Merry Christmas!

In lieu of sending out Christmas cards this year, we are wishing you a Merry Christmas via our blog! Now I know this will not win me any "Miss Manners" awards, but I hope you will read on and see the reason behind it.

During this advent season, our church has been a part of the "Advent Conspiracy" - a movement trying to change the focus of Christmas from the consumerism it has become in America, to a holy event of worship and giving to those in need. One of the things we decided to spend less on this year was Christmas cards - and believe it or not, this was a hard one for me to give up because I truly do enjoy sending them out each year. But we were able to take the money that we normally spend on cards/photos/postage (along with money saved on spending less on some other things) and give it to a cause that we are passionate about - HOPE International.

Even before we heard of the Advent Conspiracy through our church, my Mom suggested to our family that instead of getting gifts for each other, we could combine our money and give it to the orphanage where my nephew Caleb lived before my brother Danny and his wife Kristen adopted him about a year ago this time. Everyone loved this idea and it was such an act of worship to give to these dear people that cared so lovingly for our little Caleb Eyobel. Thanks again Mom for inspiring us to do what for me was one of the highlights of the Christmas season.

This year, we will not make it out to Wisconsin to celebrate with our loved ones there. To you all - - we miss you, love you very much and plan to be with you again next year!

And to all of our dear family and friends, we wish you a quiet, stress-less, holy Christmas and invite you to take part in the Advent Conspiracy by worshipping more, spending less, giving more, and loving all. We have found it to be truly refreshing, and think you will too.

We love you! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Jon, Dawn, Sophia & Anthony

p.s. please leave us a comment to let us know you stopped by!

Sharing Christmas

My friend Megan is hosting a "tour of homes" on her blog. Basically she has asked all of her blogging friends to give others a peak into their holidays. Decorations, traditions, favorite recipe etc. So, here is my attempt to share what we do for Christmas...

Decorations - we don't do too much besides our tree. But each year we get a real tree from a tree farm - that's a must for us!

Our tree is pretty traditional - decorated with ornaments that have special meaning to us - many of them given to us by family and friends. I also love to get an ornament anytime we travel somewhere special. Here is my current favorite ornament, purchased during our Christmas in NYC weekend.

3 years ago, I got these great little Christmas trees for Sophia & Anthony. They love to decorate them each year and put them in their rooms. There are so many great little ornaments out there and I get them some each year. Sophia's tree is filled with Disney princesses, Hello Kitty, Strawberry Shortcake, Dora etc. and Anthony's tree is filled with basketballs, footballs, soccer balls, Scooby Doo etc.

Two other special decorations are our Nativity set and our stockings, both given to us by Jon's mom (she knit the stockings which makes them really special).

Traditions - usually we split our Christmas holiday between home and Wisconsin, where my family is. This year we will not be going to WI - we are sad to not see my family, but just needed a break from traveling this year. We are a pretty young family, so we are still developing some of our own traditions. Going to a tree farm to get our tree the weekend of Thanksgiving is becoming one of those. If we are home on Christmas Eve, that is the time we celebrate with Jon's family. Most years we have attended our Christmas Eve service but have missed a couple due to babies or being in WI. If we are home on Christmas Eve/Day, Santa comes Christmas Eve and we open gifts in the a.m. If we are in WI, we have to get creative and celebrate before or after - which hasn't been too hard yet since our kids haven't known dates - but they are starting to track things like that, so the next few years will be tricky! Oh, one more thing about Santa - our kids are only allowed to ask him for one thing each - we decided that we don't want Santa getting all the credit! :-) and we don't want to place too much emphasis on Santa - it is something fun to do, but we don't want that to detract from the real meaning of Christmas.

Well, sitting down and trying to write out our traditions is making me realize that we don't really have that many - we'll have to work on that over the next few years!

Recipes - Those of you that know us well, know that we love good food! Jon always makes a trip down to the Italian Market on Christmas eve to get some great Italian cheeses, sausage, pepper shooters etc. Pappy (Jon's dad) makes homemade ravioli for Christmas. When we are in WI, we all take turns making special meals for each other so that my sister Deann, who hosts, doesn't have to do all the cooking - Jon and I usually make our current favorite recipe for them. I always try to make Christmas cookies to share with co-workers, neighbors and family. I will post my all-time favorite Christmas cookie recipe - Ricotta cookies. I guess they are not officially a Christmas cookie, but this is the only time of year I make them, so that's what they are to me. Oh, and it's not "my" recipe, I got it out of a Better Homes and Garden cookbook (just want to give credit where credit is due!) Here it is:

Ricotta Cookies:

• 2 c. sugar
• 1 c. butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 15-ounce carton ricotta cheese

Beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer on med. to high speed until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla; beat until creamy. Add half of the flour, the baking soda and salt; beat until well blended. Stir in the remaining flour and the ricotta cheese. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 12 min. or until the bottoms of the cookies are browned. The cookie tops should not brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Frosting:

• 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. powdered sugar
• Ground nutmeg (optional, but recommended!)

Beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar; mix well. Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies. If desired, sprinkle with ground nutmeg. Store the frosted cookies, covered, in the refrigerator.

Well, there you have it - a peak into our Christmas. I hope you enjoyed it and for those of you in Megan's "tour", I'm looking forward to checking out your homes and traditions!

Christmas in NYC!

We just got back from an AMAZING weekend (actually less than 24 hours) in NYC! Going with Jon to NYC in December is something I've been wanting to do for years now - and it was even more special because we got to share it with our best friends Bethany and Quenton! We got into the city around 8:30 on Saturday night and walked from Times Square to Rockefeller Plaza - it is so much fun to be in the city at night - especially around the holidays! We got in line for ice-skating around 9:30 and didn't get on the ice until 10:55!! It was so worth the wait though as it was such a magical experience! We saw 3 marriage proposals and had such a blast skating. I had been looking forward to skating because it's such an NYC experience, but I didn't realize I would enjoy it so much - I thought I'd be hanging onto Jon for dear life - but it was easier than I remembered!! We got off the ice around midnight and walked to a Starbucks for some late-night refreshment and then got to Jon's sisters (where we were staying - thanks again Lizzie!!) around 2:00 a.m. - we crashed until 6:00 and were out the door again by 7:00 because we had tickets to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular at 9:00! We went to the show - which was as its name implies - SPECTACULAR!!! The Rockettes are just so amazing and it was so much fun to see them live after all these years of watching them on TV!! Bethany and I each bought a really special ornament of the Rockettes which I'll love putting on my tree every year and remembering this weekend! The other amazing thing about the show was that they did a Live Nativity and actually read Scripture and sang Christmas carols about Jesus - so cool that they still do that!! After the show, we went out for a great brunch at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square and then headed home around 3:00 - - we were SO tired but we had such a great time!!!