Skylar's Christmas Train

When I was posting all the posts about our Christmas and New Years, I neglected to touch on a cute little addition to our Christmas table this year; Skylar's Christmas tree with his train.  

This year we decided to add a small tree to the center of our Christmas table and Skylar had to notion to add his train to the underside of it.  I think it turned out lovely!

Lifelike 152402 HO scale Diesel Electric Train Set - Rail Blaster (Google Affiliate Ad)

  

We had a lot of fun Christmas Day with the train and played around with different track setups to see which one we liked best.  I think we all agreed that the circle shape was the best one for around the bottom of the Christmas table tree.

Eco-Tip:  Simplify your life as much as you can.  Reduce the amount of stuff you have in your home, car, office, or even yard.  When you reduce your life down to the bare minimum, you use less and create less waste overall.  Try this approach, every day pick a room in your home and get rid of 5 things in that room each day.  By the end of the week you have reduced your impact of needing more throughout your entire home.  Try it every week and see how much stuff you can really get rid of.  For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me Go Green.

How we spent our New Year's

New Year's Eve we hung around our house a bit and drank champagne, sparkling grape juice, and spiked lemonade I made following a recipe I found on Pinterest.  We played games like UNO, CLUE, and even had a good game of Operation going till the batteries died from me hitting the sides too many times.  HA!

Source

Sparkling Spiked Lemonade

 3 cups Lemonade

2 cups Club Soda

1 Tbsp lemon zest

1 cup rum or vodka

mint sprigs or lemon wedges to garnish

Mix Lemonade, Club Soda, zest and rum or vodka into a pitcher.

Serve in a Tom Collins glass over ice.

Garnish with mint or lemon wedges.

(for a kid-friendly version, omit the alcohol and add in ginger ale, or apple juice)

  

Skylar was happy because he was winning almost every game.  :-)

Brybelly Holdings TMAT-03 UNO Card Game (Google Affiliate Ad)

We counted down the hours, then the minutes, and then the seconds until 2013.  Watching Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve just isn't the same without Dick Clark though.

New Year's Day we sat and ate our black-eyed peas and I made a homemade cinnamon apple crisp.  We shared the crisp with the neighbor girl, Keya, when she came over to say Happy New Year to Skylar and us.  We spent the day taking down the Christmas decorations and lounged around watching the original Mary Poppins, ELF, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, to top off the night.

Southern Black-Eyed Peas

• 4 slices bacon (Cooked and cut into bits)
• 1/2 spiral-cut, fully cooked ham
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 package dried black-eyed peas (16 ounces)
• 1 tbs. lemon pepper seasoning
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tbs. hot sauce (for milder beans omit the hot sauce)
• 1 tbs. chili seasoning
• 1 tbs. season salt

Add everything to a stock pot, except the ham, cooked bacon, and the onion, with 2-3 cups of water and cook for 2 hours.  Top peas with water as the beans soak up the water over the cooking time.  For the last 30 minutes of cooking add the ham and the chopped onion and cook on low.  Serve topped with the cooked bacon bits.

Cinnamon Apple Crisp

8-inch square glass baking dish

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup organic butter

3 cups organic apples

1/2 cup organic white sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Peel the skin from the apples and cut into bite-sized pieces and set aside in a bowl.  Coat an 8-inch glass, baking dish with a good layer of butter and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the brown sugar with the oats, and flour in a bowl.  Cut in the butter until blended to make crumbs.  Sprinkle the bottom of the baking dish with half of the crumbs and sprinkle the top of the crumbs with the cinnamon.  Add the apples to the top of the crumbs and sprinkle again with cinnamon and the white sugar and top with the rest of the crumbs.

Bake for 35 minutes until golden on top and the mixture is bubbling.  Cool a bit before serving and top with whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon on top. 

ENJOY! And I hope your New Year was just as great!

Eco-Tip:  Purchase bleach-free, toilet paper that is made from the highest post-consumer waste content you can find (80% minimum).  For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me Go Green.

Running through the lights at the Snow Park (Ralston Park)

Shortly after New Year's we decided to take a stroll from our house to the Snow Park.  It's actually called Ralston Park here in town, but I like to refer to it as the Snow Park because when it snows, this park the most beautiful sight I have seen covered in snow. It's their Holiday in the Parks festivities and this year the poor tree was missing a star due to some rot at the top.  According to other people the day the fire department went to put the star on top of the tree, they had to cut away a lot of the tree because of the wood being rotted out.  After placing the star on top it fell because there was more rot then expected, so the star was left off the top this year.  It still looked pretty even without the star though.   Unfortunately, this year, we didn't get much snow around the Valley floor, so the park was without snow when we took the walk down to it.  But the lights of the Snow Park are still very pretty!

We invited Skylar's cousins Izzy and Abby, and even invited Grandma Cheryl (Jeff's mom) to come with us too!

The holly tree in the park is always our annual picture-taking pose.  It helped me win a photo contest through the local Bi-Mart here in Lebanon one year too, when Skylar was 3.  

  

The holly tree was in full bloom while we were there.  It was covered with berries!

Isabelle and Abby sat down in the meditation pose (Dhyana) under the Christmas lights and Skylar joined them.  They said it just seemed like the right thing to do.  It was cute, and it cracked me up!  Ha!

  

The Build Lebanon Trails light display.  We found several businesses, companies, groups, and people that backed up the lights in the park displays.  The Pioneer School PTA needs a light display next year for sure!

It was pretty muddy by the swing and Skylar had to help Grandma Cheryl through the mud at one point so that she wouldn't slip and fall.  (And some say chivalry is gone)  :-)

After awhile we decided to walk back.  We took Izzy and Abby back to their house and ended up staying for dinner and having the Northwest-Style of Dumplings with them.  

It was a really fun night!

Spark of Loves this Week: Kit, Band, Coffee, Star, Pomegranate, Mug, Candy, Taffy, Beans, and Trip

This First Aid Kit.

Because it's vintage and came packed full of great first aid items that can still be used.

Unitized First Aid Kit for 10 People, 46 Pieces, OSHA/ANSI, Plastic (Google Affiliate Ad)

This Wrist Band.

Because a trip to the ER turned out to be better than I expected.  I slipped and fell in my kitchen shortly after Thanksgiving and hit my head and landed on my lower back.  After a few x-rays everything turned out okay.  Thank goodness!  

These Coffee Samples.

Because they came from my trip with John and were really tasty.

This Star.

Because it reminds me of the south every time I look at it, as it hangs near my front door.

These Pomegranates.

Because I enjoyed eating them straight from the bowl.

O Pomegranate Champagne Vinegar (Google Affiliate Ad)

These Mints, This Hot Cocoa, and This Mug.

Because I love hot cocoa Christmas morning and I made my own peppermint mocha with these mints.  And this mug, Skylar got it for me as a gift on Christmas and it was perfect!

These Ice Chips.

Because they are good for the teeth and taste so yummy!

This Taffy.

Because it came from the Seaside Candyman.  It was part of Skylar's stocking this year and he loved it.  This is how taffy came back when it first hit the candy scene back in the 1800s.

These Black-Eyed Peas.

Because it's a southern tradition to have Black-Eyed Peas on New Year's Day and we did just that!

Random Photo of the Week

Jeff won this golf trip at this year's company Christmas party.  For the last two years he has won some sort of trip and I feel this year's will be better than last.  The "hell-houseboat-trip" won't be happening again anytime soon.  HA!

Eco-Tip:  As your bulbs burn out, consider replacing them with a CFL over the incandescent bulbs to save money and energy in your home.  For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me Go Green.