Rum Cake – A Holiday Treat!

As a little girl, I remember visiting my grandma and grandpa in Wisconsin. During the visit we would usually visit my great-aunt Mable. She would always give us little pieces of candy to eat during our visit. We would talk about all the things we were doing in school and what she had been baking. As we left, she would send along a piece of whatever had been made that morning.
She was so funny when I would visit with my children when they were little. She’d always say, “Chanyn, I don’t know how you do it with 4 little ones!” Then I would laugh and say, “Auntie Mable… I do it the same way you did it with your 4 little ones, except I didn’t have TWIN boys!” She would laugh and agree!

One of my favorite holiday treats she would make was Rum Cake. Sooooo yummy! It can be for dessert or brunch, like a coffee cake. One of the last times I saw her, she had just made it and gave me her hand written copy of the recipe. (I will treasure that forever!)
 

      

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 large yellow cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 3oz pkg vanilla pudding
• 1/2 cup rum
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup chopped peacans

Grease bundt pan; cover bottom of pan with pecans. Mix water, oil, rum, pudding, eggs and cake mix together. Pour over pecans. Bake 325 degrees for 50-60 min.

  

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup rum
• 1/4 water
• 1 cup sugar

Bring to boil over medium heat. Simmer for 3 min. Poke holes in top of cake and pour glaze over. Let cool slightly. May be served warm.

Do you have any family recipes that bring back a flood of memories? Share those stories and recipes with your kids to pass along the legacy of Family!

Be Blessed!

Giving this Christmas Season

We all say that Christmas is the Season for Giving. But what does that really mean and how do we live that out or is that just something we say and don’t do? When I asked my kids what it meant here are some of the responses:

• It means that we need to think of others that don’t have as much as we do.
• Christmas is the time to give things to other people selflessly.
• That we should help people who are in need.
• It means giving presents to kids who may not receive anything without us.

That’s good stuff! Although, I think that sometimes our picture of who is “in need” is too narrow. “In need” doesn’t always mean the lack money. Just as “being successful” doesn’t always mean having a lot of money.

This Christmas season I’m asking God to make me sensitive to the people “in need” right around me.

• A child may need undivided attention given to him/her.
• A coworker may need understanding and forgiveness.
• A neighbor may need time without kids to go shopping.
• A cashier may need a smile instead of a frustrated look.
• A family member may need a smile and a hug instead of sarcasm.

We will be exchanging gift with others year; we will be donating to the Salvation Army; we will give an extra gift to World Vision. But in addition I will be encouraging my family to daily ask who is in need around us and what are practical things we can do to meet those needs.

I pray that that this truly is a Season of Giving for you! Please share with us ways that you have given to others “in needs” or ideas you have to do this.

Be Blessed!

Christmas Giveaway – (WINNER ANNOUNCED)

Congratulations Holly, you won the Advent Plate!!

Hope you have a peaceful Christmas Season.

 

Christmas Giveaway… Don’t miss out!

I’m so excited to do kick off the Christmas season with a giveaway! We decided to pick out a Christmas Pintrest idea and make it. Then, give it away. The best part is that if you don’t win the giveaway, you could make it yourself!

Let me show you how it’s done.

I painted chalkboard paint ($3.99 at Hobby Lobby)  in the center of a plate ($2 at Dollar General) in one direction. Let it dry for 1 hour.

I painted a second coat in opposite direction.

Let it dry for 24 hours.

Take chalk and lightly coat the new paint.

Rub in the chalk with a napkin.

Wipe off chalk with a damp napkin.

Then with a pencil write the words you want on the plate.

With a sharpie ($2.99 at Hobby Lobby) or a paint pen trace out your words. (Because I wanted to save money, I used a silver sharpie. It dried quickly and I had to go over in a couple of times so that the black didn’t show through. If you are doing more than one, I would probably recommend investing in the paint pen.)

Then erase any pencil marks and wipe down again with a damp napkin.

To make the bow I just looped ribbon 4 times, 2 on each side, leaving one end longer.

I then tied with silver ribbon I had; you can also use wire.

Then wrap around the longer end and tuck it in the tied ribbon/wire. Walla you have a beautiful bow.

Put hot glue on the back of the bow.

Press and hold the bow on the side of the plate.

There you have it! Let me just say, I’m sort-of sad that I didn’t make more of these when I was making this one! I think they would make great teacher, neighbor, host or coworker gifts!

If you would like to win this one, there is just 2 things to do:

1.  Let us know in the comments below, if you would keep the Advent Plate or who you would bless with it.
2. LIKE us on Facebook, if you haven’t already. 🙂

Winner will be announced on Thursday! Good Luck!

Have a Blessed Tuesday!

Tidbit Tuesday – Inspired by 25 Days of Christmas

This is not what I intended to post today, but Katie’s post on 25 Days of Christmas inspired me.

Although my kids are older and our Advent Calendar is very juvenile, when I pulled it out with the decorations they hung it up. On the first of December, the angel was taken out of the pouch and put in the sky. It made me realize that they still look forward to the Christmas traditions that we have.

I love the idea that I can pick and choose the activities that we do and can have them fit our family. Also, next year we can do of the same activities but also have totally new ones.

I looked for the frame that I had used for the photo booth at Payge’s birthday party but had no luck finding it. I decided… who needs a frame?!? Not me. I used string that I had in our decorations. I bought 5 packs of mini clothes pins that I found at Michaels for $1 a piece! I spent $5 in total on this project! It would have been a bit more but I had some Command hooks for decorating already.

I put 6 hook on our door to the basement. Then I tied string on the hooks. (Next year, I may use the hooks to make a Christmas Tree design with the string.) Then I cut out 25 green circles, wrote 1-25 on them. Then the hard part came. I wrote out my Christmas Bucket List and made the activities correspond with our schedule. For example, on a day that we have 3 basketball games, the activity was a simple one like make 5 paper snowflakes. On a day that we have the afternoon free, the activity is to make Christmas cookies.

This morning when the kids got up and noticed they were all very excited, even my older ones! This will be a tradition that we do for years to come. (Even when my children are out of the house, I will be making one that Greg and I will do together! It probably won’t make the blog 🙂 )

Hope this inspires you to continue to make family traditions and/or create new ones! Do you have any ideas that could be done with the 25 Days of Christmas?

Be Blessed!

25 Days of Christmas Calendar

Today is the first day of December!!! You know what that means, right?! 25 days until Christmas! The last few years I have done a countdown to Christmas with my kids. Last year I even made an elaborate printed out calendar with activities for each day. I must say it was an adorable calendar, but it was a lot of work. Plus we could only use it for one year. So this year I decided to make a countdown calendar that was reusable for each year to come. (And I think I could even use it all year round, to hang photos or notes on it!)