Christmas in July

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas in July! We are home. We arrived home early morning today! And it's been back to the normal busy part of life here! I have a lot to share with you all and lots of great pictures too. I'll get to that early in the coming week!


First I want to say Merry Christmas in July to everyone! I love Christmas, it is my favorite time of the year! I love to bake, cook, decorate, and most of all celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Being as Christmas is my favorite, you know I must do the early celebrating too in July! I delight in this time of the year ever year! As today is my Daddy's Birthday and Christmas in July.


HAPPY 65th Birthday, Daddy!!! You are the best and we love you so very much!!!!!! You are wonderful and make us proud of you!!!


So you may be asking, and what does this crazy gal do to celebrate Christmas in July... You don't have to wonder, I'm going to share! Well I watch QVC Christmas in July, and then to the even better part! I cook a special meal, that I'd fix around Christmas time and a dessert. We watch Christmas movies and do Christmas crafts!


For our crafts, we usually start our homemade Christmas cards this day! And Lil E and I do something fun, even if it is playing in the Christmas stamps! :) Work on Christmas Scrapbooking pages or even making some cinnamon and applesauce ornies! So yes, we get with it! and have some fun!


So what is the dinner? This year, I did a crockpot of green beans, ham, and new potatoes! Everyone loves this meal at our home! Then we have rolls with it, so what did I do? I placed them on the baking sheet, in a fun and festive shape! I made them into a Christmas tree!!!

We picked two Christmas cookbooks off the shelf, and Lil E and Mommy looked at them, and decided what we wanted to make. So we went with a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Gifts of Good Taste. And we made Cakemix Oatmeal Cookies. They are really yummy! The next time I make them, I am going to cut down on the sugar for sure! They are really sweet! But everyone really did like them!

Cake mix Oatmeal Cookies

1 yellow cake mix

2 cups of quick cooking oatmeal

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup chopped pecans

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the cake mix, oatmeal, and sugar. In a smaller bowl, mix together the eggs and oil and then pour into the dry mix. Stir all together. Add in pecans and vanilla. Mix all together well. Shape into 1 1/2 inch ball and place about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. (I use the flat stoneware.) Flatten with the bottom of a glass. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

After dinner, we turn the lights out, and curl up in the living room to watch a Christmas movie! Ahhh, one of my favorite things to do! I can watch Christmas movies all the time! :) This time Lil E picked Deck the Halls. If you haven't seen it, it really is a good movie! I think she likes it because Buddy Hall is her daddy's idol. LOL ok, maybe not really, but we tend to think so, since James goes all out with his outside decorating! But it brings smiles to lots of faces!

And yes, we do remind the girls, that this is part of the fun things about Christmas, but Christmas is Jesus' Birthday, and we are blessed to be able to celebrate in the GREATEST Birthday ever to man kind! And yes, Mom's, I'm with you, our kids birthdays are the next biggest birthdays in the world. :) So even though we are celebrating in July, we still take the time to remind our girls just what Christmas is all about!

So we had a good first day back at home!!! Hope yall are all doing well and had a great day too!!!!!!

Hugs and Blessings,