I love making and eating granola. There are so many ways to personalize it and so many ways to enjoy it, I just never get tired of granola. Normally, this is my favorite granola recipe, but this year I wanted to try something new. I was eager to incorporate the flavor of oranges, so I tried this recipe for Cranberry Orange Granola. I left out the nuts, especially since I was giving this to family, friends and neighbors. Also, I used Craisins in place of the dried cranberries. No particular reason, I just like Craisins! Obviously you can add/delete per the taste buds in your home.
Remember last week when I was lamenting the Christmas songs played on the radio stations, and in particular one singer? Funny story, we have some new neighbors that just moved in a couple of houses down. Jonah has been outside playing with them, so I was asking him why the kids weren’t in school {our public schools aren’t yet done for the Christmas break}. He wasn’t sure, but he thought they were homeschooled and he said they had five kids. Well, Jonah sometimes gets his facts a bit mixed up and I was positive that this couldn’t be true, so determined to get to the bottom of it, I grabbed a jar of granola and Jonah and walked down the street. Turns out Jonah was right! Here’s the funny part, the mom’s name is Karen Carpenter 
Our yearly tradition of making Gingerbread Houses is getting even more fun as the kids get older. Jacob and Sarah worked on this house together. Jacob took his job very seriously.
Leah and Anna each did a Gingerbread person, one is supposed to be mom and the other is dad. Apparently I like the color green!
Today we did a couple of quick and easy crafts, my favorite kind! While I was getting breakfast together the younger kids spent some time stuffing cloves into oranges, smells fantastic. Then after breakfast we started in on a bird seed ornament craft. This was a lot of fun to do and requires no baking. I would have taken a photo of them hanging on our evergreen trees, but it has been raining buckets today. I found the craft on Pinterest, but here is the direct link for the bird seed recipe.
So I have some big goals for myself for 2013, I have decided to do Chalene Johnson’s 30 Day Push starting on January 1st to help me realize some of my goals. It’s free! Do you set goals for yourself?
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and a very Merry CHRISTmas!
Wow how amazing, hsers in your street! So is she THE Karen Carpenter??
I am making the granola right now – with a few tweaks because I don’t have all the ingredients. I am giving it as gifts. Thank you for the link. This is the best granola I have ever made!
Really? Karen Carpenter lives down the street and homeschools her five kids? I think that’s the funniest story, but how neat for you that there is a new homeschooling family in the neighborhood. I would LOVE for that to happen. We are the only ones in our subdivision!
isn’t Jen smart??
LOL!
I’m so glad to hear you like it
I know, now the neighbors have someone else to talk about 😉
It all looks like so much fun, Jen!! You know I love to get my hands dirty! Hope you like the new neighbors! By the way, I’m the famous actress Jennifer Lawrence!! 😉
What a fun week!! Merry Christmas to you are your family!!
Wow! So many of our very favorite activities in one week! The Gingerbread house is beautiful! Cranberry-Orange Granola sounds so good!! Merry Christmas!
Popping over to wish you a very blessed and merry Christmas Jen! Always enjoy your photos:) Our prayers are with you for safe travels too!
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