Well, this week is our week before Christmas.  We are celebrating as a family next Monday morning before heading out later that day to Arkansas.  So, this week is our week of Christmas activities.  Last night, we (Micah and I) made homemade pizza and got to work making the Carpenter family fruitcake.

Jonathan grew up grinding the graham crackers just like Micah did last night.

He had such a great time!  It was hard work for him, but he loved grinding the graham crackers for Mommy.   Afterwards, we put all the components together (after eating a marshmallow or two ourselves) and rolled them up.  Meanwhile, Heidi had some Daddy time at the piano.

Such sweet moments!

I don’t think this is supposed to be a family secret, so here is the recipe if you’d like to try it.

Carpenter Family Fruitcake

1 box of Honey Graham Crackers

1 pkg. marshmallows

1 stick butter

1 cup chopped pecans

1 jar marachino cherries

1 lb. chopped dates (that is two packages, but I will often use just one)

Grind graham crackers in meat grinder or food processor.  Mix in dates, pecans, and chopped cherries (chopped in food processor or chopper).  Melt marshamallows (I do it in the microwave), then melt butter in marshmallows.  Stir; pour over other ingredients.  Stir well.  Use cherry juice to get mixture to appropriate moisture (What is appropriate?  It should be sticky and thick, but stirrable…so, maybe thicker than cookie dough???).

Spoon onto 2 pieces of plastice wrap and roll up into a log.  Refrigerate.  To eat, slice off pieces from the log.

After typing that, I am thinking pictures would really help these instructions…should have thought of that last night!!!

Well, today is the day for The Nester’s Tour of Homes. I tried to pick just a few things to show you, but it was hard to really narrow done everything, so here it is…

Starting in the dining room, I got out my Christmas China.  It makes me happy! I am in love with birds, so these are the perfect dishes for me!  Next, is the dining room tree covered in berries, pine cones, gold and red accents, and birds.

Next, we move to the living room.  Here we have our family tree with all the ornaments Jonathan and I have exchanged over the years, Jonathan’s childhood ornaments made by his Mom, and Micah and Heidi’s ornaments from Mimi.

Here is Micah’s newest ornament, Gepeddo.  This finishes his Pinnochio Storybook set.

And, here’s Heidi’s first ornament,

and her stocking.

Speaking or stockings, here they are hung with care on the mantle.

But, my favorite part of Christmas is the nativity.  This one on the mantle was made by my Granny.

We would always set it up together at the beginning of the Christmas season.  It was always my favorite thing to do.  You can read a little bit more about it here.  We try to focus a lot of our time around here on the nativity and what it means for us.  So, Micah has his very own nativity.

Right now, Baby Jesus and the Doggie play together a lot.

Well, this concludes our little home tour.  It was a little cold, so I forgot to get an outside shot.  So, I will just tell you it is decked with garland and wreaths and small rustic trees by the door.  You’ll just have to take my word for it, though!  Merry Christmas!

So, I have wanted to get back to blogging for a while, but I haven’t been satisfied with my current site. Unfortunately, I use WordPress and it is kind of limiting. I want to switch it over to blogger of something, but I am not really capable of that undertaking. I have to rely on my tech savvy hubbie for that, and right now he is very busy recording and mixing the album for evenstill. So, instead of continuing to wait (like I have been for a month or two), I decided to get over it for now and live with what I have. At this point I would venture to guess that if I had any subscribed readers, they are gone at this point, but I am okay with that. I am starting fresh in some ways. I want to write about different things and make this more about our family and a way to keep a journal of sorts for me and the kiddos.
People ask me all the time, “what do you do during your day (other than child-rearing)? Well, maybe I can add blogging back to the always growing list!
So, for a quick update, Micah turned 3 in October, and in August we gave birth to our daughter, Heidi Corene. It has been an exciting few months. We have adjusted to a new baby in the house and a potty-trained little boy (that was fun!). Here are a few pics to enjoy for now.

Couldn’t you just eat her up?    We go for her 4 month checkup Friday!  4 MONTHS!!  I am not believing how fast this is going.  WAY TOO FAST FOR THIS MOMMY!!!