Treats for Neighbors

I saw this idea on some blog a couple months ago and tucked it away for Christmas this year. We are attempting to create a community within our little block of neighbors and have found that it's surprisingly not difficult to do. Everyone we interact with is super friendly and excited to talk to us when we visit, it's just that we have to actually make an effort to visit our neighbors and interact with them. It doesn't just happen. I am amazed that some of our neighbors have been here for 12+ years and never talked to our other neighbors that have been here since the 1960s. This past summer we had a cookout and invited all the neighbors that live close to us. This created an opportunity for us to get to know our neighbors, and for them to get to know one another. Our goal would be to have all of our neighbors over individually at least once throughout the year...still working on that!

For an excuse to visit our neighbors, I made these festive little red-velvet-cakes-with-cream-cheese-icing in a jar goodies :) We gave these little scrumptious delights to them and gave them an invitation to our Christmas eve/morning service at church. Of the six neighbors' houses we went to, four of them invited us in to talk for a while. Isn't that amazing? One of the ladies, whose husband recently passed away, came to our house on Christmas eve morning for our 2nd annual Christmas eve brunch! We were delighted to have her and hope to have her again soon! Another neighbor came over last night with her grandchildren to give Hannah a Christmas present! I am seriously shocked at how easy it is to create a community among people that are total strangers to one another. It just takes a bit of effort, consistency, and of course, prayer :) I'd encourage you to do it!

 

 

 

 

Christmas!

A few of these photos are actually before Christmas, but capture how much Hannah loved the tree :) She also has taken quite well to my hat....she's such a hat girl! My mom got to come down for a few days, which was quite delightful. I'm thankful the weather held out and she was able to travel down here! What a treat! I think Hannah is going to go into withdrawal from all this attention she is getting around the holidays. There seems to be someone to play with her all the time...

Hannah has become quite my little helper in the kitchen, and since she is getting more into pretend playing, we decided to get her a little kitchen set for Christmas. She LOVED it! We were so glad :) She hasn't stopped playing with the fork and plate in particular. They even went on a walk with Paul this afternoon...thankfully he saw the fork when it fell out of the stroller!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas at Thanksgiving

I think we are finally starting to get into a groove with celebrating Christmas at Thanksgiving. This year, instead of exchanging gifts with the kiddos, Kim and I decided to do crafts with them to encourage creating a memory together instead of just exchanging obligatory gifts. I loved it and think it will continue for years to come. We are planning on always doing Christmas cookies (who could resist), and then I will think up some other artsy craft to do with them. This year wasn't the most successful, since the girls could have really cared less, but Caden gave me hope that they'll love it, even next year. This year we made Turkey Cups and put sparkling apple cider in them...Caden was not a fan of the cider, to say the least. I actually don't even remember if I gave Hannah any. We had lots of fun decorating cookies and eating icing. Hannah particularly loves saying, "snowman," usually without the "s."

My dad has quite the collection of stuffed animals, one of which being a lift size white bear, affectionately known as "Monster Bear." On more than one occasion, we were bribed into taking Monster Bear home with us. Thankfully, those bribes were unsuccessful and we are still Monster Bear-less in our home. Don't get any crazy ideas....

Hannah has also been obsessed with Christmas trees. Something about the beauty and wonder of lights and ornaments just draws her into a trance. It's pretty cute.

I think I will have to post more photos :)