Christmas Plans

I thought I knew what Christmas was going to be like this year.  We had a plan.  Every year Hubby and I take the kids on a trip.  This year we wanted to go to Colorado.

Back in July Hubby changed jobs.  A job change means a loss of vaca days.  No trip this year.  Maybe a weekend, but def not a week long trip like we enjoy.

Ok.  I can deal with that.  I am a mom.  I can go with the flow.

No weekend trip.  Hubby will be on call.  Ugh.  I hate on call.  I can remember several years when Hubby was on the fire dept and got a call out on Christmas, Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving,  in the middle of the night....

Ok.  No weekend trip.

Plan C.  We will give the kids gifts.  We haven't done that in several years.  I enjoyed that way too much.  What parent doesn't enjoy buying gifts for their children.  Esp when you can give them that gift.  That one they have been saving up for and eye balling for the last two years.  Yup.  That one.  The one that must be opened last and caught on film.  That will be fun to watch.

Thanksgiving came and went.  All of our shopping was done.  Or so I thought.

No one was particularly excited about the change of plans this year.  Nothing was going right.  None of our usual December traditions were working out this year.  Codie was supposed to go to a boy scout camp - out of state - for two weeks.  That was cancelled.  We were supposed to go out of state (our usual trip).  We were spending more time at the house, or at grandmas house preparing for Christmas.  Nothing felt right.  I wasn't sure what was going on.  Why was nothing working out the way it usually did.  We hadn't even gone to look at Christmas light yet, and it was two days before Christmas.

Then I figured it out.

God had a plan.  He just hadn't told us yet.

December 23.

Christmas Eve Eve

3:56 pm

I get a call.

Yup.  That call.  The case worker had two boys who needed a home.

Tonight

What?!  I am getting ready to go to my moms.  We go to my dads tomorrow and back to moms on Christmas day.  You want to add in two more kids?  Little kids!  Under the age of 5.  What?

Ok

Bring it

Wow

What do you say when you hear that two precious children are being taken away from everything they know - the day before Christmas Eve.  A happy time of the year.  A time spent with family and friends.  How could I not say yes?  My heart broke for these kids.  I knew their story already.  They had spent several months with another foster family that I know




After telling the case worker to bring the kids on over I quickly updated my big kids, called Hubby, called mom, then called my dad.  "You will have extra kids this Christmas!"  Yes dad, I am on drugs :)

My sweet big kids quickly helped me find whatever we could to wrap up for these children.  They are young enough that brand new toys mean nothing to them, they will just want a present to unwrap.  So, we went shopping in the playroom.  With only a few hours until they arrive we found every age appropriate toy we could and wrapped it.  Some for our house, some for grandmas, and some for at grandpas.  We don't need to worry about brand new toys, everything in the house is going to be brand new.

Pull down the car seats - that have been in the attic 2 weeks - and start moving the classroom again.  The kids are going to have to stay downstairs.  They are too little to be playing upstairs alone, or walking up and down the stairs in the middle of the night.  This is something we have been talking about since the summer,  however once our children from the summer left, we lost motivation.  Now we have it again.

It's funny how God worked everything out so that we could include new family members into our traditions.  We have had them for a week now (hence the lack of entries lately) and they are just as sweet as can be.  They love having their own room, and have adjusted well.  We even got to take them to look at lights with us.  The only tradition we did not do this year was to make an ornament for the tree.  There is still time.  Maybe that will happen this week.  Life changes a lot when you have 6 kids - three of which are under the age of 5.

Ministering

Searching Pinterest - who knows what for - I found this terrific idea.....

I liked the idea, but had a few ideas to make it 'better.'  To start with, I wanted to add Bible verses.  If you look close you can see that there is a verse after each 'need' listed.  If you are interested in a copy of this (it's in word, so you can change the 'needs' or the verses as you see fit) just leave a message with your email.  We prayed that these would provide whatever was needed to whomever saw the flyer, then Baby girl and I hung some up around church and within an hour - as you can see - several needs were met.  We also hung some up around the local community college, and the bank.  There are some in the truck - along with tape, of course -  so we can hang some up in other places.  We haven't been to the grocery store in a few days, but plan to hang them up wherever we think they will be seen.

Apple Pancakes

In one of my many Pinterest searches lately, I found a recipe for Apple Pancakes.  Sounds yummy.  A little sweet apple added to one of our favorite morning treats.  So, I gave it a try. 

This was a fail for me.  

While this treat tasted ok, the pancake was not fully cooked on the flipped side.  Maybe I just need to cut the apple ring thinner - I already had them pretty thin, but maybe they just needed to be even thinner to cook properly.

I pondered this for a few day.  I still had over a dozen apples in the refrigerator and needed some way to entice the kids to eat them.  I can only make so much baby food, the baby only eats 2-4 oz a day of baby food right now.  

Then I had an idea.  What if I diced the apples?

Using my homemade pancake mix, I went for it.

I decided to go for chocolate chip sized pieces since I knew that chocolate chips do not cause the pancakes to cook unevenly.

After mixing your pancake batter - add the apples.

I have a griddle (wanting a Blackstone griddle in the worst way!), but didn't want to pull it out so I used my griddle pan.  Don't heat it too high - pancakes burn easily.

These worked out so much better!  The kids inhaled them and asked for me to make more.  This will be added to my flavored pancake list (along with puffy,  smores, and bacon pancakes!)