Welcome and What to Expect

Allison Weeks 0:03

Merry Christmas Homemakers . Welcome to episode two of Holiday Homemaking 2023 . I am your host , allison Weeks . I am a wife , a mom to four grown kids , granny to one little boy , and I have been practicing the art of holiday homemaking for over 31 years . Welcome back to all of our regular listeners and , if you're new to the podcast , welcome .

Allison Weeks 0:29

You picked a great time to join us , as you will hear from not one , but six Homemakers today about their Christmas traditions , recipes , holiday favorites and tips . The purpose of this series is to bring a little Christmas cheer and encouragement into your December , so that you will hopefully be inspired to not merely endure the Christmas season , but enjoy the gift of holiday homemaking . If you love this kind of content , be sure to check out our Holiday Homemaking 2021 and 2022 series , which have a total of eight episodes just like this one , and sign up for our free weekly newsletter Homemaker Happy Mail . Special holiday editions will go out every Friday during the month of December and will feature recipes shared by our guests in each episode , as well as some special guest writing on the themes of Advent . Sign up for the newsletter using the link below or go to the artofhomepodcastcom to subscribe .

Allison Weeks 1:30

In today's episode , you will hear from Kelly Gunderson , bryn De , van Helen , carly Pooleyn , sarah Bow , nicole Pace and Brianna Wakefield . I've got another great poem from Marjorie Rawlings , some tips on how to host a tree decorating party , and I'm sharing my thoughts on the Advent theme of peace from last year at the birth of my first grandchild . It's another full episode and I know you will get lots of ideas and inspiration , but you don't have to do it all . Take one or two nuggets and apply them in ways that bring value to your practice of holiday homemaking . Whatever you are applying your hands to as you listen today , I know you will enjoy these holiday stories of home .

Kelly Gundersen

Allison Weeks 2:16

All right , I'm back with my friend Kelly Gunderson and we're going to talk about Christmas . Kelly , describe to me Christmas at your house .

Kelly Gundersen 2:25

Well , it depends on the year . So we alternate with Thanksgiving and Christmas between my family and my husband's family . So this year it is a hermit Christmas . So we'll be here in San Antonio , We'll have the morning at home with just the four of us , and then we'll go somewhere with all of my family and have just a chill afternoon .

Allison Weeks 2:51

Nice . So what are you eating ? Do you have a special Christmas breakfast or do you guys do a big traditional meal with your family ?

Kelly Gundersen 3:02

So at home with the four of us or if we're traveling . Last year I made a birthday cake and Tulsa , so this year in San Antonio , we'll make some new birthday cake . The kids are always wondering what Jesus' favorite birthday cake was and kind of making them all . So they love having cake for breakfast on . Christmas morning . So that's kind of a recent thing .

Kelly Gundersen 3:26

That's fun , yeah , so that's a morning thing , and then my family normally has a very traditional meal , although I think one year we did steak , so that's kind of a non-traditional but a hermit traditional , and then Michael's family is kind of different each year too . There's not a set thing .

Allison Weeks 3:50

Okay , it's everybody's different . Some people do more regional stuff , or , you know , if their family is from a particular part of the country or a particular country , they might pull that in and do those things and a lot of times in the States we don't want to eat turkey because we just had turkey four weeks ago so we want to do something different .

Allison Weeks 4:11

Is there like a special recipe that , besides the birthday cakes that you make for breakfast ? Is there a special recipe that you make , through sometime during the holiday season , a special cookie or a dessert or something ?

Kelly Gundersen 4:23

We're starting that . There is not one yet , but we're starting that Christmas cookie baking situation and Karris loves baking , so we're to be continued on that . Okay , we're working on that for the family cookies that need to be made every year .

Allison Weeks 4:42

Okay , cool . Well , what about other traditions that don't involve food Stuff that you guys do ? That are you try to do every year as a family , maybe ?

Kelly Gundersen 4:54

So anytime after Thanksgiving for us starts the countdown to . We need to take the river barge downtown and look at the lights . So we do that every year and it's just magical . Have you done that ? I have .

Allison Weeks 5:11

Yeah , I got to do it actually for the first time . Last year I was invited to go with my daughter-in-law's family . They go every year .

Kelly Gundersen 5:23

Oh fun .

Allison Weeks 5:24

And they get a whole boat oh fun . And they bring a bunch of people and they sing .

Kelly Gundersen 5:30

Oh fun .

Allison Weeks 5:30

Yeah , so because we're all singing musical people , so they , we get the historic part of the river tour , but then we also get a little they ask the guy to take them down a little extra part or something , I don't know . They get a little extra time and he doesn't talk . The guide is not talking at this point and we were , we were just singing to all the people on the sides .

Kelly Gundersen 5:51

I didn't know you could get them to not talk .

Allison Weeks 5:53

Yeah .

Kelly Gundersen 5:53

That's nice , yeah , so that was really fun . So we do the river thing every year , but we might have to look into getting a whole boat doing it with our friends .

Kelly Gundersen 6:03

That's a good idea . Yeah , so we do that . Then we also have an advent calendar . It's a very unique advent calendar , something I made before we had kids . It's kind of funny , but it's a bunch of different envelopes that are embroidered with the day , so one through 25 . And there's a verse . Is there a verse ? No , there's a prophecy , with the verses on it and their little ornaments , and so we'll . That'll be part of our advent thing is , we'll open that and read that , and then the kids can take it and hang it on the tree , and it's really cute because it's fun to see how the verses have spread out over the tree as the years have gone on , cause carousels used to be like you know the bottom two feet of the tree , but they're moving up as they get taller yeah .

Kelly Gundersen 6:59

And they just they kind of like you know clump together , but now they're spreading out a little bit more . So that's just been a cute thing to see the additional decoration on the tree and and there will be . So there'll be a prophecy and then they'll be something like go look at Christmas lights with the windows down and hot chocolate or something like that .

Allison Weeks 7:22

Oh , so there's like a activity , activity prompt or something , right , right .

Kelly Gundersen 7:26

So that's fun . The prompts , I think need a little more updating . But yeah so there's that . So that's kind of a sweet , that is sweet . I like that thing yeah .

Allison Weeks 7:36

I like that a lot . So , speaking of admin and the reason why we celebrate , what are some things that you do to help keep yourself focused and not get carried away with all the craziness and the busyness of the season ?

Kelly Gundersen 7:56

Well , there's a lot of stuff gets put on the calendar , I'd say a month ahead of time , easily in December , and so if it's kind of like saying no , we can only do yeah , it's .

Kelly Gundersen 8:15

It's simply I guess , saying no , it feels kind of harsh , but we want to have dinner , we want to have the opportunity to have conversation with our kids and hear about their day or ask them questions , and so so , yeah , if it's not kind of on the schedule , I don't know . I feel like that's kind of like our rule of life right now is just focus on being here with these little people , have bandwidth for the spontaneous things here and there , but not have that beauty of rule of life .

Allison Weeks 8:56

So yeah , no , that's good . You do have to be kind of protective about even more , so I think at that at this time of year .

Kelly Gundersen 9:04

Well , and I have . They both have January birthdays . So , that's one thing that starts to rattle around in my head , and so I've just had the idea last year to bake their cakes right around Thanksgiving time and freeze them . Because by the time their birthdays roll around . I'm just done .

Allison Weeks 9:24

You're exhausted .

Kelly Gundersen 9:25

Yeah . So if I could have their cakes baked and their presents bought , have kind of a plan for their birthdays , that helps . That , I think , more than saying no to all the things helps me to be present .

Allison Weeks 9:39

That's so that season . So , if I can , just do that feels like a wind to me . That's really really smart . It's almost like you've got back to back things , because what you just described is what I'm , what I'm what I try to do for the holidays as well . Like I try to start thinking about it .

Allison Weeks 9:55

like it's October right now , so I'm already thinking about what can I make and stick in the freezer so that you know when Christmas comes I'm not frantic or I've just run out of time and that just didn't happen , but you've got it . But I always know that in January I can kind of like catch my breath , but you can't do that Five days apart .

Kelly Gundersen 10:18

My birthdays are five days apart . Oh my goodness .

Allison Weeks 10:20

Yeah , so just being really proactive about thinking ahead and planning and actually doing things ahead of time , that's really smart .

Kelly Gundersen 10:27

Yeah , if I can have that done , then that gives me the freedom to you know , spontaneously , go look at Christmas lights , which is the favorite activity around here in December , that's great , that's awesome .

Allison Weeks 10:42

Well , those are some really great suggestions . Thank you for sharing my pleasure . Merry Christmas .

Brenda VanHellen

Allison Weeks 10:54

All right , I'm back with my friend , brenda Van Helen . Brenda is a seasoned homemaker . We just finished her main interview and now we're going to talk about Christmas , which you guys will get to hear this part in December , and I would love to know what does a typical Christmas day look like in the Van Helen household ?

Brenda VanHellen 11:13

Well , last Christmas it was totally awesome because our son , daughter-in-law and the grandbaby were here for Christmas , so it was so amazing . We had the tree and we had extra lights and everything in a snowman and all this stuff for Kai . Kai is our grandson who lives in Japan .

Allison Weeks 11:34

Yes , in case you did hear . Yeah , in case you didn't hear her main interview . He's all the way in Japan .

Brenda VanHellen 11:39

So it was awesome because we always open gifts in the morning Christmas morning and of course , we went to Christmas Eve service Right , so they got to go with us and that was really awesome . To praise and sing , oh , it was amazing with my son and his wife and the baby and so , yeah , we had Christmas music playing . I made all our favorites that I made when they were the kids were young , which is a breakfast casserole that you do the night before and it's got bread in it and eggs , so it's really moist and yummy , and cheese and sausage and then bubble bread that we do too . That one of the kids teachers told us about years ago what is it and so we make it every year .

Kelly Gundersen 12:31

What is that ?

Brenda VanHellen 12:32

And it's in a bunt pan , and it's overnight too , so this is so cool , because then you can just bake all this .

Brenda VanHellen 12:37

Yes , and then have some fruit and you're done for you know , brunch or breakfast Christmas day , but it's . You get a bunt pan and you put those roads frozen dough balls R-H-O-D-E-D-S and you put them in the bottom of a buttered bunt pan and you put about I think it's like 20 of them in there and then you get melted butter and you put a little bit of that and you use butterscotch cook pudding not instant , the small one and you sprinkle that in .

Brenda VanHellen 13:17

Oh , my goodness , and then nuts , and you just keep , you know putting more butter and cinnamon . I'm hungry . And then you just leave it out on the counter with just a paper towel over it , loosely , and it rises overnight , oh because , it's yeasted .

Kelly Gundersen 13:32

Yeah , they're yeast rolls , oh , oh , oh , my gosh .

Brenda VanHellen 13:35

And then you bake it and then you invert it and it looks beautiful and you just pull it apart and eat it . It's yummy . So , and then I think I did orange Julius one time too , you know , in the blender with ice and orange yeah .

Allison Weeks 13:51

Okay , you're going to have to share that bread recipe with us .

Brenda VanHellen 13:54

So yummy and you can do that . You can also do that . That's one of those cooks on TV did 30 minute meals , rachel Ray . She did it with the bread rolls and black pepper butter . Rosemary .

Allison Weeks 14:11

Oh , she did savory rosemary .

Brenda VanHellen 14:13

Yes .

Allison Weeks 14:14

Yummy .

Brenda VanHellen 14:15

And cheese , provolone or mozzarella . And then you do a layer again and you do the same thing you let it sit out . You can let it sit out for like six hours and bake it , and , oh my gosh , it sounds amazing .

Allison Weeks 14:30

Yeah , you could do that for like Christmas dinner .

Brenda VanHellen 14:33

You could yeah , yeah .

Allison Weeks 14:35

Or just whenever .

Brenda VanHellen 14:36

Whenever you want something yummy or take it , you know , to somebody's house . Yeah , it's very impressive . I was going to say it sounds like it's a showstopper visually it's a showstopper , yeah , and everyone loves it , so it's really good , yeah , okay .

Allison Weeks 14:49

So we're having Christmas breakfast that you mostly prepared the night before , which is very wise . And then that's right , what happens ?

Brenda VanHellen 14:56

and we open presents , of course , and have just an awesome time of eating and watching him play was so adorable , but most Christmases were alone .

Allison Weeks 15:08

Yeah .

Brenda VanHellen 15:09

And so I don't do the casserole but I always do the bubble bread , because my husband says you got to still do that . So , and then we really don't give gifts to each other anymore . Sometimes I'll get him something from the dog . I got him a coffee cup last year before that said , uh , first I drink my coffee and then I pet the dog . Oh , so because he said we're not supposed to give each other and I said it's not for me .

Allison Weeks 15:33

It's from the dog .

Brenda VanHellen 15:34

So we opened it and he was like , oh my God , that's so cute . That's cute Because he loves our little doggies too . So yeah , we just will do something at home . But I do have sisters . We do a Christmas Eve at my niece who lives out here in Volverty too , and my sisters come , and so we bring stuff to eat . And so I'm so thankful I have my family you know that , you know my siblings that I can do stuff with .

Kelly Gundersen 15:58

Yeah .

Brenda VanHellen 15:59

And uh , because it is lonely on Christmas with nobody here , but we still play Christmas music , and you know we're still very thankful , quiet , and then we try to , you know , facetime with the kids .

Allison Weeks 16:11

So that's good , that's good . Yeah Well , do you guys have any Christmas traditions in your family ?

Brenda VanHellen 16:16

Maybe stuff you , but stuff that you did with the kids when they were growing up , or anything like that , Just hanging the stockings , and you know uh Christmas um at church , you know uh Christmas Eve um service making cookies , together , of course , and I still make their favorite cookies and send them to them .

Allison Weeks 16:40

So they love that . So how far in advance do you have to get your act together so it'll get to Japan and try what I try to do ?

Brenda VanHellen 16:47

because I'm working is I try to bake some of their favorites . Matt in New York loves his molasses cookies , which is kind of like a ginger snap but it's soft , and so I'll do those and freeze them . So I'll make my cookies , I try to get them done and freeze them , and then I've got sugar cookies and then the snowballs that are kind of like a sandy or whatever .

Brenda VanHellen 17:11

And I try to do all that and have it in the freezer and then decorate . If I don't have time , I'll make the sugar cookies and then we'll pull them out and my husband will help me decorate them and then send them .

Allison Weeks 17:25

So how did you pack them ? Okay , how do you pack them to get from Texas to Japan , Like you ? Have any tips for that ?

Brenda VanHellen 17:32

Well , my husband , because of our business we used to have . Oh , that's right . With the mold business for porcelain and things that you make . He has all the packing materials and stuff there , so he's a good packer . He knows how to do that . And then there's requirements and stuff , paperwork you have to fill out for Japan . But that's what we would do . We always send those to them , so they have their cookies every year .

Allison Weeks 17:59

That's really sweet . I love that . Well , the holidays can get crazy and hectic . Even though you don't have your family here , it's a busy time .

Brenda VanHellen 18:08

Yes .

Allison Weeks 18:09

If you're involved in church or anything in your community , and there's just lots of extras going on in December . So what are some of the things that you do to keep your focus on Christ during the Christmas season ?

Brenda VanHellen 18:22

Well , I know it's very hard to do that and I read a devotional or advent kind of thing to prepare . And then we do get involved in the church and sign up for things that we can do or help decorate or whatever , and take some cookies to my neighbors , and that's how I especially like if they're new neighbors . If it's not during Christmas then I would do something else . But I always take cookies to my neighbors and introduce ourselves or ask them if they have a home church and see if you invite them to ours and go and look at lights and things like that and just put our manger scene that we have . It's so old but it's a cut out kind of a thing .

Brenda VanHellen 19:24

Oh for like the front yard or for the yeah we have it down by the street with a light on it , you know , and so that people can see that , and I don't know . Yeah , that's good , good answers .

Allison Weeks 19:37

Well , okay , anything else you'd want to share about Christmas ?

Brenda VanHellen 19:42

I would like to do Caroline again . I think that's so cool .

Allison Weeks 19:46

I know .

Brenda VanHellen 19:46

If anybody wants to do that , that'd be fun . Anybody that can play a guitar to you , like someone sitting next to me , I think that would be so fun and take some cookies and give it .

Allison Weeks 19:58

you know , it's a little harder to do where we live out here , because the houses are pretty spread apart , because we're sort of out in the country , but the city is coming our way though .

Brenda VanHellen 20:11

Yes , and there's a lot of subdivisions around us that are right next to each other , that you could do it .

Allison Weeks 20:20

Yeah , that would be fun . I know , okay , I don't know . Like one more .

Brenda VanHellen 20:24

And then tell them Jesus loves you and God bless you .

Allison Weeks 20:28

Yeah , that took that out . That took that out . There's I mean , there's a lot of different ways Did it hurt you ?

Brenda VanHellen 20:34

No , no , I got like a , like a brother ear .

Allison Weeks 20:37

I got like a , my ears ring really badly . So , I have to kind of like , because sometimes I think it's literally like things dying inside . You know what I'm saying . It's like there goes another one like whatever sells in my ear . You know that you think . So I hear one like , cause I'll hear like a really loud .

Allison Weeks 20:58

And you hear them say this is it I mean come on , this is it for me , and so if I push in on my ear it'll I do that at night cause that's when I noticed it , when it's really quiet . And I'm like cause ?

Brenda VanHellen 21:10

it seems like it's this one , and I don't know if that's part of .

Allison Weeks 21:14

I don't know why A vaccine or COVID . Well , no for me , I've had it for a long time .

Brenda VanHellen 21:19

I haven't . My husband has , but I haven't .

Allison Weeks 21:21

And I think I always thought it was because of the ear monitors that we wear at church .

Brenda VanHellen 21:26

Yeah .

Allison Weeks 21:27

I don't keep mine really loud , but anyway , we're getting way off topic , yeah right , you're not recording it . It's still recording , but that's okay , well , okay , let me close this out . Thank you for sharing all your Christmas tips , and will you please share the bubble bread recipe with us .

Brenda VanHellen 21:44

Yes , I will .

Allison Weeks 21:45

That would be wonderful , cause I'm definitely gonna make that this year . Thank you and Merry Christmas .

Brenda VanHellen 21:50

Merry Christmas to you too . God bless you and your family . Thank you .

"Christmas Plum Pudding" by Marjorie K Rawlings

Allison Weeks 21:54

Christmas Plum Pudding . A light with Holly on its breast and round its ample girth . Plum Pudding makes a holiday of any day on earth . Marjorie K Rawlings , December 1926 .

Carly Poulin

Allison Weeks 22:41

Okay , I'm back with my friend Carly Pullin , and Carly is in the trenches how making mama and we're gonna talk about Christmas . All right , Carly , tell me what is a typical Christmas day . Look like at your house .

Carly Poulin 22:53

So our typical Christmas day changes from year to year because I co-parent for my big kids . Some years they are here in the mornings and some years they are not . So some mornings it's first thing In the morning , we do our presents as a family , but if they're not here we will wait until usually about brunch time . So we'll do presents as a family and then usually my in-laws will come over , my mother and her husband will come over and we'll do presents with them and we'll do a nice meal . We usually have a big brunch . That kind of changes from year to year , what we have , depending on what people request , and a special recipe that I always make is my chocolate chip cookies .

Allison Weeks 23:53

Oh nice , yes , Is there something ? I mean , is it what's special about them ? Do you use a particular special ingredient , or is that a secret ? Can you tell us ?

Carly Poulin 24:04

I have a really good recipe there , like the soft baked kind Yummy . Yeah , they're very good .

Allison Weeks 24:12

I'm like don't give me a crunchy chocolate chip cookie . I want it to be gooey and soft .

Carly Poulin 24:16

Yeah , yes , exactly . But yeah , it's in the way that I mix the ingredients . Certain things get mixed together first and then it gets combined in a certain way to keep it softer .

Allison Weeks 24:31

Okay , cool . Well , if you're willing to share , we would love to have your recipe .

Carly Poulin 24:36

Yes , definitely , okay , that would be awesome .

Allison Weeks 24:39

Okay , so it sounds like there's a lot of variation in your Christmas day , just kind of depending on who's there and what everybody's in the mood to eat and all that kind of stuff . So what about holiday traditions throughout the season ? Do you have any family traditions that you guys like to do during the season ?

Carly Poulin 24:55

Decorating is definitely our biggest tradition . I have all of the decorations from when I was a kid . Oh , that's fun that my mom also used to take out and we would decorate together . So that's really fun . The kids all like doing that and the presents is one of our main traditions taking turns , watching each other open our presents and such .

Allison Weeks 25:27

So it's not a free for all , it's like one at a time .

Carly Poulin 25:30

One at a time , okay , and usually someone plays Santa .

Allison Weeks 25:35

Oh , that's fun .

Brenda VanHellen 25:36

Yeah .

Allison Weeks 25:37

Yeah , when do you decorate ? Are you like an early decorator ? Do you kind of wait till later in the month ?

Carly Poulin 25:44

I think it all varies . It depends on how busy we are or how you know . Up to it , we're feeling we've done it super early because we needed , you know , the cheer , and then we've done it super late because we were so busy . Yeah .

Allison Weeks 26:01

Yeah , okay , cool . Well , I have some rapid fire questions for you that are Christmas themed . So here we go . You ready , right Favorite Christmas song or Christmas girl ?

Carly Poulin 26:15

Happy Christmas . War is over . By John Lennon .

Allison Weeks 26:18

Oh , that's a good one . That's a good one . Favorite Christmas movie Polar Express . Have you ever been to one of the like live Polar Express thingies where you ride on a train ?

Carly Poulin 26:30

and I have not , but my mom has taken my big kids to that because we have a big cog railway up here . Oh fun , yeah , that is awesome .

Allison Weeks 26:40

What a cool memory they got to make with it . Oh yeah Okay , gingerbread or sugar cookie . Sugar cookies Okay , with icing or without icing .

Carly Poulin 26:50

Without . I make my own slice and bake sugar cookies . Ooh , nice , so like I make a picture in them like Pillsbury style .

Allison Weeks 26:59

Oh my gosh , how do you do ?

Carly Poulin 27:00

that .

Allison Weeks 27:03

I practice . What's it a picture of ?

Carly Poulin 27:05

Like simple shapes , or it can be whatever . I just have to figure out how to make it . So what ? Are some that you've done before I've done a Christmas tree , I've done a checkerboard pattern For my cousin's baby shower . I did they were . She had twins after a miscarriage , so they were double rainbow babies . So I did a double rainbow . Oh fun . And the name of the baby that she lost was River , so I did a River running under them . So , that was probably my most proud one . Yes , yeah , it's very fun .

Allison Weeks 27:48

That is so cool , so you don't want to ice them , because then it would cover that design .

Carly Poulin 27:52

Right , right Got it .

Allison Weeks 27:53

Oh , that's really cool . Okay , fake tree or real tree .

Carly Poulin 28:00

So fake now . Last year we did our first ever cut your own and it had aphids .

Allison Weeks 28:07

Oh no .

Carly Poulin 28:10

Oh my God . And I popped that thing straight out our window . Hi , it was covered in aphids , so it must have had eggs on it . And when we brought it inside the eggs hatched from the heat . Yeah , oh my gosh . So I panicked because I have so many houseplants . Yeah , and out the window it went .

Allison Weeks 28:34

That's right .

Carly Poulin 28:35

The houseplants . Oh my gosh . So now we're team fake until I have room to put it somewhere away from all of my plants , because I mean look , you're going to have that Christmas tree for maybe a month , but you're going to have those plant babies in there all the time .

Allison Weeks 28:52

You don't want them to get aphids . No .

Carly Poulin 28:55

Oh gosh , yeah , yeah .

Allison Weeks 28:57

OK , all right . Bows or no . Bows on your presents ? Bows , OK . And then finally , Christmas music . Are you before or after Thanksgiving ?

Carly Poulin 29:10

I was in the Christmas music year round . We randomly play it , we randomly sing it . Ok , I used to , when I was a kid , say that it had to be the day after Thanksgiving . But no , I really don't care , I'll sing it whenever .

Allison Weeks 29:27

That's cool , fair , good answer . Ok , finally , holidays are hectic . We know this . The whole season can get crazy , especially with a bunch of kids . So what are some of the things that you do to keep it between the rails and keep your focus on the things that really matter the most during that season ?

Carly Poulin 29:47

So lately we have been trying to do less material things , less presents . I think this year we are going to try where everyone puts their money together and we get an Airbnb in the summer , Instead of trying to buy the kids a million toys that are just going to be thrown around . So I think we have everyone in agreement that that's what we'll do so .

Allison Weeks 30:15

This is with your extended family , like with brothers and sisters and stuff .

Carly Poulin 30:20

Yep , my mom , my in-laws , all of that Fun . Yeah , because we'd like to have more experiences together and not be caught up in gift giving and getting the biggest best things . Yeah , and having meals together is really important for us too .

Allison Weeks 30:49

Yeah , particularly during that season , Taking the time to sit down to dinner at least a few times a week .

Carly Poulin 30:58

Yeah , so we get together , usually with my husband's extended family and stuff around the holidays , so we're also busy that that's the only time we really slow down , and so trying to slow down for those meals together and not rush through them to get to the next one , that's definitely a big thing .

Allison Weeks 31:25

So you have local extended family as nearby .

Carly Poulin 31:30

Yeah , yeah , for the most part , I'm sure you can drive across the state in three hours . I know it's like me driving to Houston , yes , yeah , so I mean they might be a couple of towns away , but it's usually about a half an hour drive for anyone .

Allison Weeks 31:49

Cool , cool , that's good , all right . Well , thanks for sharing all your holiday stories and memories and ideas and have a very merry Christmas . Merry Christmas , thank you . ["sera Boat Song"] . ["sera Boat

Sarah Beaugh

Allison Weeks 32:06

Song"] . Okay , back here with Sarah Bo and we're gonna talk about Christmas . So , sarah , tell me , what does a typical Christmas day look like in the Bo household ?

Sarah Beaugh 32:16

We are usually here . I think we've only never like twice in 22 years have we not been here . So we're here , my whole family's here in San Antonio , okay , so that makes a difference . Yes , and so we wake up and do gifts and have a special breakfast and then read the Christmas story from Luke , I believe . Yes , and my mom always made cinnamon rolls , but I make baked oatmeal , oh , okay , and one of those like older mentor moms in my life when I was in Mops , we used to just do like recipe exchanges .

Sarah Beaugh 32:55

And so I have a little binder and her . She has passed on since , but we still do it and one year I felt compelled to take a picture of the recipe and of the baked oatmeal and I sent it to her son and was like I just want you to know your mom's legacy still is on . Like I think of her when I baked the baked oatmeal . Oh my gosh and my family . Like one year , I think . I tried to change it .

Allison Weeks 33:13

I'm like if we're not having the baked oatmeal , like it's like it's super simple and it's not super fancy , but what's in this baked oatmeal that I mean , cause this is Christmas morning .

Sarah Beaugh 33:22

So yeah , so I will make it the night before . That's the other nice thing , it's so I don't have to mess up the kitchen too much Oats , flour , brown sugar , eggs , probably some salt , and then raisins . You can do chocolate chips . I don't think chocolate chips go with oatmeal . I know that's an unpopular opinion , but I do raisins , you can do both or whatever and then it bakes and when you cut it it's like a square .

Allison Weeks 33:53

I was going to say what's the consistency ? Yeah , it's almost like a cake .

Sarah Beaugh 33:56

It's almost like a cake . It's pretty thick , almost like a coffee cake . And then served warm with maple syrup over . It is the favorite Nice . That sounds really yummy so we'll do that with like fruit and sausage or bacon or something like that Delicious for Christmas .

Allison Weeks 34:12

Okay , can you share the recipe with us ? Yes , I would love to . Yeah , that would be great . Okay , so baked oatmeal for breakfast and then , and you've opened gifts in the morning and you've read the Christmas story , and then what's the rest of your day look like .

Sarah Beaugh 34:25

Typically I host Christmas Day . That's why I need the kitchen to not be messy . That makes sense . So growing up , my grandmother hosted Christmas Eve we're really big Christmas Eve people and then my mom hosted Christmas Day .

Sarah Beaugh 34:37

And so now we've passed the torch and my mom hosts Christmas Eve and I have my sisters now . For a time they were either like unmarried or not living here , but we're all here now and so sometimes we've rotated , and my other sister has hosted as well , so we'll , but we all like help potluck stuff . So , like last year , her husband hosted and did these amazing steaks Like 33 day old , like aged , dry aged , nice Like yeah , so he did steaks . And yeah , we all pitched in for that Cool , so we will go or host .

Allison Weeks 35:12

So lots of cousins and all that kind of thing , not lots .

Sarah Beaugh 35:17

But just the family all together and we usually include . We've always like since I was little , I used to . I was like I thought Mr Tony and Miss Jeannie were our aunt and uncle and I'm like , no , they're just family friends . So like , we've always included family friends in our holidays .

Allison Weeks 35:31

Okay , cool , well , okay . So you're eating the oatmeal for breakfast , but besides that , is there another recipe that must be made at some point during the Christmas season maybe a special cookie or candy , or something .

Sarah Beaugh 35:44

My mom's honey bars are a big request and it's funny because I grew up with them but didn't think much of them . And I have a friend now and she's like , could we have your mom's honey bars ? Like she associates Christmas with my mom's honey bars because my mom would make batches , put them on plates with the saran wrap and , like , give them out and so so what is what's a honey bar ? Flour sugar , honey ? No , there's no sugar . Or is there sugar ? Maybe there is Flour sugar , honey , eggs . It's like super simple . Okay , the best way is to press it into a jelly roll . I have seen similar recipes on the internet for like an eight by eight or a nine by 13 , which is thicker ? Okay , Not the same . The best is pressed and it looks like this much dough and you're like , how is this ? And you have to get like wax paper and just keep pushing and pressing to the ends .

Sarah Beaugh 36:39

And then , once it comes out , you put a glaze on it and the glaze is powdered sugar and mayonnaise , what I know . I was in high school when I learned this and I was like gross mom . But it's true . It's just literally like one tablespoon of mayonnaise , like one tablespoon of water and then like a cup of powdered sugar , maybe two cups . Okay , well , that's so . Do you know what I mean ? It's just to give it a creamy consistency .

Allison Weeks 37:04

Yeah , because I mean , the main ingredients in mayonnaise is like vinegar and eggs and oil .

Sarah Beaugh 37:09

Yeah Right , that's it . So it's , but it's just funny . So , like one of my daughters , like what are the mayonnaise bars ? I'm like are there honey bars ? And it's very honey forward . So it's just a unique flavor which is really nice . Okay , I might have to get that recipe .

Allison Weeks 37:22

Because I think my son , I love honey and like when people , when my mom travels , she brings honey back for me oh fun , from different places . So and then I have a son who really , really loves honey . So we're going to have to make that ? Yes , absolutely Okay , awesome , okay . So honey bars , yummy , all right . How about other traditions that your family does during the holiday season ?

Sarah Beaugh 37:45

It's food centered , right ? Well , it was funny if we were dating , maybe engaged . But my husband was like very opinionate . He's like , well , I just need you to know , right now we have to do my family's tradition . And I was like , okay , and he's like we have tamales for Christmas Eve . I was like , well , that works out , because that's my family's tradition is to . I am Hispanic , but he is not , so that was just a funny tradition that they had . But they lived in San Antonio .

Allison Weeks 38:14

That is what you do If you live in San Antonio . I mean , I would say for this show probably seven times out of 10 , it's tamales for Christmas Eve .

Sarah Beaugh 38:24

Yes , yes , and so we have sort of like I don't know . I think I'm at a point I just need to take over . But again , the holidays are so crazy that I just we buy them . But my grandma , for decades , made them . She would make 12 dozen at a time , and so she has passed her steamer onto me . Wow .

Sarah Beaugh 38:41

So , I have the official tamales steamer Nice and I know how to make them . They're just time consuming . That's very labor-intensive . That's the thing . It's not hard , it's just Takes time . Yeah , but it's like it'd be fun to do with the girls or maybe with their friends .

Allison Weeks 38:57

Well , you should definitely make a point to do that with your girls while they're still at home . Yeah , Definitely .

Sarah Beaugh 39:03

So I know I keep every year I'm like it needs to be this , you need to be this . So that was like the funny , like we have to have tamales . So we have , and my in-laws are in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and they will ask where can we get tamales ? And so they can usually find them somewhere . But my best friend who grew up here her family was military they this year wanted to have a San Antonio Christmas and so they sourced them and shipped them Like they had them shipped there in North Carolina .

Sarah Beaugh 39:31

They were just like we wanted San Antonio Christmas , Like . So I feel like once it's like in your bones , you just can't . You gotta do it , you gotta do it .

Allison Weeks 39:40

Yeah , Unfortunately I'm not a fan of tamales . I know that's terrible . I'm not Hispanic , so you know , but everybody in my family loves them , and so I don't think that's ever gonna happen for our Christmas Eve's , but we might have a little plate of them . Oh , there you go , because we do like the big orders .

Sarah Beaugh 39:57

Oh , to San Antonio . Yes .

Allison Weeks 39:59

We do like lots of little finger foods , and so we'll have a . We'll have a San Antonio plate with tamales on it . So , okay , how about the craziness you just mentioned ? It is crazy , and we don't necessarily have time to make 12 dozen tamales . So how do you , what kinds of other things do you do , just to kind of keep it between the rails and keep the main thing , the main thing , throughout the season ?

Sarah Beaugh 40:22

One other tradition that kind of ties into this is our church does what we call boxes of blessing and it is for food insecure families and they do it always the first Saturday of December and like it's become such a tradition that it's like it's not the Christmas season until we've participated in that and then the girls feel like okay now it's Christmas .

Sarah Beaugh 40:44

Yes , I mean we have done it where it's 80 degrees , but it's like we did the boxes of us , and so it's the whole church coming together and kind of assembly line style filling his boxes and taking them to families , and so that's really special . But then from the like start of the season to the actual Christmas day and we kind of extend it , we do through epiphany , but it's just having , I think , the best for us as a visual . So I actually have a spiral , a wooden spiral candle holder and it's called the candle to the cross wreath . Yes , I've seen those and it is just a beautiful visual that we get to move that candle and see the coming of the light of the world . And so we do that and then that we pair that with just we have different little devotional books . We've found over the years just a quick small devotional and then we usually sing a hymn or Christmas carol together .

Allison Weeks 41:42

Now it's just the wreath . It's every day , right yeah , so the Like through Advent .

Sarah Beaugh 41:47

Well , yeah , so some people do it like from Advent , but this is 25 , so it's from December 1st and the spiral is 25 , and then it actually has extenders for Lent . Okay .

Kelly Gundersen 41:59

Yeah , so like for 40 days . Oh , that's cool .

Sarah Beaugh 42:01

So you can add extenders and it gets a little bit bigger and we do that for . Lent . Where did you find that ? So I found it online . Okay , I was following a blogger that I felt like no one else knows about this blogger and my husband called her the Canadian farmer and it was Anbos camp . Oh , and her son makes them . And that is now his . He's married now . Like he started as a homeschool kid making these and I bought them back then .

Sarah Beaugh 42:24

That's probably where I saw it , cause I used to read her blog back in the day . And she's like my son's , offering a few limited and I bought one and I'm so thankful I did . You know , it's now just become such a part of our family tradition . My girls made some comment one year and I went oh , they love this , and so he was running a sale one summer and I bought each of them their own , so when they leave the home they will get to take their own . I love that .

Allison Weeks 42:47

Yeah , that's awesome . Okay , well , maybe I'll see if I can find a link for that and I'll put it in the show notes , but I didn't realize that you could use it in Lent also , that they had extenders for .

Sarah Beaugh 42:57

Lent . The third one is I forgot the name of it Ascension , the time of Ascension . So it's like from Easter to Pentecost Sunday . You can you can also count down . Yeah , that's really cool .

Allison Weeks 43:09

Okay , any other ? Traditions or anything else , no .

Sarah Beaugh 43:12

I think , that's , yeah , we , just we , we all put the tree up together . Okay , so it's not like a one man show . Yes , I agree , it's , it's like they look forward to it . We put Christmas music on . My mom always made cookies , so it was like we can't put ornaments up without cookies .

Brenda VanHellen 43:30

And .

Sarah Beaugh 43:30

I just have like that just complicates it .

Brenda VanHellen 43:33

And we don't need .

Sarah Beaugh 43:34

We have enough cookies during the summer . Yes , that it's like just we can enjoy our time together . Yeah , with music . Yeah , and putting .

Allison Weeks 43:44

We've been doing . I can't remember last year if we were able to have everybody . We're getting to that point now where we may or may not be able to have .

Kelly Gundersen 43:50

You have to take turns .

Allison Weeks 43:52

Yeah , we may or may not be able to have a lot of people all at the house you know all the kids there to help decorate the tree , but we did . We did do that in the high school and college years and for the last few times , because we do it really close to Thanksgiving , so we've had so much food , but they're teenagers and they're still hungry all the time . So I would make a charcuterie board , oh nice , and then that way I didn't feel like I had to put this meal together because I'm done cooking for like a week after that .

Allison Weeks 44:22

Yeah , that makes sense , and then I can just put out whatever we had available and we could just kind of stick it on the coffee table and people could eat off of it while we decorate .

Sarah Beaugh 44:30

Oh , I love that . The tree I might have to incorporate that . Yeah , there you go , here's your tip .

Allison Weeks 44:34

All right . Well , thank you for sharing all your Christmas memories , and I'm really looking forward to the Honey Bar recipe .

Sarah Beaugh 44:40

Absolutely OK .

Allison Weeks 44:41

Well , merry Christmas . Merry Christmas , Thank you .

Holiday Decorating Tips: Tree Decorating Party

Allison Weeks 44:44

We will get back to these holiday stories of home in just a minute . Right now it's time for some holiday decorating tips and inspiration . This is the part of the holiday podcast where I will be giving you some tips , tricks and ideas to spur you on towards holiday decorating with more joy and , hopefully , less frustration .

Allison Weeks 45:01

Many hands make light work . Never is this proverb more meaningful than at Christmas time . Not only does teamwork make the dream work , but it saves the homemaker from resentful burnout and makes family memories to last a lifetime . Now , how much of your decorating that you decide to make a group project is totally up to you . It all depends on your family , your time , your personality , how many decorations you have , et cetera , et cetera . But I do encourage you to find at least one area that you can let go and not be too precious about , so that the whole family can contribute and decorate that space together . It might be the tree , the mantle , the dining room , your child's room , the front porch or the yard , or all of the above . Regardless of where and how you decide to muster the troops for decorating , I implore you to spend a little time planning and preparing so that the workday or evening does not end in tears and frustration for the kids or for mom . A little project management beforehand goes a long way .

Allison Weeks 46:16

Now I'm going to talk a little bit about a tree decorating party , because that is how I've approached this with my family In the past . When my kids were really young , we did sort of have an all hands on deck and I would let them help with lots of the decorating . But now that they're older and grown and out of the house , much of the decorating inside falls to me , which I'm perfectly happy to do , and the outside decorating falls to my husband , which he is happy to do . But we do have a tradition of decorating our main Christmas tree with our children and whoever happens to be available around the time of Thanksgiving . And there are some things that I've learned over the years that will help to make that evening or morning or daytime , whenever we have it , run more smoothly and just be more enjoyable overall , and I thought I would share those with you , and these would apply to a tree decorating party , if that's what you choose to do , or decorating any area together .

Allison Weeks 47:18

So number one would be to check your expectations . I've already kind of said this , but I will say it again Don't be too precious about things . Whatever that area is that you've decided to share in the decorating process , check your expectations . If you are working with three-year-olds , it is not going to look like a magazine spread . Be willing to just let the ornaments end up where they end up and be OK with that . Also , be willing to give a little guidance if needed . Maybe give a little bit of direction to a child who has no idea where to put things and is a little overwhelmed with all the options . Be willing to make sacrifices as well . It is possible that things will get broken , but what matters more Preserving the precious ornament or making memories with your family ? I will say , though be wise in this area . This is probably not the time , if you have very young children , to pull out the you know antique blown glass ornaments that were handed down to you by your great grandmother and let the three-year-old handle those . I would not recommend that . Maybe have a separate little tree or garland or something for those ornaments that are out of out of the reach of little hands .

Allison Weeks 48:33

Okay , my second tip is to do the lights ahead of time . Now , if you have a prelit tree , obviously this doesn't apply to you , but if you do not have , if you have a real tree that you need to put lights on or you have a fake tree that you need to put lights on , I recommend highly that you do those lights ahead of time , because it's very time-consuming and it's just . You don't want to be spending all that time weaving lights in and out of the tree branches . If you would like to see my process of how I recommend that you do this , you can hop over on Instagram . I have saved in my story highlights . I have a highlight saved that is called Christmas and I documented my whole process last year , beginning with the main tree and how I put the lights on .

Allison Weeks 49:13

I do have a method that I found many , many years ago I don't know , I think on HGTV or something about how to do your lights vertically in sections instead of horizontally around and around the tree . It is so much easier and it makes so much more sense for a lot of reasons , and I go into that on that story highlight . So go check that out over on Instagram . Also , if you are a ribbon person , if you like to have ribbon cascading down from the top and you tuck it in throughout the tree . I would recommend doing that ahead of time as well .

Allison Weeks 49:45

Now , when it's time for the event , pull the tree out into more of a central area of the room so that everyone can move freely around the whole tree . If it's tucked up , you know , into a corner or against a wall , you want to pull it out more into the middle of the room so that everybody can get all the way around . It just makes it so much easier to reach all the parts of the tree . And I would say , have a couple of step ladders if possible , one on one side of the tree and one on the other side of the tree , so that people can go up and down the ladders to get to the higher parts of the tree .

Allison Weeks 50:21

Okay , my next tip is to be organized . If you are way ahead of the game which some years I am and some years I am not sometimes I will get all the ornaments out , take them out of their boxes and put them on trays . We have some plastic trays that we eat off of often and I'll just pull those down and I will set the ornaments out on trays and that way people can just grab a tray and head over to the tree and start decorating from there . It's just , it's an extra step , it saves time , but otherwise I will pull all the boxes down from the attic and have them in the living room and one of my sons will sit down and start pulling ornaments out of their boxes and setting them on the trays as we do the tree that night . And again , that just takes a load off of me , but if I have time I will do that ahead of time .

Allison Weeks 51:05

Another part of being organized is making sure that you have all the supplies that you need , and we talked a little bit about this last week . But make sure you have extra hangers , because invariably you're going to find ornaments that don't have hangers . If you have ornaments with batteries in them , make sure you've got some extra batteries and some spare light bulbs . Have a trash can nearby , have some super glue or and or a glue gun for making repairs on the spot which , by the way , that's a really great job to give to dad or grandpa or somebody that's there that doesn't necessarily want to be getting up and down on the ladder and being involved in the actual decorating . Have them on repair duty or and or putting hooks on things and , if possible , put down a tree skirt , the tree skirt or some kind of blanket or towel to cushion the fall of the inevitable dropped ornament . If you're working on a hard , if you don't have carpet in your room , if you're working on tile or hardwood , things are probably still going to get broken , but you can possibly eliminate some of that by having something to cushion their fall .

Allison Weeks 52:13

Okay , and then the final touches would be your garlands , your tied ribbons . If you tie ribbons on the ends , that's a very fashionable thing to do , and actually I started doing that a few years ago to help make my tree look more cohesive , because our big tree has all the mismatched , random colored ornaments , and so I give it a more cohesive look by tying white ribbons all over the branches and you can see that as well on that same story on Instagram if you go and check that out . But the garlands , the ribbons , the tied on ribbons , and then your treetopper I would recommend that you put all of those on at the end . Do that last . And as far as food and setting the mood , I have a couple of recommendations for that .

Allison Weeks 52:55

Keep the food simple , especially if you're coming right off of Thanksgiving , because you're kind of done with food You've had so much to eat . I would recommend keeping it simple . Something that I have done with my kids and I believe you just heard about this on one of the interviews is the last few years we've done a charcuterie board because it's very different from what we've been eating , because we've just come off of Thanksgiving and we are sick of turkey and this is more finger food instead of all the heavy casseroles and dressings that we've been eating for the last couple of days . So that makes a great option for the food Plus . You can grab a little bit at a time and then go back to the decorating and then come back and grab a little bit more . Then you could also do a breakfast . By the way , if you are doing this , maybe the morning after Thanksgiving , you could do breakfast food and do it in the morning or do like a brunch . That would be another good idea that you could do . Let's see what else A spice cider I always have a little bit of spiced apple cider and a thing of eggnog , because my kids love eggnog .

Allison Weeks 53:51

I do not like eggnog , but they love it , and so that's the first time we have eggnog in the house is when we decorate the tree , so they kind of associate that with the tree decorating party . So whatever it is for you maybe it's hot chocolate , maybe it's spiced apple cider to have a nice little special drink for people to sip on is a good memory to tie to that event as well . Set the mood with some Christmas music , or you can do what we do is we put on our Christmas movie that we always kick off the season with , which is Elf . Actually , this year Elf was voted down . One of our children , who shall remain nameless , begged us not to put Elf on because he just couldn't bear it , probably because he watches it when he's not supposed to Like . I tell him don't watch it all year , wait until the Christmas tree decorating . But they do it anyway . So he's sick , really sick of it . So we watched a different movie this year .

Allison Weeks 54:44

But it's fun to have a familiar movie just playing in the background , that one that everybody knows , because you don't feel like you're missing out by stopping , you know , doing the decorating while the movie is going in the background , but you also don't feel like you're sitting to watch the thing that you've seen 25 times and you could pretty much quote it by heart . So set the mood with a movie or some Christmas music in the background , and don't forget to take lots of photos . Make someone a designated photographer . This is another great job for somebody who doesn't necessarily want to be getting into the mix of decorating the tree , but they want to participate , like maybe grandma or , you know , great Aunt Mildred or whoever is there . This is something my mom loves to do . She'll get involved a little bit , but she likes to sit and watch and take lots of pictures , and so that's wonderful , because we're busy decorating and we don't necessarily think to take photos .

Allison Weeks 55:37

Well , that's it for this week's holiday homemaker decorating tips . As always , these tips are intended for entertainment purposes only , and we leave it up to you , the listener , to determine the safety and soundness of this advice . Now back to our holiday stories of home .

Nichole Pace

Allison Weeks 55:52

I'm back with Nicole Pace . She is an in the trenches homemaking mama . We're going to talk about Christmas , nicole , and I would love to hear what a typical Christmas is like at your house .

Nichole Pace 56:02

Yay , merry Christmas , merry Christmas . So it's pretty typical . We wake up , go discover the joyful things that Santa has left . We let the kids play for a little bit , I'll make some sort of special breakfast , and then all of our family is about two and a half hours away . So we pack all of us in the car with all of our gifts and our dishes and we set off for a day of Christmases with our extended family . So we do between two and three family Christmases on Christmas Day . Wow , it's a lot . It's a lot , but man , it's so fun . I love it . I'm just smiling ear to ear just thinking about it , because it's just so fun . And there we just exchange gifts , santa makes an appearance and at the end of the day we're exhausted , but we've gotten to see all the family and do all the fun things and it's , it's fabulous . I just love it .

Allison Weeks 57:01

That's so good . Do you just go for the day and then you come back home that night ?

Nichole Pace 57:06

We do . Sometimes it depends on what's going on the next day . Sometimes my husband has to work the next day and if that's the case we do have to come back . But if he doesn't have to work the next day , then we will get an Airbnb and kind of lazily sleep in the next morning . But we do come , we come . The festivities are over after that day .

Allison Weeks 57:29

Yeah , so it's fast and furious for a day , or maybe a day and a half .

Nichole Pace 57:32

Yeah .

Allison Weeks 57:33

Yeah , so okay , we I always love to talk about food in this segment of the Christmas interview and you we just did your regular interview and we talked a lot about food and allergies . Your son has 14 life threatening food allergies , so tell me about what are you cooking at Christmas time and like what have you been able to master as far as the Christmas dishes go ? What are you guys eating ?

Nichole Pace 57:57

I'm cooking a lot at Christmas because everything has to be made special for him , but we do . My mom started a few years ago this massive cookie bake and kind of like everything in my life , I realized pretty quickly my son wasn't going to be able to eat the normal stuff . So I sort of spun that off and we now do an allergy free cookie bake at my house and we invite friends over and we do . I pull out all the allergy free recipes .

Nichole Pace 58:30

Our dear friend that lives right down the street , she has kids my kids same age and we kind of do life together . Two of her kids also have food allergies , so we make a whole day of it and we make all the Christmas cookies but allergy free versions . And the other thing we do that I love is there is a company I can't think who they are right now , but I will get back to you on it they make allergen free gingerbread house kits . Wow , that was a game changer last year because my kids could never do gingerbread and so that was super , super special that we found that last year . So we will be making that a constant holiday tradition in my house .

Allison Weeks 59:13

Yeah , I would love to hear , I would love to get that link , because that means that means they're probably gluten free . So I always have to make the gingerbread , or if we use a kit , then half of us can't eat them , right .

Nichole Pace 59:26

There's also a I found last year a allergy free advent calendar , like the kind that you pop open and the chocolate is all dairy free , egg free , oh cool . So I'll give you that as well , if you'd like it .

Allison Weeks 59:41

Yes , definitely that's awesome . Okay , so how about holiday traditions ? Do you guys have any special holiday traditions that you like to do around the season ?

Nichole Pace 59:50

We do so my family usually gets together on a weekend . That is not Christmas , because my brothers I have three brothers and they're all in the throws of like just getting married , just starting their lives , so there's no other little kids and so they're dealing with the , the in-laws and getting all that kind of figured out . So we do it on a different weekend and that's really fun . My mom is a fantastic entertainer and hospitality queen . She makes the most beautiful spreads and sometimes it's an elaborate dinner . Sometimes our favorite one is actually when she does like finger foods and she makes , you know , queso and cheese balls and just like everything good that you want to eat , and so we do that . And then we do presents . And then my family are huge gamers and my dad is the best at coming up with the most ridiculous games . We were doing minute to minute stuff before . It was cool . Oh yeah , he makes up the craziest games and gets the silliest stuff , and so we spend all night just being ridiculous and playing these games that we are just crying . We're laughing so hard , and so that's what we do with my family and then I love that . That's so fun with my extended family and then our little nuclear family .

Nichole Pace 1:01:24

We do Christmas Eve boxes on Christmas Eve night which are kind of I think that's a thing . Now people know what those are and it's not . It's just , it's a . I got a little wooden box off Etsy or you can get you know whatever kind of box and we fill it with matching pajamas . Everybody gets a DVD , they get a book and they get their own favorite little treat and we have like a little movie night on Christmas Eve . So that's fun . And then the other tradition we do is our church does the Samaritans purse boxes . Did you do that ? Yeah , so I don't know if you want to talk about what that is or do you want me to do that ?

Allison Weeks 1:02:05

I think a lot of people know . I think a lot of people know what it is . I mean you basically do a shoe it used to be a shoe box but now you can actually get the they like will send you the boxes to but it's about the shot the size of a shoe box and you fill it with little toys and goodies and things and it goes over to . It goes to different places where children don't get anything really for Christmas and that's their Christmas gift and they share the gospel and it was started . It was by Franklin Graham , right , started it . I don't know .

Nichole Pace 1:02:33

But what I love about it is you can track it . They track the package , and so you find out where it goes . Oh , I didn't know that that must be a new feature .

Allison Weeks 1:02:41

That's cool .

Nichole Pace 1:02:42

Yeah , for the last few years . Yeah , they'll track it , and so what I do is each of my boys picks a child that's their same age and they each get a box and they go to the store and so they pick out what goes in the box , they pack it , they get , draw a little picture , write a little note , whatever , and then we follow it . We watch it where it's at , and so that's been super fun for the boys and I think it's super special to be able to get to teach them about giving during that season and stuff like that .

Allison Weeks 1:03:12

Yeah , that's a really great tradition . I love that . You've got some really good traditions , thanks . I would be so tickled if maybe we could get a couple of ideas of the games that you guys play . Okay , and put that into our newsletter when your episode comes out . That would be super fun .

Nichole Pace 1:03:32

I will contact my dad and see if we can have some of his intellectual property because he , I'll tell you , last year , two years ago , I was pregnant and I guess it would be . Yeah , two and a half Christmases ago I was pregnant , huge pregnant , and this is right before COVID , and it was some sort of game where you had these inflatable reindeer ears and you were across the table from your spouse and they had inflatable rings and their job was to get the inflatable rings onto your antlers . Okay , so I am five , four and giant , huge , pregnant . My husband is five , five and has equivalently short arms . We're across an eight foot table from each other . My brothers and my family members are all tiny , skinny and super tall , with massively long arms , and so we got spanked in this game and I'm very competitive and I was like this game isn't fair for pregnant people and it was like a whole drama and but it was very fun and lots and lots of laughs .

Allison Weeks 1:04:42

So oh , that's awesome , I love that . Okay , well , I have some rapid fire Q and A Christmas edition questions for you . Cool , are you ready ? Are ? You ready for it . Okay , favorite Christmas song or Carol .

Nichole Pace 1:04:57

Religious is , oh , holy Night . And then secular would be White Winter Him no by the Pentatonix .

Allison Weeks 1:05:04

Oh , that's a great one . Yeah , how about your favorite Christmas movie ?

Nichole Pace 1:05:09

It's Wonderful Life is an absolute must . And then there's this other movie called Holiday and Hand Cuffs . Have you ever heard of that ? No , it's . It's an old ABC Family movie . Before it was , I don't know , cw or whatever it's become now . Abc Family used to do these cute little family oriented movies . It's got Mario Lopez and Melissa Joan Hart in it and it's just really cute . So it's like a Hallmark movie .

Allison Weeks 1:05:35

Yeah , yeah , it sounds like it Gingerbread or sugar cookie .

Nichole Pace 1:05:39

Neither I am weird , and I don't like sugar cookies and I don't like gingerbread , so we do snickerdoodles .

Allison Weeks 1:05:46

Snicker doodles . Okay , oh , I forgot to ask you . Do you have a special recipe that you want to share with us for Christmas ?

Nichole Pace 1:05:55

I don't have a special one I do . I do make Snicker doodles and haystacks in my family every year in honor of a couple of my family members who have passed , so that's like we always have those in the house so that they're with us .

Allison Weeks 1:06:11

I love that . That's such a great tradition . Well , maybe if you wouldn't mind sharing one of those or both of those recipes , that'd be awesome . Okay , okay , back to the questions . Fake tree or real tree ?

Nichole Pace 1:06:21

fake with lights already put on it . I have two rambunctious boys . Get it up fast .

Allison Weeks 1:06:29

Yep , yep , yep , bose or no Bose on your gift .

Nichole Pace 1:06:34

I used to think it was an abomination not to have a bow on a , and then you had boys . What a huge waste of time , because they are going to pull them all off and wear them all over their body for the entire month that I have those presents under the tree . In fact , we've just stopped putting presents under the tree . We have to hide them all over the house Because they cannot stay out of them . So we are a no bow family .

Allison Weeks 1:07:01

Okay , how about Christmas music ? Are you playing it before or after Thanksgiving ?

Nichole Pace 1:07:07

Um , it goes on the day after Thanksgiving like at 6 am , and I'm very passionate about that , and then it literally doesn't go off until the 26th . But I'm equally as passionate about no one better turned it on anymore after the 26th , right ?

Allison Weeks 1:07:27

Because you've had enough and Christmas is over yes we're good , we're cleaning , we're moving on . Yes , that's great . Okay , last question how do you keep it between the rails during the hectic holiday season with two busy little boys ? What are some of the things that you do to maintain balance and to keep your heart focused on the main ?

Nichole Pace 1:07:48

So we really try to weigh everything against our values and priorities and really focus on , you know , christ being the reason for the season , and then we say no to everything else . You know , recently we had this question of Do we want to spend $500 paying to professionally put lights on our house or Could we use that money to do five extra Samaritan boxes ? You know , and so Outwardly , you know , the worldly part of us is like , well , yeah , we want our house to be super pretty and everyone to drive by and in vs Whatever . But we've really tried to To dial it back and make it focused on what's important . Same thing with our time , you know , do we go to that Christmas party or do we go caroling with our neighbors and sing off-key and build some relationships and Spread some joy to our neighbors ? You know we just everything is kind of gets filtered through values and priorities .

Allison Weeks 1:08:51

I love that . You know , I love that answer . It's great . Okay , well , I am so happy to hear about all your wonderful Christmas traditions . I hope it's a fabulous Christmas for you this year . Thank you for sharing with us and Merry .

Nichole Pace 1:09:04

Christmas , you too , merry Christmas

"Sleep in Heavenly Peace" An Advent Reflection

Nichole Pace 1:09:06

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Allison Weeks 1:09:25

Sleep in heavenly peace . An advent reflection . The journey to meet my first grandchild was not a peaceful one . Our son texted in the middle of the night to tell us it was baby time , and we waited impatiently for the next several hours to receive word of his safe arrival . He was born that morning and we waited again until the new little family was settled in their hospital room and ready to receive visitors . We were so anxious to meet him but wanted to give his parents time to recover a bit from the long night of labor . Once they gave us the green light to come , we drove 40 minutes into town , nervous , excited . Energy coursed through me and I may have been a little less than gracious . With other drivers on the road , we fought the traffic and navigated precarious parking situations on the sprawling medical campus , winding our way through the maze of hospital corridors . We arrived at the correct wing only to find that the medical staff had just descended upon their room to do some required tests on baby and mom . So we anxiously waited again , seated at the elevators just a few feet below their room . Then the moment came . They were ready for us .

Allison Weeks 1:10:44

We climbed the stairs to the floor above , passed through the secure checkpoint and were soon standing outside the door , hearts pounding , we walked in midday . Light diffused by winter clouds filled the room , casting a slight shadow over the bed where mom and baby lay . I still couldn't get a glimpse of him . In a moment we were by the bedside and gazing down . I saw his perfect , peaceful infant face peeking out from a beanie cap above and a bundle of secure swaddling clothes below . He was here , we were here . All the nervous anxiety melted away in the light of his countenance , just hours before he had gone through what is perhaps the most terrifying and traumatic event of a human life . Yet he was calm , serene and full of peace . He instinctively knew that he was secure in his mother's arms . That is the kind of peace god offers us in his son friend . We can know for certain , despite all of the scary , strange , frustrating circumstances around us , that we are held fast and secure in the arms of our savior and in that knowledge we can stop striving , stop fretting , stop controlling and just rest . You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you .

Allison Weeks 1:12:16

Isaac 26 3 . Peace I leave with you . My peace I give you . I do not give to you as the world gives . Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid . John 14 , 27 I will both lie down in peace and sleep For you alone . Oh lord , make me dwell in safety . Psalm 4 , 8 .

Breanna Wakefield

Allison Weeks 1:12:55

I'm here again with my friend Brianna Wakefield . She's an in the trenches homemaker and we are going to talk about Christmas . So , brianna , tell me what a typical Christmas day looks like at your house .

Breanna Wakefield 1:13:06

So we have a couple Christmas days which might be different . Um , we have actual Christmas day which we've made the choice to still spend with each side of our family . So we Rotate one year we spend with my side , one year we spend with my husband's side , and we're usually there for the entire week before Christmas . Okay , um , so we have very distinct traditions in both families and we have the blessing of all of our siblings , live very close To our parents , so we also get to see our siblings and our nieces when we're in town . Um , so we still very much follow our parents traditions on Christmas day , but we wanted to have our own Experience of Christmas morning in our house . So the weekend before we travel we do Christmas morning with our kids at home .

Breanna Wakefield 1:13:57

And so we start all of our Advent stuff 25 days before that day so that we can finish out All of our Christmas traditions , yeah , before we travel , and we can kind of culminate in Christmas morning with that nice . And then when we go see our family , there's not this pressure of like oh , I didn't get this thing in with my kids , you know , we get to deal with that at home . So .

Allison Weeks 1:14:24

I like that . That's a good plan .

Breanna Wakefield 1:14:26

Yeah , it's fun , it's , it's it . You have to think a little bit earlier .

Allison Weeks 1:14:30

Yeah .

Breanna Wakefield 1:14:31

But it is . It's really , really fun to do that . So for our Christmas I think we're still ironing out the foods that we have . Last year we had cinnamon rolls and um and fruit and just some different different things . But when my husband's family the bit and my family , christmas Eve is actually the bigger food traditions . So , okay , on my side it's appetizers , because my dad's a pastor , so we're at church very late and then we all come home really late at night and have all these different appetizers and Christmas cookies . On my husband's side it's a very formal dinner , which was actually my father-in-law's Christmas Eve dinner growing up , and it's a lot of dishes from minnesota where he grew up , so wild rice dishes and some of the Like raspberries lots of different things from that region of the country , so they're both delicious .

Breanna Wakefield 1:15:27

Um we're kind of figuring out our own food , because we get to eat a lot of great food when we travel .

Allison Weeks 1:15:32

Yeah , that sounds wonderful . So is there a particular recipe that you Either need to make or make sure you get to eat at some point during the season ?

Breanna Wakefield 1:15:45

So my husband loves this cookie that my mom makes .

Breanna Wakefield 1:15:49

They're called almond logs , and if we are not visiting her we have to make them at home and they're a little sugar cookie that has almond extract in them and you cut them into log shapes and then you Make the top look like birch bark . So you ice them In white chocolate and then you drizzle dark chocolate over the top and so it's just this little tiny Sugar cookie . She got out of a magazine like years ago , but for him that that has to be made every year he actually talked to me about that recently Like we're having almond looks this year , right , I think . For me , my mom makes this Italian fondue on Christmas Eve and it's really just this , like cheesy tomato based ground beef dip that you eat with French bread , and it's delicious .

Brenda VanHellen 1:16:47

Yummy , I've never heard of anything like that .

Allison Weeks 1:16:50

That sounds awesome .

Breanna Wakefield 1:16:51

Yeah , I can share that recipe .

Allison Weeks 1:16:53

That'd be great .

Breanna Wakefield 1:16:54

It is so good she learned it in like her high school home ec class . Oh , I love that . It's even better . Yes , it's so good . She has the original recipe book and everything . And then , on my husband's side , that wild rice casserole , that is so I guess my husband's grandma's recipe that is like a must for me . I look forward to that for two years and I do not make it , except for that time , because it is just so delicious it's mushrooms and wild rice and kind of like in some other vegetables , and it just simmers in the sproff .

Breanna Wakefield 1:17:30

It's delicious .

Allison Weeks 1:17:31

You might have to share that one too , because that sounds awesome .

Breanna Wakefield 1:17:34

Okay , I will ask him if I can share that one .

Allison Weeks 1:17:37

If it's not , I mean if it's a secret family recipe , I don't think it is , but I don't know , so I will ask . Well , you can check , I'll check , all right . So do you have ? Besides the food , do you guys have any other family holiday traditions that you do during the season ?

Breanna Wakefield 1:17:52

Yes , so I love Christmas trees , so we have three Christmas trees . I think we would have more , but my husband's a minimalist , so like three is the max .

Allison Weeks 1:18:01

That's it .

Breanna Wakefield 1:18:01

Christmas trees .

Allison Weeks 1:18:03

That's what you're doing , pretty good . Yes , to live with a minimalist and get three trees .

Breanna Wakefield 1:18:07

Yes , exactly I am , he loves me .

Breanna Wakefield 1:18:10

So I get my three Christmas trees and one of the trees underneath has is in kind of our front room which we've kind of made our library room , and I fill the tree with winter and Christmas books and we read one every single night . So sometimes I wrap them , sometimes they're just there , but all the books kind of help . Since I have such little kids , it helps them kind of know what's coming . So we read about cookie decorating or we read about the Christmas story or read about just the change in the season and we have bought some books and then we checks them out from the library and we add a new book every year to our collection . So that's okay .

Allison Weeks 1:18:50

Are you putting them around the bottom of the tree or are you putting them on the tree ?

Breanna Wakefield 1:18:52

They're around the bottom of the tree , so the tree in that room is decorated all like wintery , so it's white and blue and it's all about just the winter winter stuff . That's the book tree .

Breanna Wakefield 1:19:05

So underneath there is just filled with books and we just read books All winter long and then we take almost nightly hot chocolate . Christmas light walks around our neighborhood , so they don't get hot chocolate every night . We do They'll hear this someday , but they do some nights get hot chocolate or warm milk and then we will go around the neighborhood almost nightly and see all the Christmas lights , which is fun . We also have a really special advent wreath . It's called the cradle to cross wreath and it's a wooden spiral that you can put a candle in and then it has a little figure of Mary and Joseph and they travel around the cross at night .

Breanna Wakefield 1:19:54

So we read some part of either just the whole gospel story from creation to Jesus' birth every night , or just focus on the Christmas story . But that's okay , we do at dinner during the season .

Allison Weeks 1:20:08

Oh , I love that . Yes , somebody else has mentioned that one that same one that they use that one . Those are some great traditions and you have I mean , I'm in trouble now , brianna , because I already have seven trees- oh , that's the dream .

Breanna Wakefield 1:20:25

But this whole like idea of a book tree , I know .

Allison Weeks 1:20:29

You got my mind .

Breanna Wakefield 1:20:31

You're a granny now , right ? Yes , yes , you need the book tree .

Allison Weeks 1:20:35

I do it's very fun . Much to my husband's chagrin , but that's okay , he loves me and he lets me have all the trees I know it's just for a season at least .

Breanna Wakefield 1:20:45

It's not all year , it's just like a month or two .

Allison Weeks 1:20:49

All right , I have some rapid fire Q&A that I've added this year to the holiday segment . Okay , so here we go . What is your favorite Christmas song , or Carol ?

Breanna Wakefield 1:21:00

Is he Worthy by Andrew Peterson , which I don't even . To me it's just like the whole gospel story in one song . So I always listen to it at Christmas .

Allison Weeks 1:21:09

It's such a hopeful song in the dark winter . Yes , I like Shane and Shane version of that one too . Yes , favorite Christmas movie Elf . I love Elf , gingerbread or sugar cookie .

Breanna Wakefield 1:21:25

Sugar cookie , which that would be my family's . There's a secret family sugar cookie recipe .

Allison Weeks 1:21:31

Really .

Breanna Wakefield 1:21:32

Yeah , they're called Aunt Ollie cookies . I think she was like my third back great aunt , like great , great great aunt . When she died she left out an ingredient so no one could make them like her .

Allison Weeks 1:21:41

So the recipe still works , but no one she literally took it to her grave , literally took it to her grave .

Breanna Wakefield 1:21:51

So I think the cookies great . I've only had whatever generation for generations .

Allison Weeks 1:21:56

Imagine how great they would have been if you had hers .

Breanna Wakefield 1:21:59

Apparently they were like a whole nother level of great . So my grandma has always tried to figure out what it could be . And no one has figured out the secret . But apparently they were even better .

Allison Weeks 1:22:09

Well , well played , aunt Ollie , I know , Okay . How about fake tree or real tree ?

Breanna Wakefield 1:22:16

Fake , it's easier , it is .

Allison Weeks 1:22:19

Okay , bose or no . Bose on the gifts , bose , all right . Now this is important . I think this is the most important question Are you a Christmas music before Thanksgiving or after Thanksgiving person ?

Breanna Wakefield 1:22:34

I'm a before .

Allison Weeks 1:22:36

I am . I think I won't hold it against you .

Breanna Wakefield 1:22:39

I grew up in Minnesota , so winter is forever . Right it starts like at Halloween and it ends in May . So you kind of need some Christmas music .

Allison Weeks 1:22:49

I know , I know .

Breanna Wakefield 1:22:52

It's a special exception for the Missotons .

Allison Weeks 1:22:54

We didn't . We didn't do that in that bleak of a winter , but outside of Chicago it's pretty we called it brown out , you know , and it's just brown . Everything's brown forever and it's so depressing . Yes , but I still have very fond memories . I put the Christmas lights up early , like way early , whenever the time changed in the fall .

Allison Weeks 1:23:14

Yes , we had like a bay window in our front room and I hung and it had like sheer curtains and so I put twinkle lights behind up along the window and they would shimmer through those sheer curtains and make like a nice warm glow , because it would get dark at four o'clock and I was a mom with four little kids like seven under and . I was losing my mind and I needed some joy in my life . So , yes , yeah , so those went up like whenever the time changed , and I think that was in October .

Allison Weeks 1:23:41

Yeah , yeah , okay , I'll let that one slide .

Kelly Gundersen 1:23:46

Yeah , sorry All right , let's .

Allison Weeks 1:23:50

I have one more question for you . It's something that you do because the holidays are hectic and crazy , especially you're traveling , and I love your idea of having your family Christmas a week early .

Breanna Wakefield 1:24:01

Yes .

Allison Weeks 1:24:02

What else do you do sort of the whole month to kind of keep it between the rails and keep your focus on what really matters ?

Breanna Wakefield 1:24:08

One of the things that I had read in a book , or was ? It's really important when you're planning for a holiday to ask yourself what do I want to feel at the end of it ? So that's a yearly conversation that my husband and I have together . We usually both have ideas of places we want to take the kids or things we want to do , or when we want to leave to travel or when we want to come home , but sometimes we almost always have to edit and say , like , ask too much , like if we do all of these things , there's too much cooking or there's too much wrapping , or there , you know . So that is something that has been really helpful for us , and it's figuring out how we can work together to balance the load of Christmas and to make sure that at the end of it , it was a happy season for each of us .

Breanna Wakefield 1:25:03

You know , I think another thing that we do is we started this with our kids birthdays . This year . They have almost the same birthday , but I think we're doing it for Christmas because it was so helpful , for their birthday is we're giving them a combined big gift and then more of the focus will be on , probably , the stockings and the experiences that we have with them at Christmas . But they will get so many gifts from relatives that it's just easier to kind of simplify what we're doing in our home so we can be together and enjoy them . And then probably the other thing is that the decor in my house is very intentionally either around the Christmas story or God's creation .

Breanna Wakefield 1:25:46

We don't really have a lot . We play Santa , but that's not a lot of the focus of our Christmas . We've never that's never been like the main narrative , and so there's I have a lot more nativity scenes or nature or just books out about the Christmas story . I try to balance what my kids are seeing , because most of what they're taking in is visual . So it's really important to me that the home is set up in a way that , if they can't understand my words , that they can see the Christmas story set up throughout the home . So that's probably another thing that I do .

Allison Weeks 1:26:29

That is so lovely and intentional . I really like that a lot because that's that visual impact might . That's gonna stay with them . You know , so it has value in the immediate in that , like you're saying , they can't necessarily communicate verbally about certain things . But they're going to see that and it's going to help them make those connections , but it'll be lasting connections because it's those visual memories , it's what you're surrounded with in the environment that makes a huge impact and you can remember that for a really long time . Really good , well done .

Breanna Wakefield 1:27:02

Well it's . I love Christmas , so it's fun . I think about it a lot .

Allison Weeks 1:27:07

Well , thank you for sharing all your Christmas Ideas and memories and tips . Have a Merry Christmas you , too . Merry Christmas , thank you . Thank you so much for joining me for this second episode of holiday home making 2023 . I hope you have found some joyful inspiration today to apply in your own holiday home making throughout the season .

Allison Weeks 1:27:29

Don't forget to sign up for holiday homemaker happy meal . That's going to go out on Friday morning and it will have some of the recipes that we mentioned here on this episode today . So you want to make sure you get your hands on that . Click the link down in the show notes or go to the art of home podcastcom slash subscribe . Also , if you are not aware , we have a free Advent guide for you in which we reflect on the four themes of Advent Hope , peace , joy and love and we walk you through each of those themes throughout the whole month of December . There's a little prompt every day with a scripture to support that prompt and a song suggestion . It's meant to be quick , but you can take longer if you would like and apply it however you would like to in your Advent devotional time .

Allison Weeks 1:28:12

Go to the art of home podcastcom slash Christmas to get your free copy , if you have found value in today's episode , you can give us a big thank you in one or more of the following ways . First of all , please share this with someone that you know who would value this kind of content , who could use this kind of encouragement in her daily homemaking and holiday homemaking talk . Secondly , leave us a rating and a review on your podcast listening app . And finally , if you would like , you can also leave us a tip in our virtual tip jar by Mia . Coffee Tips are given in $5 increments . You can give one , two , three , four or as many coffees as you would like , and any of the tips that we receive just go towards helping to offset the cost of producing this podcast and all of our resources . We thank you so much for all of the support that you give us .

Allison Weeks 1:29:03

I would love to hear from you if you have some feedback about these holiday homemaker portraits and episodes and all the things that we're putting out this month , or something you'd like to see us do in the podcast next year . Please , please , don't hesitate to reach out . You can leave me a voicemail or you can send me an email at the art of home podcastcom slash contact . I look forward to hearing from you . I love to get feedback from you guys . It really makes my day when I get an email or a voicemail from you all . Well , that is it for this week's episode of holiday homemaking . I will be back next Wednesday with another episode six more homemakers bringing you their holiday tips , traditions and recipes . It's going to be a great one . Until then , keep practicing your art of making a home for the holidays .