easiest potato soup recipe

this is my favorite potato soup recipe because it only has a few ingredients and it tastes amazing!!!

try it out sometime if you wish.

• a bag of potatoes
• 2 large containers of chicken stock
• 2 blocks of cream cheese

1. peel and boil potatoes until soft.
2. mash the potatoes until they are the consistency you like.
3. add cream cheese and whisk until combined.
4. top with cheese and chives 
5. serve with they yummiest bread you have.
6. enjoy ;)

this makes a very large pot and you can make less by cutting the recipe in half.

handmade advent calender

a few years ago i made an advent calender for my kids because i never found one i liked enough to buy already made.

this was a nearly impossible task for me. it required a lot of cutting and gluing, and cutting...

i did my best and the kids actually love it, so i guess that is all that matters. 

they get to put a new ornament on the christmas tree each day as it approaches christmas.

it is a simple joy, but they look forward to completing it each year.

 

if cari was a bear...

this was my youngest daughter's ornament that she picked last year....

here she is doing what she loves the most...

nativity

candle and bird

stockings

i wish i lived here

charlie brown christmas tree

keepsake ornaments don't all come from hallmark

i hate it that i haven't got to blog since thanksgiving, 

but all my free time was geared towards completing my on-line defensive driving. thank the lord it is done!!! I'll never speed again ;)

after thanksgiving, like most people, we put our tree up and other christmas decorations.

now, i drool over big, fancy, over decorated trees and aspire to own one at some point in my life, but

for now ours is a little hokey and we love it! 

the tree itself is special to me because it belonged to my memaw who passed away 2 years ago from cancer. she loved christmas and i loved going to her house every year to see how she would decorate it. i enjoyed spending special time with her and unwrapping the awesome gifts she always had under her tree. i think of her a lot especially at christmas. her birthday is even in december. i do miss her dearly.

i am not much of a dedicated "scrapbooker", but our tree serves as one huge scrapbook in many ways. i am very sentimental and it is hard for me to get rid of anything that triggers a fond memory. as a result, i have a growing collection of ornaments that i cherish very much.

i end up staring at our tree many times during the holidays and remember the little things from the years prior. all the memories that i love are represented by very special unique ornaments that adorn our tree every year. many are handmade by our children or picked out individually.

the star at the top of our tree is 11 years old and topped our first tree as a married couple.

each year my mother-in-law gets the girls an ornament and camille collects snowmen.

my memory of christmastime in the 80's includes clothespin reindeer and puff paint sweatshirts.

 this piano was given to camille at her very first christmas piano recital by our dear friends.

last year, camille picked this hannah montana ornament out and this year she is embarrassed by it which then makes me love it even more ;)

(we also keep real candy canes on the tree for the kids and don't let that popcorn garland fool you. 

it is fake. have you ever tried making it...it is impossible!)

 my mother-in-law got this ugly thing for my husband and i several years ago. 

(two peas in a pod) it makes me smile and i love it ;)

 

do i really have to explain this one...our love for starbucks runs deep.

 remember these...when you squeeze it's cheeks it will give you a kiss (hersey kiss).

this is cute...a sweet memory of my husband's childhood.

this was carigan's ornament from last year in kindergarten.

my mother-in-law gets carigan an animal every year and this was this year's choice.

my husband plays the drums so we needed one of these.

here is my husband as a reindeer putting up lights and drinking coffee.

this was for the year carigan played t-ball.

this is me as a reindeer. i make tons of cookies during the holidays.

this was when camille was in ballet at age 3.

this was carigan's pick last year. she loves drawing and doing art.

obviously there are a ton more and many are made of paper or are pictures of our family.

so, there you have it. a trip around memory lane on my sentimental christmas tree.

it's nothing fancy, but i just don't do fancy right now. i prefer the imperfect tree that the kids can touch and help decorate. it's a tree full of memories and christmas just isn't the same without it. 

which ornaments brings you the best memories?