Christmas JOY: Handmade Ornaments, Gift Wrapping & Celebrating with Gratitude

Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot and days of auld lang syne? Hello everybody and welcome back to our home. Y'all. It's Christmas. It's not now, but it was snowing outside all morning. Everything is white and beautiful. Okay, y'all. Well, we have so much to be thankful for today more than on a typical day. This week has just been a wild one to put it lightly. Y'all might be able to hear in my voice that I am getting over a cold, but that has been like the least of our issues. I told you that as soon as I was going to get our whole house ready for Christmas, boom, I was going to shoot the home tour. But then I have been committed to inviting everybody and their mom over to our house for Christmas time. There is nothing so valuable in our life as community. Just this past week, we have hosted a young adults Christmas party at our house for our church. We hosted small group. Last night, we had our neighbors over for dinner. This week, we're going to have a big play date for the girls with a bunch of their friends coming over. We're going to have a big family night on Friday night. We're going to host another Christmas party closer to Christmas here. And then after, we're going to have a bunch of family come stay with us for a while from out of town. I'm in full hospitality mode. I am partying it up over here. But on the topic of community, I want to say that also this week has been incredibly emotionally charged. Many of you might have seen on my social media that we actually had a young girl go missing from our church this past week. To keep the focus on the moral of this story, she was found literally last night. It was getting dangerously close to the 48-hour mark where they say that the likelihood of not finding them goes way up. Also, as I said with the snow, the temperatures are getting dangerously low. Josh was out all day yesterday going from sketchy hotel to sketchy hotel. Places that are known for human trafficking. Everything that was supposed to be happening came to a screeching halt. And the entire community came together so beautifully to find this young girl. And then last night during a prayer meeting Zoom call, I noticed that her mom dropped out of the call and come to find out that there was a young person from our church that was canvassing downtown searching for her. They found her and she was returned home safely. I'm thankful that I'm able to share this story now, but I'm not going to lie. I've been like a blubbering mess for about 48 hours. We have been just holding our kiddos close. This also just brings light to the reason why we are so joyful in this season. That we serve a father who, like a shepherd who leaves the 99 to search for the one, would help lead our church community to find this lost daughter. And he's so good. So good. And that's why we're so joyful in this season. Because we serve a God who is also our savior. Anyway, okay family. Well, we've got a lot of fun stuff to do today. This is going to be my last video before I go on my break. I want to make some salt dough ornaments for our tree just to remember how little her hand is in this season. I also got some really beautiful blocks. I don't know what you call them. But for now, Mama's got some Christmas wrapping to do. And I thought I might show you guys a few of the things I'm going to get the girls for Christmas. So let's go ahead and get to that. Okay, so actually before I get started showing you guys the girls' Christmas gifts, I wanted to share with you a little bit about the sponsor of today's video. They're called Dreo. Oh gosh, I'm already turning things on. They sent us a couple of different items. But the one that I have been using every single night has been this space heater. So I told y'all I've been sick. And whenever I'm sick, Josh sleeps on the couch because he sings for a living. And he just can't get all of this stuff. But our room has windows on all three walls. And so it just gets really cold back here if the door is closed. And Josh wants to watch TV. I don't need the TV shining in my room. So I've been shutting the door. It's been getting real cold in here. And so we have been using this baby every single night. In addition to this heating fan tower thing, they also sent us a humidifier which is going to be great for this dang cold that I'm getting over. Alright, let's get this bad boy all set up. This humidifier offers instant dryness relief. They offer a high enlarge mist. You can see here just how large this mist is. As well as a fine mist. Even after placing my hand near the humidifier for 30 seconds, there are still no obvious water droplets. This humidifier also has smart control. You can see that the monitoring panel has a smart display. And a Dreo app control interface. The remote control has smart operation. And timer features where you can adjust the humidity remotely from another room. There's also a cozy RGB light that creates kind of a night light effect in the evening. This humidifier is health friendly for many reasons. It's easy both to clean and keep clean. There is a clean mist cartridge and a demineralization cartridge. This humidifier is comforting with improvements in skin dryness, nasal congestion, which I desperately need, and sleep. It's also healthy and safe. And can be used near children, pets, or plants to create a health friendly atmosphere. Check the links below to know more about the Dreo humidifier. Okay, so I am on the floor in our living room. And it is time to wrap some gifts. So I thought I would show these to you before I start wrapping them up. This is not all that we've got in our kids. But honestly, we just don't get our kids a whole lot of gifts. I usually give their fun gifts to their grandparents so that they can really surprise them. And then we kind of more take care of like necessities. Okay, the first gift I want to show you is actually I got the same gift for all three girls. They were all asking for flares this year. And y'all know that I am kind of a Levi's purist. Not all the time, but I would say that probably 75% of my jeans are Levi's. These were on Amazon for 25 bucks, which it looks like MSRP is $42 a piece. But $42 for little kids flares, that's crazy. I don't typically spend more than $5 on a pair of pants. So 20, it wasn't 25, it was less. It was probably 21, I think. I don't usually spend that much on jeans. But because this was a very specific request of theirs, and everything that I saw on Amazon was just like such junky quality. And I knew that these would be good quality. I knew that they would wear them almost every day, get them through the entire season. Plus the thing that I love about having girls is that this pair of jeans will be worn for all four of them. I'm probably actually going to give those to them maybe even this week. We are a Christmas gifts throughout the entire month of December family. And I do this for a couple different reasons. Honestly with those, it's because they need them. A lot of the jeans that they've had, they've grown out of. Or the knees have all kinds of holes in them. And I want them to be able to wear them for as much of the winter as they can. But also, I know that I've talked about this before, but I can't stand when kids just receive a ton of gifts on one day. And it makes it so that they don't appreciate the gifts like you hope that they would. And so we like to just give them like maybe one gift every few days or something. You know, just to make it like a big like special thing. And then they can play with it for a few days and have that really be a special piece for them before they move on to the next one. So Rosie has been asking for a, what do you call these? Instax? Instax? Like a Polaroid camera. And I found this one on Marketplace. I think that these are typically like around $60 or $70 a piece. And I found this one that, I mean, it doesn't look, why can I not get it out of the bag? There we go. It's just a little blue guy. So I thought that that was really cute. The fact that it comes with this little purse holder thing. And it came with some film too with the camera. Anyway, so Rosie is going to be getting this. I told Josh that I got this. He must have forgotten because he actually got two more of these that he found on Marketplace for, I think it was two for $30. So we're actually thinking about giving this one to Rosie and then giving the other two as gifts for her like friends or something like that. But anyway, we just thought it was going to be really cute. Ruby has some gifts coming, but they're not here yet. So I thought I would show you guys these little Elsa dresses. I got these for Ruby. And listen, I'm not necessarily a huge like princess dress girl. I do like that these are jammies. So they're made out of like real polyester. I'm just joking. Because some of these dresses are so crunchy and uncomfortable that I don't even know why parents buy them. But these are soft if you're into this thing. I can't stand how these feel, but they don't bother the girls. And then I bought her another one. I got her this one as well. So I think I got this one off of Amazon. And the other one was from Walmart. But listen, if you guys have been watching my channel for any period of time, you know that Ivy wears the same Elsa dress every single day. The one that she has right now is completely torn apart. But it was time for her to get some new special Elsa dresses to replace that old ratty one. And honestly, that's it right now. I bought Josh some stuff, but I know that he watches these videos. So I'm not going to tell him what I'm wrapping for him today. What's this called? I got this butcher's paper, butcher block paper. I can't remember. Just from Walmart. It was really cheap. I think it was like $2.50 for this whole roll. And then I'm still working my way through this enormous roll of poly wrapping paper that I got from the thrift store a few years ago. I'm going to use these for Josh's larger gifts. And then my very favorite one. I think I got this from TJ Maxx a couple years ago. And it is this pretty little ticking stripe wrapping paper. So we're going to use these. Well, my friends, let me just say that after the events of this week, after all of the scare of what happened within our community, and with all of the friends and family that has come over to our home, I can just tell you that I feel like we are in a season of abundance, if I can be honest. I see the way that you guys show up for our family each and every week, and I just cannot believe it. Truly. Y'all might think that this is my job or that like I'm used to this, but I am floored each week that you guys even come and watch my channel. It is truly so touching. So I just want to say a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart. Also, I want to explain quickly why I take my break each year. So as much as I love YouTube, truly this is like my favorite thing. I have so much fun making videos for you guys each week. It is a blast. I love the creative process of editing videos. I have been told by my other creator friends that I need desperately to hire a video editor. Maybe I should just ask you guys if anybody out there is good at this. It takes a lot of time, and each year I take a break. It started out as a lack of trust in the Lord that he would provide for us financially. It's been my biggest area of sin for a long time. Lack of trust financially, for sure. So I felt challenged in 2021-22, I can't remember, to take off the entire month of January. The way that I viewed it was almost like a tithe to the Lord, like my first fruits, you know, just giving it all to the Lord instead of using it to further our financial stability or something like that. This was when I had just first started my YouTube channel. I had only been in it for a year, and I was exhausted. So burnt out. And so I did it. I took the entire month. I didn't worry about making any money. And let me tell you people, I am a great mom when I am on these breaks. I am not worried about content creation. I'm not worried about all the email communication and back and forth that goes with that. I am able to focus on meal prepping and making healthy foods. I don't feel like we're running all over the place. We try to be really intentional about not overloading ourselves with stuff to do. I feel like I'm a better wife. It's hard to describe. A lot of times when I'm working at home, I am working at my highest capacity. My brain is going through so much work. I have so many interruptions that often by the time that Josh gets home from work, I am exasperated. I don't feel like I am able to give him a listening ear the way that I should. Oftentimes, he winds up cooking dinner for us because I'm still filming or still trying to get editing done. Honestly, it just frees me up to be the best wife that I can be. I like to take this time just to reset. Usually, we do a fast with our church during this time as well. I really feel like the Lord reveals so much to me during this time every single season. Oftentimes, he's revealing to me how much more sinful I am than I realize. It's great. It often leads to a lot of me checking my heart and choosing to make changes from here on out. Anyway, I'm going to be going into this season. I usually take a break from social media for at least three weeks as well during this time. I don't want to hear from any of y'all. I'm going to be focusing on my family at home and not my family online. I know that you guys will totally understand that and that you don't take any offense whatsoever. Thank you so much for being so gracious and understanding, allowing me to do this each year. This is a big risk for me in the algorithm. A lot of times, YouTube throws you in the garbage if you don't post weekly. I thank you guys so much for being so faithful to me and my channel. Y'all are committed. That's what I'm trying to say. I feel like you guys come back every single week and I appreciate that so much. That blesses our family so much. I just want to say thank you. Do you want to say thank you? Say, thanks for letting me have my mama for the whole month. Okay, well it is the next day and these girls are home from school. You guys want to show your present that you got to open up early? Okay, we're suckers. We gave them their little flares early. Do you guys like them? We love them. What was that look? I'm offended. Wow. I can't. Listen, I slaved over that gift. I wrapped it for a million years yesterday. Guess what, mom? What? If I didn't have these pants, I wouldn't have clothes. All right, you guys want to share what we're going to work on today? Saltcoat ornaments. Oh, hello. Okay, so I found a super easy recipe online. Basically, it says to just preheat your oven to 200 degrees, which is the lowest setting. Then I think it's just salt, flour, and water that you mix together in a bowl. Then you press your stuff into it and you bake it. I'm thinking that I want to make a few white ones and a few brown ones. I saw that there are some options where you can use cinnamon to ... Doesn't that look good? To make it a brown color. I like the brown color better, but it's calling for a cup of cinnamon. I only have this much altogether. We'll see. Maybe we can make some of them white, some of them kind of brown, some of them more brown. I don't know. You know how we are. We just kind of wing it in this family. Rosie, you want to help get the ingredients mixed together? All right, sounds good. Rosie was just like, Mom, can I use the puke bowl? We have special bowls for when kids are sick and they need to puke. And that's it. Oh, no. I remember when you threw up in your bed. Which time? The joys of motherhood. Guess what? I've never puked in my bed before. Rosie! I'm two or three! She was just a baby. In a large bowl, whisk to combine flour and salt. Can I use the flour? Can I use the salt? Maybe it'll be easier to do two one-half cups. Dump it in. Good job. I'll get you two cups of flour. You know what? I'm just going to dump all of it in there. We're going to call it good. So let's mix it up and then maybe we can split it in two and we can have one that's white and one that's brown. Does that sound good? I want mine to be white. Okay. Okay, we split these in half so that we can have a white one and a brown one. Ruby, do you want to dump the cinnamon into one of them? I'll get you your own spoon, okay? There you go. Dump it all in. All of it? I don't know. What do you think? Can I put the rest in? Sure. I have this much left. Okay, then just dump it in. Oh, that smells so good. Oh, hello. All right. Well, there's that. We are going to put a half a cup of water into each of these. Put the water in on this one and then I'll mix up the other one. Do I get water on me? Yeah. Water on me? I'll make it full. I did it for you. Thanks. Nice. You guys are doing a good job. Okay, so I ordered these off of Amazon, but I thought that they were so pretty. This one is a rose. It reminds me of that Christmas song, Low How A Rose E'er Blooming. I think that's what it's called. That song always reminds me of Rosie. I remember I went to a Christmas orchestra and I remember literally listening to that song when I was pregnant with Rosie and Rosie was kicking me the whole song and I thought it was so sweet, but it was a song about a rose and my Rosie girl was kicking me in my belly. And then we have a pine cone. So, from what I can see, I think we're supposed to dust these with flour first and then we press the brown dough into these. You're silly. Can I actually try it? Because it doesn't have eggs in it. If you want to, it's going to taste like salt. I mean, technically you can eat it, but I wouldn't. That's because you're my perfect angel. Why doesn't it taste any like cinnamon? Because it's mostly salt. But we put all the cinnamon in there. It will both taste tremendously like salt. Should we start with the pine cone? I think we should start with the rose. You want to start with the rose? I should put my new little apron on. Why? To all of you there. Put a blob right here, okay? A blob. Grab a chunk off. Just a little chunk. That's right. Like that. And then put the rest back in the bowl and then roll it into a circle. We're going to put a little bit of flour on top of it, okay? Like this. Roll it down. Okay, good job. Now, can I do mine? So, Rosie's going to put a little bit of powder on here. I'm going to knock this back into here. Take this and press it down onto there. This? Yep. And this. Good job. And then we'll go like this around it. All right, you peeled it all away? All right, Ruby, you want to lift it up? Wow! Baby, that looks so good. Mom, it's not working! It's because you didn't put any flour on it. Remember, you're supposed to put flour on it before you put the roller on it. Wait, will mine work? Yeah. Look at it. It's beautiful. It's so cute. You want to peel off the outside? Be super gentle, okay? So, we're deciding to just do kind of like the mitten shape for the girls' hands, especially Rosie's and Ruby's because they're going to be much bigger than the little girls'. Beautiful. Good job, baby. Thank you. You know what? You can sit right here. You can watch me. And then I'll get it all ready for you, okay? How are you getting ready for my cookies? Do you want to try one? No, thank you. Let's get some salt dough rolled out for you, okay? Okay. What is this? That's salt. We have to put salt in it. Okay, so I'm going to put a little bit of this on it. And roll it out. Okay, ready? And then we're going to smash it in really good. Woohoo! Good job! So, we're going to cut it out. Oh, thank you. Here you go, baby. Can I put it on my hands? Well, we got to put it on the thing so that it can dry. Can I put it on my hands? Yeah. Thank you. Okay, let's get your hand. Good job! Baby! Oh, no! She grabbed it. Oh, we got to do it again. Baby girl grabbed it pretty good. She grabbed it. She grabbed it, that's right. That was a little stinker. Really. Stop grabbing stuff. We could do it again. We're going to do it again. Okay, let's try this again. Mom, don't let her grab it. There we go. Oh, much better. Good job, baby. Good job. High five? High five. Good job with Lily. Yeah, this one's Lily's. Cute. All right, Christmas girl. Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas and have a happy new year! Merry Christmas and a happy new year! All right, here is our finished product. Looking pretty good. I'm going to go ahead and set these in the oven. And I can't remember. You're supposed to put them in here for at least a couple hours to get them nice and dried out. Listen, this isn't a DIY. All right, everybody. Well, that wraps up our video for today. And I just want to say a huge Merry Christmas to all of you. We are rejoicing as we celebrate our Savior being born. If you are rejoicing too, go ahead and leave a comment down below. Thank you guys so much for being here for such an amazing year. I feel like, personally, I have grown so much this year. And I feel like a lot of that is because of the amazing comments you guys leave. I feel like I've got a thousand moms and grandmas out there. And I just love you guys' support. This place has been such a blessing in our life. And we'll see you in 2025. Say goodbye. Goodbye. Merry Christmas. And have a happy new year. I can't see. Merry Christmas.