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Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Overachievers Anonymous

December 22, 2011

I am a card-carrying member of Christmas Overachievers Annoymous. I guess it is not so annoynomous now that I have revealed my affliation with the society, huh? And that card? It actually does not exisit. But if it did, mine would be laminated because I got a laminator for an early Christmas present. (If my [...]

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Entertaining Kids: Christmas Break Edition

December 19, 2011

Have you ever noticed that there is a line in a popular Christmas carol that says “And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again..” That, dear readers, is because Christmas break can be a beating for parents. Kids are just SO EXCITED about Christmas and all that energy can lead to [...]

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Lost under a pile of Christmas cheer

December 16, 2011

I am here…. …lost somewhere underneath the wrapping paper and Christmas cards and Christmas cheer. The blog absence was unintentional. I have so many things to say (who is not anxious to hear about the attack of the stomach virus en route to our first of four Christmas celebrations? Or how my children became obsessed [...]

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Christmas cookies, motherhood and perfection

December 8, 2011

Isaac and I have just completed day two of Operation Christmas Cookie. We have spent the past 24 hours measuring, mixing, stirring, tasting (some hands a bit more eager than others) and decorating a large amount of sugar cookies. Some are for friends, some are for a cookie exchange this evening and a few are [...]

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Visit with the big man

December 2, 2011

The entryway table at casa de phillips is covered in photos with Santa during the month of December. I love pulling out these pictures every year, seeing how the children have grown and changed. There is one year that especially makes me giggle because it is a picture of a very weary Santa holding a [...]

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Be ADVENT-urous this year

December 1, 2011

Christmas spirit lives deep inside the residents of casa de phillips, so our house is always aglow with holiday decor despite the fact we are never here on the 25th. We love creating family holiday traditions, such as eating dinner by candlelight in the month of December (try it…it will transform any ho-hum dinner [...]

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So this is Christmas….

November 30, 2011

Every year the husband and I punish ourselves for all the wrongdoings we have committed in the past 12 months by herding our family together and attempting to take a Christmas card photo. Those of you from large families are scoffing right now, wondering how I could possibly bemoan the fact of getting two whole [...]

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Pass the turkey and dressing

November 29, 2011

I had turkey and dressing for lunch today. This is Day #5 that I have eaten turkey and dressing. Obviously, Thanksgiving was last week. I cooked the bird this year. I have cooked the main Thanksgiving guest in the past, always using the infamous brown paper bag technique and a concoction of various other recipes [...]

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Gobble, Gobble

November 24, 2011

It is the early morning hours of Thanksgiving morn and our house is blessedly, thankfully quiet. In a few hours, all the people who are tucked in warm and cozy in the various areas around casa de phillips will begin to rise for the day. (My family is staying with us this week). Children will [...]