Holiday Wassail Drink

Non-Alcoholic Wassail

2 quarts apple cider
2 cups orange juice
1 (46 fluid ounce) can pineapple juice
2 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup honey 

DIRECTIONS:
In a slow-cooker or a large pot over low heat, combine apple cider, orange juice and lemon juice. Season with cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Bring to a simmer. If using a slow cooker, allow to simmer all day. Serve hot. Strain out cinnamon sticks and cloves before serving if desired.

OH this make the house smell soooo good!  I make this when I am throwing a holiday party. 

For more holiday drinks stop by Five Js for day one of the Bloggy Progressive Dinner. You can share your favorite drink recipe and enter to win her giveaway!

Christmas at Sonshine's

Welcome to my home!! 

This is my front door! A fresh wreath of greens!
My living room is the only room that I have my holiday decorations. I still have a two year who loves to sneak around and mess with the decorations so I keep them in a room that I can keep an eye on or block off so that he can not be in there without supervision. 

We have two windows in the living room and over those windows hubby made shelves for holiday decorations.  He made the shelves such where the shelf supports are also used to hold our curtain rods.  Over our smaller window is our nativity.
Over the larger window is just some various Christmas decorations.  Up there this year is baskets with Christmas trees, fake holly and poinsettas and cinnamon scented pinecones. 

Here are the decorations on my desk....
The angel was just made by my daughter in Sunday school yesterday.  The little smore snowman angel was made by one of my older boys a few years ago in Sunday school! I put this on my desk as a little reminder of how I am to treat each day through the holiday season. 
My hubby decided this year to keep the branches that needed to be cut off our tree to fit in the stand and he decorated the top of the television. 
Here is our tree with a lighted star as the topper.   We get a fresh tree every year. We decorate simply with red, gold, blue, and silver ball ornaments along with special ones that we have gotten over the years.
Here is a few of our special ones....
To celebrate hubby's German heritage we have an ornament that says "Fröhliche Weihnachten" (Merry Christmas)
We also have several ornaments reminding us of the "Reason for the Season". 
We have five different Hallmark "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments for each of our kids. This one is my youngest son's.   Hubby and I also have a Hallmark one for our first Christmas together as a married couple. 

Merry Christmas!! Thank you for coming into my home to see my decorations!  If you would like to see other Christmas decorations head over to BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes.

Singing Sunday

I Can Only Imagine 

by MercyMe

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side

I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

I can only imagine

[Chorus]

I can only imagine [x2]

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship you

I can only imagine

Frugal Friday--A Freezer & Pantry Meal

I had meatballs in my freezer and I wanted to do something with them other than putting them in marinara sauce or spaghetti sauce so I decided to do some beef gravy. 

I made up some beef gravy using a can of beef broth and cream of mushroom soup. I added about 1/4 cup of sour cream to the mixture along with a little bit of cornstarch for thickening. I simmered it on the stove and made sure that it was mixed up well and then poured it over my already cooked but frozen meatballs. Then I put them in the oven at 350° for an hour.

While the meatballs were cooking I made up some mashed potatoes and heated up a bag of frozen corn!  Simple, yet filling! 

Weekly Shopping Trip--Spent $67.84

This week's trip was a little nerve racking for me in that I am really, really, really watching my pennies!  It seems that December is the month were I just get the things that we need and do not allow myself to stockpile.  As a matter of fact, I seem to work for the stockpile and only shop to complete meals for the week.  I think some of it has to do with the fact of wanting to be able to use the extra money I normally would use on my stockpile to make sure there are presents under the tree that we didn't have to charge on our credit cards.  I just don't like getting into debt of gifts that are given to others. 

Anyway, back to my weekly shopping trip...I didn't even spend $70 this week!! YEAH!  However, I only saved around $19 BUT I did shop at Save A Lot so I guess you could say that I saved more than just $19!  

Here is the breakdown of what I purchased this week...

1st stop...Save A Lot(where I used a $5 off $30 coupon that I got in my local paper!)

• 2 bottles Apple Juice $3.38
• 2.62lbs bananas $1.55
• 1 bag family pack chicken nuggets $4.49
• 2 cans beef broth 98¢
• 4 cans biscuits $1.52
• 2 containers  Chocolate Cool Whip $2.78
• 3 bags frozen corn $2.97
• 8 cans cream of chicken soup $3.92
• 2 bags shredded hash browns $2.78
• 1 gallon chocolate milk $2.99
• 1 bottle molasses $1.99
• 2 cans condensed milk $2.78
• 1 bottle canola oil $3.29
• 2 jars pizza sauce $1.98
• 2 graham cracker crusts $1.98
• 1 bottle taco sauce $1.29
• 6 cans tomato sauce $2.94

TOTAL: $40.59 after $5 off coupon was used!

2nd Stop...Meijer: 

• 5.11lbs boneless/skinless chicken breasts $9.15
• 3 boxes kleenex $3.25
• 1lb cheddar cheese $4.00
• 1 pkg american cheese slices $2.00
• 4 cans tomato soup $2.00
• 1 bag cough drops $1.27

TOTAL with tax: $21.97

Savings Total: $7.69 (non coupon savings $6.79; total coupon savings 90¢)

3rd Stop...Family Fare: 

• 2 jars Ragu Sauce $1.99
• 10# potatoes $3.29

TOTAL: $5.28

Savings Total: $6.28

GRAND TOTAL: $86.81

GRAND TOTAL OOP: $67.84

GRAND TOTAL SAVINGS: $18.97

For more savings stories head over to MoneySavingMom's Super Saturday Savings and Becentsable's Centsable Saving Stories.