Recipe--Toasted Almond Truffles

Another one of our favorite Christmas treats is toasted almond truffles. We’ve had these every Christmas for as long as I can remember. They’re quite easy and very tasty. They make the perfect bite-sized dessert to satisfy a chocolate craving. J I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Toasted Almond Truffles

½ cup evaporated milk

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 cups chocolate chips

½-1 teaspoon almond extract (use more if you want a stronger almond taste)

½ cup finely ground almonds, toasted

Chop the almonds in a food processor or coffee grinder. You can pre-toast the nuts to make them easier to grind.

Sprinkle the ground nuts on a baking sheet and toast around 225 degrees for about 10 minutes. You will be able to smell once they are almost done.

While the nuts are toasting, combine evaporated milk. . .

. . . and sugar in a small saucepan.

Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly over medium-low heat. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. The picture above is a rolling boil. Don’t be like me and think that it’s not, and boil the mixture for about 3 times longer than necessary. This will heat the milk to the hard candy stage and your truffles will turn into chocolate rocks. Boil for only 3 minutes! J

Take the mixture off the heat and add the chocolate chips.

And the almond extract.

Stir until well combined.

Put in a microwave safe bowl and chill for 30-45 minutes. If the mixture gets too hard, you can warm it up later when you’re ready to make the balls.

Shape the chocolate mixture into 1 inch balls and roll in the ground almonds.

Chill until ready to serve. Then serve at room temperature. Makes 2 dozen truffles. Enjoy!

Favorite New Year's Memories

New Year’s has almost always been a holiday spent at home for our family. After all of the Christmas festivities, it’s nice to have a weekend at home relaxing before going back to work and school. Sometimes we have been joined by friends, and those years have stuck in our memories! Below, we share some of our favorite New Year’s traditions and memories:

Mark—Watching the ball drop with my wonderful bride has to be the best part of New Years. Our second date was on New Year’s Eve, watching the ball drop at a local restaurant, after a dinner of prime rib! Now it usually involves a quiet evening in our living room on the hide-a-bed couch with some chocolates, a good movie, and watching the ball drop on TV.

Betsy—After a very full Christmas with lots of family and friends, we have traditionally had a very low-key, relaxed New Year’s at home. We plan a special dinner and dessert, and have movies ready. One we watch with the children, and usually one after they go to bed. My hubby and I have a tradition of staying the night on the hide-a-bed in the living room, in front of the fire. We usually interrupt our movie to watch the ball drop on Times Square. In the morning, we are always joined on the hide-a-bed by our children, and lounge around until breakfast—Daddy’s Pancake Special!

As much as I enjoy our New Year’s celebration now, I also have great memories of New Year’s Eve as a child. We spent it in church. Shortly before midnight, everybody would make a giant circle around the church, hold hands, and pray and sing. Right at midnight, the trumpet player would blast the trumpet, and there would be hugging and shouting and celebrating! Then, everyone would traipse downstairs to the basement fellowship hall, and enjoy a meal of roast pork, rice and beans, and other Puerto Rican favorites. There would be music, eating, and fellowshipping way into the wee hours. Those are just amazing memories I will always treasure!

Bianca—Probably my best memories of New Year’s Eve revolve around the ones spent with friends! J I enjoyed spending New Year’s Eve 2008 with friends whom we hadn’t seen in several years. It was the first—and so far only—year I got to see the ball drop. Our usual tradition is to watch a movie with special treats on New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Day, I enjoy cuddling up with all my siblings in the hide-a-bed and watching the Rose Bowl Parade while Daddy makes his annual pancake and sausage breakfast. The rest of the day I enjoy relaxing and reading the books I received for Christmas!

Ben—On New Year’s Eve, I enjoy watching our last Christmas movie. I also have good memories of watching the ball drop with friends a few years ago. On New Year’s morning, I enjoy Daddy’s pancake and sausage breakfast! I also enjoy watching the Rose Bowl Parade and football later in the day. And I like to use the Christmas gifts that I have just gotten! J

Rubia—I like having pancakes for breakfast in the morning (made by Daddy!) I also enjoy sleeping in that morning. J Sometimes on New Year’s Eve we get to stay up for a little while and watch a movie, which is fun!

Roma—I remember a New Year’s Eve when we had friends over and they came in 2008 and stayed until 2009! J I also like getting up in the morning on New Year’s Day and watching a little TV and having pancakes for breakfast. And I like sleeping in and not worrying about school work!

Josiah—I like eating pancakes for breakfast on New Year’s Day. I also enjoyed the year we watched the ball drop with our friends. I also like sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the morning and watching movies!

Statistics

Since we celebrated our blog’s one year anniversary, I thought it would be fun to share some of the statistics on our blog. I always love looking at our statistics page, because it gives me a little bit of an idea of who likes to read our blog, what they like to read, and where they’re reading from. So without further ado, the stats!

Total # of page views: Approximately 14,300

Peak Month (by number of page view): April 2011 with approximately 1,500 page views

Top Three Countries People View our Blog from:

·         United States of America with over 12,000 hits

·         Canada with 190 hits

·         Russia with 170 hits

Top Three Blog Posts:

·         100^th Blog Post

·         Father Daughter Retreat Part 1

·         Courageous Men’s Ceremony

Top Three Post Labels:

·         Bianca: 270 posts

·         Photography: 205 posts

·         Daily Life: 175 posts

Number of blog posts: 360

"Do Hard Things" Book Review

“Do Hard Things” by Alex and Brett Harris is by far the most challenging and convicting book I have ever read. I received it for Christmas in 2009 and finished reading it in 4 days. I read it again in January 2011 and plan to read it at the beginning of every year.

This book is a far cry from any other self-help teen book you’ve read or seen. Alex and Brett Harris believe that the teen years are being wasted and that the culture and the church are encouraging this kind of frivolous lifestyle for teenagers. They believe that teens can have a huge impact on the world if they will do hard things.

The book is broken into three sections: Rethinking the Teen Years, Five Kinds of Hard, and Join the Rebelution. The Rebelution is a movement started by the Harris brothers to rebel against low expectations for teenagers.

As usual, I came away with questions to ask myself after reading this book:

*Am I buying into the myth that it’s ok to waste time during my teen years?*

*Am I stooping down to the low cultural expectations around me?*

*Why should I do hard things?*

*What are “good” hard things that I should be doing and why?*

*What am I waiting for?*

All these questions and lots more are discussed in the book. It is a call to action for a generation that has bought into the myth of adolescence. This book is an excellent read for all ages because it challenges us to do great things to the glory of God. If I were to rate this book on a scale of 1 to 5, it would earn a 6! J

"The Devil in Pew Number Seven" Book Review

(Written by Ben)

It is a hot August day, and I am happy to have entered an air-conditioned Christian bookstore. The proprietor, whom I have known for a long time, greets me with her usual smile. I wander off to search this favorite bookstore of mine and strip it clean of any books it might have, as I am quite a bookworm!

I run across a book called The Devil in Pew Number Seven; A True Story. I picked up the book, instantly intrigued. The cover portrayed an elderly, but intimidating man in a suit and tie, with a fedora on his head, and wearing huge, thick-rimmed glasses that distorted his devilish eyes. He stood straight, fists at his side, with a demonic glare. He was in the middle of a field, with a small church in the background. I turned to the first chapter and saw the description of a young girl running, terrified, to get help after a home invasion. I was hooked.

Synopsis:

Rebecca Nichols lived in a wonderful family. In 1969, her parents had moved from Mobile, Alabama to Sellers town, North Carolina where her father was pastor at the Free Welcome Holiness church. Rebecca had loving parents, who educated and discipled her in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Yet despite these wonderful circumstances, Rebecca never felt safe as a child. Her father’s hiring at the church was the talk of the town. Everybody loved the new pastor, with the exception of Mr. Watts, the regular occupant of pew number seven. Since the great depression, Mr. Watts, a very rich man, was the self-proclaimed god of the town. All people and businesses owed him much money, making him the supreme ruler of the small community of farmers. He used terror to get his money back and ruled the town through a network of villains who the FBI could not pin down despite many attempts. And if they did, Mr. Watts would pay the bail within hours.

This all was spoiled when a 6’3”, 230-pound Navy veteran minister moved to town. He helped the church pay back all debt owed to Mr. Watts, ending his rule over the church, and then started helping individuals pay back their personal debt to Mr. Watts, ending his rule of the town. This infuriated Mr. Watts, who warned the Nichols to leave town. Rev. Nichols firmly stated that he was staying in Sellers town. Mr. Watts was not accustomed to being refuted. He used his villain network to execute a campaign of terror against the Nichols that included break-ins, threatening letters and harassing phone calls, drive-by shootings, and ten home bombings in 2 years. The whole town knew who was behind the bombings, but could not prove it. So Mr. Watts’ reign of terror continued, until an armed man barged into the family kitchen….and Rebecca’s life was forever shattered.

If anyone had the right to harbor hatred and seek personal revenge, it would be Rebecca. However, her parents had taught her the power of forgiveness and implanted this spirit deep in her heart. This would come in handy when years later, Rebecca received a phone call from her worst nightmare. The man had a question for Rebecca, and an impossible request.

The Devil in Pew Number Seven is an incredible story of the power of forgiveness and the sufficiency of God’s grace for all….even the unbearable. I would highly recommend this book for any “Christian bookworm” who is looking for a worthwhile, exciting read.

NOTE: The Devil in Pew Number Seven is not based off a real story; IT IS a real story that references real people and real locations.

Advent

As a family, the celebration of Advent is probably our favorite Christmas tradition. We love lighting each candle in the wreath, reading scriptures, singing Christmas carols together, and reflecting on the birth of Jesus Christ.

At first glance, one of our favorite traditions may appear to have no connection to Advent whatsoever. What does dressing up in pajamas and riding around in the car looking at Christmas lights have to do with the Savior’s birth?

I’ve been working on a paper recently on my favorite Christmas carols, “What Child is This?” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and “Mary, Did You Know.” I’m drawn to these songs because they talk about the questions of Christmas. How could this little Child be the Savior of the world? How will He ransom us from our sins? Did any of the witnesses really understand Who the little baby was?

*Photo Credit: Roma*

Whenever we go out to look at lights, I think of these songs, especially “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” The world before Christ was hopeless and dark, like the empty houses vacant of any lights. The Bible is silent for 400 years between the Old and New Testament writings. The people of Israel must have been wondering when God was going to fulfill His promise of sending a Messiah.

Into this incredible world of darkness entered our Savior. He willingly left heaven and came down to be born in a barn. He lived a perfect life in our filthy world of sin. He was the lone light shining in the darkness, a beacon for our lost souls.

*Photo Credit: Roma.*

As our evening of light-gazing culminates with ice cream and a drive downtown, I reflect on all the beautiful displays of lights. While Christmas lights are beautiful, it’s the True Light that holds the greatest draw for me. He brought light into my soul 10 years ago, and I am eternally grateful and undeserving. It’s my job to share that light with others!

A Savior is Born

 

“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’”

Luke 2:9-11

Merry Christmas!

One Year

“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever."

Psalm 107:1

Today marks the one year anniversary of the launching of our family blog! We are so thrilled to celebrate this milestone for our family on this day, December 24, 2011. God has been so good to us this year, and He has taught us so much. This blog has served as a tool for our family to chronicle those blessings and life lessons. It has also provided the opportunity to get to know our readers better and share a bit of our lives with each of you. We’re really thankful for all of you, and look forward to another wonderful year of blogging! Soli Deo Gloria!

~Bianca for the family

Favorite Christmas Traditions

Christmas is a very special time in our family, as I’m sure you know if you’ve read our blog for very long. J Over the years, we’ve developed many traditions and several favorites. Below you can read some of our favorite Christmas traditions:

Mark—It is great to spend time with the family to celebrate Christ’s birth. Since we live far away from my parents, it is always special to spend time with them at Christmas. I enjoy the church services on Christmas Eve. Singing favorite Christmas hymns to candle light is very special. One can only imagine how amazing that night was so many years ago.

Betsy—It would be difficult picking a favorite, as we have many traditions and I enjoy them all. Each year, one or two things stand out as extra-special. This year, I’ve really enjoyed listening to classical piano Christmas music, and have purchased several new CD’s. I love our quiet evenings around the Advent candles, reading Scripture and praying over our Christmas cards. I also love baking treats with each of my children—fun for them, and not as much work for me! J We can really put together an assortment pretty quickly!

Bianca—One of my favorite traditions of Christmas is Advent. I especially enjoy praying over each Christmas card and letter that we receive. I also enjoy our tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights in our pajamas and getting ice cream afterward. It’s special because we never know which day we will go, until Mom and Dad announce it after Advent. I also love being the official “gift giver” on Christmas morning (meaning I pass out all the gifts.) I also love all the time spent with family! And I enjoy eating the cookies of course. J

Ben—My favorite tradition is Advent, because it celebrates what Christmas is truly about. I also like decorating our home and visiting out-of-state family. I also like drinking Egg-Nog on Christmas morning! J

Rubia—My favorite Christmas tradition is Advent. I like focusing on what Christmas is really about. I also like it when we get in the car in our pajamas and drive around looking at Christmas lights. I like going to see family, and decorating the tree.

Roma—My favorite Christmas tradition is visiting out-of-state family, even though the drive is long. I also like having advent, and looking at Christmas lights. I like the idea that we usually have 3 Christmases: one at home, and one at each Grandparents' house! J

Josiah—I love doing Advent! I also like putting the decorations up, going out to look at Christmas lights during Advent, getting up early in the morning, and going to visit family in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Spiritual Birthdays

In our family, we have made it a point to celebrate Spiritual Birthdays. These days are a remembrance of the day we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior. Our celebrations aren’t big; usually a card from Mom and Dad and perhaps a small gift. But these days are special, because they mark our birthdays as followers of Christ and remind us of the security of our home in heaven. This week, I celebrated my 10^th spiritual birthday and Ben will celebrate his a few days after mine. We are always reminded on our spiritual birthdays to continue to grow closer to the Lord and look at where He brought us from that day we made a decision to follow Him!

Christmas Program

This past Sunday, our church had its annual Children/Teen Christmas program. The service turned out really nice, and nearly all of us were able to participate in some way.

Josiah was a wise man and had a speaking part in the children’s portion of the program.

The twins and I sang “Emmanuel” by Chris Tomlin with the teen choir. I had a solo part, and we all joined in on the chorus. It turned out really pretty at the end because our Worship Pastor’s son played his saxophone and the audience sang with us.

Roma made her piano-playing-in-church debut as well. She played “Silent Night” for the offertory. She did a great job!

After church, we went out to celebrate! We enjoyed lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. Delicioso!

Daddy and I at the restaurant.

Roma and I.

We were thankful that the Christmas program went so well, and we already have ideas for next year! J

Annie Moses Band Concert

This past week, we had the privilege of attending an Annie Moses Band Concert! We had never seen them in concert before, but we had heard some of their music. We were in for a big treat!

The band is comprised of the Wolover family: the parents, their 6 children, and a few other friends. Their style is rather hard to describe. It was described as Chamber Pop at the concert. It’s a blend between classical, jazz, and pop. They are all very talented and I could have listened to their music all night! I really loved to watch their dueling violins!

The band was so good that we saw 20+ people that we knew at the concert! That is quite rare for our family. But this time we saw friends who live an hour away, people from our Girls Bible Study group, the owner of the Christian bookstore, and a whole group of friends from church. It was a happy reunion!

Annie and Gretchen performing.

The beautifully decorated church.

Afterwards we were able to meet a few of the band members. Here, we are taking a picture with Annie. They were all very sweet and down to earth. They were so excited to hear about the instruments that we all play!

I would highly recommend looking up some of the Annie Moses Band music! Because their style is all-encompassing, it appeals to everybody!

Dance Again!

As I mentioned last week, our Christmas Luncheon was cut short due to another dance performance. This time, we were performing as part of a Christmas program at a local church. Quite a few members of our dance troupe attend this church, and our teacher found out that their choir and orchestra was practicing the song “Gloria!” by Michael W. Smith. We had just started working on this song a few weeks prior, and we asked if we could join them in dancing. They accepted, and we had a month to finish this 5-minute song. It was a little scary, but the Lord helped us finish on time!

Before the performance, we took the opportunity for a group photo.

The song we danced to is one of my favorites. I could probably sing it in my sleep now. J The Level 1 dancers performed at the beginning of the song.

Then they left and the Level 2 dancers continued the dance.

Then we all came back on the stage during the climax of the song.

And here’s the big finale! It was a beautiful song, and I’m so glad that we were able to participate in this dance!

Nativity

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

(Gal. 4:4-7)

~ Posted by Betsy

Recipe--Knick Knack Noels

As you read yesterday, we have a lot of special treats we make at Christmas time! One of our “signature” treats is Knick Knack Noels. This recipe makes a LOT and is great for give-away bags. I hope you love them as much as we do!

Knick Knack Noels

3 cups Rice Chex cereal

3 cups Corn Chex cereal

3 cups Cheerios cereal

2 cups pretzels

2 cups peanuts

1 lb. of red and green M&M’s

1 lb. of almond bark

1 tablespoon of shortening

All the ingredients except the shortening. (Oops!)

Throw all of the ingredients except the almond bark and shortening into the largest bowl you have (trust me, you’ll need it!)

Melt the almond bark and shortening together in the microwave. I think I did 3 or 4 twenty-second intervals. Just make sure it doesn’t overheat.

It should be all smooth and melty when you’re done.

*Sorry the picture is out of focus. I was trying to pour the bark before it hardened and take the picture at the same time.* Pour the melted bark over the dry ingredients . . .

. . . and mix it well. This is a good way to work out your upper arms. J

Once your arm is terribly sore and you’ve coated all the ingredients thoroughly in the delicious bark, pour it on a piece of wax paper to harden.

And then the best part: digging in before it even has a chance to harden. But take my advice. Don’t hang around nearby. Because if you do, you might end up like me and just keep eating the addictive morsels. And then your siblings will join in. And before you know it, you’ve polished off a good portion of the treats. J