Forgiveness

About a month ago, I recorded a movie called Amish Grace.  It's a Lifetime movie, so it's not groundbreaking material, but I would recommend watching it. The whole theme of the movie is forgiveness. As one character points out, you don't forgive to condone the behavior or make the other person feel better. You forgive because otherwise the bitterness and hatred can consume you. It's not something that you can just say, "I forgive you" and all is forgotten. It can sometimes take a daily - maybe even hourly - effort to forgive.

It made me think of forgiveness in a new way and try to forgive some people I thought I never could. In this season of love, family and peace - who do you still need to forgive? Do it for yourself. There's no need for the anger to consume you anymore.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that prisoner was you.
 -Lewis B. Smedes

The Logs On The Fire...

In an effort to cut back (WAY back!) on our grocery bills, I'm cooking from what we already have in the pantry. So all I'll need to pick up from the store this week is a pound of ground beef and milk. And NO Christmas Tree Cakes! Here's what we are having, in no particular order:

Crock Pot Chicken
Spaghetti
Tacos
Chicken and Noodles
Chili
Chicken Spaghetti

One of my FAVORITE things about Christmas is the music. I have a whole post written up about my favorite songs - but I couldn't wait to share one of my absolute favorite Christmas songs with you, "Merry Christmas Darling" by the Carpenters!

(My favorite part is the very end, "Merry Christmaaaas, Daaaarrrrrliiiiing!")

Just Another Manic Sunday

Today had a very rough start.  I woke up with a migraine, but I was determined we were going to church (because we skipped last week). We rushed everyone to get ready and Jeff goes out to start his car only to find his battery is dead. So we load up in my car and Jeff notices I have a flat tire (And I was severely low on gas). After a trip to the gas station we were super late for church, so we decided to skip again, go get some lunch and look for a topper for the Christmas tree.

Menard's was a disappointment in the tree topper department. We bought a star that promised to change colors, but really it just flashes red and white. So it looks a little like some kind of landing beacon for airplanes - not exactly the look I was hoping for. We did find some cute stockings for all of us there though.

Thankfully our church posts their messages online so we'll get to hear the start of the new series. Truthfully, we've felt a little disconnected from our church lately. I think it's unrealistic for a church to have a message that moves you every week (the pastors are human after all) but it's getting easier to make excuses to not go. We talked about looking for a new church today, but we really haven't been attending this one very long. When do you know if it's time to move on? Or if we just need to stick it out? Maybe we should become more active so that we feel like we are more of a part of the church? (It's a pretty big church. We've been going since April and know a handful of people - there just isn't much of a chance to get to know people on a personal basis.) I'd really be interested in hearing your thoughts on this!

Food is Expensive

I was reviewing the bills/budget for the month today and realized that I spend waaaay to much at the grocery store. I was doing pretty good for a while, but now it's getting out of hand! So we'll be going back to basics - menu planning, shopping at Aldi for most things and NOT buying 14 boxes of Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes every week.

Seriously. Have you had these things? They are like little bits of holiday crack.

So how do you save money on food each month? Couponing? Mooching? Do you also have an addiction to Christmas Tree Cakes?

*I'm participating in the Blog Post Every Day for December challenge (I just made that name up) so you'll be seeing a little fluff from me several days a week. Substantial posts require more brain power than I have to give right now.*

O Tannenbaum

Want to know an interesting tidbit about me?  Thanks to Frau Moore and the two (or three? I can't remember...) years of German in high school I can sing "O Christmas Tree" in German. If you're lucky, I may just sing it for you someday. I used to be able to sing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", but all I can remember now is the first line (Rudolph mit roten naschen!)

This weekend we are going to look for a new topper for our Christmas tree. We have always had fiber optic angels, but they tend to die easily and frankly are a bit kitschy for our tree. I'm hoping to talk the family into something classy like a star or a Santa that moons you.

Oh Cindy Lou - what happened to you?

We were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas the other night and I thought I saw something about Taylor Momsen. Being the pop culture junkie I am, I immediately thought of the gothic blonde she is now and could not figure out why they would think she was in my beloved Grinch. But alas...

What happened to the sweet Cindy Lou??

24 Days Until Christmas!

December 1st ...can you believe it? I certainly can't. But I'm excited! I narrowed down my list of 24 things my family will do to countdown until Christmas. Want to know what they are? Here is what we'll be doing for the rest of this week.

1. Eat on the Christmas dishes. Jeff got me these dishes for Christmas a few years ago and I love them. Everything tastes more festive on a Christmas tree plate.

Thank you Christopher Radko and Target!

2. Read One Baby Jesus. Patricia Pingry writes really great children's books for the holidays. We got this one from the library a few days ago.

3. Take the Family Christmas photo. My Christmas cards are already addressed. Makes you sick, doesn't it? Yeah me too. :-) Now I just have to take the picture, print and send!

4. Watch The Polar Express. We've never watched this together as a family. Since Riley is OBSESSED with trains, I think it will be a hit! The evening will include pizza, popcorn, m&m's - a perfect Friday celebration feast. Thanks to the fine folks at ABC Family and their 25 Days of Christmas for the free entertainment all month! (The Polar Express is playing Friday at 8:30 EST)

Do you have any special plans for the beginning of December? Want to join in on our 24 days? Feel like it still should be September?