Category Archives: 7 Keep Christmas

My FAVORITE of all holidays (and holy days), rich with symbolism and meaning. It is not only deeply spiritual, but full of meaning I get to publicly share during the season, my best witnessing days each year!

ABC Pillows

7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

 

Shhhhhh…..don’t tell Gemma May, nor Averi Jadyn what you saw here…

 

 

Found this ABC Pillow way back when it would have been an appropriate activity for Hunter and Guinivere, and though I didn’t get around to it then, I am making these for Gemma and Averi for Christmas.

www.marthastewart.com

The instructions as well as a 5-page PDF alphabet template may be  found at http://www.marthastewart.com/article/abc-pillow .  I did print out the letters, I did not follow her instructions.  It isn’t that I read them and did something else.  I just did what seemed natural without readingher instructions and perhaps we did them similarly? 

For each pillow I bought a 36″-square of white felt at Michaels.  I also bought 6 29-cent felt rectangles in various colors.  That way, I was able to not only provide each girl with a full alphabet set, but also extra letters for spelling their names and other short phrases if they so desire.

First I cut out the letters (2 at a time).  Not really that fun, but the fun time is coming!

 

Then I laid them out on the folded white sqaure and just sort of eyeballed the placement.  when it seemed right, I cut off the excess fabric on the right and cut the folded piece in half.  To decide on button placement (don’t be thinking you can just measure out an even grid and have it work, no, no!), I held a red Sharpie just above each letter halfway between the top and bottom verticallt and halfway between the fattest pasrt of the letter.  So, like the “L”, the dot would have been right in the middle of the left part if it, the up-and-down line.  Does that make sense?  then, I’d pull the letter away and plop a red dot right on my white felt where I wanted to center the button!

Next, I used buttons from my 1-cent bag, as recently purchased at Michael’s (it was clearance marked for $2.99 from an original $5.99) and sewed them over the red dots twice through each hole using doily-type crochet yarn.  Since, unlike Martha, my buttons were a variety of shapes and sizes, I just made a mental note as I sewed them which letter they were for.  The “I” needed a smaller button, but the “Q” could be pretty sizable.

By the way, I should mention, I did not plan out letter colors or button placement.  I just let it happen.  When I was cutting letters, I first just made little felt piles for each and mixed and matched.  The buttons I grabbed randomly from a little pile of buttons.  I just let whatever wanted to happen, happen because it was all going to be a bunch of color, any!

  

Next, was cutting the slits for the letters.  I did not use the templates here.  I just fold the letters in half, top to bottom and made a quart-inch cut vertically in the widest part of the letter.

  

Once the buttons were all on.  I sewed a felt “envelope” on the back of the pillow for holding extra letters when not in use, then sewed a straight seam around 3 sides attaching the front to the back.  Stuffed with a little poly-filling  (and a bunch of love!) and one more seam to close it up and voila!

  

  

It is all very non-scientific.  Just a fun way for my girlies to practice recognizing their alphabet AND becoming proficient at buttoning!

Thank-you, very much, Martha Stewart, for the cute little idea.

 

Gemma’s finished pillow.  The “family keepsakes” tree is in the background.  It is out “little” tree, jam-packed with all kinds of love and memories.  See Rocky as a baby?  My kindergarten sock?  How about the ornament from Stef & Wrex?  And the tiny place-setting from Amy Jo?  There is a snowflake Hunter made me and Stormie at 6 in a little felt bunny “frame.”  It’s full of homemade and vintage and even a letter to Santa is tucked in to the branches.  *sniff, sniff

COST for two pillows:  2 white felt squares @ $2.99 each + 12 to 14 colorful rectangles felt pieces @ 29-cents + big bag o’buttons @ 2-cents +other stuff I already had = not much $$$, but lots and lots of love and adoration for my two pretty bebes!

Ho Ho Hope

1 Christ is All, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

The Father of Christmas

There is some great stuff out on the web particularly dissecting and thoughfully interpretting C.S. Lewis’ Father Christmas character, a man in red who brought what was needed to defeat the witch and make way for Aslan to usher in the Christmas celebration and end the Winter of the World.  He represented the coming Hope of the world, the great anticipation symbolized by the evergreen Christmas tree standing strong against the skeleton trees of Winter.  The Narnian Father Christmas brought the beavers and the children gifts, not like the materialistic Turkish Delight which, after consuming, caused the devourer to crave more and more, but he brought what they needed: weapons to destroy the evil of the white witch.  People who delve in to C. S. Lewis’ grand factastical allegories understand much more than I ever will.

But I thoroughly empathize and understand the longing in children’s hearts around the world and through the ages who have longed for a father to love them, a father who believes in them and knows how to give them good gifts.  That isn’t hard to comprehend, is it, in this day and age where so many children are raised in fatherless homes or homes where a man resides, but does not lead his family, does not fulfill his call?

I grew up around Christians spending their time trying to prove Santa was a tool of Satan (and if you move a couple of letters around, “doesn’t it prove Santa is Satan??!”) and the point has been missed, truly.  The point has been misunderstood completely that while the Santa Claus our commercialistic society has created does to seem to garner more focus than the Son of God himself, though it is supposed to be Jesus’ birthday we celebrate,  isn’t Father Christmas, or Santa Claus also a representation of the longing in people’s hearts for a daddy who loves them, makes them laugh and delights in them?  One who’ll give them what they need to defeat the woundedness and evil in their worlds?

Father God IS the Father of Christmas who gave Jesus. 

1 Tim. 1.11 says, we have been entrusted with “the glorious gospel of a blessed [happy] God.” 

 

You have a Father who is happy.  He thinks well of you.  He rejoices over you with singing.  He delights in you and knows how to give you even better gifts than what an earthly father could (Matthew 7.10-12].   He’ll give you all you need to defeat the enemy of your soul.  That is a lot of HOpe!

Christmas Playlist

5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I tend toward the sentimental with Christmas music.  And I’m a little bit {more} country.  At Christmas.  For some odd reason.

  

But certain sings must have certain singers.

  • “Happy Holiday”s has to be Andy Williams.
  • “Winter Wonderland” belongs to Johnny Mathis.
  • “Drummer Boy” has to go to Bing, but Bing gets bunches of them (including “White Christmas” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”) because I love him.  he is Mr Christmas!

  

Ellie invited me to do a Christmas music swap, my favorites for hers and I decided, though on different days I am in love with different moods and melodies of Christmas, to put together 12 songs that represented our family from 1981 to the present.  They include Bing, and there is Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but I included Whitney Houston (“Joy to the World”) and Mariah Carey (“O Holy Night”).  Kenny Rogers got 2 selections (“Kids” and “Christmas is My Favorite Time of Year”) because his was the first cassette Christmas music tape we bought as a new family.  I did include Casting Crown’s updated version of “I heard the Bells” because Dave really likes it and of course, the collection would not be complete  with the Charlie Brown Christmas song, “Christmas Time is Here.”

  

I didn’t get ot include a lot of songs I love by Dolly Parton, Karen Carpenter or Elvis, Alabama, Amy Grant or the Partridge Family.  I just really love Christmas music and I have lots and lots of it representing the 1940s to the present.  They made thousands of recordings in the 50s, it seems and each year, a new song or two is added to my list Christmas songs I love…

  

And I am kinda in love with this duet, which is more about winter than Christmas, but don’t you just love Willie and Norah?  I do!  CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN*



Powered by mp3skull.com

It WAS actually cold yesterday for about 17.238 minutes and we actually got at least 6.798 minutes of some sleety, snow-ish, rainy/gray/sky something or another before blue skies busted back out just before sundown.  I had inserted the word “finally” above the word “cold” but alas this morning, another sunny, temperate day and they are saying no snow for Christmas.  But I am sure we’ll have some for May Day.  Grrrrr…….

What are you singing these days?

*Willie Nelson & Norah Jones – Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Ready to Give

7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Always be PREPARED TO GIVE AN ANSWER to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.  1 Peter 3.15-16 NIV

Christmas is for giving.  There is no other time of the year where our opportunity to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so supported by holy sights and sounds and goodwill, no other time we might pronounce blessing on everyone we meet {“Merry Christmas” is a blessing!} and have it so readily received.

The lights, the trees, the colors, the songs….the people, the merry-making, the stars and the Father of it all,  the things of Christmas (symbols, traditions and all the rest) came because of a giving God.   For God so loved the world that he gave…

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

And now we can give like crazy, too – not just the latest gadget or technology toy, not just lots of unwanted and unneeded nic nacs and fru-fru, but we can share the secret to our unbridled joy, our unhampered happiness!  The  symbols of Christmas give me the chance to explain my joyous celebrating and the reason for my hope to my grandbebes,  imprinting the minds and hearts of my little ones.  Each year, little by little, as we sow seeds of faith, Christmas becomes the accumulation of learning as year follows year and season follows season.  As they grow up – the truth is there – either for them to joyfully impart to their own children, or as an inescapable testimony – that no matter how far they may wander  – they will see, remember and understand truth all around.  The seeds of truth will be in them.  I am gardening in their hearts even now…

And when we know and share the symbols of the season with our neighbors and clerks in the store and our bank tellers and co-workers, we’re gently able to impart spiritual truth to them.   Many people celebrate Christmas – not even aware of the depth of what they do – even so: they are acknowledging a Savior!  Of all people then, shouldn’t we be the most joyous, most exuberant revelers?  Remember Buddy-the-Elf (the movie, Elf) hearing that Santa would arrive at the store the next day and how he screamed with delight: “Saaaaaanta!  I know him!”  Well,   I KNOW Him! I know the Savior.  I think lots of people would be excited to know Him, too, if I honored him as Buddy did Santa!

SEE CLIP HERE:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jyCfRHumHU

We need to understand {be ready to GIVE an answer} so we aren’t feeling sheepish about what Christmas has become – so we can be the most joyous of all the celebrants – welcoming every symbol and facet as an opportunity to give a reason for our hope and to set apart Christ as Lord!

Yes, amen? 

PS – I thought this was kinda funny:

Sugar & Spice Make Christmas so Nice!

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think

Annual Girls-only Christmas Baking Day

We came.  We baked and dipped and sprinkled and nibbled.  We dropped from sugar shock.

  

Each year, us Rhoades girls get together for a big bake-off…and to dip anything that can be dipped/rolled/bathed in melted chocolate into it!  Confectioners sugar, sparkly red and green sugars, Dr-Seuss-inspired sprinkles and nuts fly through the air as every available space, covered with calorie-laden ingredients gives way to platters full of pretty, delectable Christmas yummies! 

Tara was in Estes this year, so it was just Stephanie and her girls, Guini and Gemma, Tredessa, Stormie, Jovan and Averi and me (though baby Amelie Belle was nearby as an honorary decorator and did contribute by popping an icing-covered mini-sugar-cookie-star into her mouth to taste test (which we ever-so-quickly removed, but not before she was able to suck the buttercream clean off it).  She loved it and cannot wait to help again next year!

Best brand new recipe this year? 

Goes to Stephanie’s Oreo balls.  You could seriously die happy eating these, and perhaps could, for they are rich and sweet and melt-in-your-mouth amazing!

Best old recipe no one made because everyone thought some one else would be making it? 

The Girl-Scout Thin mint knock-offs.  They are so easy and stinking wonderful.  Even though there is already too too much, we will still have to make these (and by we, I mean Tara :D )! 

   

Runner-up in this category is the English Toffee that Tristan and I must insist upon, by Tredessa, who spent so much time creating thousands of the perfect Peanut Butter Balls yesterday, she just could not find the strength to toffee-candy make. 

  

I have also yet-to-make Dave’s family’s traditional “strawberry cookies,”which are not actual strawberries and do not even include anything strawberry-ish in the recipe, but are merely fomed into a strawberry shape and rolled in red sugar before being adorned with a green icing leaf and tendril, AND they are not really cookies because they aren’t even baked: just cooked ingredients on the stove top.  Nonetheless, he needs them each Christmas.  And the ingredients are staring at me from the kitchen counter presently.

Yet this morning my house smells sweet and chocolatey and peanut buttery and sugary all at once.

Annually

The boys are allowed to visit us at the end of these crazy-baking-hours for dinner and eating the treats.  So very sweet!

Now what shall I have for breakfast?  Raspberry Ribbons?  Peanut Butter Blossoms?  A few dipped pretzels might be nice?  Or some perfectly light-crunchy Peanut Brittle?  I am fond of the perfect sugar cookies, or some of Annie Hall’s amazing butter cookies (which can be used any number of ways).  Oh-oh, maybe lemon bars?  No-I know.  MEXICAN WEDDING CAKES with my coffee.  Oh my goodness: scrumptious!

Yes. Tredessa is ticked because I just threw flour in her face.  I was only trying to help because she was otherwise unable to “apply” her own.  Geesh.

 

“… we elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy cane, candy corn, and syrup …” ~Buddy-the-Elf in the movie, Elf

Making a List @ Christmastime

7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think

{1}

No more gift wrap!  Please…

I just discovered I have 3500 sq. feet of Christmas giftwrap on 70 never-opened rolls in a nice, big wrapping box.  This does NOT include 15+ rolls (Ok, 17, whatever)  that are currently opened and in use.  My husband is so sweet to me.  He lets me buy clearance and store it on shelves in his garage (where I can’t reach it and forget to use it and buy more clearance the following year).  The thing I truly love is that I always wait for 90% off and then only get the foil or mylar or other premium types I like.  Dave, however, will sometimes buy those 200-sq-foot regular ones because they were only 52-cents or something.  NO MORE, I tell him!  Only the super good stuff. 

 

I actually have Star Wars collectible paper and tags and a few rolls left from when I was still in retail management and would get them waaaay after C-mas for 4-cents (and then my 20% discount!).  So I haven’t paid a lot.  And we DO wrap lots of gifts each year (have I ever mentioned that we l o v e Christmas, big-time!??).  Nonetheless, I had the daughters come and take some home.  You know, so there will be room for…

{I am not even going to tell you how many gift boxes and bags I have – in ALL sizes!}  Don’t be judging, at least it is ALL about giving!

{2}

In weather today-

Now then, 45-degrees at 7 am and hitting the mid-50s everyday?  Green grass still seen about town?  Um, hello?  This is Colorado still, right?  Need a little Christmas weather, right this very minute!  I wholly appreciate the bright sunshine and I hear the mountains are getting their fluffy white.  And let it be known I just need a good “Christmas snow” or two and then I am fine for the rest of winter, thank-you, very much.  But really, if it were March, I’d be gardening in this weather!

{3}

I Christmased with Hunter and Averi yesterday

Amelie could not be trusted to participate because her current penchant is to find the tiniest peice of glitter or star confetti and place it directly in her mouth.  I need a magnifying glass to see what that girl sees!

 

I taught Hunter to sew.  When I grabbed my camera he asked, and what makes this funny is the recent Powers-Fam Christmas greeting video, which I posted yesterday, (CLICK HERE), “Do you want to make a movie of me learning to sew?”  Haha.  He once told me he planned to be a Youtube star and I think he is taking all the right steps (as well as acting as his own agent)!

 

Super-duper important to Magoo that you see he is working with a real needle!

{4}

Stephanie May of MayDae.com posted the cutest tutorial yesterday!

www.MayDae.com

Yes, my daughter, I am proud to say, created the cutest leggings from some striped shirts she got at last week’s mad clothes swap – the one in  my living room?!!  Did I mention that?  Anyhow – she is quite creative and re-purposeful and her models, Guini and Gemma, are most adorable and not just because they are my grandbebes!  No, they are truly gorgeous and spirited little women (and mine, all mine…well, actually, I must share)!   SEE THE FULL POST WITH HOW-TO HERE.

{5 and final}

So, yeah…there was this big clothes~swap/breakfast/then thrift shopping/then lunch kind of thing at the house last Saturday…

 

The l.r. heavily-laden with everyone’s cast-offs; Tara holding back the crowds before the mad-swap begins.

  

There were about 20-some of us and lots of great clothes and jewelry and shoes!  And other stuff.

 

Oh it was craziness.  Know why you have a swap?  To clean out your closet, you know, so there will be room for…

Love and JOY!

Faithful Friends Who are Dear to Us

5 Songs I am Singing, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

…Gather near to us once more…

Some people just stay, whether you deserve it or not.  Some people trust their hearts to you for a lifetime, not because you see them a lot or stay in touch like you should or are even a very good friend at all.  And when you decorate your “family tree,” the non-designer version filled all that really truly matters from Chrsitmases past, and you come across ornaments which had been tucked into cards years ago, and little notes, or when you hang what a friend once made that has become an heirloom to you now, when you remember – regardless of all the miles, yes, your friends have once again come near.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,  Let your heart be light

From now on, our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,  Make the Yule-tide gay,

From now on,  our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,

Happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Gather near to us once more.

Through the years we all will be together,

If the [Lord] allows

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.

And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.

LYRICS:  Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Merry Christmas DEAR Friends, far and near!

There isn’t room to list all who have been true friends to me throughout the years. But they must know?

In Iowa, and Minnesota, Indiana and North Dakota (not to mention South Dakota), Kansas, Washington, Tennesee…Robert, Louisiana, and even in Nebraska!  In Montana, and Oregon, Texas and Chi-town, and close to home {Frederick, and Brighton, Denver, Longmont, Boulder, Firestone, Arvada, and the rest}… really all around…

SEE JUDY GARLAND HERSELF SING IT!  (non-embeddable) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4lY8Y3eoo  From the movie, “Meet Me in St. Louis”