Homestead Haven Beginnings

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!!

Well, I won't be braving "Black Friday" this year.  Today we are all snuggled up watching Christmas movies and sipping hot coco out of my Christmas mugs.  This is one of the kids favorite days of the year!!  It's the day we pack up all the harvest decorations, and replace them with the Christmas decorations we have collected over the years.  This year we are adding a few more.  The boys are getting a blue tree for there room and the girls a pink one!  Some of our favoite things are:  A nail similar to the crucifixtion nail that is attached to a string and placed around our door.  Whenever someone enters our home, we are reminded of the real reason of Christmas when it clinks against the door.  I have a beautiful nativity scene that my mom put in my Hope Chest when I was little.  My dad is an artist and I have several of his wooden Christmas bears.  My grandma started an ornament tradition with all of my cousins where we give each other one every year, now my Christmas tree is full of cute Boyds bear ornaments...this is just to name a few.  What are your favorite things you pull out for Christmas time?

My son made a "Gift in a Jar" of Peppermint hot cocoa in an enrichment class for homeschoolers awhile back, and it was delicious.  However, they did not provide the recipe for it.  I diligently searched out a good one, and wanted to share it with you.  Heart4Home has this recipe for Hot Cocoa, and I just add crushed peppermint.

2 cups nonfat dry milk

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa; unsweetend

1/2 cup non dairy creamer (possibly flavored)

1 dash of salt

It is soooo good!  Enjoy!

Blessings, Rossie

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{ 01:45, Friday, November 24, 2006 } { Posted by CedarCityMom }

I love your blog site =)

Your secret of shopping is safe with me. Your hotcocoa receipe sounds sooo good. I'm so glad your Thanksgiving went so wonderful. The most Christmas decorations I have up is our lights on the house. My husband puts them up early in case of snow. We turned them on for the first time last night. Soon I'll get my decorations out and set up my house.
Blessigs, Jessica

Same idea

{ 02:33, Friday, November 24, 2006 } { Posted by Kitty }

It looks like we had the same idea, not to go out into this crazy world today. Its nuts out there.
Im not ready to decor for xmas yet. When my kids were younger I would do it before Thanksgiving, but now that they are older I like to wait for a week or two. I think Im becoming an old Scrooge-ett. LOL. My oldest ds birthday is Dec. 12th, so I will prob get it done by then.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Kitty

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{ 02:44, Friday, November 24, 2006 } { Posted by katenicholl }

What a lovely tradition! We put up our decorations at the very beginning of December and sit and watch The Polar Express and drink hot chocolate. I can't wait....

Catherine :o)

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{ 09:53, Friday, November 24, 2006 } { Posted by vlcowley }

We braved the crowds today but just because it's kinda fun to watch people. We will be starting to decorate this weekend. At some point in the near future, we need to go tree hunting. We only harvest free ranging wild trees. ;-)

Vince

Hi Rossie

{ 10:37, Friday, November 24, 2006 } { Posted by Pattisea }

It sounds like you have some really neat Holiday decorations.

I used to collect a commemorative ornament for each year, but one year my cat and some children broke over half of them and I lost heart.

Maybe I will start over some time!

Have a great weekend!

Patti