My Little Christmas Cake

I won this cake pan off the internet. I was so excited to get it. I baked for the first time in it today. It's a pan that makes one huge cupcake cake:) So cute!!

The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible Review

I was so happy to be able to get this and review it:) I have been wanting a good study bible and this one is great!! It's a nice hardback Bible to use in your life with just reading or with devotions and studies. At the beginning of each book he tells about his thoughts on each book and tells about it when it was written and key themes and verses of each book. It is the NKJV and very easy to follow along. He also gives words of different subjects to look up what the bible has to say about it. His notes on stuff are throughout the bible to help you better understand what it is saying! At the back of the book he gives more information for help with your growth as a Christian. This is a pretty good bible and I would recommend it to anyone.

I recieved this book for free for my honest opinion and review from Booksneeze.com

The Perfect Gift Movie

Me and mom caught this movie on tv awhile back and it was such a good little Christian Christmas movie:)

The Storyline:A spoiled schoolgirl,her overworked executive mother and a disillusioned young minister each receives an uplifting message about friendship, commitment, and the truest meaning of Christmas from a kind, but mysterious drifter named Jess.

It was so good,it brought tears to my eyes. The town council wanted the church to take down the Nativity in the yard and the law made them have to take it down but a bunch of people worked together and fought the city and rebuilt it after the city tore it down. It was really good to see how they all came together in the true meaning of Christmas and they each put money at the city council's table in a meeting and paid the fine for keeping the nativity up:) Really good movie!!

You can read more about the movie by clicking here!!

Yes..it is almost here!!!

Wow!!! I can't believe how fast the Christmas season is coming upon us!! I am getting a little excited:) The Christmas play was at church tonight and it was good,really showed the true meaning of what Christmas means!! Please also be in prayer for my mom she has been battling that flu mess for weeks and now her temperature has gone back up today,hopefully she will see the doctor this week! She just wants to be better by Christmas because she loves Christmas and baking and cooking and everything,so pray she gets better. Hope everyone is having a great week and talk to you later. God bless!

It's Almost here...

Well according the my little time clock on my blog 9 days is left till Christmas!!!!!!!! Or 8 ever how you want to look at it..lol:) Sorry I have not posted in a few days,been busy with some Christmas things mainly the gifts I am making. I am starting to get a little excited!! I have made some homemade gifts and wish I could tell what I made but my family reads this blog and so can't say..lol:) I went to walmart yesterday and it was a packed house with buggy's ramming everywhere..lol. I don't know if it was to do with Christmas or the Ice they were calling for today? Little of both I guess!! Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!!

The House is Ready:)

The Town is set out!

The Christmas tree is Decorated and ready

The Angels are sitting all pretty
Daisy has started posing

The Snoopy Collection is out

The Table is set

The Manager is out

The Mantle is finished

Now all that is left is for Christmas to arrive;)

From the Kitchen:Chicken and Dumplings

The other night I made Homemade Chicken and Dumplings from flour homemade!!! I was afraid they would not work out but after seasoning and working....they came out!!! I was so happy and the family loved them!! I got this recipe from Cooks.com hope ya'll enjoy!!

NANNY'S CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
(Provided from Cooks.com)

4-6 chicken breast
2 tbsp. butter
Salt to taste

Cover chicken with water, boil until tender, then set aside until cool.

DUMPLINGS:

2 c. plain flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/8 c. shortening, softened
1/2 c. broth from which chicken was cooked

Combine all ingredients, mix well until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knead gently 30 seconds. Roll dough as thin as possible, cut into strips, then into 1 1/2 inches strips. Bring broth to a boil. Drop dumplings into broth. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 10 minutes or until dumplings lose their milky color and look transparent.
Add black pepper to taste. Remove meat from bones, chop in pieces and return to pot, stir lightly.

Under the Overpass Book Review

Wow!! This book caught my eye and so I got a copy and began reading. It really opened my eyes to the homeless in the world. Things I never thought about or heard were mentioned in this book. It made you walk away thanking God for your blessings and thinking about the millions on the street in the world without a home. This book follows as two young Christian boys leave their normal lives behind and they live on the streets as homeless to prove to themselves they would be a Christian no matter what. It really takes you on the inside of the homeless and what they go through. It just really left me thinking. It shared different stories about their time in shelters,places that served meals to the homeless and being kicked out of places. It's a great book if you really want to think on things that are important in life. It made me think a lot!

I recieved this book free for my honest review from WaterBrook Multnomah

Voices of the Faithful Book Review!

I got to review this book from Booksneeze.com. This is book one,there are two books. It's a great devotion book to read daily each day of the year or just read it all at once if you wish. I love reading and hearing stories of others on the mission field so that is why I jumped at the chance to get this one! There are so many people in the world that put their lives in danger everyday for the Lord. It is a beautiful book filled with good reading. It would make a great gift or a devotion time book. If you love reading about people on the mission field then this is a book for you.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

So Where did the Candy Cane come from?

I had heard a little about the candy cane history on a Christmas movie I was watching the other night and found it very interesting. I had heard something about this before but had never looked it up. Here is one version of the story. It started way back in 1670, when a choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar-sticks into canes to represent a shepherd's staff and then passed out the candy canes to the children. At the time they were all white. The tradition spread and sometimes rose designs were added to it. The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America was in 1847, when a German immigrant called August Imgard decorated the Christmas tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with candy canes. Around 50 years later the red and white candy canes came out and no one knows exactly where that came from because on Christmas cards prior 1900 they showed only all-white candy canes. Christmas cards after 1900 showed illustrations of striped candy canes. There is also a Christian history behind it that some say represent Jesus,and it does make sense even though it has never been proven that is why it was made like it is. It was said that the cane was shaped like a "J" for Jesus. The red-and-white stripes represented Christ's blood and purity. The three red stripes symbolized the Holy Trinity. The hardness of the candy represented the Church's foundation on solid rock and the peppermint flavor represented the use of hyssop, an herb referred to in the Old Testament. I think it's awesome to believe that because it you think about it that would be a good thing:) I have even heard of people putting what the candy cane means and attaching it to the candy cane and using them to pass out to people to witness to others. It would be a neat idea to make to pass around to people at Christmas:)

We got the Tree up!!!

It's beginning to feel more like Christmas now that the tree is up:)

It's beginning to feel like Christmas!

Well I finally got a few things done this weekend! Yes I have finally seen the movie that everybody was talking about "The Blind Side" I seen it on the library shelf the other day and checked it out and it was a pretty good movie. Usually movies that have all this hype end up not being that good,but this one I actually liked. I also watched another movie that I found at the Library called "The Note" with mom, I had read the book and the movie was really good as well. Then we saw a great movie on a Christian Channel I don't know the name of it I didn't catch the title when I was working on my Christmas town while watching it. It was about the word Merry Christmas and how it's Christ birthday and the world is trying to take Christmas out of everything! Such a good movie. We began Christmas decorations this weekend. Mom still is sick feeling with that flu mess. So we are sorta just taking our time. I came up with the idea of a Victorian look cause I love love love the Victorian Era:)

First off it snowed,just a little and then it melted away,but still it snowed:) The I put out my little tree in my room with some of my ornament collection:)

I made my annual snow village. I first put down paper that dad had from work and it fit perfectly on the table and this I sat my town out and then sprinkle the town with sugar over the white paper. I added some bushes I found on clearance at the Dollar Tree for .25 cents a pack!! Plus I added a skating pond with a idea off the Internet:) I love doing this every year!

The Proof:)

Ok so for those of you wondering, I think I mentioned we did make it through Thanksgiving with me and my sister cooking:) Here are a few pics as proof..haha..lol:)

The Pretty dessert my sis made,it was very good:)

Yes we saw these plates in the checkout lane and could not resist getting them,plus we didn't have as many dishes to clean:)

Can you believe I got these napkins brand new and sealed off Freecycle and they ended up matching the plates perfect:)

He thought he was getting it by licking his lips:)

Never left our sides while cooking:)

The final spread,some gave to us by my Grandma:)

I love to Read!

Hello Friends,
I went to the Library yesterday and they had a Book Sale this past week and they had a bunch of leftover books that were free,yes free!! You know me I went back and got some reads! I was please to find many Inspirational and Christian books! One was even from sword of the Lord Publishers! So now I have a ton of books to read. Plus let us not forget the ones I also checked out. I love reading Amish fiction. So 4 of the books I had on hold came in. The man that runs the library joked with me and said what is it that draws you too Amish reading? Is it that there was no electricity and the romance of candles and he started laughing..lol..he said I just had to throw that out there. It was very funny. Cause I was standing there nodding my head in agreement and then it dawned on me what he said and I started laughing. I love to read it takes you to so many places and into another city or part of the world or into another time period. I just love Christan fiction and at my library they have one section devoted to all the inspirational and Christian novels:) So I always find some good reads. I love the Amish and the ones that are placed in the old time eras:) What can I say I love to read!!