*~Christmas fellowship with family~*

On Sunday we went to Katya's (my sister-in-law) parent's farm for some early Christmas time with family. It was so cozy and wonderful, I just had to share some tid-bits with you. :)
Also see Katya's and Leah's posts about Sunday.

The wonderfully beautiful colors of the napkins. :) I'm totally taken with beautiful flower-y things.The fun little plates we used for the supper snack time.Beautiful beads hang from their nifty light.Their cozy tree. I love it!Does this need explaining? :) The basket with a beautiful napkin?Okay, yes, I was totally and completely taken with the silverware/napkin "tray" that we used for the snack time that I took picture upon picture of it and its contents, as you are about to see. :) But I only shared my favorite pictures of it. So in a sense you can be thankful. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!!

May you have a wonderful, Christ-centered Christmas, remembering not only His birth, but His death, His resurrection and His gift of salvation to us! Remember as you're exchanging gifts, eating wonderful food and treats and visiting with family and friends just what is the purpose of all that we do, both at Christmas and all-year-round. To honor and glorify God. Remember, also, that Christ isn't just the little baby in the manger, but ruler of all, at God's right hand, interceding for you and me. Praise be to the Lord, God of all!

~Be Near to Me~

For what does He ask that I cannot give?

"Nothing," my heart cries, "for all is His."
He has already given His life for me,
And He asks for no more than that of me.
Be near to me, Lord, be near.

Be my Lord, Master, God and King,
Oh, make me Yours, ruler of everything.
Break my heart, if You should see the need,
For You say when my heart is broken You are near to me.
Only, Lord, never leave, please ... be near to me.

Take what You must,
Please help me to trust.
Try, test, discipline and scourge,
For it says in Your precious Word,
"Those whom He loves, He chastens,"
And, "By this we know we are sons."
Do what you will Lord,
Do all to make me love You more.
As the tears fall when only You can see,
Only be near to me.

~Ana (A.K.A. me)
~Written 11-13&14-07

Chicken and Dumpling Soup

~~~~Soup~~~~

****Seasonings****
*1 (4 pound) whole chicken
*6-8 cups of water or chicken broth
*3 teaspoons (cubes) chicken bouillon
*1 pinch poultry seasoning
*1 pinch dried thyme
*1 dash garlic powder
*1 pinch dried sage
*1 teaspoon salt
*1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
****Vegetables****
*1 onion, chopped
*1 1/2 cups chopped celery
*1 cup chopped carrots
*1 potatoes, cubed
*1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
*1/4 cup chopped tomatoes

**In a large pot over medium heat, combine the chicken, water, bouillon, poultry seasoning, thyme, garlic powder, sage, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and allow to simmer until chicken is done. (Never boil chicken when cooking, it will get hard and dry. Simmering it will keep it moist and tender).

**Remove chicken, debone and take of skin, chop meat and return to pot.

**Add the onion, celery, carrots, potatoes, green bell pepper and tomatoes, cover pot and allow to simmer for one hour, or until vegetables are tender.

~~~~Dumplings~~~~

*1 cup flour
*2 teaspoons baking powder
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1/2 cup milk
*2 tablespoons vegetable oil

**Put dry ingredients together in a bowl and mix well. Put liquid ingredients together in a separate bowl and mix. Mix dry and liquid ingredients together just until moist. Drop by spoonfuls onto soup. Cover, let simmer (not boil) for 12 -15 minutes. You may uncover for last few minutes. DO NOT STIR!

NOTE:
**If desired add a teaspoon of basil to the chicken when it is cooking.

**I was in a hurry to make this for dinner this morning and didn't have time to simmer the chicken. So I thawed the chicken, deboned it, cut it into bite sized pieces and sauteed it in a little bit of oil. Then I added the water and the seasonings. I chopped the onion, celery and carrots up and sauteed them in oil before adding them and the other veggies to the soup. I didn't have any green bell peppers, but if I did I would use more then a 1/4 of a cup and more tomatoes as well, probably one medium sized bell pepper and one medium tomato (around one cup).

**I changed this recipe to my liking, to see the original recipe click here.

**Pinch:A small amount of dry ingredient, generally around 1/16 of a teaspoon. It's about as much as can be held between the tip of the thumb and the forefinger.

**Dash:Less than an 1/8 of a teaspoon.

**Saute:To cook quickly in a pan on top of the stove until the food is browned. Sauteeing is often done in a small, shallow pan called a saute pan.

**For more Cooking and Food terms click here.

New Book

I haven't finished any books, I just started a new one, because all the other books I'm reading are really long, take forever to read books. So I thought I'd read Lori Wick's Beyond the Picket Fence, which is eight of her short stories put in between two covers. I do not, however, recommend many of Lori Wick's books. She tends to make her romance books a little bit too romantic. I like the way Jane Austen writes her romance books, not mushy and PG-13 rated. But I've read Beyond the Picket Fence two or three times and I've loved it ever time!

Striving For Genuine Interest

To Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss ... "The common things of common life appealed to her sympathies and called out all her attention. It was a real, hearty interest, too, not feigned, even in a sense generally thought praiseworthy. Indeed, no one ever had a more intense scorn of every sort of feigned. She was honest, truthful, genuine to the highest degree. It may have sometimes led her into seeming lack of courtesy, but even this was a failing that "leaned to virtue's side." I chanced to know of her once calling with a friend on a country neighbor, finding the good housewife busy over a rag carpet, Mrs. Prentiss, who had never seen one of these bits of rural manufacture in its elementary processes, was full of questions and interest, thereby quiet evidently pleasing the unassuming artist in assorted rags and homemade dyes. When the visitors were safely outside the door, Mrs. Prentiss's friend turned to her with the exclamation, "What tact you have! She really thought you were interested in her work!" The quick blood sprang into Mrs. Prentiss's face, and she turned upon her friend a look of amazement and rebuke. "Tact!" she said. "I despise such tact! Do you think I would look or act a lie?""

~George L. Prentiss ~ Stepping Heavenward Introductory Note

This paragraph got me thinking about how genuine I am when someone shows me things. Am I truly interested, as I ought to be, or is it just a show to make the person feel or think that I'm interested, even though I'd rather be doing, looking or talking about something else? It just really made me check myself and strive to be truly interested in the things of other people.

-X- Spoons -X-

Here is my spoon "up-date". I tried a spoon in my coffee, it was so wonderful, just a hint of chocolate in my coffee. :) It was yummy. However, I tried a spoon (Okay, that sounds really weird, to "try" a spoon. :) Anyway.) in some black tea. That didn't taste so swell. I've come to the conclusion that if you want to use spoons for tea then white chocolate would be the route to go rather then brown. I also thought, maybe if you want to use your spoons for tea, melt white chocolate and put a couple drops of mint flavoring (or any other flavoring you would like) in the chocolate and then mix and dip. I think tea with a mint, white chocolate flavor would taste pretty good. :) Anyway, there is my up date. :) Anybody try the spoons yet?

Give the gift of spoons this season. :)

^*^A Yummy Fun Idea^*^

It has been snowing all day today and I was looking through my cookbook to find something yummy to make for dinner and I came across a fun thing I've been wanting to try. I did find something to make for dinner, but fear not, this was not it. :)

Since it is snowing and rather cold who wouldn't drink hot tea, coffee, cider, etc.? So here's what I tried. :) Spoons dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with yummy-ness. :) I'll let you know how they turn out. They have to finish drying before I use them. :)

If you try it, let me know how your's turned out and what you did with them. For instance: white chocolate in stead of brown, different sprinkles, no sprinkle, etc. I'd really love to know! Maybe I'll make a post about different ways to make dipped spoons if I get enough replies with ideas *hint, hint*. :) You could also give them as gifts. Dip plastic spoons and when they dry put plastic wrap around them and tie it on with a ribbon or string.

The snow outside my house. :) So cozy!

~The tree~

We've had our tree up since the day after Thanksgiving, I just haven't posted about it. :) But now I am. So here ya go.

Yes, the tree is fake so we have to "fluff" it. And well, I guess you kind of have to pay attention to which way you're fluffing it. :) My little brother E fluffed it sideways. See the part in front of the branch that attaches to the tree? Yup, sideways. :)(Left)The tree all fluffed. (Right)The tree all decorated with beauties!

The beautiful tree skirt.

The pinecones!!

A beautiful Fairy Princess Dress, handmade by my amazing sister-in-law, Katya. :) No sewing machine. She's so amazing! I love my fairy princess dress, complete with little hanger. :)The Tag. Hehe, Kat. :)-

Pinecone fun!

This year I wanted to do something fun and new with Christmas decorations. So Leah and I went out to pick pinecones and we painted them silver and gold (Katya did too, look at her pinecones here). Then I tied red and white sheer ribbon to them. (I would advise either gluing the ribbon on or drilling holes through the pinecones rather then tying it on. You use less ribbon that way. :) ) Either way they brighten my day and make me so happy. Can't wait to show you what they look like on our tree. :) You should try it too, it's really fun.

I used two different colors of ribbon so I tied half of the gold with red and half with white and I did the same with the silver.See how the ribbon colors are different from the picture above. :) Yeah, I know ... fancy. :)I also painted a handful of really small pinecones for just setting around instead of hanging on the tree.Until I hang them on the tree the pinecones are at home in a crystal bowl on the piano.

Thanksgiving Day

I had such a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving and so much fun decorating and preparing for it. So here are some pictures of our (Mom, Leah, and my) work. Visit here to see Leah's post of Thanksgiving. Hope you all had as wonderful a Thanksgiving I did!

Look what I woke up to on Thanksgiving! Hurrah for snow!See my creative place-setting/napkins from the previous post? :) Okay, what do you do when you realize you should have doubled the recipe but you don't have enough time to make another batch ... You make the rolls half the size they should have been, (which was rather small) thus doubling the amount of rolls you make. :)

Hot apple cider with Cinnamon sticks and cloves in it. Yummy.Perspiration on the window from the humidity in the kitchen.