December 23, 2011

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

We’ve spent December focusing our hearts on Christ and His glorious coming!

On Saturday, we’ll have have treats and hot punch (recipe below) and have our family Candlelight Service.

Then on Sunday, we’ll celebrate Jesus’ birth here on earth with birthday cake and presents and fellowship with family.

Have a blessed Christmas!

The Light of the world has come!

Festive Hot Punch

46 oz pineapple juice
64 oz cranberry juice
4½ c. water
1 c. brown sugar
¼ tsp. salt
4 cinnamon sticks, broken
4½ tsp whole cloves

Wrap cinnamon sticks and cloves in a coffee filter and tie with string. Put all ingredients, including spices, in a large stock pot and warm. Ladle into mugs.

December 22, 2011

The Many Sounds of Christmas

I adore Christmas lights twinkling in the icy air and I love the smell of cinnamon and cedar, but there is another sense that fills me with joy even more than these…

the sounds of Christmas!

I grew up in a singing family, so once the Christmas season hit you would hear my dad belting out his favorite hymns and my mom singing Silent Night in German. I grew up with a love of music, especially the music of Christmas.

Every year I take one of our hymnals into the kitchen with me while I work and sing through all the Christmas hymns in it…several times.

I also love popping in a CD like this one:

I don’t even know how I ended up with this CD, but I love it! It truly is a peaceful part of my evening.

And then there is our family Christmas Eve service (details on how you can get your own copy can be found here). It is full of music as we sing our favorite Christmas hymns and retell the story of Christ’s birth.

And just for fun, I’ll sing you my favorite Christmas hymn…”Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel.” (Bet you weren’t expecting that!)

There are some wonderful changes going on behind the scenes here at Raising Arrows, so I’d love to have you stay up to date with all that is going on by signing up for email updates.

Have a Merry Christmas all! May Christ be the purpose and meaning behind all your celebrations this year!

December 21, 2011

The Blessing of a Buffalo

For over a year I purchased our meat in the grocery store. I didn’t enjoy it.

Our buffalo meat from 2 years ago had run out and we kept coming up short on finding grass-fed beef to purchase. So, our freezer sat rather empty as we waited for the next time Ty could go buffalo hunting.

Veteran’s Day this year, that chance came!

Some of you probably know how incredibly expensive buffalo meat is. Because of the interest in breeding buffalo in recent years, the buffalo (or American bison) is no longer an endangered species; however, they are naturally organic and we all know how very expensive organic meat is. Hunting your own is actually a great investment because you get not only the burger, but steaks and roasts all for the same processing fee.

Additionally, buffalo meat offers us some amazing health benefits!

BBQ Buffalo!

Buffalo beats almost every other meat hands down in the nutrition department. Plus, as I said, it is organic because buffalo are naturally free-ranging animals that don’t like to be messed with.

The biggest benefit for me is the high iron content! I struggle with anemia, especially in pregnancy, so eating buffalo meat (cooked in cast iron) is very good for me.

It does smell different cooking than beef and you do have to cook it low and slow because of the next to nil fat content, but those minor adjustments are well worth a freezer full of wonderful meat!

Yes, I know some people wouldn’t be okay with the buffalo head hanging on my wall (I got a lot of comments on that post about being a good woman for allowing that!) or the buffalo robe on my bed (yes, it’s called a robe and not a “rug”), but I dare you to argue with me about the meat!

So, this Christmas I am blessed to have buffalo…a whole freezer load of lovely buffalo!

December 20, 2011

Grapevine Decorating

I like to tear things out of magazines. Especially decorating tips I’ll more than likely never put into practice. However, there was a particular Christmas decorating tip I pulled out of a magazine shortly after we were married that always stuck with me as something I was definitely going to do.

A few years later, I got my chance! At the time we were living in the house that made me smile with its enormous bay windows and lovely front porch. That Christmas, I was so excited to go shopping for decorations…in the woods! My secret woodsy decorating tip? Grapevine!

This year, I once again had a home with a railing perfect for the beautiful Christmas decoration I had once enjoyed all those year ago. And there was just enough grapevine trailing along our back fence line for me to decorate our back balcony.

After I had looped the huge strands of grapevine in and amongst the spindles and top railing to my satisfaction, I added strings of white Christmas lights.

At the other house, I had also added garland to create a look that dazzled in the daytime as well, but since this is our back balcony, I decided to just garnish with lights. The result makes me smile…

I absolutely love decorating with grapevine, not only because it has such a wonderful rustic feel to it, but also because it is entirely FREE! Just make sure you don’t accidentally choose poison ivy!

Do you decorate with grapevine? I’m thinking about adding some to the inside of my home around my china cabinet with lights as well. Any other decorating ideas for grapevine and lights?

December 19, 2011

Celebrate Christmas Link Up!

I hope you have enjoyed this Christmas season as I’ve shared with you our own family traditions. We have camped out under the Christmas tree, learned to bless others through our Advent celebrations and made candy and gingerbread nativities! And I cannot thank you enough for all the Christmas book suggestions!

So, instead of the usual Large Family Organization Link Up, let’s celebrate Christ’s birth together!

Any Christmas post you have that you would like to share, link it up so we can have a little virtual visiting this Christmas week!

And don’t forget to snag my FREE Christmas Eve Candlelight Service!

Thank you so much for joining me and have a Merry Christmas!

December 19, 2011

Our Family Christmas Eve Candlelight Service {Free Subscriber Download!}

Every year, my family attended the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at our church. As the sun set, we sang hymns, followed the Christmas story, and watched as the final candle, the Christ candle, was lit. Then, the light was passed around the dark church and faces shown and eyes sparkled in the candlelight.

A people in darkness no more.

For many years after I married, we continued to travel to my home church for this special evening; however, as our family grew, the tradition became a scary one, rather than one filled with beauty. I spent the first half of the service trying to keep the children from eating their candles and the second half trying to keep them from burning themselves. All this while sitting in a church pew longer than my arms could reach. Finally, I decided we would have to give it up and just stay home.

However, I wasn’t about to let go of the tradition and all its rich meaning altogether. Instead, I exchanged the long church pew for my living room and wrote my own Christmas Eve service for our family to enjoy.

The Candlelight Service is a simple one, but so beautiful as it takes hymns and Scripture and follows the story from longing to realization to spreading the Good News!

This week, I share this Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with all my wonderful subscribers! Look for the link at the bottom of my emails to you.

Not a subscriber? Type your email in the box below, follow the instructions in the confirmation email and enjoy your FREE daily dose of Raising Arrows right in your inbox! You’ll find the link to our Christmas Eve Service at the bottom of your first email from me!