Instagram Friday

It's Friday, which is our one full day off each week. It is a family day of just enjoying our time together. I'll be back tomorrow with more traditions but for today, here's what we've been up to in our house.

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We pulled out our new Nativity out. Aston is in love with it and I love that we get to talk about baby Jesus every

Christmas Traditions: Nativity

This year we are starting a slightly new tradition. Since Maxwell and I have been married we have had a Nativity we put up, but like most Nativity's, they are breakable.

SO this year, we purchased this little kid friendly nativity. I have seen similar Fisher Price Nativity's over the years and always thought they were cute but never had a reason to purchase until this year.

We purchased this Little People Nativity Gift Set from the Fisher Price website. When we bought it in October, other stores didn't have them yet and we got a great price on them. Plus we loved the fact that it was all 3 sets.

They set is large and does take up more space then I was expecting but I love the fact that Aston can play to his hearts content and that we get to talk about the birth of Jesus every time we play with it.

I love this tradition and remember the Nativity that we had out when I was a kid and it is a great memory and tradition I hope my children pass on to their children.

Aston loved seeing all the new pieces are we unpacked the boxes.

He especially loves that when you press on Baby Jesus, he lights up and music starts.

Do you have a Nativity you put up every year?

Traditions: Christmas Dishes

Since Max and I got married, I have been in search of a set of everyday Christmas dishes. I love the idea of having special dishes for Christmas time. We spend so much time using our dishes each day that why not treat ourselves to something special like this. Well this year I finally found them! I wanted something that was microwave safe and dishwasher safe because they are everyday dishes. I did not want to have to hand wash during this crazy month! The trees are a silver metallic and the Cardinal is cardinal red. 

So I found these 222 Fifth Winter Cardinal dishes on the Target website first. One Targets website you can buy the pieces separately. As I did some searching for a "better" price, I came across them at the Kohl's website. There, you can buy a set which comes with everything you see in the photo below. 

I am loving using my new dishes, especially the mugs. I think it's wonderful to drink and nice hot cocoa or hot tea out of a beautiful mug!

What Christmas dishes do you have?

Traditions: Cookie Day

My mom's side of the family are Italian's to the truest sense of the word. When we all get together there is lots of food and lots of noise! So much of our time is spent together in the kitchen or around a dinner table. Most of us enjoy cooking and my grandma Ann is the one who has inspired that in all of us.

Each year, most of the girls in the family get together, the weekend of Thanksgiving, to make our family Italian cookies. My great grandma Nona Angelina, my grandma Ann's mother used to make these when my mom was little and when she passed, the family picked up the tradition.

Now these cookies aren't cookies that you would think of as a cookie. Some in-laws to the family lovingly call them biscuits :) They are a typically coffee dunking cookie. We make Wine Cookies, Almond Biscotti, Sesame Cookies, Chocolate and Orange cookie. Now we don't make just a few dozen cookies, we make dozens and dozens of these. We usually multiply the recipe eight times! Now I'm not sure where all the cookies go but we make a lot and it's always fun to sit around a table and work together. Here are a few pictures of our cookie day.

All the dry supplies for the day.

 First cookie: Wine cookies

Mostly done by hand.

 The Wine Cookies are 1st because they take the longest. They have to be rolled and formed into wreath shapes.

 I love all the splatters on these old recipes. But we do need to get the recipes on a computer so that nothing happens to them.

Everyone hard at work. There is a process to all these cookies.

It sure is a lot of work to make these. We need to start having some little girls or our little boys will be making these cookies with us as time goes on :)

Do you have a baking tradition? I'd love to hear what you all do!

Christmas Traditions

Traditions. The Webster's states that traditions are an inherited, established or customary pattern of thoughts, actions or behaviors. We have so many things that we do in our daily lives as a family that could be called "traditions" but during the holidays, the thought of traditions explodes.

I love Christmas and the traditions that come with the season. There are traditions of old, that my family has done since I was little and before I was even born. And there are new traditions that I am creating with my new little family. Traditions build memories and a sense of belonging. I love that certain smells or a certain song can bring about so much joy in the season. Traditions also help us to connect with our heritage and help us to remember loved ones no longer with us.

The thing I love most about traditions as a Christian parent is that they help us to share and instill our values to our children. Things like the advent wreath or setting up the nativity are all things that build there values and encourage growth in that area.

Over time, traditions change and evolve and while this can be hard, I see it as a good thing. It means your family is growing and changing and that is not something to be sad about. My thought of late is to embrace the change and go with it.

I am so excited to share some of my favorite traditions with you and would love to hear what some of your favorite traditions are. I hope you stay tuned over the next two weeks! I'm so excited to share my beloved family traditions.

Tomorrow will have to do with cookies....lots and lots of cookies!

InstaFriday

Looking back at the pictures, I've realized it has been a long week. So much going on but we are home now and everyone is recovering or fighting getting sick.

Last Sunday, we were flighting home from Disney World and the Tennessee airport had this great play area for our 3 hour layover.

Can you say lifesaver!

 Aston has been so busy since we got home.

I love these new pajama's we got at Gymboree. They are sold out online but they might have them at the stores. Aston loves playing with the window clings we bought for the airplane.

We went to the park on Monday and Aston loved playing with the grass and leaves.

He tried with all his might to get these marshmallows off the counter. He wouldn't stop until he got a few.
So much like his mommy!

I brought this home from the Germany Pavilion at Disney World.
Salted Caramel Chocolate. Yum!

 It took my son 15 minutes to destroy my clean floor. Man is he busy this week.

Workin' on my chalkboard this week. DIY coming to the blog soon!

My Christmas Village!

Christmas Decorating has begun! I'm so excited! Hoping to get our tree this weekend but with sickies in the house it may have to wait.

 This little beauty came in the mail this week. It comes a few times a year and man do I droll over it. I couldn't imagine paying the prices but love the designs! I do love jewels!
I love my new Christmas Dishes. I feel so special drinking out of a pretty cup!

I hope you all had a wonderful week and a nice Thanksgiving. Let the Christmas festivities begin!!!!

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

We are home from our wonderfully exhausting trip to Walt Disney World. We had a wonderful time but we are now ready to some down time and the holiday weekend.

If you are planning to make Mashed Potatoes for your Thanksgiving dinner, consider this recipe. It is a make ahead version of Mashed Potatoes that you could make today! Check one thing off the day of list.

I have used this recipe for a few years and love it. Yes it calls for cream cheese, but that is what keeps the potatoes creamy. I love using Yukon Gold Potatoes for Mashed Potatoes. I think they are smoother and tasted better. But you can use Russet's or your favorite potato.

Recipe:

6lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes

1 stick of melted butter

1 cup sour cream

8oz cream cheese, room temperature

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Peel and cut potatoes making sure that all pieces are equal size so that they all cook at the same rate.
2. Place potatoes in a large pot and fill with room temperature water, cover. Place on the stove on high heat until they come to a rolling boil. Boil potatoes for about 10-15 minutes or until you cannot pick the potatoes up when you pierce with a fork.
3. Using a colander, strain the potatoes to get rid of all the water. Place potatoes back into the pot or a large bowl.
4. Using a hand mixer, mash the potatoes with the mixer off to break the potatoes down to smaller pieces. When they have been smashed some, add butter, sour cream and cream cheese. 
5. Turn the hand mixer on and whip the potatoes to incorporate the other ingredients. Add salt and pepper. If the potatoes are to think for your liking, add more milk until you get the consistency you want. I like mine a little think but others like them thinner. It's a personal preference. 
6. You can eat them now they way they are OR if you are making them ahead, place in a glass 9 x 11in casserole dish. Cover with foil and refrigerate until ready. 
7. Day of use, remove potatoes and preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake your potatoes uncovered for about 40-50 minutes or until warm through. Depending on the thickness of your potatoes, it could take more or less time.

Enjoy!

Happy Insta-Friday

I've decided to join InstaFriday with Life Rearranged. I figured why not post all my instagrams from the week :) If you have instagram, please follow me @bearcubcreations. We'll be at Disney World next week so look for some awesome instagram photos from there!
Anyways, here you go:

 I am thankful for the previllage we have to vote. Not everyone can say that and I see it as a huge blessing, even if things don't turn out how I would have liked, we still get to have a say.

 I am so thankful for the Bible! Gods word is so relevant today. My Bible study is on a break until the new year because babies are being born, missionaries are being trained and holidays are busy. While we are on break, we are reading through Paul's Letters in chronological order. We started with 1&2 Thessalonians and have now moved into 1 Corinthians. It has been perfect timing in relationship to what I've needed to hear! Feel free to join us and follow along. We have only been doing it for 9 days, so it's not too late to get started. Today's reading is 1 Corinthians 3&4 but I'm a day behind, so I'll catch up this weekend.

 My new hobby! I'm loving learning to can...it's really easy if you have the tools. I've never done before this year and I'm loving it! Such a fun way to preserve food so that your pantry is full. Nothing should go to waste when canning is so easy.

 I am thankful for the park! With the time change getting Aston up at 5:30 most days and his new found love of walking, we have been at the park a few times this week!

 Haha, isn't he cute? He think he has a better view of the TV from right below it....cracks me up!

Aston's 1st year book from Shutterfly came in the mail today! It turned out soooo good! I'm so proud of it. I am so thankful for the ability to be creative.

Our San Diego weather is crazy. On Monday and Tuesday, we had a Santa Ana: dry, windy, hot days. I was very thankful for cold refreshing Pom juice with sparkling water...yum! Today it is "cold"60* and rainy...so weird!

 My DaySpring package came in the mail this week. I LOVE my new journal. It's beautiful and the best part was it was on sale for $8 something. I also love the Holiday count down. Techniquely we'll start the Thanksgiving count down tomorrow but we'll be behind a week when we get back. We'll catch up though.

 Did you see my Mickey Toes tutorial? I like them a lot! My toes are ready for our Disney World trip, now we just need to get the rest of us ready!

Yesterday, Maxwell was mowing the lawn before the next set of rain came and this is what I turned around to see. He loves his daddy so much and was so curious about what was going on but didn't want to get too close. Before we know it, he'll be the one mowing the lawn!

Happy Friday everyone! Next week will be a bit quiet since we are at the Happiest Place on Earth! Have a blessed week!

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