Happy Birthday, Jesus (Christmas Part 3)

We usually play "Pin the Star on the Stable," but we can't FIND it this year....that didn't stop us from enjoying a wonderful birthday party for Jesus. The whole day was a celebration...but here are a few highlights.

Michael and Nolan's cake was wonderful! 

I made a Single Serving Vegan chocolate cake - this is VERY rich and chocolaty  I used the coconut cream for frosting...next time I'll drizzle it....far too sweet...but a vegan yummy dessert.

We sang Happy Birthday, blew out the candle (first and last) and ate. 

We discussed our Family Prayer Verse and Vision...enthusiastic acceptance by all....I'll blog more about that later.

Gift time for Jesus....we are still discussing what our "big gift" for Jesus will be this year...it may be a well, a water buffalo or crisis care for widows and children....still sorting it out.

However, we opened Jesus'  Christmas Stocking which we'd attempted to fill this season.

If words of affirmation are your love language this event is perfect. ::grin:: 

Stacia was allowed to draw photos of  things she saw other's doing which were Christ-like. Here she explains to Nolan the good she saw him doing. 

Did I say this was rich and chocolaty - and only ONE MINUTE to bake? 

Perfect First Day of Christmas. The timing of our family gift exchange is under discussion. Most of us think New Year's Eve would be a good time...trying to stay up anyway. Stacia thinks we should way for the 12th Day of Christmas - Jan 6th. We shall see.  Meanwhile I love having a peaceful tree to enjoy a bit longer....

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Treats, Games and Gifts

With breakfast and family circle behind us, we moved on with the rest of the day.

We got Krista on Skype. We missed everyone else.

I got busy in the kitchen.  This was the perfect Christmas Apron. Amazing to reflect these little hand-prints were from 15 years ago...the little pink one on top was Arielle's  print from 6 months old...Nolan, Zander and Stacia weren't around.....So I wore the elder Gherkins this year. 

These 4 (and Stacia for about 10 min) began a 5 1/2 hour game of Monopoly. 

Lunch would have been easy....we usually just do a frozen lasagna...everything other than the lasagna was plant strong...Kale Quinoa Salad, Fruit Salad, Green Salad, garlic bread, roasted ratatouille,  and Lentil Mushroom Spinach Roulade. I nearly skipped the roulade but in the end discovered Arielle really did NOT want to eat the lasagna and was happy to have a main entree option.  

Our at home Gherkins

After lunch Monopoly moved into the negotiation phase....

The kids love to play hide and seek with Yuuki. 

They say, "Yuuki stay." 

She sits and stays...and tenses....

Finally, "Yuuki, COME!" 

The hunt is on! See the black coat? Zander in hiding. Yuuki had her nose in the shoe stand in his shoe cubby, then checked out the books before she FOUND HIM. She ALWAYS does. 

 We don't do a big gift exchange on Christmas Day....but we do open presents from far away family.

 I had just said...look at the healthy treats and then pulled out the Mocha Roca. LOL  

Grandma and Grandpa sent a table-top ping pong game...

Michael was up a lot yesterday and today....so he's down tonight....

Zander loves the whistles Krista sent. 

One of our Advent gifts was Rory Story Cubes. We've created our own way to play....all work together on a giant story.....each adding to it.... 

Funky dudes in tights, radioactive aliens, fairies, parachuters and dragons....fun times.

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Vegetable Quinoa Salad (Sugar Free Mom)

Quinoa is a new grain for us. I found this recipe at Sugar Free Mom....

Such a colorful salad

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups water
1 cup fresh (packed) spinach
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup sliced cucumber
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup mild banana peppers rings

Balsamic Dressing

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions

Place one cup of dry uncooked quinoa in a pot with water. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until all water is absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to cool. In a large serving bowl add your chopped vegetables. In a small bowl whisk together dressing ingredients. Combine cooled quinoa with vegetables and toss with dressing. Makes about 4 1/2 cups.

Nutrition Info
Servings: 4* Calories per serving: 247* Fat: 10g* Cholesterol: 0mg* Sodium: 318mg* Carbs: 33g* Fiber: 4g* Protein: 7g* Points+: 6*

Note: I used Kale in place of spinach... this seemed to be a lot of quinoa...I may use less next time.


Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Lentil Mushroom Spinach Roulade or "Vegan Stromboli"

This is yummy. The recipe was originally found at Mouthwatering Vegan. Her pictures are spectacular, for more detailed instructions go visit her. Also - I changed out some spices and you may like hers better! This is how I made it...Arielle and I loved it. Michael said it was good. 

Note photo from Original Recipe - go check it out! 

Ingredients: 
2 T of olive oil (use up to 2 T more if you need it)
6 large mushrooms, chopped well
4 cloves of garlic, minced
Medium onion, chopped fine
3 T tomato paste
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 - 1 tsp fennel
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt to taste (don't skip)

2 C of cooked lentils (or 15 oz of canned)
2 C COOKED spinach (takes a LOT of spinach), roughly chopped
6 sun-dried tomatoes (I didn't have)
1/4 C water
Splashes of lemon or lime juice to taste

3/4 C pecans (roast) - chopped
handful of cashews - chopped
1 T Nutritional Yeast Flakes 

Vegan short crust pastry - I used pie crust - enough for a double crust pie

Vegan milk to brush on top

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400*.

Saute mushrooms, garlic and onions until limp.

Add tomato paste, curry, onion powder, fennel, salt and mix.  Stir for a minute.

Add lentils and stir.

Add spinach and tomatoes, water and splashes of lemon or lime. Taste. Adjust seasonings.

Original recipe called to cover and simmer. Mine didn't look like it needed to simmer so I skipped.

Roll out dough to 10x7. I figure I did THIS WAY bigger as ours were so long they had to be cut in half and they were skinner than hers...but it tasted fantastic.

Spoon lukewarm lentil mixture onto the dough. She suggests vegan cheese. I don't do vegan cheese. I opted to add extra nuts on top of the mixture - sprinkle both on. Save some to press into the ends of loaves before you cook.

Sprinkle a tablespoon of nutritional yeast on top of the nuts. You won't miss the cheese - I promise.

Roll away from you into a log. Get help to move it to a greased pan

Score the top. Brush with vegan milk.

Bake until it turns golden. Recipe said 20 min. but it took mine much longer. So long, in fact that I turned the broiler on and left it too long. LOL

Choosing Joy
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Cinnamon Rolls

Our favorite recipes go on the blog....this means I've NOT baked these much since the blog began in 2005. However, they ARE our Christmas Tradition. 

1 C whipping cream 

1 C brown sugar

Rolls: 

3 1/2 C of flour

1 T of yeast

1/4 C sugar

1 tsp sea salt

2 T butter

1 egg

1 C hot water

Filling:

1/2 C butter

1 1/2 C sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Mix brown sugar and cream in 9 x 13 pan. 

Blend 1/2 the flour and next six ingredients. Beat 3 minutes, stir in remaining flour. 

Knead - roll to 7 x 15. 

Spread on butter and filling.  (I just eyeball it -this seemed like WAY to much butter and sugar). 

Roll, seal edges, cut into 15 pieces. 

Place on topping. 

Cover and let rise until doubled for about 40 min. 

Bake at 375* for 20 - 25 minutes. 

Cool 10 minutes. Turn out. 

*Note:

I substituted Coconut oil for the butter, Coconut cream in place of whip cream and used rapadura for all sugar. You can also skip the egg. 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Celebrating the Gift Which is too Wonderful for Words!

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 2 Cor 9:15.  Today we set apart the day as a family to celebrate and worship our indescribable, unspeakable, inexpressible, too wonderful for words gift!

Sitting around the living room and sharing what God's gift means to each of us was precious. We discussed  Jesus sacrificed for us and we are called to live as a living sacrifice in response (Romans 12:1). Then we allowed Stacia and Zander to open ONE GIFT.

This was followed with heartfelt popcorn prayer - as opposed to slow cooker prayers that go on and on for hours. ::snort::

Beware of the unintended traditions you are starting if you have a young family. Every year on Christmas Morning I would try to have fruit, cinnamon rolls, cereal, egg casseroles. A couple of years ago my Mom let me know the girls had brought our traditional cinnamon rolls to their Christmas morning breakfast. I thought, "Huh! I don't remember that being our tradition."  A few weeks ago Nolan began to remind me we needed cinnamon rolls for Christmas. Michael and I have talked. Neither of us remember this being a particular tradition - other than I'd make or we'd buy some from Cinabon, "If we remembered."  But the KIDS remember this differently....it isn't our tradition to have GRANOLA every Christmas morning...it's not our tradition to have FRUIT every Christmas morning....it IS OUR TRADITION TO HAVE CINNAMON ROLLS ON CHRISTMAS MORNING.  Since we have changed most our traditions in the past four years, we wanted to make this one work.  The problem arose when we FORGOT until Nolan mentioned last night, "Did you stop by Cinabon?"

This a.m. I was up bright and early seeing if I had the ingredients to make the famous cinnamon rolls I've not really baked since we lived in Hardin, MT (17 years ago).  I was not surprised I did NOT have whipping cream in the house...nor brown sugar. I discovered COCONUT CREAM works well.....and the rapadura was "ok"....I did have a bit of white sugar left from last year's Christmas baking...enough to make the filling..... It was worth the effort.

Everyone appreciated the rolls....well...nearly everyone....Yuuki got Stacia's shawl, wrapped up in it and pouted because she didn't get to eat breakfast with us.

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Christmas Eve

Michael went into the office today. He submitted our "dream sheet" for our next assignment. We really haven't seen that mean anything in the past. ::snort:: 

Arielle went to the mall with her friends, Emily and Alicia. Nolan and Stacia put together this: 

Michael came home from the base with boxes....a couple more Christmas gifts have arrived....this package  solved a mystery for us. We now know what Adrian Monk is doing now that his show has run it's course.... He's running the shipping dept for Vitacost! Beautiful! Amazing...most of our boxes arrive as a jumble. 

Before we headed to base for the Candlelight service we had Stacia open a gift...she was thrilled...she received shoes, tights, this sparkly dress and black sweater with bling - all from the clearance aisles at Target in Nashville, TN. ::grin::  She was excited and loved wearing it all tonight.

It's our tradition to open Christmas Stockings after the service. This remains.....

I had no clue how much  Arielle was looking forward to her Christmas Eve PJs. Finding the Cheerios box nearly did her in.

Michael and Nolan are making the Birthday cake for Jesus - G style. 

Unfortunately, I keep forgetting, and my family keeps insisting, it's TRADITION for me to serve cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. We tried to hit Cinnabon but they were closed. Guess what I'll be doing bright and early....and then we'll spend the day as a family, worshiping Jesus, celebrating Emmanuel - and trying to catch the elder Gherkins via skype...

Merry Christmas Y'all! 

Choosing Joy!
©2012 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...