Grandma's Christmas Salad

Let's face it. We were in Iowa and when we say salad in Iowa, more times than not it means jello. This was actually very tasty and easy to make. Pineapple and strawberries.

Grandma's Deviled Ham Spread

This did NOT go over well on Christmas Eve. I guess it's dated? Not every recipe from Grandma's collection is going to be a hit.

Grandma's Holiday Fudge

I made this recipe for a dinner party I hosted, then took some to work. It was an easy stovetop recipe and the guests enjoyed the fudge!

December 20 Digiscrap

When asked what I feel incredibly fortunate or grateful for, of course I chose my family!

December 19 Digiscrap

A night out!

December 18 Digiscrap

For today I just took some photos around the house of things to remember.

December 17 Digiscrap: Santa

Today's topic was Santa. Wow, the size of gifts sure do go up as he gets older!

December 16 Digiscrap: Gifts

Gifts Gifts Gifts!

Another day of noticing and appreciating the little moments of Christmas.

December 15 digiscrap: Hope

Our conversation about hope and what it means to us sure did make for a good dinner discussion. We talked about Jesus and Ethan asked us to explain how Jesus could be considered God and wonderful and then later in life people were so mean to him...good question, and one we also can ask when thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi, and so many others.

December 14 Digiscrap

Church holiday pageant.

December 13 Digiscrap

I just love our Christmas tree. And I really love the person who invented pre-lit trees.

Favorite Christmas Movies

What I learned from this page theme is that we sure don't have many Christmas movies. But our DVR is FULL of taped Christmas specials we tape and watch every year.

December 7th digiscrap

We had a family discussion of what we consider special Christmas foods. Complete consensus: COOKIES!

Frozen Fruit Salad

From Grandma Schroeder's recipe box: Frozen Fruit Salad. I made it last night to celebrate my coworker Teresa's birthday at work today.

Our favorite Christmas books

We have so many Christmas-themed books...and scrapbooks and photo albums!

Journey to Bethlehem

An annual tradition for my family, now preserved on a scrapbook page!

Raspberry Parfait Pie

This week we're saying goodbye to our secretary Dawn as she takes a new position. So, I dug into my grandma's recipe cards and made this raspberry parfait pie. Yet another photo for the cookbook.

December 10

Our assignment for this day was to think about favorite childhood holiday sights. Lots of memories to choose from, but here were the ones we are sharing for this page.

December 8

This calendar is one of my most treasured possessions. I'm so happy that Jessica Sprague gave me the opportunity to take the Holidays in Hand class. Otherwise, I'd never have thought to scrapbook this really important part of my Christmases.

December 6 Digiscrap

We have different favorite symbols, but light was the common trait of all the things our family members like about the holidays.

December 5th Digiscrap

We had quite a discussion about a favorite Christmas song, and we just couldn't agree, so I listed each of our favorite songs (for the moment, not all-time favorites).

December 4th Digiscrap

Here's our December 4th page. For our activity, we went through all of the school and other charity projects and made a list of things to buy people who are less fortunate.

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Back to the Cookbook project...these cookies are my Grandma's recipe. My church had a cookie exchange yesterday, so I dug into my grandma's recipe box.

They turned out very well. One of the church ladies gave it a try and said they were wonderful. She asked about the spices, which are cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves. She said the cloves make the cookie unique. Pretty tasty.

December 3: Joy

Today we cuddled by the fire and talked about Joy. Ethan's job was to photograph something joyful in our home, and he chose our two snow globes. I've never been a snow globe fan...but he loves them, so we display them prominently in our living room.

December 2

Here's the December 2nd page of Holidays in Hand. At dinner we talked about favorite memories of cooking with family, and our photo assignment was to photograph things that are warm.

I am LOVING digital scrapbooking.

December 1

I'm participating in a Holidays in Hand scrapbooking session with Jessica Sprague. Here's my page for December 1, where we were encouraged to welcome December.