BooMama is hosting a Christmas Tour of homes and, since Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year, I thought I'd join in on the fun. You're about to see pictures of our various Christmas decorations.

BooMama mentioned providing refreshments. Well, I can't decide on any one refreshment to offer you. Would you settle for a link to my Holiday Cooking, Blogger Style recipe exchange where you'll find 200+ recipes that 80 bloggers contributed?

Okay, now for our Christmas decorations!

Let's start with our tree. It's a humble little tree, but we love it. We've made no effort to get a larger tree. This one suite us just fine.

Our tree during the daytime. We put it in the living room, in front of the bay window.



Our tree at night. My puny digital camera just didn't do a great job of capturing the lights on the tree. Sorry for the blurriness of the image.

I think the most enjoyable part of putting up our Christmas tree is hanging on our ornaments that we've collected over the years. Both Oronzo and I have ornaments dating from our childhood, up to 2005. I'm waiting to see what ornament Oronzo will get me this year.



This ornament is very special. It was given to Snuggle Bug by his birth grandmother, Clara, the day he was born, in preparation for his first Christmas. This is his very first ornament ever.



This ornament was given to us last year by one of our neighbors. We'd only been in our new home for 3 months by the time Christmas had arrived and we were so touched by the thoughtful welcome gifts from many of our neighbors. We love our neighborhood!



This ornament was made for me by my mom a few years back. She made each of us kids a set of about 6 ornaments. I love each of them!



This is my Fontanini nativity set. I've been collecting pieces of this set since I graduated from college. I love it because, not only is it beautiful, but it's hard to break.



This is Snuggle Bug's Little People nativity set. I put it out in the open for him so that it's easily accessible when he wants to play with it. You may have noticed that in both of my nativity sets, baby Jesus is not present. Our Catholic tradition is to wait until Christmas morning to add baby Jesus to the nativity scene.


This is my favorite children's Christmas book. It's a Little Golden book. I used to have a copy of this as a child but it was lost over the years. I made a point to buy another copy for Snuggle Bug. The illustrations in this book are beautiful!


And this helps remind me how many days until Christmas, which is good because I still have a few days to finish up Christmas shopping!

Well, there you have it, some of my Christmas favorites. I hope you've enjoyed my little tour! Now, I'm off to go see the many other holiday decorated homes of my fellow bloggers.

Thanks, BooMama, for hosting the 2006 Christmas Tour of Homes! :)

Labels: blogger friends, books/reading, BooMama, celebration, faith, family, holiday, home, memories, photos, traditions

The recipe I'm about to share is from my brother, Cole. He has started a tradition of making a big pot of chili on football Saturdays (when the Huskers are playing out of town). He invites family and friends over to watch the game and they are greeted with the appetizing aroma of his chili bubbling in a pot of the stove. This is, by far, my favorite type of chili.

Ingredients

1. 3 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce
2. 3 (15 oz) cans warm water
3. 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
4. 2 (15 oz) cans Del-Monte original recipe stewed tomatoes
5. 1 (15 0z) can mexican style chili beans
6. 1/2 cup minced onions
7. 1 Tbsp Lowrey's seasoning salt
8. 1 tsp garlic salt
9. 1 tsp pepper
10. 1 tsp chili powder
11. 1/2 package taco seasoning
12. 1 1/2- 2 lbs. ground beef

Preparation

1. Brown the ground beef, coating with chili powder. Drain and add to a stock pot.
2. Saute onions with 2 tsp olive oil or butter until softened. Add to the stock pot.
3. Add remaining spices into the stock pot.
4. Add cans of tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, stewed tomatoes, and chili beans.
5. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat so that chili can simmer for several hours.
6. Note: If chil is too thick, add tomato juice. If too thin, add tomato paste. If you want your chili spicer, add more chili powder.
7. Optional: serve with shredded cheddar cheese and crackers.

This is always a big hit with our family and friends! If you decide to try it, I hope you'll love it as much as we do!

I look forward to seeing your Favorite Ingredients Friday recipe! Don't forget to link your specific recipe post link on Mr. Linky so I can see what's cooking at your house!

Oh, and be sure to put the title of your recipe in parenthesis! It makes it so much quicker for me to go back and search for recipes as I build my weekly menu.

My previous Favorite Ingredients Friday recipes

Grandma's Sponge Cake
Parmesan Bow-Tie Skillet
Scalloped Potatoes
Chocolate Crepes
Chocolate Cream Pie
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Caramel Brownies
Peach Banana Daiquiri

Thanks so much for your participation. I do appreciate it!

Labels: cooking, Favorite Ingredients Friday, recipe exchange, traditions