Christmas Eve and Creamy Brussels Sprouts Bake

Traditions are a wonderful thing

especially at Christmastime.

Traditions give you a sense of comfort

and the kids begin to rely on these traditions

year after year.

They are traditions that I hope they will carry

on into adulthood and continue with their own children.

Our Christmas Eve traditions have stayed the same

for the past 19 years yet they have changed

slightly each year.  Some things may not have been

so great and so the next year, we change it and do something a little different.

However, some things don't change.  We always go to church on Christmas Eve.

I can remember one year, when Trency was little, we went to the 11pm service.

He snored through the entire thing.

Some years we get dressed up and some years we wear jeans.

Some years we make cookies for Santa before church, some

years we make cookies after.  It all depends on what time church starts.

One thing we always do is take a family photo in front of our Christmas tree right before we leave.

2007

2008

2009

2010



After church we usually go out to dinner at a nice

restaurant. 

This year I decided that I would cook for Christmas Eve.

I had purchased a ham and turkey for Christmas day and decided

to make the ham for Christmas Eve.

I'm so glad I did because this is what it looked like

when I took it out of the oven.

It was delicious!!

I made some julienne potatoes and dinner rolls and we enjoyed

a nice dinner at home on Christmas eve.

The kids spent the rest of the evening tracking Santa until I made them go

to bed because Santa was moving very quickly on the tracker.  I knew he would be

in our neck of the woods very soon.

We nibbled on leftovers throughout Christmas Day.  Because

I hadn't slept very much of Christmas Eve, I didn't really feel like

standing in the kitchen cooking.

The day after Christmas was another story.  I cooked all day.

I made the turkey and also tried a new recipe: Creamy Brussel Sprouts Bake.  In a word:

YUMMY!!

It was sooo delicious and I am sharing the recipe with you today.

I got this recipe from Taste of Home Best Holiday
Recipes 2008

Creamy Brussels Sprouts Bake

1 package (8ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen brussels sprouts, thawed and drained

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream until smooth; set aside.  In  a large skillet, saute mushrooms and onion in butter until tender.  Stir in brussels sprouts.  Remove from heat; stire in cream cheese mixture.

Spoon into a greased shallow 2-qt. baking dish.  Cover and bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.  Uncover; sprinkle with cheddar cheese.  Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

It was super easy to make and so very, very delicious.  We have plenty of leftovers and I can't wait to have them for lunch with some leftover ham or turkey.

It's so cold and windy outside so I plan to sit in front of the fire most of the day.

Hope you enjoy your time today with your family!

Nancy

Let it snow.. Let it snow.. Let it snow

It finally snowed in Atlanta on Christmas

I guess that means we can all get on with our lives now!!

Just kidding, but seriously, I grew up in Ohio so snow no longer

has an effect on me.

My kids, on the other hand, think getting snow is the best thing in the world

My oldest son will spend countless hours on the weather maps

determining when and exactly how much snow we will or could possibly

get.  He can tell you what kind of clouds are forming, if it's going to be rain, snow, sleet or a mixture of the above.  The child needs a job is all I can say.

So, his dream finally came true and we got snow on Christmas Day.  The last time they had snow in Atlanta on Christmas Day was 1881.  My son taught me that.



Writing our names on cars is fun whether it's snow or dirt.

In trying out my new tripod I got for Christmas, I made the kids pose outside for a picture.

For some reason, climping the wet tree seemed like fun.



Big brother jumps in for a pic also.

Frosty feels the same way I do about the snow.

He just can't take it!

I finally convinced them that the snow would

be there tomorrow and they should come inside and

get warm by the fire.

A perfect time for another photo op.  Again, trying out the new

tripod.

I spent the rest of the evening in front of the fire

reading.  It was very nice.



I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas were ever you spent it.

Whether it was with snow, rain or sunny skies; I hope that you were warm

and with the ones you love.

Nancy

Merry Christmas from The Turner Five

The only reason I love December is because of Christmas.  I love the baking, shopping and wrapping; but more importantly, I love the decorating.

I meant to do this post in 2 entries but time has, once again, snuck up on me.  With that being said, this will be a long post as I share Christmas at the Turner's.


The stockings are hung by the chimney with care..... homemade stockings even.... I made these stockings (their are actually 5 of them) when my daughter was a baby. 

It isn't any secret that I love snowmen.  My house if full of them.  This is my newest snowman find.  How sweet is that?

I have my snowman village on my mantle this year and in all honesty,  I really don't care for it.  I have left it like it is but will look into doing something different next year.

Here are some other decorations:

My M&M christmas trees have become a yearly tradition.  I always buy fresh M&M's and hubby spends the time before Christmas sneaking 1 M&M at a time out of the top.  On Christmas day, I will open them so the kids can have some.

This was my ornament that I got for Thanksgiving.  I'm hoping to find a full sized one under the tree this year.

My new plate and jug for Santa's milk and cookies.  I think he will love them!!

Decorating the dining room has been so much fun with my new furniture.

Zachary's tree was the first one to go up this year.  He even cleaned his room so he would have a place to put it.  The kids have been very good at decorating their trees.

This is Victoria's tree.  For some reason, every time I take a picture of her tree, it comes out blurry.  I don't know why, it just does.

Well, that's whats going on here in Lilburn.  I hope that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas.

Nancy

A red and gold Christmas tree

I don't think it is any secret that I love Christmas trees.

I have 5 christmas trees in my house that are over 5 feet tall and 2 that are under 4 feet tall.  Most are decorated, all have lights. 

About 6 years ago, I was shopping at an outlet store after christmas.  I wasn't looking for a new tree but they just happened to have their trees on clearance.  Well, just the sign clearance, is enough for me to stop and take a look.  I came home that day with a 10 foot christmas tree.

Now, if I lived in any other house, I would've had to leave it in the store. But because my house has a 2-story family room, then I can have a 10-foot christmas tree.  YES!!!!

I can't remember if I put it up that year in all my excitement or if I waited until the next year.  Anyway, it has become my "formal" red and gold Christmas tree.  Most of the ornaments on it belonged to my grandmother.  Up until this year we had red and green lights on it.  When we got the lights out this year, 4 of the strands didn't work. 

So, off to Target we went in search of new lights. 

With a tree of this size, you can't just get by with 2 or 3 strands.  No!! This tree takes 6 strands of lights.  $60 in lights, they better last forever.

Instead of doing the red and green lights again, I decided that I wanted to go with all red.  Hubby thought it might be too much red.  But I ask you, " Is their such thing as too much red?" 

So here is my tree:

This picture makes the tree look really bare to me.  Guess I need to do some after Christmas ornament shopping.

As I mentioned most of the ornaments belonged to my grandmother. 

We also have a large french horn just like this one.  I don't hang it on the tree but my daughter uses it as a real french horn.  She will come home from school and "play" christmas songs on it.  We are not sure why, but she always has.  She loves it though.

I also added in some new ornaments.  Red and gold of course:

Here is the tree at night.  It's really hard to see how pretty it is in the picture. Trust me though, it's very pretty at night.

Since we have gotten the tree, we haven't had anything on the top.  We wanted to put a star up there but knew that it just couldn't be any star.  It had to be the right size and the right color.  Because the tree is so tall, we didn't want to get a little star because it would get lost and just look funny.

When we put it up this year we still didn't have anything for the top.  I have looked at all the stores and nothing jumped out at me.

This is the very top of the poor tree saying "put something up here"

 How sad.....



So just recently I relearned how to make bows.  They are nothing fancy, but they serve their purpose.  I knew how to make them when I was in high school but have forgotten since then.   I mean, that was so long ago.

So I watched this video tutorial recently and it all came back to me.

I went to my favorite craft store and got a big spool of ribbon with the intent of making a bow for my tree.  I have seen other trees with big bows on top and they look great.

Almost finished.  I want it to have long flowing ribbons to hang down the tree.

The finished bow. 

Not too bad, now to get someone to hang it for me.

Oh yea, that's what hubby is for.... and in the middle of the Falcons game no less.

Done!!  Yea, I think it looks great.  And now my tree can be very happy with the top covered.



Sorry about the light shining on the top of this picture.  No matter what angle I tried to take the picture from, the light was shining in those windows.