Author: Jess

Categories
Holidays & Bdays

6 Easy Christmas Traditions While Traveling in an Airstream

6 Easy Christmas Traditions While Traveling in an Airstream

I started feeling the pressure around Thanksgiving. We knew that Christmas would be in the Houston area, but what about before that? We weren’t even going to get there until December was two-thirds over. Christmas celebration in our family goes into full-swing the day after Thanksgiving. That’s almost a month of on-the-road-not-in-the-same-place-for-more-than-three-nights celebrating to get the kids (and us) psyched for the Best Christmas Ever. I had to get creative. Enter Pinterest, some awesome ideas from blogging friends of mine, and a little of my own brilliance.

We picked 2 everyday traditions that looked fun, and then filled in some easy and simple decorating. We had an Elf on the Shelf (purchased back in Virginia at Costco), but let’s face it: He stayed in the box and got returned the day we arrived in Houston. I just couldn’t do it. Not enough creativity or nooks and crannies to hide him in where he couldn’t be touched. That was too much for my poor little brain to handle so he got shoved in a storage compartment until we reached the next Costco and could be returned.

Despite a few setbacks, I feel like we did great. More than that, I feel like our kids were not disappointed, feeling left out, or missing home. That was really important to me because if we have our way, we won’t be in a house next year for Christmas either. We needed to set a precedent.

So, here’s our list of 6 Easy Christmas Traditions You Can Do While Traveling in an Airstream (in no particular order):

1. Christmas Lights:  Easy to put up using, you guessed it, Command Hooks. They make little clear ones that work great for holding lights. For some reason, however, there were certain spots on the walls they wouldn’t stay so we stuck them mostly to cupboards and other non-aluminum surfaces. We LOVE that the light bounces off and reflects on the shiny interior. The effect is magical.

2. Visit Santa: This was kind of a happy accident, but can definitely be planned for. We were driving to Henderson State Park in Florida and saw a billboard advertising Santa’s Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops. Since the state park is situated right on the main drag (but tucked in nicely, its amazing how they worked that out) it was a 10 minute drive to go over there. They had it all set up with a cottage, elves, reindeer, crafts for the kids to do, guns to shoot and lots and lots of candy canes. My kids were super excited!

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3. Christmas Stockings: I bought .99 stockings from Wal-Mart with the idea that we’d glitter-fy them as a family night activity. I hate glitter, but the Glitter Glue only came in neon so I held my breath and bought it anyway. The kids absolutely adored the activity and had crazy amounts of fun, and I had an anxiety attack. Next time I will do myself a favor and either just purchase the glitter glue or make my kids use the picnic table outside even if it is only 40 degrees. And yes, I totally helped Cara. Pro tip: After the glue dries, spray down the glitter with hair spray.You still get glitter everywhere, but it definitely helped reduce the amount.

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4.  Christmas Activity Advent Calendar I picked this up on Instagram from an awesome photographer/blogger friend of mine. Hers is WAY cuter though. She does have the advantage of a printer, and you know, space for a cute little tree, but we did our best. My kids helped write the numbers and then I came up with the activities. We started a few days late and missed a few in between, but for the most part we had fun. The idea is to have an experience or a fun family activity each day leading up to Christmas. They don’t have to be big – something as small as reading an extra story, or making Santa beards out of shaving cream in the bathtub work quite nicely (if we had a bathtub that would’ve been on our list).

The Curren Family Advent Activities

  • Learn about Christmas traditions in other countries.
  • Write letters to Santa (this got replaced with actually going to SEE Santa. Much better).
  • Create snowman chalk on the driveway.
  • Make paper snowflakes and hang them.
  • Write a holiday note and place $5 on a stranger’s car (this was probably their favorite).
  • Make fudge!
  • Deliver a fun treat to the neighbors.
  • Celebration of the Oaks in New Orleans.
  • Read 2 Christmas Stories.
  • Pizza & Christmas movie night.
  • Make gingerbread/graham crackers houses.
  • Buy & decorate a Christmas tree.
  • Read/act out the nativity.

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5. Paper Snowflakes: Two for one. We used it as one of our advent activities and then they hung all over the Airstream for decorations.

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6. Open and read a story every day leading up to Christmas. We kind of started this one last year, but I think I only ended up purchasing 3 or 4 books. Before we left Virginia I made a trip to 2nd & Charles and walked away with $70 worth of used books. They had a an entire table dedicated to a selection of Christmas books and I just couldn’t resist. What amazed me is that we loved every single book we read with very little pre-screening on my part. Here’s our list of books:

You’ll notice there’s only 16, but it was definitely enough since some days we forgot, or other days we had an early traveling day. We liked reading these in bed first thing in the morning, as we already had plenty to do right before bedtime (PJ’s, scriptures, teeth, etc.).

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We had a great time leading up to Christmas. Though our activities were small and didn’t take much time, it really led us into the Christmas spirit. The kids were excited, and we were able to pull these off as we traveled across 3 states to our Christmas destination. It was a perfect way to tie everything together.

 

Categories
Holidays & Bdays

Merry Christmas!

We hope you have a fabulous day filled with fun, family, and joyous memories!

Curren Christmas Card 2013

Categories
Holidays & Bdays

Settled in For Christmas

We are parked for Christmas in the most glorious spot! The tree is up, the kid are nestled all snug in their beds, and Santa received an email telling him just where to find us. Can’t wait for tomorrow!

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Categories
Fitness & Recipes

Airstream Kitchen: Candy Cane Sugar Bars

Airstream Kitchen Candy Cane Sugar Cookie Bars

It’s Christmas Week! Instead of sharing our normal posts, we’ve decided to mix it up and share mostly Christmas-y stuff this week. We have really made an effort to have the most awesome, mobile Christmas EVER, and so far we are doing pretty good. For one of our activities last week, we made another recipe from Real Mom Kitchen and I thought I’d share how we pulled it off in the Airstream. First off, these are super yummy. As she describes on her website, Real Mom says that sometimes she wants the taste of a sugar cookie, without all the hastle of rolling out, cutting, and then baking. These totally nailed it. They seriously taste like sugar cookies, but are much faster and easier to make. Plus, I love peppermint almost as much as I love pumpkin.

We don’t have a mixer in the Airstream. There’s just not enough room to store something that I would only use occasionally. Enter, the Blendtec. I already posted about how much I absolutely love it for smoothies and syrup, but this recipe was partly an experiment to see if I could get another use out of it.

Here’s the recipe modified for use with the Blendtec (settings in parentheses)  and limited kitchen equipment.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, room temp
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp soda
  • 3 crushed peppermint candy canes

Frosting

  • ½ cup butter, room temp
  • ½ cup shortening
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • pinch of salt
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 5 Tbsp milk
  • 1 cup Hershey’s Peppermint Kisses or Bars chopped into pieces
Instructions
  1. In the Blendtec, cream together 1 cup butter with 2 cups sugar until fluffy. I used the “batter” setting. It got pretty thick though so keep your rubber spatula handy. Adding the eggs helps thin it back up.
  2.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg (pulse). Add vanilla and mix well (batter).
  3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, and soda and whisk (by hand) to combine.
  4. Pour creamed mixture over flour mixture in the bowl and whisk (by hand) until just until combined adding crushed candy canes into the dough when the batter is almost combined. (My arms got tired so my awesome husband helped with this one.)
  5. Spread on a greased 9×13 pan (because that’s all you have). Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min, until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Cool completely. While it’s cooling, wash out your Blendtec because you need it for the frosting.
  7. For frosting, combine ½ cup butter and shortening until smooth and creamy (batter). Add vanilla and salt (pulse).
  8. Add powdered sugar in 1-2 cup increments until combined (speed 2), then add milk & mix until smooth and spreading consistency (pulse). Spread over cooled cookie and sprinkle with the 1 cup of chopped peppermint Hershey Kisses. Cut into bars and serve.
 There you have it! My kids gobbled these up and I definitely ate more than I should. Happy baking!
Categories
Faith

Be of Good Cheer

Be of Good Cheer - A Christmas Message from the Book of MormonOne of my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon occurs just previous to the birth of Jesus Christ. Across the ocean on the American continent lived a people descendant from a prophet who followed the Lord and left Jerusalem with his family 600 years earlier. At the time of the birth of the Savior, most of the people had lost their faith and had become a wicked and idolatrous people. A handful, however, held fast to their belief that Christ would be born and, as the Savior, redeem all mankind.

A prophet named Samuel foretold the date of Christ’s birth and the sign of the star that would be given. As time passed, and the sign had not come, the unbelievers had set aside date, “that all those who believed in those traditions should be put to death except the sign should come to pass, which had been given by Samuel the prophet.” Nephi, the prophet living among them at the time, wept over the wickedness of the unbelievers, bowed himself before God and cried mightily unto the Lord on behalf of his people who would soon be slain for their beliefs.

I love the answer he received.

“Behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:  Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.”

The Lord counsels Nephi to “Be of Good Cheer” for He was to be born in a lowly stable.  A humble, yet fitting place reflective of the man He was to become.

A midst the presents, the trees, and the Christmas Carols, let us all take a moment to remember the true meaning of Christmas: to celebrate the birth of a tiny baby born long ago. Be of Good Cheer. Rejoice. The Savior of the World was born. I can’t think of a better reason to celebrate.