The other day the sky was full of these mind blowing snowflakes. Every single one that landed on our car window was a masterpiece. It just made us realize how great our God is. A billion snowflakes were falling that day and each and every one was a teeny, intricate work of art. Only He could do this! Truly, the whole earth is full of His glory. Even the snowflakes sing of it.

Today at noon our Christmas break begins. We are so excited to start the holiday and celebrate our King! We're kicking things off with a Christmas date this afternoon and some last-minute grocery shopping for our Christmas feasting. I hope you guys have a merry weekend!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let Earth receive her King! Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing. 

| 1. We've been enjoying such a gorgeous white Christmas this year. It's been awesome. | 2. I love every corner of my house right now. And some nice student of Grant's gave us a glittery poinsettia! | 3. Hadley has been busy painting a lot of snowmen lately. They're her favorite. | 4. Gifts are (almost) all wrapped! And The Family Stone has been watched. | 5. I had some leftover melted chocolate from the crispy peanut butter balls, so I decided to dip some clementine slices. mmmm. | 6. I can't get enough of the sight of our living room, lit by the tree. Lots of cozy nights around here lately. We're so thankful that Daddy isn't coaching basketball this year! And also very glad that his principal's license program is turning out to be a do-able workload. He always makes times for his girls- no matter what. | 7. Probably the last of the Christmas orders has been dashed to the post office. Thank you all for such a tremendous turn out this holiday season in my shop. Thank you, thank you. |


When I was little (and even not so little) my dad would stuff my stocking with those break-apart chocolate oranges. I loved them so much, and still do. These chocolate covered clementines gave me a little taste of my childhood.

Here's our faaaaaaavorite. The only Christmas cookie we really need at our house. The grasshoppers from last week were actually made to take to a brunch, so they didn't stick around here long. But the crispy peanut butter balls aren't going anywhere... except maybe to the couch with us after Hadley goes to bed. I actually consider these one of Grant's Christmas gifts, because he is such a big fan. (And for a guy who isn't into sweets, that's saying something.)

At our house, we are focusing more on celebrating Advent this year than in years past. We've been spending time singing the sweet carols that I so wish we sang year-round! I'm loving the words of "O Holy Night" so much right now. The simple truth and weight of Christmas, put so beautifully in just a few lines of this old hymn! In sin and error we were pining, until He came, and the soul felt its worth. Thank you, precious Jesus. You are my thrill of hope!

I love this quote by Laura in her book The Long Winter. We're still hanging out well below 0° here, but our warm (ish) house is making it easy not to be afraid of this bitter cold. And bonus- the cold keeps everything looking so clean, beautiful, and sparkling hard. Truly, if I don't have to get out in it, I seriously love this. Tomorrow they're promising warmer temperatures and fresh snow!

Even though the cold isn't bothering me, I wonder if it is getting to me today. It's one of those days where I feel slow and time feels fast. I can't seem to get much done or think very straight. I have a bunch of Safari windows cluttering up our computer screen and I'm not sure why. I have a grocery list started but I don't know what else to put on it. Hmm. I'm thinking I should probably go remedy this brain freeze (pregnancy brain fog?) with some hot chocolate. Which, by the way, I've been making lately with a splash of this amazingly yummy coconut milk nog (found at Whole Foods):


In the past few days it's also been poured into banana bread batter, breakfast blueberry quinoa, and used to make french toast. So, so yummy. It's too thick and sweet for me to drink on its own, but it's just right when mixed into a mug of creamy hot chocolate. Here's how I usually do it.
This hot chocolate is creamy, rich, and subtly sweet. The coconut Nog adds enough sugar for my taste, but feel free to add a spoonful of maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar if yours needs more. Some other things I've been enjoying lately:
The streets of our teeny town, frozen, but beautiful. | Burning some Mrs. Meyer's candles in Orange Clove and Iowa Pine. mmmm. | Being cozy at Grandma and Grandpa's house after Sunday Dinner. Relaxing with a full belly and watching some snowy football games. Plenty of strong baby kicks to keep me company, too.

P.S. In the middle of writing this post, our power went out. Scary! It's too c-c-c-cold for that to happen! But, praise Jesus, it's back on, and the heat is running. Feeling so, so thankful for a heated house today. Stay warm, my friends!

It is teeth-chattering cold here. We're having record low temperatures... like put plastic over your windows and hope your car starts temperatures. (We really do have plastic over all of our upstairs windows, all winter long.) When Grant went to school this morning it was -15° and the high for today is 0°. brrrr.
Whether you're pregnant or not, these record low temps induce a kind of nesting instinct. I haven't left the house in days. I'm living in my slippers, closing off unused rooms in our house (to conserve heat for more important places), sitting on the living room rug packing 50 Promises to ship to you guys, folding clean clothes and putting on more layers, balancing mugs of cocoa on my huge baby belly, and wanting to bake e v e r y t h i n g. Muffins, chocolate crinkle cookies, cranberry orange cake, peanut butter balls, etc... these are just a few of the ideas that I've been toying with throughout the day. Can't decide what to do first. Clearly, life decisions.
So, my motto for today is going to be: keep cozy and stick close to your oven. And since I'm sure it's cold where you're at too, and because it's Christmastime, you should probably join me! Turn on some Bing Crosby, tie on an apron, and let's make something! Here's a collection of some of my December favorites-- recipes and more-- from years past.

Hey guys, I've got a new blog post in the works- it'll be up soon! In the meantime... cookies. These delicate snowy oatmeal crispies are one of my favorite Christmas treats, and this year I adapted the recipe to make them gluten free. Check out the recipe on the pretty bee today! I'm contributing to sweet Kelly's 12 Days of Gluten Free Christmas cookies-- isn't this such a great idea? I can't stop thinking about these chocolate crinkle cookies. Yummm.

So, these potatoes. They've just been the perfect little side dish in my life lately. We can't get enough. And they're my 2 year old's favorite! I've been serving them alongside eggs to make an easy breakfast for dinner, and making them at lunchtime with some guacamole and grass-fed beef, which becomes sort of a deconstructed sweet potato taco. If you still have leftover Thanksgiving turkey or you're having chicken-something for dinner tonight, throw some of these on the side! We often make them with olive oil, but also love them with coconut oil, so try them out both ways. mm.



Yesterday we decked our halls. I could not wait to unfold this vintage poinsettia tablecloth and get it out on our table! It was found last year at a thrift store for a dollar. The green ceramic Christmas tree came from my sister-in-law's garage sale, the stockings are thrifted, and paper chains are homemade, of course. I love collecting bits and pieces of Christmas cheer that will be so nostalgic for our kids someday. What's your favorite Christmas decoration? I'm still on the lookout for the perfect little nativity scene for our home. 

Hey everyone, how was your holiday?! Ours was spent road-tripping to Omaha, preparing a ginormous turkey feast with a huge group of family and friends, watching my nephew take his first steps, successful and totally non-chaotic Black Friday shopping with a leisurely breakfast break, Pictionary, Password, banana pancakes, pumpkin cheesecake, pizza with mushrooms, lots of chatting, a real glazed donut (haven't indulged on one of those guilty pleasures in a lonnnng time) and trimming the infamous giant Christmas tree with 1,200 tricky lights.

Yesterday, as the shop orders came in and it started to snow, we played with the Christmas decorations. They're not "up" yet, so now is the perfect time to play-- before they're plugged in. Hadley is obviously in the middle of a very important sentence of gibberish right here. But to get to my point, huge thanks to everybody who ordered things from the shop yesterday and today!! We've already been busy packing and taping and running to the post office, so thank you.


Just a reminder that The 50 Promises are 10% off right now, but the sale will be ending soon. So order fast! Next week we'll get back to Thanksgiving style posts, I promise. Since it's so late this year, I felt like I needed to get a jump on Christmas! I don't think anyone really minds that much. :)

Have a great weekend! We'll be grocery shopping for my contribution to the Thanksgiving Feast, possibly putting up our Christmas decorations, and possibly making the ice rink in our backyard (Grant).