Allison Weeks

Merry Christmas , homemakers . Welcome to episode 3 of Holiday Homemaking 2023 . I'm your host , allison Weeks . I am a wife , a mom to forgrown 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 are new to the podcast , welcome . So glad you found us . We have a great episode for you today . It is busting at the seams with Christmas Joy . You will hear from six more Homemakers about their holiday recipes , tips , favorites and memories . Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter , homemaker Happy Mail , because that is where you will get some of the recipes mentioned in today's episode , as well as some special writing on the Advent theme of Joy from an art of home listener . Sign up for the newsletter using the link below or go to theartofhomepodcastcom .

Allison Weeks

In today's episode , you are going to hear from Mandy Thompson , elizabeth Dillard , roan Johnson , alexis Molnar , samantha Bain and Tiffany Harris Homemakers of All Ages and Stages . I have some tips for you on decorating with the unexpected and unusual , including my top things to thrift for at Christmas time , and I'm sharing some Advent thoughts on joy in homemaking . There is so much here . I know you will get lots of ideas and inspiration for your own holiday homemaking . So whatever you are applying your hands to as you listen today , I know you will enjoy these holiday stories of home .

Mandi Thompson

The girls will come up and get us up at five o'clock Still .

Allison Weeks

Still At 15 and 12 .

Mandi Thompson

That's so sweet .

Allison Weeks

You know Are they typically morning people anyway , or it's just because it's Christmas .

Mandi Thompson

It's mainly because it's Christmas , but we're usually , I mean , even on Saturday morning , we're up at by like 7 , 7.30 . You're early risers , we are , but yeah . So we get up at five and see what Santa brought , and do that , and then we start opening presents . We usually get the coffee going I'll usually have a breakfast casserole or something that I can pop in the oven while we're doing that and then just presents ensue for hours because we go around one by one , one at a time .

Mandi Thompson

Okay , so the last couple of years my mom , stepdad , my brother and his wife , you know , have all been a part of that with us . So it's been fun just to kind of share that with them as well . But yeah , and then , you know , after it's all done , we just kind of clean up a little bit . Girls will go to their room and play with all the new , and then we usually will try to take a nap .

Allison Weeks

I'm like , yeah , by that time it's probably nap time yeah .

Mandi Thompson

Yeah , so that typically will happen . And then the afternoon we'll our family loves playing nerds . It's a card game . It's almost like double solitaire Okay , I'm slightly different . It gets . You can have so many decks of cards . You have to have at least two , okay , and you can either work in teams or alone . It gets loud . My mom usually yells , I yell , but it's a lot of fun and the girls love it . So we'll typically do , you know , something like that , either midday or something . But yeah , so this kind of Christmas for us , do you do a big meal later in the day ? Yeah , and the last couple of years we've really tried to find something that's a tradition , like a traditional Christmas meal , like what people did long ago . So we'll try to find what kind of game or meet that was . We'll try to figure out a way to prepare it . Oh , cool , that way . And then we'll look up some older side dishes and stuff as well .

Mandi Thompson

So that way it's kind of a that's fun tradition .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , so like , maybe like a colonial style Christmas or something like that .

Mandi Thompson

Yeah , I mean , don really likes history and he , he's so funny . I feel like I talk about him a lot , but he is your husband .

Allison Weeks

Yes , that's probably a good thing .

Mandi Thompson

We spend a lot of time together . But yeah , so we yeah , he'll kind of look up and research different kinds of meat , so we'll try to do something . I don't know We've gone anything from . We've looked at doing cornish hens to like the crown .

Allison Weeks

Oh , like a rack of lamb kind of thing . Okay .

Mandi Thompson

Yeah , yeah , we like their lamb a lot , so we'll try to do lamb a lot yeah that's fun .

Allison Weeks

Does everybody sort of pitch in for making Christmas dinner , or is ?

Mandi Thompson

that it just depends on who's going to be here and what the plan is . So yeah , typically Don and I'll carry the meat and then at least one bigger side dish . And then if anybody else wants to , we're like here's this , if you want to contribute .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , this is what we're going for . Okay , well , that's fun . So what about sweets and desserts ? Is there something that you always need to have either during the Christmas season or on Christmas Day ?

Mandi Thompson

So every year the girls and I do a Christmas cookie party . Oh my , my aunt made tea cakes and it's just a sugar cookie that's not very sweet and I loved them . Growing up it was like my favorite thing about Christmas . She would make tea cakes , gingerbread , men fudge and peanut butter balls . And so every year without Phil we make . I don't do fudge anymore . I had a really good recipe growing up for microwave fudge . That was like failproof . It was so fantastic and I have not been able to find it which is so sad .

Mandi Thompson

So I don't do fudge because it scares me . But . But every year we do the peanut butter balls , the gingerbread men and then the tea cakes . So this is your aunt's tea cake recipe .

Allison Weeks

Oh , is it a secret family recipe or can you share it with us ?

Mandi Thompson

No , I can share it , okay , cool .

Allison Weeks

Awesome . Well , that is so fun . So you have a Christmas cookie party with just your girls , or do you invite people in ?

Mandi Thompson

We invite people in . So when they were younger my aunt had this really great tip . She helped Alzheimer's people . They moved to Delano several years ago and she kind of headed that up . But she gave me this great tip when the girls were a little to water down the icing so they could paint with it . Oh yeah , and so when they were little we would make all the cookies , I would get brand new paint brushes and then water down the icing in different colors so they could paint in every set of having to use their little hands with squeezy bags and even the ones you buy in the store that are in the bottle .

Allison Weeks

Those are even hard for little hands to .

Mandi Thompson

That's such a good idea . So that was great . And they every year they get to invite some friends . One of the little friends this year she was like I love getting to decorate cookies , so it just is fun . They get to take them home . We've kind of added some new things over the years on . You know new things the girls want to try and stuff . But we typically have a big girls day and we have Dawn sister and her daughter come over and it's just it's so fun .

Allison Weeks

I love that . Well , besides the cookie party , are there any other family traditions that you guys do during the holiday season ?

Mandi Thompson

Not typically . We used to always go and do Christmas lights . We would go and I would make a big thermos of hot chocolate and we'd drive around and look at Christmas lights . But yeah , we haven't . We didn't do that this last year . This last year , it just was a very busy season , more so than usual so .

Mandi Thompson

I felt like there was some stuff that we didn't get to do , but just spending time with family is probably our biggest one . Like I said , kenny and I enjoy playing games , so typically the holidays is filled with puzzles and games and family time as much as possible , so that's good .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , Well then how do you omit all of that and all the activity and the busier schedules that tend to happen at the end of the year ? How do you keep your focus on the main thing throughout all of that ? What are some things you do ?

Mandi Thompson

We don't do great on this . We don't . I'm totally honest . I wish we we were more intentional , because one of my favorite things is just being together . I think that's the greatest gift that God gave us , right ? I mean , from the very beginning he tells us that you know , it's not good for me to be alone , yeah , and so sharing that time with each other is , I feel , like just the greatest reminder and the greatest gift that can happen . But we try . It is hard . We're still learning , the girls and I every morning on the way to school and stuff . We always do a little devotional . The Bible app has a great kids devotional every day .

Mandi Thompson

And so they have like a minute or two minute person talking . They kind of go over some scripture . This year was particularly really good . The guy that they had doing it really was just a reminder on what it is to wait expectantly , so it was just really beautiful . So to kind of get to have that in the morning together and then talk about that was always something that we really enjoy .

Allison Weeks

I love that idea of doing the devotional with them on the way to school , because it's like just the right amount of time . Yes , and this is something you'll find more and more that your girls are teenagers . I don't know what it is about riding in the car , but they will talk more to you when you're in the car . I think it's cause they don't have to look you in the face Like you're looking ahead cause you're driving and they're looking ahead .

Mandi Thompson

Yes .

Allison Weeks

And you can have these . That's some of the best conversations I've had with my kids were riding in the car , because there's something about that . It breaks down their , their barrier . Yes , have you found this ? I don't know .

Mandi Thompson

Yes , yeah , and I try not to let them be on their phones too much . Madison is a bookworm and she always is reading , and so she can't get a book , a hard copy she's gotten it digital . Yeah , which great . I'm glad she's reading by the same time too . I'll try to keep it as much where they're off their phones and they have to talk to me as much as possible . No phones in the car . So yeah , but so yeah , it's good yeah that's a great suggestion .

Allison Weeks

That was on the Bible app that you had that , so they I'm assuming they do it all year . There's an emotional all year and then at Christmas time it's geared towards towards Advent . Okay , very good suggestion , awesome . Thank you very much for sharing all your Christmas tips and stuff . Merry Christmas , merry Christmas . All right , I'm back here with my friend and single homemaking gal , elizabeth Dillard . All right , we're going to talk about Christmas , elizabeth , so why don't you tell us how do you embrace holiday homemaking as a single homemaker ?

Elizabeth Dillard

So I love Christmas . Christmas is so full of joy and bestivity . It's my favorite time of year . It's actually like I don't really like cold winter months , but Christmas makes cold . Well , in Texas it's not that cold , so maybe that's why I like it so much . But the holiday aspect of it , like it's just like this is Christmas and so happy , and , of course , as Christians , like there's so much joy that comes out of it as well . So you mentioned in there , like decorating , hospitality so embracing that I love to decorate for Christmas .

Elizabeth Dillard

When I still lived at home , I would decorate the whole house for Christmas and I still like go over there and decorate their house , and I had to like remind myself to like decorate my house too . I actually , I also . So I mean we were talking about being a single homemaker so much flexibility and freedom there is . I have time to go help Danny at church , so I'll help her . I've helped her for the past I don't know how many years like four or five years decorate for Christmas .

Elizabeth Dillard

So , I don't come up with the planning part of it because that's a little outside of my brain scope . But when she's like I have this plan , can you glue these things to that , Can you cut this out ? It's like , yes , I can do that .

Allison Weeks

And .

Elizabeth Dillard

I enjoy it I also . I still try to connect with people , so that's something we're talking about with home , like I connect with people outside the home , I have noticed recently so I don't know if it's always been like this , but it's more of a Christmas time it's the out of town people or the single people that I meet with more .

Roan Johnson

Christmas time .

Elizabeth Dillard

And I think it's because the moms with their kids and stuff , they it's Christmas is more of like a family time and so they're obviously like , well , we're going out of town , we're seeing family or they're hunkering down , or maybe it is a stressful time for them , so they like we're just , you know , zoning out for a while . It's like that's okay . So it's more of the single people in the out of town people that I connect with a lot more .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , oh yeah , that makes sense , that makes sense . So , so what is a typical Christmas day look like for you ?

Elizabeth Dillard

So , being a single girl , I still go hang out with my family , so at my parents house , and it's just a nice calm day Like there's never . I don't ever remember stress around Christmas or still not stress . I guess maybe the stress of it can be like now that I have two sisters that are married , sometimes like one of them's like well , we got to go to the other family members house yeah .

Elizabeth Dillard

Or we haven't quite had it yet , where they're like well , we're not coming this Christmas , like we're going to do New Year's instead . So so far they've all been there for Christmas . I haven't missed a Christmas yet due to work , but I think this year maybe the year that I miss last Thanksgiving .

Roan Johnson

So I had to be .

Elizabeth Dillard

I had to celebrate Thanksgiving with firefighters , which is great . It was not happy at all , but I didn't make a pumpkin pie though .

Alexis Molnar

Oh no , it was a sweet potato pie .

Elizabeth Dillard

And they , I remember . I know we're talking about Christmas , but Thanksgiving to me , so I think I'll mention it later , but Thanksgiving kicks off Christmas in my brain .

Allison Weeks

I listen to .

Elizabeth Dillard

Christmas music all day . I start Christmas music in October .

Allison Weeks

Oh , you're one of those people .

Elizabeth Dillard

But it's like a random like oh , I want to listen to this song again , Unless the song versus Christmas day is like now we're just listening to all Christmas music . Or Thanksgiving day .

Allison Weeks

Yes .

Elizabeth Dillard

Yes , but anyhow , last Thanksgiving was , for some reason we ran like all of the calls and so it was like all day I've like work , work , work . And then I would squeeze in like they'd go watch TV and I'm like I don't want to watch football , Like that's stupid . So I'd go upstairs and like sweat some , because our station was at , then the gym was upstairs , and then it was like evening and they were like you told us , you're going to make a sweet potato pie . And I was like they all like . So it wasn't till like nine or 10 PM at night when the pie was done and they were like well , I guess we'll stay up and eat it . And anyhow they went and got back second . So I'm assuming it was fine , yeah , whatever .

Elizabeth Dillard

Anyhow . So yeah , it's . You know , christmas is at home with family , it's . It's always just a real calm , quiet day , I love it Okay .

Allison Weeks

So , besides your sweet potato pie that you made at the firehouse which , by the way , elizabeth is a firefighter paramedic yes , okay , cause , if you didn't catch her original interview , we talked a lot about that and so she has to spend several days at a time at the firehouse with a bunch of guys , with a bunch of guys who will judge your food 100% , but then like every time , if I do cook something cause I'm not like , oh , I have to cook , like usually the guys are better than me , but afterwards they're always like that was actually good , like they don't want to admit

Elizabeth Dillard

that it's good , but they're like that's actually , but during the process it's hardcore . Like you , better make this good .

Allison Weeks

Yeah .

Elizabeth Dillard

I mean it's , it's like a competition . It's , yeah , it is , and if you fail , they will remind you of it for months on end .

Allison Weeks

So it's yeah , that's funny . Okay , so besides sweet potato pie that Thanksgiving , is there other food that you like ? You feel like you need to have , during the Christmas season , a special cookie or something .

Elizabeth Dillard

Yes , so our family , we've always done tamales Christmas Eve . Okay , so there's a little hole in the wall place in downtown San Antonio that we always and I . The tamales at H E B here , our grocery store , are pretty similar , so sometimes if we can't get downtown like , we'll get those , but it's always tamales at least Christmas Eve , and sometimes we buy a whole bunch so it lasts like a couple of days so it's gotta be a tamale Cool .

Allison Weeks

Good to know , all right Well , do you have any other holiday traditions that you do during the season ?

Elizabeth Dillard

So I like I kind of mentioned it a little bit but I like to decorate the day after Thanksgiving , so Thanksgiving Day is full of Christmas music while you're cooking even if . I'm not the one cooking , I'm the one that's putting the music on . It's like you have to listen to this Christmas music and then the day after is decorating . Yeah , so the house .

Allison Weeks

Usually , if I'm helping Danny with the church , it's the days leading up to Thanksgiving , so she tries to knock it out before Thanksgiving , obviously so that we have day , and then the church is decorated for that first Sunday after .

Elizabeth Dillard

So it's usually the the Monday through Wednesday that we're trying to knock out the church , but the day after is focused on and I usually I still do my parents' house . I don't do the outside lights my dad does those but I do like the inside and then slowly trying to do my house . So , but I'm not here a lot because I am a permetic firefighter and I'll meet friends and stuff , so it's more of an afterthought with , like , oh yeah , a tree . My tree is so gross Like . I bought this like a cheap tree at Walmart and it's like purple . I don't know why it's like a black print . The box showed it is like this beautiful green spruce and then I opened it . I'm like it's black with a tint of purple , what ? But thankfully my house is dark enough to where you can't tell that it's black when you have light strung on it and little ornaments .

Elizabeth Dillard

So it's like , okay , I can survive , but I seriously considered spray painting it because I was like it's so gross but anyhow . I also like listening to a Christmas Carol . We have like an audio version oh yeah , so it's not like I don't do it every year . And sometimes it's instead of the audio , it's the movie or something , but I used to read the story . But I feel like audio is easier because you can go do other stuff .

Allison Weeks

Oh yeah , I'm a huge fan of audio books .

Elizabeth Dillard

I like the story .

Allison Weeks

Cool . Yeah , I think Patrick Stewart does a really good audible version .

Elizabeth Dillard

He reads a really a really good audible . There's some like what is that called Audio theater or something that ?

Allison Weeks

Yeah , like radio theater . Yeah , radio theater that I have Cool so very nice , very nice . Well , okay , so even though you're a single girl and you have a bit more freedom in your schedule and whatnot , it still can get crazy at the holiday time , you know , because you still have . You're decorating your parents' house and you're working and you still have gifts to buy and all that kind of stuff . So how do you maintain balance during the busy season and keep your focus on Christ ?

Elizabeth Dillard

It's easy for the Christmas season to fly by . Yeah , and that's the part that's sad to say , hard quote unquote is because I want to enjoy each joyful Christmas day and so sometimes , especially if it's like well , it's easy to just go from work shift to work shift and it's like no , I want to enjoy the four days in between , right , and then Christmas at the fire station , I'm the only paramedic . Well , there was one other guy actually was Danny's husband . Luke Hamilton is a firefighter paramedic and he used to work for the Department of Workforce . He was the first one that did it and I've been doing it ever since . We streamed Christmas lights in the ambulance and so to me it's fun because first off , it's more for me , not really the community . I've had at least two patients . One of them was a psych lady that was like acting like weird and then she saw him and she was immediately happy . And then another one was a poor cancer lady that was just super sad and then it just made her happy to see the Christmas lights .

Elizabeth Dillard

And so I love that it was just two people , so it's more for me , but anyhow that's bringing joy to the fire station , because other than that it's like we still like they left the Christmas tree up this year .

Roan Johnson

They just left it , yeah , and I was like when are y'all ?

Elizabeth Dillard

going to take it down and they were like , oh , we're just waiting until the other crews take it down . And I was like , oh my God , anyhow , yeah , just so , maintaining the balance of the season , keeping your focus on Christ , Enjoying each day , yeah , I love that .

Allison Weeks

That's a great reminder . We want to not just let it fly by and then forget what it is . I like I don't even remember what I did this December . Right , so very good , very good word , all right . Well , thanks for sharing about Christmas and Merry Christmas . Merry Christmas , thank you . We will get back to these holiday stories of home in just a few minutes .

Allison Weeks

Right now , it is time for Homemaker holiday decorating tips . This is the part of the holiday podcast where we highlight some decorating tips to help you spread some Christmas joy throughout your home . Well , we are three weeks into our holiday homemaking series and many of you are likely already finished with your decorating , but I still want to share some ideas for you to either implement this year or tuck away for some inspiration in the future . Today , I would like to talk about how the unexpected can help us experience more joy in the Christmas season . I experience joy when I flex my creative muscles to look for holiday decoration inspiration and supplies from unexpected sources , and putting them in unexpected places throughout the house brings me joy , and it brings joy to the people who discover them throughout the Christmas season . So here are some of the unexpected sources that I have found some really great Christmas decorations in over the years and I would recommend that you might want to try these .

Allison Weeks

First of all , shop your house . If you have art hanging on the walls , you can holidayify those pieces of art by hanging a little bit of greenery over the top , by wrapping the whole thing up and wrapping paper and putting a great big bow on it and hanging it back on the wall so it looks like a gift on the wall . You can swag a garland down the middle . That's something that I do with some in my dining room . You can see that on my Instagram holiday stories that I saved in my highlights . Another thing that I love to decorate with that is already in my house are dishes and platters and trays . So I do collect dishes , so I have quite a lot that are more seasonal . But even if you don't , if you have some white dishes , a lovely little pile of white dishes placed on top of a hutch in your dining room or even on the kitchen counter with some maybe a little a little pipe cleaner tree nestled on top , or if you have like some cups or bowls stacked and you can put some greenery in that , or even some just some bald up , ribbon , anything to make it look a little bit more festive than if it were just a stack of plates sitting there . Platters are great or larger dishes . You can get plate hangers off of Amazon and you can put those up on the wall , whether they're festive or not . You can do the same thing that you do with your art that I just mentioned in the previous tip , by putting a bow on it or draping some ribbon or some greenery over the top . Stacking some plates or platters especially if they're Christmas themed in a basket is a really fun decorative thing to do . That's also functional , because then you can just grab those places you need them . I like I have a basket full of platters in my dining room for that very reason .

Allison Weeks

Okay , and then the other thing you can do is shop your home for your Christmas colors . Most of us decorate with red and green at Christmas time , but even if you have a different color scheme going , look around your house for things that fit into that color scheme that aren't necessarily Christmas decorations , so things like books , book covers . So if you look , if say you're doing red and green , look for red and green books all throughout your house and bring them all together and stack them together , tie them up with the bow it looks really festive . Linen's pillows , quilts , anything like that that fits into your color scheme . You can use those draped across the couch or just even , really , if you want to get super creative , you could tack it up on the wall to make a really big statement or stack them . Stack folded blankets or quilts in a basket and that looks so lovely with a little bit of greenery on top .

Allison Weeks

Toys can be super fun to decorate with throughout the house because it's Christmas , right ? So we think often think about toys when we think about Christmas decorations and if you have children , you probably have a lot of toys hanging around . So maybe find some that your child wouldn't miss too much if you use them to decorate or get them involved . You know I'm going to talk in a minute about hanging stockings in various places around the house and if you find some toys that your child is willing to part with for the Christmas season and you can use those to stuff those stockings , just look around the house for everyday items that fit your Christmas color scheme and then think about unique ways that you could display those items in some unexpected ways around your house to bring some Christmas cheer into every corner of your home . Okay , the other unexpected place , not necessarily unexpected , but don't rule out nature , nature and or your grocery store .

Allison Weeks

So traditionally this is how people decorated for Christmas . They would go out to the forest or their property , they would cut greenery and they would bring it in the house and they would decorate the house with with bowels of holly right , we even sing about that in our Christmas songs . They would adorn their homes from top to bottom for the holidays . And you can do the same thing . Anything that is green and seasonal . You can cut it out of your yard and you can bring it in the house , put it in vases , make little greenery swags and garlands and put those across your mantle on top of the piano , down the center of your your table for a centerpiece , tuck them into stockings , tie them together with a big red bow and hang it on the edge of the bed post .

Allison Weeks

There's so many things that you can do with just plain old greenery , and it doesn't have to be pine boughs or lovely fir boughs . If you don't , if you live in a part of the country that doesn't have that . We don't have those kind of trees which we don't have those here . Look for something else that would work . We have magnolias , so I have a lot of magnolia in in my house for Christmas . We also have a type of juniper cedar kind of tree that we could bring that in as well if we wanted to . So just think out of the box when it comes to the plants . But please , please , practice safety . Make sure that if you're bringing anything into your home that is potentially toxic like maybe has toxic berries or something like that just be very careful and put those out of reach of children and pets . Now , if you don't have access to fresh cuttings from your yard or from your property maybe you live in an apartment building go visit your grocery store and even if you are using stuff from your yard , go visit your grocery store . With this in mind , what can I use from the grocery store to decorate my home ?

Allison Weeks

One of my favorite things to do is use fruit , because fruit keeps forever in a bowl certain kinds of fruit , apples , oranges . They keep for a very long time and they look beautiful . A big bowl of oranges with a little couple of little sprigs of greenery , either fake or real , can make a wonderful centerpiece and a beautiful statement , either on a coffee table or on your dining room table . You can also dry fruit . It's one of my favorite things to do . You can cut up orange slices . Of course , this is all over TikTok and Instagram , so you can see this everywhere . Dried orange slices or dried apple slices make wonderful garlands . They make great single ornaments to hang on your tree and also you could use them to adorn a gift as part of your gift wrap .

Allison Weeks

Nuts are another great thing you can find at the grocery store . I'm talking about whole nuts that are in their shell . Usually this time of year my grocery store will have a big bin in the produce section and you can just scoop out and they sell it by the pound . You just scoop out what you want and you weigh it and then you pay for however much you need , and I always have a big bowl of nuts in the shell that I keep by . It's actually by our door in the foyer and there's a couple of little nutcrackers there like little hand nutcrackers , and anytime somebody wants to go by and grab a little snack , they can stand there and crack the nuts and it looks really pretty . You can make ornaments out of cinnamon sticks and butcher's twine you can make a big batch of gingerbread cookies for ornaments and wreaths and garlands . And then , finally , a cheap pack of brown paper lunch sacks can make snowflakes , luminaries and even gift bags . And then my most favorite place to get unexpected things for Christmas would be my thrift store . Thrift is my favorite way to decorate for Christmas and even to buy gifts , sometimes . Ornaments always be looking for ornaments , of course , to use in your decorating , but also you can use them as gifts and you can use them to adorn the package of your gift on the outside the gift wrap in lieu of a bow .

Allison Weeks

Number two stockings . I use stockings everywhere and they're always abundant and they are super cheap . I have found some really beautiful velvet stockings at the thrift store for just a dollar or two . Usually it's not a Christmas time , but that's okay because I have a little box where I can buy things throughout the year and I can tuck them away for next year . But stockings hung in every corner of the house , not just where you're going to hang them to be filled . Of course , you would want your stockings for your family members , but I use them in all kinds of places throughout the house and I stuff them with greenery and toys and all sorts of things to bring festive cheer to just about just about anywhere you can think of .

Allison Weeks

Okay , number three wreaths . Don't let ugly flowers deter you from a good wreath form underneath . If you see a lovely grapevine wreath that has the ugliest flowers in the world on it , you might want to invest the $2 , because that you're not going to find a grapevine wreath for $2 anywhere brand new and you can take those ugly flowers off . So don't discount that Ribbon . Always check the crafty area of your thrift store because you'll find some treasures in there , and I have found entire spools full of beautiful velvet ribbon for two and three dollars or less .

Allison Weeks

Baskets I'm a big fan of baskets . I use them all the time for organizing stuff around the house , but I love to give gifts in baskets . It makes a wonderful . It's an alternative to a gift bag or a box and it's like a two for one , because they get the gift and they get the basket . They're also great for decorating with around the house .

Allison Weeks

Books Christmas themed books , of course . I found some really great ones at the thrift store that I display throughout the house , but then also red and green linen covered books , like we mentioned before . When you shop your house you might not have any of those . So be on the lookout , because a nice little stack of red and green vintage linen covered books with a big bow around them is makes the most beautiful decoration Metals .

Allison Weeks

You will find tons of silver at the thrift shops . It's usually really cheap and it's usually really tarnished . So don't be afraid . It just needs a little bit of elbow grease . Get yourself some rights that's W R I G H T S polish and go to town it . You will be amazed how easy it is to get that tarnish off and you will have a beautiful , gleaming piece of silver to decorate with around your home for Christmas . Also , look for copper , brass cookie cutters . Those are all great things to decorate with at Christmas time .

Allison Weeks

Glass , glass , a glass bowl filled with shiny ornaments Do I need to say anymore ? Number nine nativity sets . If you find random , mismatched and missing pieces of a nativity set , you can put those together and make one unique set . You could spray paint them and make one cohesive set . You can use them and make individual ornaments to put on a tree . You can make a wreath out of them , a whole wreath full of a bunch of different nativity pieces . That would be really cute . So much you can do with nativity sets .

Allison Weeks

Photo frames I look for photo frames that are in a particular particular aesthetic . I'm usually looking for silver or glass crystal , because that's what goes with my little set that I have . This is something that I talk about on that Instagram reel that I've referenced before this year . You can go watch that . It'll show you how . I took a bunch of family photos from Christmas time my kids on Santa's lap , us over the years as a family at Christmas , different Christmas celebrations , and I put them all in thrifted frames and I have this little display of family Christmas photos and it is just so lovely and it's a very inexpensive way to fill a large space with some Christmas themed decorations and it's such a great memory to look at those photos . My kids love looking at those and so do I .

Allison Weeks

Okay , tree skirts Be unconventional about your tree skirts . A tablecloth makes a great tree skirt . Scarves , quilts , pieces of fabric , sweaters these are all things you can find , usually in abundance , at a thrift store or at an antique shop . A lot of times I'll find quilts that are lovely but they've got holes in them and tears and I wouldn't want to necessarily use them as a quilt or even display them , but they would make a great tree skirt , okay . And then , finally , I love decor with purpose , and so we often play games and we do puzzles and all that kind of stuff around Christmas time . So I have a big pile of puzzles sitting underneath the table in my living room and it actually looks really lovely because they're very festive , they're brightly colored in red and green and that little stack looks really cute . Down there I also have a pile of books and games and coloring books . If you've got a lot of kids that are going young kids that are going to be hanging around your house at Christmas time , you might want to put a little basket full of Christmas themed coloring books and some colors and some colored pencils , and that looks really cute too , with a big bow on the basket .

Allison Weeks

Okay , that was a lot of ground to cover . I hope you got some good ideas out of there . That is it for today'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 . Okay , I am back here with Ron Johnson , who is a seasoned homemaker . We're going to talk about Christmas , so , ron , tell me what is a typical Christmas day . Look like at your house .

Samantha Bain

It's chaos and wonderful . So so far , all of my children and their spouses , grandchildren everybody spends the night on Christmas Eve . We've had a couple of years that one of the husbands couldn't come , but everybody else . We have a rule you cannot wake up or come downstairs before six am . So at six o'clock everybody's at the top of the stairs and then we let them down and everybody comes down into the living area .

Samantha Bain

Santa Claus does come to our house . It looks different from year to year . Sometimes there's one gift , sometimes there's multiple , sometimes they're wrapped . It just depends on his year . Everybody has a stocking and I loved collecting the stockings over the year . They're just embroidered stockings that I've gotten from different places . They have their names on them , so stockings are filled and everybody has a little area of my living room . It's very crowded because it's not a very big area and so they have their little pile of things in there stocking , and I like to have something that's able to be enjoyed immediately , especially for the little children , something unwrapped and not like a Lego set but like a doll , or , for the older kids , you know , a book or just something that they can oh , wow , you know and play with . I serve mocha punch , mocha punch . Yes , it has coffee .

Allison Weeks

I think I might know what this is . Ice cream yes , they called it frappe mocha . Okay , it was a junior league thing . Okay , tell me what it is Coffee .

Samantha Bain

You make coffee overnight , let it sit with like a cup of sugar in it , and then you add vanilla ice cream , chocolate ice cream and you whip cream and put that on top . It's very good . So we drink that all day . So we have mocha punch and I serve a breakfast . I make the same breakfast casserole , we have sausage balls , fruit salad and the mocha punch and we stay in our pajamas all day long and I let people just leisurely open their gifts . I started that and they were small . If they open something and they want to play with it , I just let them play with it . We just sit there all day . There is one little break in the day . My husband will , sometime in the early afternoon , will go up to the hospital and I make baskets for the nurses stations of the floors where he typically works , and so he takes those to the people that have to work on .

Samantha Bain

Christmas day and sometimes one of my son-in-laws or you know a son , an older person you know , will go with him , and then I just Does he's a ? Physician correct .

Allison Weeks

Yes .

Samantha Bain

Okay , and so I will . I just gather trash all day and try to keep everything in piles , and then about four o'clock we have Christmas dinner and we have steak , schiskebobs . Sometimes we have shrimp . Especially if my parents come , they'll bring boiled shrimp , potato casserole , rolls , salad . I make a dessert , but it's something different every year . I'm not a good dessert maker , so I will try something , and I usually have a platter of Christmas goodies that we had made earlier . Yeah , and so that's what we do .

Allison Weeks

Oh , that sounds like a wonderful day . I have a question . Okay , are the children drinking the mocha punch and is it decaf ?

Samantha Bain

It's not decaf . And , yes , all of my children can drink coffee and have drunk coffee from a very early age , except for my son , I mean my older son . I have one son that does drink coffee , but all the rest of them they drink coffee . And I don't know about the little grandchildren , the little I was talking about the little ones you know well .

Samantha Bain

see , last year they were four and two and then a baby and a baby . I don't know if they let the . I mean I would , maybe would give them some . I don't know if their mother would they probably wouldn't like it because it's got .

Allison Weeks

It's kind of bitter . Yeah , most kids don't like coffee flavor , so , oh my gosh , we're going to have to . We're going to have to share that recipe , if you don't mind , okay .

Samantha Bain

I don't mind at all .

Allison Weeks

That sounds and I'm curious what's in your ? I love your Christmas day meal , your shish kebabs , your steak kebabs and potato casserole . What do you put ? Is it like an all grottin , like a cheesy potato ?

Samantha Bain

Yes , I mean , it's the one that everybody around here makes . It's a bag of hash brown potatoes and you do cream of chicken soup , sour cream , grated cheese yeah , it's just a Christmas thing , yeah .

Allison Weeks

Okay , Maybe we can . Maybe we can include that one too .

Samantha Bain

Oh sure , I have all of my recipes typed up , so that will be fine , awesome , okay , so is there anything else ?

Allison Weeks

since we're on the subject of food , I'm guessing maybe the mocha is really , really important and must make an appearance . Anything else that has to make an appearance at some point during the Christmas season , a special cookie or something like that ?

Samantha Bain

Well , two different things . One , we make . We call it Christmas goodies . I have several recipes that we make big batches of every year that we I set some aside for us to eat , you know , on Christmas . But we make bags and tins that we share with with friends and family and some people in the community . You know my mechanic and my florist . I live in a small area so we know these people . But yes , I make . We call them Rice Krispie goodies and I heard another guest share recipe that was very similar to mine Is the Rice Krispie treats with the .

Samantha Bain

They have peanut butter and carrot syrup but then it has a topping of butterscotch and chocolate chips . I only make that at Christmas . I make oyster crackers and I make we call it Neiman Marcus cookies . It's just a very fancy chocolate chip cookie recipe . My mother-in-law's recipe that's called Bumpy Cookies . What is that Bumpy ? It is Rice Krispies and peanut butter and salted peanuts and marshmallows and that white almond bark . Yeah , like you melt the peanut butter and almond bark and then you pour it over the dry things and you drop them by spoonfuls onto wax paper . And she always called them Bumpy Cookies because they're bumpy with the marshmallows and the peanuts . So , oh , I love that name . That's probably all of the things , but yes , those . And then we make . I make one batch of sugar cookies that I roll out and cut into shapes and then once everybody , all the family gets there , whether it's the twenty third or the twenty fourth or whatever , when everybody's there , they put them on my island and everybody decorates .

Samantha Bain

Oh , that's fun , that's everybody gets like two or three , you know . I just want that .

Allison Weeks

That's nice . That's really fun . Ok , so how about any other ? Besides cookie decorating and all the things we've already talked about , do you have any other special holiday traditions with your family ?

Samantha Bain

I send out Christmas cards and that is something that my family knows . We're going to make that Christmas card picture and some years it's it's easy and some years it's not . We just made it last in August when we all got together , you know , for a vacation . I've sent out pictures with a child maybe crying before , because that's the best I could get back in the days of film , you know Right , but I do send out Christmas cards .

Samantha Bain

We watch or I watch homework movies while I'm wrapping presents . I have Christmas themed puzzles that I put out . Like I said , we bake and deliver the treats , decorate the tree . And another Tradition I have that the children try to give me a hard time about , but I know they love , is the matching Christmas pajamas . I've done that ever since they were little . At first my husband and I did not participate because we just had little children , but the last , probably seven or eight years , I get a pair for my husband and I too , and I give them to him Christmas Eve and they all say , oh , what can this be ? It's a surprise . So so , since we stay in our pajamas all day , they say can be cute .

Allison Weeks

They can be cute , right , yeah , oh , that's fun . That's fun . Ok , I have a round of rapid fire Christmas themed questions . Ok , ok , favorite Christmas song or Carol .

Samantha Bain

It's the most wonderful time of the year .

Allison Weeks

OK , favorite Christmas movie .

Samantha Bain

It's a wonderful life .

Allison Weeks

Gingerbread or sugar cookie .

Samantha Bain

Sugar .

Allison Weeks

Yes , I imagined after I said you did that every year Fake tree or real tree ?

Samantha Bain

OK , I'm going to say real because we had a real tree for 18 years and I loved that real tree . But last year , for the first time in 18 years , I bought a fake tree because the real trees had gotten so expensive .

Allison Weeks

Yes , they are .

Samantha Bain

And the and the place where I got them from , like the year before , they just didn't have a good selection and then I just I just got to where I really felt bad spending that much money on the real tree . But I loved it and I was really sad but I was able to get one that didn't . I didn't want lights on it , because I I use big fat colored lights OK , and that's what I like , lots of color and so I did not want a prelit tree . So I finally found one that was tall enough . I wanted a big tree that didn't have lights and it costs less than one real tree . So I did the right thing . I could click , but so I just lit a bunch of candles that smelled like pine there . That's what I do . That's what I do .

Allison Weeks

You can also get those little inserts . They make these little inserts that have . They're like a scented , it's like a stick , and they're green , it's like an air freshener sort of , but it's a little stick , and then you can just hang them on the inside of your tree , oh to like waft out the smell of the tree you know , when you walk by it .

Samantha Bain

That's a good idea .

Allison Weeks

Maybe you try that , but I do the same thing and I also don't want a prelit tree for different reasons . I'm particular about how many lights go on the tree and I just feel like no matter how good the technology gets , eventually those lights are going to go out , and they figure out how to deal with that , and so what that's why we transitioned to a real tree those 18 years ago was we had a prelit tree .

Samantha Bain

We got it on the box Half the lights weren't working . Oh no , my husband said you want to get a real tree this year ? I said yes , that'd be fun .

Allison Weeks

And then we just never look back for a while , for a while , but now you're back to the fake tree . Well , it has its . It has its pluses too . Ok , bows or no bows on the gifts .

Samantha Bain

Big , beautiful bows . Ok , I'm a big gift wrapper , I have a designated gift wrapping table and my husband made me this contraption that hangs all the ribbon on . Oh , have a nice little set up .

Allison Weeks

That's cool . So is it a permanent set up or is one you set up just during the holidays ?

Samantha Bain

It's permanent . I have a storage room in our basement , just a walk in storage area , and so it's in there and he's built me a table so I can wrap birthday presents and baby gift presents . So it's just kind of nice .

Alexis Molnar

It's really nice .

Samantha Bain

It's surrounded by by attic contents , because it is our walk in storage room . Yeah , I have a little area ?

Allison Weeks

Yeah , I have , I do . I set one up during the holiday Actually , I talked about this on the first holiday homemaking episodes , I think and then I did a reel on Instagram showing me setting it up last year and it's in and out of the way area . But before I had an extra room to do that in , I just did a car table in my bedroom .

Samantha Bain

That's what I did for a long time .

Allison Weeks

It was . It was a lot easier than getting down on the floor . My back wasn't hurting after the whole you know gift wrap process . Plus , I could do it . I'd set it up at the beginning of December and then I could , just as I brought gifts into the home , I'd take them over there and go wrap them . So it didn't have a heat , I didn't have a huge pile to deal with on Christmas Eve . So I'm a big fan of that . Ok , final question on this area in this section Christmas music before Thanksgiving or after .

Samantha Bain

OK , definitely before I made even start November 1st , and since I got the fake tree last year we went ahead with the tree up . That's another advantage . You didn't have to wait until after Thanksgiving . I normally decorate the house the Monday before Thanksgiving , just because when the kids come on from college they can go ahead and enjoy it . And yes , I mean it's only two months . My mother gave me her Christmas channel last year and so we started using it every Sunday . We did it all November and December , because I forgot to tell you that over a year ago I started using my China every Sunday for my son . You know I'd been married at that time 31 years . I'd used it like five times . So a lady encouraged me to start using it and so I did , and I just I just use it every Sunday . And then last year I used the Christmas China for two months . So I'm going to do that again this year .

Allison Weeks

I wholeheartedly agree Use the China , use it as often as you can .

Samantha Bain

It gets broken , I'll get another piece I had to order , so I didn't even have a full set , so I ordered what I was lacking and , yeah , I even let my grandchildren use it .

Allison Weeks

That's so fun . I love that . Use the good dishes , ok , last question Holidays are hectic . We know this especially . You raised five kids , you're still raising one , you still got one at home . But what are some of the things you've done , practically speaking , to sort of keep it between the rails and then also to keep your heart focused where it needs to be during that season ?

Samantha Bain

Okay , um , actually have three things . The first one is I told , and I still tell my married children do not stress over family gatherings . You are always invited to any festivity I have , but you are never obligated . I don't want them to have any guilt . I've told them you have another family now to celebrate with and I am happy when you are here and I am happy when you are with your other family , and so I just wanted to get that out there from the beginning . I did not want them to have to . You know , feel that pull , um .

Samantha Bain

The second thing is is I try to do as much as possible ahead of time so I can enjoy really the whole month , but especially , you know , the week . Um , so , um , my birthday is actually tomorrow , the day that after we're recording this , and that is 100 days to Christmas . Somebody told me that a long time ago . So usually the day after my birthday I get out my Christmas binder and I just kind of start , you know , looking at the three months ahead , putting things on the calendar , you know , ordering the Christmas cards . What day are we going to do our baking ? What day are we going to , you know , be distributing the baking things ?

Samantha Bain

Um , the shopping . I have all my holiday menus in there , recipes , um Christmas card addresses , and then I keep a list of I do shopping , christmas shopping , throughout the year , and so I keep a list of you know what I've bought . But I also put a checklist when I wrap it , because I used to , would wrap things and I would have a tag on it . You know , you know to uncle whatever . But then I would think , okay , what was that I wrapped , you know was that a shirt or ?

Samantha Bain

was it a hat , and I've had to unwrap things before . So now I have three columns I have the persons , you know , the gift , and then , you know , check it when I bought it , and then I check it off when I wrap it . And also helps me , because my girls will help me wrap presents and I'll just put sticky notes . I said this is , and they'll check it off as they wrap it , so I don't have to anyway . So I just try to do a lot of stuff ahead of time , especially now that I've had , or when I started having college kids 10 years ago , when they came home , I wanted us just to be able to do all the things that may not be rushing around , you know , planning and them .

Samantha Bain

And then the third thing I'd like to say to help me keep the balance is I just try to make sure that I , no matter how busy it is , I still , you know , try to begin my day with prayer and Bible study , and when all the children were at home and we were still doing our morning Bible study , we would try to keep that up as best we could , even with , you know , family in and out . You know , of course I try to love the Lord , with all my heart and soul and mind and strength all the time and I try to , you know , love neighbor , which is can be my family or true neighbors , you know , as myself , all throughout the year , but it does seem like there's extra opportunities , you know to do that during the month of December , and so I'm just , I'm just thankful , I'm thankful to have the opportunity to share that .

Samantha Bain

I know that a lot of times school , here we see little signs . You know Jesus is the reason for the season , but you know Jesus is the reason for every season we have , and so I've tried to , you know , tell my children that this is a , this is a special time , and it seems like everybody in the world , thankfully , is focusing on Jesus during this time . But we need to remember that . You know , we need to carry this on , you know , all throughout the year , and so I just , I just try to make sure that the hustle and bustle , you know , doesn't crowd out my love and appreciation for my Lord and my family . You know , no matter how busy or stressful it may be , I'm just , I'm just thankful , I'm just thankful for my family and all of the blessings that God has given me . And merry Christmas .

Allison Weeks

Merry Christmas . I want to hear more about your binder too . I'm going to have to ask you off , mike , if you can give me a little bit of point about that , and maybe we'll share that in the newsletter , because that sounds like some really good stuff right there . So thank you so much for sharing all your .

Allison Weeks

Christmas tips and memories . Merry Christmas , merry Christmas . Okay . I'm back here with my friend Alexis Molnar , and she's in the trenches , homemaking , homeschooling . Mama , we're going to talk about Christmas , okay . So what does a typical Christmas day look like in your house ?

Tiffany Harris

It's pretty laid back . Ever since having kids , we've made it really a priority to be home . When Eric and I were kids , we always traveled to grandparents houses and we're on the go , and so we feel pretty strongly about being here on Christmas morning and so typically we go to my mom when she lives nearby her house for Christmas Eve and do something over there , but then Christmas morning it's breakfast and PJs and just hanging out here and I feel it's really important to like enjoy our presence and get that time to play and not just rip it open and run out the door .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , we were the same way . I mean it was a little easier because we always lived so far from our families . To travel would be like a huge deal , but we made that commitment very early on in our marriage as well . So , okay , you're wearing PJs and you're having breakfast . So what are you ? What are you eating for breakfast ? Usually ?

Tiffany Harris

we do cinnamon buns .

Allison Weeks

Okay , I was going to say , is it kind of a traditional ?

Tiffany Harris

thing . Yeah , it's not anything healthier fancy . It's Christmas . My dad made some really good homemade ones , but ever since then we just pop them out of the can and they're fabulous and everybody's really focused on the present , the present and the excitement . So , but we do cinnamon buns for breakfast . It's easy and special treat .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , and I love that you pop them out of the . Can we pop them out of the ?

Alexis Molnar

can ? They don't have to be homemade sourdough .

Allison Weeks

You know , if you do that that's amazing and great , but you don't have to . So what about the rest of the day ? Are you guys hanging out here still , or are you going to visit with family ?

Tiffany Harris

Yeah , we typically have everybody over here , oh , okay .

Allison Weeks

Awesome . And then what do you have ? A big dinner , or yes ? Okay , is it Greek ?

Tiffany Harris

There's lots of Greek food involved , so there's usually Greek cookies for dessert , um spenicopita and Pestizo . My mom makes that . It's like a Greek mac and cheese . What's it called , pestizo ?

Allison Weeks

Pestizo Okay Greek mac and cheese .

Tiffany Harris

It's not my favorite , but it's always there .

Allison Weeks

Okay .

Tiffany Harris

And that's pretty much . It Usually do ham for Christmas . It's not lamb .

Allison Weeks

No lamb .

Tiffany Harris

People would expect Well .

Allison Weeks

I guess , because you're Greek , people would think you'd do lamb . I don't . I've never actually cooked any lamb . I love lamb , I mean .

Tiffany Harris

I'm kind of a freezer I'm afraid of it .

Allison Weeks

Really , should I not be afraid ?

Tiffany Harris

of it . No , if I can do it , anybody can do it .

Allison Weeks

Okay , I might need some pointers on how to prepare lamb Okay , I have some in the cookbook .

Tiffany Harris

Great .

Allison Weeks

Well , okay , before we move away from food , is there any other recipe that must be made at some point during the Christmas season ?

Tiffany Harris

It's the cookies . It's the cookies , the Greek cookies .

Allison Weeks

Okay , so what are these ? Can you tell me about these cookies ?

Tiffany Harris

So they're like really unhealthy fabulous butter cookies and they're braided and they sound really plain . But they're really good If you drink your coffee or yummy just a snack and they have little sesame seeds on top and butter and lots of flour and butter . That sounds delicious . But they're delicious . That sounds wonderful .

Allison Weeks

Okay , can you share that with ?

Mandi Thompson

us .

Allison Weeks

Absolutely Great , thank you . Okay , so what about , besides food , other traditions during the Christmas season ? Do you guys have family traditions that maybe you're just starting with your family or that you did growing ?

Tiffany Harris

up ? Yeah , we are , we definitely do the Christmas lights where we get we started with Addison and do at least one night where you drive around and our PJs with hot chocolate and say I'm playing , go do that .

Tiffany Harris

Yeah , I'm trying to think we decorate the trees and our kids each have their own little tree . I'm big on . I don't do a big , beautiful tree . I like our funky individual ornaments over the years that have accumulated so many that we usually have . They each have their own little tree , so they always really look forward to that , putting those up and then , and then they can rearrange them all they want . It doesn't drive me crazy , I'm like go decorate that tree .

Allison Weeks

That's perfect . That's perfect .

Tiffany Harris

So we definitely do that . They get an ornament every year .

Allison Weeks

Is it like related to something that they've done that year or like something they're interested in ?

Tiffany Harris

Yeah , I usually keep it pretty typical .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , okay , that's curious .

Tiffany Harris

We used to go cut down trees when we lived in Washington .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , I was just gonna say you lived in Washington , of course you would go cut a tree down .

Tiffany Harris

We always did . But we had one year where I had Addison and I had a really bad allergic reaction to the tree . So we put it up . We put it up , we decorated it and for like two days her and I were just a wreck with the sneezing and the eyes and everything . So we undecorated it , took it down , went and bought an artificial tree and we've done one ever since . It's so sad .

Allison Weeks

Oh my gosh , that's terrible . We I don't know if I told you this , but we lived in Washington for a year before we came to . Well , we were in Florida again and then we came to San Antonio , but anyway , we lived over something . No , that's okay . Is she like having a bad dream ? She had a sneeze or something ? No , she's fine . So we were in Washington state , over on the like , on the West coast side , just right before you got to Canada , like the last one , the last town before Canada .

Allison Weeks

And so we went to a Christmas tree farm that year and we cut down our tree . It was amazing , it was so fun and I don't know what we did wrong . But that tree was only up for about maybe three or four days and it completely dried out like overnight . Oh my gosh , it was crazy , because I guess it was cold and we had the heat on and maybe we didn't do the right kind of cutting , I don't know . But we had to undecorate the tree . It was a fire hazard , like we couldn't leave it up . We had to undecorate it and then throw that out . And then I had three small little tabletop trees fake ones that I had used in other rooms and so we just gathered all the three small trees and we made a little cluster of them and just put our ornaments on those . There you go . Yeah , I mean it worked , but it was so sad because we had this wonderful experience of cutting the tree down and we're like wah wah yeah , that's pretty heartbreaking .

Allison Weeks

It is .

Tiffany Harris

So that's how we felt .

Allison Weeks

We were like that was our last real tree . Like no more real trees for us , no , no , okay . Well , the holidays can be really hectic and can just get away from us very quickly as far as committing to too many things and all of that . So what are some of the things that you , you do to help keep the main thing , the main thing , and keep your focus where it needs to be during the busy season of Christmas ?

Tiffany Harris

Yeah , I think that teaching my kids about the real meaning of Christmas . We try to spend a lot of time doing that where , like Santa's great presents are fun but we're really trying to raise them so that they understand the Jesus aspect . And just talking about that , keeping our eyes on the priority and then really just taking it slow and staying home that's been our big thing is just kind of not digging in our heels . But being like this is what we do and everybody's welcome here and if you'd like to join us here , more than welcome . But we really want to give our kids a more low key experience that we had growing up .

Tiffany Harris

I mean we would travel from Texas to Boston for Christmas and spend time up there and visit people . I just don't want to be caught in the crazy . So yeah it was fun . We have great memories , but yeah just doing it different .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's great and I love your open handedness about . The home is open to whoever wants to come here , you know , but we're going to like kind of stay put so that we're not out , you know , running around prepare our food Like .

Tiffany Harris

I like to have a big meal , but I don't want to spend all day cooking , so I just try to prepare things ahead of time so we can enjoy the day and not spend all day . And I'm really lucky that Eric is a good cook and he's really helpful because he's a big part of he's a big part of my homemaking . He helps me a lot , so that's awesome .

Allison Weeks

That's great I love that it's a team effort . It's a team effort , yes , as it should be . That's really good . Well , thank you for sharing all your Christmas memories and ideas , and Merry Christmas , yes , good to you . Joy , joy , joy .

Allison Weeks

Down in my heart , a homemaker's advent reflection on joy . What brings you joy in your homemaking ? Preparing nourishing meals for your family , creating an aesthetically pleasing environment with decor ? Perhaps it's finding creative ways to save money and practice economic housekeeping , or setting up and maintaining systems of organization that make daily life run more smoothly for you and your household . Do you enjoy opening your home to friends , family and neighbors ? These are all legitimate ways to enjoy the art of making a home .

Allison Weeks

Joy and homemaking can be found in the daily duties as well as the big events , in the mundane and the momentous , but it cannot be found apart from the source of joy . In our simple Advent Guide this coming week we will be looking at characteristics of the joy of the Lord . We will see how it is eternal , unshakable and complete that His joy is a joy that cannot be taken from us . We will look at how we experience His joy on the mountaintop and in the valley . His joy does not depend on our circumstances . His unchanging nature is the bedrock on which our joy is found . That is the key difference between happiness and joy .

Allison Weeks

Happiness depends on what happens . Joy depends on Emmanuel , god with us . God is with us as we face yet another sink full of dirty dishes . God is with us as we put away the last of ten loads of laundry , only to notice that the dirty pile is beginning to grow again . God is with us when we have the satisfaction of watching hungry mouths devour the food that we prepared with love . He can impart joy when we feel overworked and underappreciated , and he can draw our attention to the many , many reasons we have for rejoicing every single day .

Allison Weeks

So rejoice as you do your work , homemaker . His joy is your strength . You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound . But let all who take refuge in you rejoice . Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them . That those who love your name may exalt in you , be glad in the Lord and rejoice , o righteous , and shout for joy all you , upright in heart . Psalm 4 , psalm 5 , and Psalm 32 . If you would like to follow along with us as we study the advent theme of joy next week you can download your free copy of our Advent devotional guide at theartofhomepodcastcom . Slash Christmas . Okay , I'm back with my friend Samantha Bain . She is a newbie , but really she's in the trenches because she's got two little boys . She's been married five years and so we're going to hear what Christmas is like in the Bain household . So why don't you just give us a little preview of what a typical Christmas day is like in your house ?

Roan Johnson

Usually on Christmas Day itself , we're rotating which family we're going to be with . And that was a struggle during the first few years of marriage just trying to figure out okay , are we going ? Our families are an hour and a half apart . So we were trying to decide are we going to try to do two in one day ? Are we going to do Christmas Eve with one , christmas Day with the other ? And just trying to find that balance was really hard and we kind of said well , we'll let a sibling get married , because we were the first siblings on our respective sides of the family to get married . So we said we'll let a sibling get married and see how that changes the dynamic and maybe we'll get into a permanent rhythm .

Roan Johnson

Well , both of our sisters got married in 2021 and both of them said Thanksgiving will do with the in-laws , christmas we're going to do with the families . We're like , oh man , that didn't really help us out too much . So we have decided for now that I believe we will rotate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the families . But even doing that , I felt like Christmas was so rushed and I felt like I couldn't enjoy . There were so many presents the boys were getting in one day that I felt like I just didn't get to enjoy it as a mom .

Roan Johnson

So we changed it up a little bit last year . So a few days before Christmas we did our own little family Christmas at home . So we did kind of a Christmas Eve thing the night before where we spent the night we unwrapped matching family pajamas , did that , took a picture . We ate some cookies and watched a classic Christmas movie . We don't do the Santa tradition but we do enjoy filling stockings for one another .

Roan Johnson

So we woke up in the morning , did our stockings , we ate a breakfast together , Then we enjoyed the big presents and just enjoyed the day relaxing . We watched movies together , we had a snacky lunch where I did like charcuterie boards and like typical Christmas party foods . We just kind of snacked all day long and it was just such a relaxing day for our family . I felt like it was a big gift to us last year because we were in those final months of my husband's grad school program when things were just so busy and it gave him a day off just to spend with us and relax and I felt like it was exactly what I needed to see my boys unwrapping their presents from us slowly . I didn't feel like it was rushed and that all those months of anticipation were gone so quickly . It was a big gift to me .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , and so you did that a few days before Christmas . Is that what you said ?

Roan Johnson

Yes , because we were going to be traveling to be with his family , so we did that a little bit in advance .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , well , that's a great compromise . I love that , especially when they're little , like they don't know the difference between December 22nd and December 25th . Really Sure , it doesn't really matter to them . So that's a really good idea . I like that a lot . So you were mostly eating snacky foods and that sounds like that was super fun . Kids , I mean , I love to eat that way too , but little kids especially love all the little finger foods . Is there a particular thing that you make every year that , like , has to show up on the table at some point during the Christmas season ?

Roan Johnson

I think this is actually a pampered chef recipe , if I'm remembering correctly , but my mom always made this holiday cheese ball and that's typically what we take if there's a ladies Christmas cookie exchange at church or our little family get together that we had , we'll have items like that , so that cheese ball is a hit .

Allison Weeks

Is it like a cream cheese mixture with shredded cheese in it ? Cream cheese with chipped beef and green onions cheese .

Roan Johnson

It's pretty simple , but it's really good .

Allison Weeks

That sounds good and you serve it with crackers or bread or something like that . Okay , maybe we can . Maybe you can share that recipe with us .

Tiffany Harris

Sure , it would be great .

Allison Weeks

Cool , okay . Well , how about holiday traditions Now ? I mean , you're five years in , so you still haven't had a lot of time to build traditions with your husband and your kids , but maybe is there something that from his family , or from your family , that you're carrying over into your family , or are you creating something new ?

Roan Johnson

We don't do anything particularly out of the box , since we have little children right now . We love the drive-thru light shows . The synchronized lights and music are fun . We also just like driving around the neighborhoods and seeing lights . So now that we've moved I have to find new places to go and see what we have around here . But that's always been fun and it's a hit with the kids and if they're tired they can go to sleep in the backseat and it's not a big deal .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's true . And then you . And then you have a date night . Yes , you just drive around and look at lights while they sleep in the backseat . That's good . Okay , I have added some new questions to the Christmas segment . Have a rapid fire section ? Okay , you ready Favorite Christmas song , or Carol ?

Roan Johnson

I like the oldies , like rocking around the Christmas tree or jingle bell rock .

Allison Weeks

That's fun , okay . Great Favorite Christmas movie .

Roan Johnson

I don't necessarily know that I have one for myself , but probably the most memorable for our family now is Frosty the Snowman , because the first time we watched it with our now four year olds he was two . And you know , when Frosty just kind of melts into a puddle he cried his eyes out . He thought Frosty was gone . And then Frosty came back to life and everything was okay . But then Frosty gets in Santa's sleigh and flies away and he melted down again . We're like , uh , it's really sweet , but we were also worried it would be traumatizing . But last year he handled it very well .

Allison Weeks

Oh good , okay , all right . How about um ? Are you a gingerbread or a shortbread ? All right , I'm sorry . A gingerbread or a sugar cookie ?

Roan Johnson

fan . I'm a sugar cookie fan and if you caught my homemaker portrait , I referenced the Hope's Table Cookbook . I use her sugar cookie recipe and I think it's one of the best out there .

Allison Weeks

Okay , Good to know . Is it a um , is it a rollout or is it a cut out ? Yes , I'd like , no wait . Is it a cut out ?

Roan Johnson

It's a cut out .

Allison Weeks

Okay , got it . Okay , good , how about fake tree or real tree ?

Roan Johnson

I love the smell of the real trees , but I like the fake because there's no spiders in them . We had too many horror stories when I was growing up .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , no , no wildlife in the fake trees . That's good , all right . Do you put bows on your gifts , or no bows ?

Roan Johnson

No bows . It's a little too fussy for me . I like finishing touches on some things , but gifts there's just too many people in our families .

Allison Weeks

How about Christmas music ? Christmas music before Thanksgiving or after Thanksgiving ?

Roan Johnson

I like it before . It kind of just depends on the year COVID years we were listening . Like way before Thanksgiving we needed all the holidays here we could get . Yeah , I think everybody was Usually a little bit before I try to pace myself . But um , usually we'll do our day decorating the week before Thanksgiving , so that kind of ushers in the Christmas music with that .

Alexis Molnar

Yeah , that's fun .

Roan Johnson

Just because we're traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday . So that makes it easier .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , because then when you come home , it's already all decorated and done and ready to go . That's fun . Okay , so let's talk a little bit about how you keep the main thing , the main thing during the holiday season , because it's hectic and when you got kids , that's another layer . So what are some of the things that you do to keep your focus , and your family's focus , on Christ during the Christmas season ?

Roan Johnson

So although we're Christians , our family's actually chosen not to celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday . We choose to keep the emphasis on his death , burial and resurrection when we celebrate communion with our brethren every week , but at the same time we don't want to get carried away by the secular things either and the rush and the consumerism . It's just a lie . I found that having that family day has made that really helpful for us , avoiding some of the rush .

Roan Johnson

I do keep a sinking fund generally throughout the year to save up for Christmas . So if you're unfamiliar with what a sinking fund is , it's where you take your budget for a certain amount and then each month you put in a portion of that throughout the year . So you can set your Christmas budget in January , divide it out over 12 months and put a little bit in at a time . So I found that's really helpful to save for Christmas and I can shop a little bit earlier in the year if I find something . That's helpful . So that helps us keep the focus where it needs to be in gift giving and not get carried away . We also try to find ways to show love to our friends and our church family . That time of year . It's a really good time to show appreciation .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's interesting . So I'm just interested at your answer , because you said that you choose not to celebrate as a religious holiday . Yes , so it's just a celebratory holiday for your family .

Roan Johnson

It is just a day for our family to get together with each other and to give gifts . We just feel like God had put the emphasis on communion and that's how he asked us to remember Christ , and that's how we choose to do that .

Allison Weeks

That's a really interesting perspective and I'm going to have to think about that . So thanks for sharing how you guys approach it . I appreciate that . Is there anything else that you would like to share about Christmas or the Christmas season ?

Roan Johnson

I think that's all I had , thank you .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , this has been fun . Thank you so much and Merry Christmas to you and your family .

Roan Johnson

Merry Christmas to you .

Allison Weeks

Thank you . Okay , I am back here with Tiffany Harris and we're going to talk about Christmas in the Harris household . So , tiffany , what does a typical Christmas day look like at your home ? Who's there ? What are you eating All of those things ?

Alexis Molnar

A typical Christmas day for the Harris family looks like all the gifts are out and ready for the kiddos . We have a couple that are unwrapped and then the rest are wrapped under the tree Not excessive , just a few and we agree upon a time that we can all come downstairs . The kids are upstairs , we have our room downstairs , so the kids all talk and decide on what time they would like to come downstairs and do gifts , because obviously , as they've gotten older they can sleep a little bit longer than when they were younger . And then everyone comes down and it is fun , chaos while everyone's opening and chatting and looking at each other's gifts , and I make a brunch for us with homemade yeast rolls , cinnamon rolls and usually fruit , maybe eggs , sausage , bacon . So we all sit down for a brunch .

Alexis Molnar

With my husband being a pastor , we don't always typically celebrate on the actual 24 slash 25th . We make adjustments as needed , we are flexible and we celebrate anyway . So that's usually what our morning Christmas morning looks like , and then brunch and then we'll have a later lunch , early dinner . It changes . We are not necessarily super traditional when it comes to Christmas . We'll change it up and what we're eating for our meal , okay .

Allison Weeks

Okay , all right , so you're doing brunch . Is there a special recipe that always has to show up at Christmas time ? It doesn't not necessarily on the day , but something you make every year , either during the season or for Christmas .

Alexis Molnar

Yes , ginger snap cookies . There's actually multiple checks . We call them party mix growing up the homemade checks mix and the pumpkin pie sugar cookies , and I tried to start at the beginning of December so we can kind of , you know , not just make all this for one day , but kind of enjoy some recipes throughout the season . Oh , that's good .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , so not not making them at the beginning of December to like freeze , but you're sort of throughout the season . Oh , we're going to do pumpkin pie today , or we're going to do sugar cookies this week , or whatever , and enjoy them that week . Yes , that's probably a good idea . Yeah , so you don't go and do a sugar coma . Awesome , okay , very good . Well , maybe you can share one of your signature recipes with us . Maybe your ginger snap cookies .

Alexis Molnar

I always love a good ginger snap cookie , that would be awesome , that would be awesome . Yes , I can do that Okay .

Allison Weeks

So do you have any other holiday traditions besides making special foods and then your actual you know Christmas day celebrations , anything else that you guys try to do on a regular basis each year ?

Alexis Molnar

Yes , we , years ago we started doing I don't even know what we call it , but we went into like Dollar Tree , all all of us as a family , and we had we started out back in the day each person would get $2 , we would write our names on a little piece of paper , put them in , you know , whatever we had , and everybody drew a name Right , and then we would go into Dollar Tree and purchase someone for you know whoever's name . We had a gift for someone Right . Then we'd have our little bag and we'd sit in the car and we would exchange our gifts and laugh really hard .

Roan Johnson

Oh , that's been fun .

Alexis Molnar

That's something we've done since before we had Nate , since we've had Nate and since we've added Sunday Laws into the picture and we actually do a family date . So we would . That would be part of it . Then we would pick it up . You know , a couple of times we've gone to the movie as a family and had dinner . Most of the time recently it's we get together for a dinner , just a fun dinner , and our cheap gift exchange . So we bumped it up to $3.25 that we each get . So that's really fun , though it's so much fun and we just do it right there on the spot .

Allison Weeks

That's so great . Okay , so you guys are in the store all at the same time .

Alexis Molnar

All at the same time .

Allison Weeks

So you're trying to hide from one another .

Alexis Molnar

Yes .

Allison Weeks

Nobody sees what you're buying . Yes , and then you go into the car and you exchange , you exchange them right away .

Samantha Bain

Which ?

Allison Weeks

is really fun , because then you don't have to wait and it's like part of the whole celebration of the evening . That's really a good idea . I like that a lot . Yeah , that's really good . Yeah .

Alexis Molnar

Okay , that's been fun .

Allison Weeks

I have a rapid fire Q and A section that I've created . Okay , oh For the Christmas , for the Christmas segments , all right . So I'm going to ask you . If you don't have an answer , just say skip , okay , okay , favorite . Christmas song or Carol Silent night . Okay , favorite Christmas movie .

Alexis Molnar

The bells of St Mary's . I think that's the name of it . Oh , I haven't heard of that .

Allison Weeks

Is it an old movie , old black and white ? Oh , who's in it ? Do you remember ?

Alexis Molnar

If I said being cross me , I'd probably be wrong . But it's someone like that .

Allison Weeks

Oh , is it a musical ? No , no . Okay , the bells of St Mary . I'm going to have to look that up . I love old Christmas movies , something like that . Okay , I'll , I will check it out . I will check it out . Okay , gingerbread or sugar cookie , sugar cookie Okay , with icing or without icing on it .

Alexis Molnar

Oh , with lots of icing .

Allison Weeks

Fake tree or real tree ?

Alexis Molnar

Fake tree Okay , bows or no bows on your gifts . Bows , yes , bows , the bigger the better .

Allison Weeks

Yes , okay , christmas music before or after Thanksgiving After .

Alexis Molnar

Okay . You're a purist .

Allison Weeks

I am too . Only I mean , I'm talking literally . We turn them on . We turn on the Christmas music while we're washing the dishes after Thanksgiving meal .

Alexis Molnar

But not before , then Not before .

Allison Weeks

Okay , so finally , holidays can be crazy and hectic the whole season , so how do you maintain balance during that season and how do you keep your focus on Christ , on what really matters ?

Alexis Molnar

I do something . I do an advent devotional , and it's different every year , but I have always done one and I've always maintained my quiet time because it just , you know , every season , every Christmas in all of our 27 years have been different , but the reason for Christmas stays the same , and just making that time to get quiet and still , even for just a few minutes every day and really reflect on what the season is about , really keeps the real purpose at the heart and the focus of the month of December .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yeah , definitely . Well , thank you for sharing your Christmas memories and thoughts and ideas . It was fun . Thank you , merry Christmas , merry .

Alexis Molnar

Christmas .

Allison Weeks

Thank you so much for listening to this third episode of Holiday Homemaking 20th . I hope you have found some inspiration and some encouragement to practice your art of holiday homemaking with joy this week . Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter . It's going to go out first thing Friday morning and it will have some of the recipes that we have mentioned in these interviews today . It is free and you can get on our mailing list by going to theartofhomepodcastcom .

Allison Weeks

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Allison Weeks

Well , that's it for this week's episode . I will be back next Wednesday with our fourth and final episode of Holiday Homemaking 2023 and our final episode of the year for 2023 . I will have more homemakers to share their tips and holiday recipes and holiday memories with you , as well as some closing thoughts on the year of what I have learned throughout this podcasting journey of 2023 and some ideas and dreams that I have for the Art of Home podcast in 2024 . Until then , keep practicing your art of making a home for the holidays .