almond bark
1 package chocolate almond bark
2 cups chopped pecans {or nut of your choice}
4-5 packages of caramel wraps {I get my at Homeland in the produce section}
1 bag festive M&M’s or other candy {toffee bits are fabulous}
15-20 Tart apples {NEVER use a sweet apple}
15-20 long sucker sticks {Michael’s}
2 Ziploc sandwich bags
Parchment paper or wax paper




First line a large work area with wax paper. This is where you will create your gourmet apples.

Toast your coconut as instructed on the back of the bag. I am not a coconut fan but trust me DO NOT skip the toasted coconut. It makes the apple.


Wash and dry all your apples removing the steams while washing.

Wrap a caramel wrap over the top of each apple and insert a long sucker stick. Make sure you push the stick down as far into the apple as it will go. These apples are going to get real heavy and you will regret it if you don’t. Place in a 200 degree oven for 5 minutes. Cool on your waxed paper work surface


Melt your almond bark in the microwave stirring every minute until melted. I like to use drinking glasses to hold my bags to pour my chocolate into, seal shut.

After you have melted all your caramel onto the apples it’s time to start the layering process.

Starting with the chocolate, snip the end of your Ziploc bag to create a very small hole. Pick up your apple at the base of the sucker stick and apple; start to drizzle back and forth over the apple. Working as fast as you can drizzle chocolate and sprinkle with chopped pecans. I like to do about 5 or so apples at a time.

Then take your white chocolate snip and drizzle the same as you did with the chocolate. This time sprinkle on your toasted coconut.

Repeat with chocolate and push on your M&M’s.

This is going to make one HUGE mess on your work surface. But thanks to that wax paper you will have a very easy clean up!

Allow to set for about an hour and then you are ready to wrap them up.


Apples will last anywhere form 4-6 weeks in your refrigerator and are very habit forming, beware!

Sharing this over at all these great blogs today Beyond the Pecket Fence - Fireflies and Jellybeans- The Shabby Chic - Somewhat Simple - Black Cat Design - House of Hepworths - Paisley Passions - Tempt my Tummy - Tuesday at the Table - Tasty Tuesday

Christmas Home Tour 2010

Am afraid my holiday home tour this year may resemble last year’s tour a bit too much. I am a creature of habit and traditions. So changing my Christmas “look’ each year somehow just doesn’t seem right.

I will start you off with a view of our living room.

With the temps outside my gas fireplace has been glowing quite often. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get the gas bill next month.

Our kitchen is home to Gabe’s gingerbread house

My gingerbread friends and childhood Santa mug.

Hot cocoa spoons

And Christmas dishes await their next sweet dish for us to devour.

Our entry way is festive

Unless you take in the dying poinsettia!

My glitter pine cones from last year have held up strong.

Garland drapes all our French doors.

Gabe’s Christmas tree is all Yankee

What else could there be?

Hannah’s is bright and groovy

I just love the color and texture in her tree.

And the nativity graces our family room. As a constant reminder to us all of the greatest gift to mankind…the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Linking up at these great blogs today Show and Tell - Trendy House - Make it Yours - Someday Crafts - Cottage Vine - CSI