Reading Aloud at the Rink

One of the other hockey moms sent me a text message with this photo, taken in the fireside room at 8:45 last night, telling me that my little guy was "reading out loud to the boys" in between their practices. So cute!  I was asleep by the time they all got home (Monday nights are crazy!) but the boys filled me in on the rest of the details this morning.

"Hey, your little brother is so cool!" said one of the other high school hockey players to our two high schoolers just before their practice, "Yeah, he was reading to us!" 

Free Christmas Story :: The Little Lamb's Wish

I have been meaning to share this link since before Christmas, but fell behind here on the blog as usual... Better late than never, right? Anyway, for a limited time Regina Martyrum Productions is offering a FREE DOWNLOAD of The Little Lamb's Wish with coupon code NATIVITY15.

A bored little lamb on a wintery hillside, with nothing to do but graze. While other sheep are content munching on grass all day, Little Lamb is growing impatient with his day-in, day-out hum-drum existence. He longs for adventure, for something special to happen. When his mother suggests that he wish very hard, Little Lamb sets about wishing with all his might.

Then one day, crowds of travelers appear on the road, heading to nearby Bethlehem. When Little Lamb spots a weary man with a beautiful Lady on a donkey, he feels certain his wish for something special is about to come true. Never again will his life be the same.

Click over to Regina Martyrum Productions now to download your FREE copy of this Christmas story while the coupon code is still valid!

Celebrating Epiphany

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life with Like Mother, Like Daughter. ~

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On the twelfth day of Christmas... {Making plans for our annual "Twelve Days of Christmas Dinner Party" which we'll have on the traditional feast of Epiphany this year, if I can manage to pull it together and get to the grocery store tonight... Yesterday and today were just too packed with school, work, activities, and appointments to spend any extra time in the kitchen!} #Christmas2015 #twelvedaysofchristmas #stilladjustingtothisseasonoffamilylife #itmightbejustacrowncakethisyear

The 12 Days of Christmas: The Story Behind a Favorite Christmas Song

I decided to keep it simple this year and set aside our usual Twelve Days of Christmas dinner party/plans until next year, but we did bake a batch of cupcakes late last night! #CatholicCuisine #twelvedaysofchristmas #eggnogcupcakes #eggnogandrumfrosting

You can find the recipe for Eggnog Cupcakes with Eggnog & Rum Buttercream Frosting over at Catholic Cuisine and the darling Twelve Days of Christmas cupcake wrappers and toppers here. 

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Happy Epiphany! This year's King Cake is just a ring/crown of Eggnog & Rum Cupcakes, but I did tuck a chocolate coin into three of them, one to represent each of the three gifts brought by the Magi to the baby Jesus. #Catholic #epiphanyofthelord #catholiccuisine #whowillfindthecoin

Our middle all found the coins this year and received little gifts. Bud insisted that it needed to be "the FOUR LITTLE ones!" pointing to "one, two, three, and FOUR!" being his cute little four-year-old self! 

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He noticed the stack of books I left on the kitchen island and pulled over a barstool to sit down and read ❤️

🎶 ... mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble... FIVE GOLDEN RINGSSS ... 🎶 #Christmas2015 #twelvedaysofchristmas

A video posted by Jessica (@showerofroses) on Jan 5, 2016 at 6:37pm PST

I should have known he would insist on "the cupcake with the GOLDEN RINGS!!!" and start singing for us once again! 

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Finally getting back to our history books and we finished the last few chapters of our current read aloud this afternoon... Perfect timing for the final chapter titled "Christmas, A.D. 800" about the crowning of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor!

Happy Epiphany of the Lord! 

Gingerbread Houses on New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve we took the kids Ice Skating, then came bake home to make Chinese food, decorate Gingerbread Houses (and various Graham Cracker Creations), and watch movies for the rest of the night. I realized, with all the extra stuff we were dealing with the week before Christmas, I never picked up any supplies... I always have sprinkles, candies, and candy melts in the cupboard, but we only had one gingerbread house to decorate (a Christmas gift from a friend!) so I ran down to the store and bought the last couple kits on clearance (only $3.50 each marked down from $13.99!) and a Family Sized box of Honey Maid Graham Crackers. (They didn't have the Gingerbread Graham Crackers we've used in the past.) It was such a fun way to end the year! 

Here are this year's completed houses: 

From Captain's Instagram:

New Year's Eve Gingerbread House

From Ranger's Instagram: 

"Whoever wields this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." 

From Twinkle Toes' Instagram:

Well that didn't turn out how I hoped...

(I think it turned out cute, like her LEGO Gingerbread House which was a Christmas gift from her Christkindl. Graham Crackers aren't the easiest material to use for building houses!) 

Chiquita: "Little House in the Big Woods... but there isn't anything to use to make the Big Woods!" 

She was able to make some garden carrots though, using green flowers and candy corn!

Snuggles' patience paid off and he was able to build Barad-dûr, complete with the Eye of Sauron watching over Middle-Earth all the other Gingerbread Houses. 

Rose and I decided to decorate our Gingerbread House as "Oaken's Trading Post" inspired by one of the little LEGO sets she received on her birthday a couple weeks ago. 

"I want mine to look like Mommy's!!!" - Bud 

We added roof tiles, using the cookies from the Dancing Deer Gingerbread House Cookie Kit we were given for Christmas, along with some other decorations (including a porch light like on Rose's house) and he was happy. 

Bud didn't want to take his eyes off that house of his! 

You can scroll through all of our past Gingerbread Houses here.

Gingerbread House Cookies

I'll be back soon with the pictures of this year's Gingerbread Houses, but first I wanted to share pictures of the Gingerbread House Cookies we made last Christmas since I realized that this post (along with so many others...) was still sitting in my drafts folder! 

Last year, instead of making actual houses, we baked and decorated Mini 3D Gingerbread House Cookies using the new cookie cutter we received as our treat for the O Antiphon on December 18th. We used refrigerated gingerbread cookie dough from the store to keep it as quick and easy as possible, since I had a Barnyard Birthday Cake to bake and decorate that night for our youngest son's Farmer Boy birthday the next day.  

We baked and assembled them that night, then decorated them the next morning.