Christmas is finally here!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you enjoy this beautiful Sunday and fill it with as many wonderful memories as you can!  :)

Luke 2:10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

Luke 2:15-16 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

My hectic day!

Christmas is just around the corner!  Only 10 days, 5 hours, and 27 minutes!!!  

It was quite a busy day for me, that's for sure! 

This morning, I woke up to Caelen trying to make Tyner (our dog) jump onto my bed to lick my face . . . not the most welcoming feeling to start the day on, but she made up for it by hopping into bed with me and giggling until 8:00.  Then we both had our devotions together and tramped upstairs for some cereal and family devotions with mom.  After that, us girls were sent off on errands to Tractor Supply, 'Do it Best' hardware store, and then to the Chiropractor for an adjustment (I'm sooo glad I wasn't the one on the table this time :) 

At Tractor Supply, Caelen got Dad his favorite candy, caramel creams, to put in his stocking . . . It took some major self control not to break into those things!!!

Downtown Marion is absolutely beautiful at Christmas time, so we drove on through and looked at all of the decorations that are probably ages old by now . . . but still in great shape!

When we got home, Mom was going into her "office" to teach her Apologia classes, so we had to be super quiet for a couple of hours (fine for us older kids, but for Ben . . . that's a different story)  

For lunch, I made a pot of plain pasta for everybody and then sneaked off to put milk, the last of the cheese and some butter in mine.  As soon as Caelen saw my mac 'n' cheese, she asked for a bite, then another one, and then Nate asked for two bites too!  Oh well, I guess it's what I get for taking the last bit of shredded cheese.  

When Mom got out of class, she (somehow) got us all into the car and flew to our grandparent's house 5 minutes away to help Grammy clean up her back room.  

While Caelen, Nate, and me were going through the toys in one of the closets, we found a big, black Frisbee!!!   We have been looking everywhere for one of those, but even our new Walmart doesn't have them anywhere!  Finally, we had the Frisbee of our dreams right in our grasps!  It flew perfectly until . . . I threw it too hard and it landed high up on the roof . . . ya, no fun!

Now we are back home and I am writing this post while Mom makes Chicken and Dumplings!  Yum!!!  I hope everybody else enjoys their supper as much as I am going to enjoy mine :)

Love,

Hannah.

Oh ya, I told Caelen that the next favorite Christmas movie I would post would be 'Its a Wonderful Life'.

{Picture from google}

Favorite Quote: "Ha, ha, ha, ha! My mouth's bleeding, Bert! My mouth's bleeding!" 

13 Days!!!

Yeah!  We started to sing Christmas songs in church today!!!  They had a great combination of 'Joy to the World' and 'Rise' -Big Daddy Weave, that was really good, but I must say that 'In Christ Alone' almost made me cry.  Already knowing the words to the song made it so much easier to look away from the lyrics screen and be able to think about who and what I am singing about.  I know that I can kind of get all caught up in the music and never even think about the meaningful lyrics to the song that I am singing . . . it is just too easy to do, but I think that going into worship with a foreknowledge of all the words just helps me to listen to what I am saying to my heavenly father.  To say the least, I had a very sweet time in worship this morning.
~
Yet another Christmas recipe that always appears during the month of December is Lady Finger Cookies.  Dad's Mom always makes them when we go over to her house for Christmas and they are usually gone within the first hour of our arrival . . . ok, that's questionable . . . but you get the point.  They are super good!!!  Here is the recipe for goodness!  Happy baking!

Nutty Fingers

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 5 Tablespoons of  powdered sugar
• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 – 1 cup chopped pecans

Mix all the ingredients together.  Shape into small balls or fingers.  Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Roll in powdered sugar.  After cooled roll in sugar again.

I can tell you these are not going to last very long on the cooling rack.  

{Picture from google}

When the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia) came out in December, Mom and Dad took Caelen and I to see it on Christmas Eve.  From then on, it became one of our family Christmas movies.  NOT the BBC version you understand!  (though we do like watching that one just to make fun of it :)

VS

Hahaha :)

You've got to love it!!!
Favorite Quote: (*from the new one*) "It is finished." ~ and ~  "I'm cranky now!"
Favorite Quote: (*from the old BBC one*) Mrs. Beaver {who sits in her huge fluffy trash bag of a costume} : "I don't suppose the sewing machine is too heavy to take?"

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Only 13 days, 9 hours, and 15 minutes until Christmas!!!!

14 More Days!!!

Only 14 more days until CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!  Can you believe it?  I sure can't!  

A few mornings ago, it was so nice to get up early and decorate our perfectly shaped Christmas tree with Dad before he left for work.  We were all so cozy and warm while we each took turns trying to fix the burned out lights in the long strand and then put our boxful of ornaments on the tree.  

I made almost a 1/2 gallon of hot cocoa mix, but it turned out to be absolutely awful!  I think that some of the ingredients that I used were 10 years old or something. . . I know, about time to go to the store, huh?  For our family night, we watched 'The Polar Express'!!!  One of our most favorite animated Christmas movies :)

{Picture from google}

Favorite quote: "I didn't do it! *Scratch* I didn't do it!  *Scratch* I didn't do it . . ."  

(If you've watched the movie, you'll know which part I'm talking about.)

I think that it would have been sooo neat to have watched The Polar Express in theaters 3D!  

~

Another of my favorite recipes is the homemade Reeses peanut butter candy.  

I guess you could say that I sort of made up the recipe :)

~Homemade Reese's Cups without the "cup"~

Ingredients:
*1 ½ cups chocolate chips (dark chocolate tastes really good)
*2 tablespoons shortening (Butter works as well)
*½ (1 stick) cup butter
*½ cup peanut butter
*1 cup confectioner’s sugar
*2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs (I completely ground them into powderJ)
*Sheets of wax paper
*A plastic bag
How to make them:
1) In a saucepan, combine chocolate chips and shortening (or butter)
2) Cook over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth (about 2-3 minutes)
3) Set aside until you are ready to use it
4) In a medium sized sauce pan, combine butter and peanut butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring until melted. (about 2 minutes)
5) Stir in confectioner’s sugar and graham cracker crumbs.
6) Let it cool for about 2-4 minutes, then spoon out a teaspoon’s worth (or however much peanut butter filling you want) onto the wax paper in little balls until the whole “concoction” is in little balls on to the wax paper.

{Picture from google}

7) Put the chocolate that you melted, into a plastic bag. Set the bag into a small straight sided bowl or large glass and roll the sides of the bag over the sides of the container to make filling easier. The container will support the bag while spooning the chocolate into it. Only fill the bag about 1/3 to 1/2 ways full and then use a twist tie to seal the bag closed tightly.
Use clean scissors to cut a small corner (about 1/8 inch) off the lower corner of the bag. Make a small cut first and try it out. It is always possible make the cut slightly larger if needed but it is very easy to make the hole too large. Just squeeze the bag to get the chocolate to flow out.

 {Picture from google}

8) Squeeze the chocolate onto the peanut butter balls. I made swirls and different designs on mine ;-)
9) Put the finished balls into the freezer for about an hour, and then…..Voil`a! You have Reece’s cup-like candies….with a homemade twist!

{Picture from google}

Psssssstttt . . . (I wouldn't go exactly by this picture, I would try to make it to where you completely cover the peanut butter ball with the chocolate.  Just a friendly suggestion :)

As you can probably tell, Christmas is a BIG thing for our family, and we try to make as much of the season as we can.  Another one of our favorite traditions is to go to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville NC to look at all of the gingerbread houses.  We still haven't done that yet, but it is sure to come up soon, and when it does, I'm sure there will be lots of pictures.  

I mean, who doesn't love the 'beautifulness' of gingerbread houses in the winter time????

Well goodnight, and sweet dreams to all of my friends in the Eastern Standard Time Zone ;)
Love, Hannah
--Remember who is the true reason for this wonderful season!!!

Weekend with lifelong friends

Wow!  Charity and Faith, we had a wiz of a time didn't we???  It was all go, go go!!!  I had fun going to get coffee with you guys early Saturday morning and then being crazy in the car while waiting for Charity to come out of the CVS store.  I enjoyed going up to Boone to get that Christmas/mountain/expensive Christmas tree farm experience and visiting our favorite little mercantile on the side of the road, and then going back down to Marion to pick out our beautiful $20 tree.  =)

 To say the least, we enjoyed you girls very much.  Merry Christmas!  

Me, Faith, and Caelen

The awesomeness itself!  It has become a tradition to go for coffee here whenever any of the Robbins come to visit

{Crazy car photos . . .}

Our favorite little mercantile is always decked out for the season.  Next time you head up to Newland NC, look for this place!  Their hot chocolate is AMAZING!!!!!

(Oh, and Charity; Maybe next time you come, we can blog together :)

First Day of December!!!

Its the first day of December, and that means . . . *drum roll* there are only 25 more days until Christmas!!!!  This Christmas, like I have already mentioned in a previous post, our family is trying focus more on the real reason for this season . . . Christ's coming into this world!!!  We are planning on caroling for the nursing home up in Black Mountain, baking goodies for the neighbors, and showing more hospitality this year.  I am soooo excited!  It really makes Christmas so much more special and meaningful by celebrating it in this way.

I have decided to write a special Christmas post every week including one of our favorite holiday recipes and one of our traditional Christmas movies until the big day itself.  To start off, I figured that 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' just had to be first in the favorite Christmas movies.

*Favorite quote from the movie: - "I wan't to be a dentist." :)
Ever noticed how Rudolph sounds like he has a bad cold through the whole film?  :D

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For my first holiday recipe of the season, how about cheese pennies!

{picture from google}

These are one of my dad's favorite snacks for the winter.  They are quick, easy, and taste really good :)

Ingredients:

*2 sticks butter

*1/2 lb grated cheese (sharp)

*2 cups flour (sifted)

*1 tsp salt

*3/4 tsp cyanne pepper

*3 cups rice krispies

Directions:

*Mix butter & cheese at room temp, along with cyanne pepper.  

*Mix in flour & salt .

*Mix in the rice krispies.  

*Roll up into very small balls & flatten with a fork on an ungreased cookie sheet.  

*Cook at 400 Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, but be careful not to burn the bottoms!

*Makes 90 pennies.

Hope you enjoy!   I look forward to sharing more of our family traditions and recipes with you this Christmas!  

Love,

Hannah 

A CRAZY Thanksgiving!

Like I said, I have a whole lot of Thanksgiving pictures.  Our crazy, awesome family had a blast together :)

Dad, his sister, and their parents, my grandparents.   

Our whole family . . . all decked out 

This dog was absolutely HUGE!!!!  He was the cutest, no . . .  the sweetest wolfhound i've ever met  :)

While at our grandparent's house, we celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  Nana showed us her wedding dress and asked me to try it on, and it was almost a perfect fit!  I just love the style of clothes back then.  They were all so well made. :)