Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories: Christmas Recipes

Today's topic in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories hosted by Geneabloggers is

CHRISTMAS RECIPES

This is our favorite recipe for Christmas Morning.  It must be made the night ahead, and it makes Christmas morning breakfast both easy and memorable.

My mother, Aileen Greenhalgh Calton, began preparing this as a traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  Many family members now serve this with a cinnamon roll, orange slice, and orange juice, apple juice and/or hot chocolate with marshmallows.  Place it in the oven while the gifts are being opened and breakfast is ready at just the right time.  Aileen obtained the recipe when I was young in a ladies group at church called the Relief Society.  It was in a handout given to each woman.

I contributed this recipe, along with my thoughts on Choosing Traditions Wisely, in Chapter 12 of Jennifer Jone Smith’s book, 12 Weeks to Greater Peace, Joy and Love in Your Family.

I hope you’ll give this recipe a try and start a wonderful tradition at your house, too.

HAM AND EGG SOUFFLE

from Carolyn Calton
Our Christmas morning breakfast.

1 dozen eggs                                                                    2 tsp. Salt

12 slices white bread (I use Sour Dough Bread)          3 c. cubed ham

4 c. milk                                                                           3 c. Cheddar cheese

1 ½  tsp. Dry mustard

Beat eggs until fluffy.  Cut crusts from bread: cube.  Place bread in a 9 x 14 inch Pyrex (buttered) dish.  Add 4 cups milk to eggs.  Dissolve l ½  teaspoons dry mustard in a little water and add to egg mixture.  Add salt and chopped ham: mix.  Pour over bread.  Let set overnight.  In the morning, add 3 cups Cheddar cheese as a topping and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

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Many thanks to Thomas MacEntee for hosting these Christmas memory prompts.  The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.  Maybe you’d like to share your family history, too.

Your comments are welcome under the reference to this post on my Family Tree Gal Facebook page.  No Spam please.

For unique gift-giving ideas, CLICK HERE.

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Note: Carolyn Calton, author of JOURNALriffic, will be offering FREE Ten Minute Treasure Telecalls in 2016.  Each week, using the principles outlined in JOURNALriffic, we will talk about a natural law/principle that will help you revitalize your inner worth and strengthen your meaningful relationships.  Join us for these encouraging calls by signing up for Early Bird Updates. If you can’t make it at the time of the call, the link will be emailed to you and the recording will be available for a limited time.  Click here for more information.

Connect with Carolyn at:

www.FamilyTreeQuest.com (Connecting generations through Family History)
www.CarolynCalton.com    (Spiritual messages of hope and INspiration)
www.LiahonaLightAcademy.com (INner worth and Relationship improvement, Carolyn is CEO of Dr. Ron Newsom’s Liahona Light Institute)

www.twitter.com/familytreegal
www.facebook.com/familytreegal
www.linkedin.com/in/carolyncalton

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Disclosure of Material Connection: in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising,” I am disclosing that I am an affiliate of Life Story Productions (Heritage Collector Suite) and Flip-pal mobile scanner.  The small commission I make on affiliate sales helps me continue my work, both online and offline. Thank you for using these links when making purchases. Lori Wiser is an affiliate of Amazon (Personal Historian Software, Journalriffic and 12 Weeks to Greater Peace, Joy and Love In Your Family). 

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories: Christmas Lights

Mesa AZ Temple Lights

I’m participating in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.  Many thanks to Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com for hosting this each year.  It’s a lot of fun, and it links the Genealogy/Family History community each year in such a delightful, celebratory way.  The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) gives you an opportunity to write about and share your family’s holiday history 24 different ways during 24 days in December! If you’d like to share in the fun, go to http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

This is a great way to record part of your personal history.  You may want to use these prompts with your Personal Historian 2 software, and you’ll be a step ahead in documenting your personal history and preserving it for your posterity. I also enjoy scanning pictures with my Flip-pal mobile scanner. and storing the pictures in collections with my Heritage Collector Suite software.  Since Christmas is coming, you may want to find these items under your tree this year.

 Here’s TODAY’s topic and my thoughts about it.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

As a child, I just accepted the beauty of Christmas lights as being part of a season of celebration.  In my teens, seeing beautiful lights displayed around our city and neighborhood made my heart come alive with joy.  The lights fascinated me, and I loved seeing the light emanating all through the city.

When we lived in Palmdale, CA we did quite a bit of decorating.  I especially remember one year when my oldest daughter formed the shape of a reindeer in lights on our garage.  I think it was one of the years in which I was a single mom.  We all enjoyed the lights.  They seemed to spark hope and happiness.  Then, one morning when my daughter saw that someone had come by, unscrewed lots of bulbs and crashed them on our driveway, it became a terrible memory for her. 

We did display lights on our home.  Most years, they were white lights.`

In Mesa, AZ, we especially loved the Christmas hundreds of thousands of lights displayed on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Mesa, AZ Temple grounds.  The spectacular light display is among our favorite memories.

From the air (below)

 

I hope you will consider documenting your own memories concerning Christmas Lights.  Merry Christmas.

Your comments are welcomed under the reference to this post at www.facebook.com/familytreegal. No spam please.

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For family-centered gift-giving ideas, CLICK HERE. 

If you have not already done so, and if you have a desire to positively impact the lives of others, consider JOINING THE QUEST and declare yourself to be one of TODAY’s ChangeMakers at my Family Tree Quest website.  You will receive a link to get your FREE 2-generation Family Tree chart. We are a worldwide group of people who use time-tested, principle centered solutions to strengthen ourselves and our families in THIS generation.  We recognize that our decisions in the present influence future generations.  We are willing to help each other, heal relationships and grow--in spite of challenges.

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Carolyn Calton helps sincere, determined people, whom she calls TODAY’s ChangeMakers, turn stress, anxiety, anger and dysfunction to hope, direction, happiness and peace.

Connect with Carolyn at:

www.FamilyTreeQuest.com (Connecting generations through Family History)
www.CarolynCalton.com    (Spiritual messages of hope and INspiration)
www.LiahonaLightAcademy.com (INner worth and Relationship improvement, Carolyn is CEO of Dr. Ron Newsom’s Liahona Light Institute)

www.twitter.com/familytreegal
www.facebook.com/familytreegal
www.linkedin.com/in/carolyncalton

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Although I do not receive a commission from Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers for writing these posts, I have taken great care to select many affiliates who I believe offer a great service to my web visitors. I make a small commission from sales in this post using these other hyperlinks--Flip-pal mobile scanner and Life Story Productions (Heritage Collector Suite).  This helps me to continue my work on the Internet.Lori Wiser is an affiliate with Amazon where Personal Historian 2 software can be purchased.  Thank you for using these links when making purchases. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories: Christmas Music

I’m participating in the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. 
Here’s TODAY’s topic and my thoughts about it. 

CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Christmas music is one of my favorite parts of Christmas.  Music has a way of touching the soul so quickly and leaves a lasting impact for good.  I enjoy it throughout the season, and I especially like the music that sends a spiritual remembrance of Jesus Christ’s birth and life.

When I was a child, it was Here Comes Santa Claus, Jingle Bells and other rousing songs that lightened my spirit and lifted my hopes for opening gifts and sharing fun times with family and my best friend, Nancy.  Music contributed to my heightened expectations of Christmas Eve and especially Christmas morning fun!  There was a TV Show called Sing Along With Mitch where the words would appear on the TV screen and those at home could sing along as we’d “follow the bouncing ball” as it showed the words to sing.  My mother liked to sing, so it was fun to watch the show together with my mom and dad.  Andy Williams, Lawrence Welk and others also had wonderful Holiday TV Shows filled with beautiful music.  I still love the children’s songs I learned at church and enjoyed hearing and learning the new children’s Christmas songs at church as my children grew up.

As I grew older and had seen God’s hand and felt His indispensable loving influence helping me through adversity, the spiritual message of Christmas became the most meaningful thing about the season for me.  Although the spiritual parts of the music of Christmas were present in my life since birth (Away In A Manger, Silent Night, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear and so many others), their significance increased because the love in my heart for a God that was so merciful and kind to me had grown immensely.

When we lived in Mesa, AZ, we occasionally went Christmas Caroling, and we always loved and welcomed the David and Sharilyn Wilson family who would sing carols to us each year.

Each year, I can hardly wait to hear the music of Christmas.  It is not uncommon for me to listen to a little of it here and there throughout the year when I want to feel close to the Savior.  I always listen to it briefly when I wrap Christmas presents—even if I’ve found something for a Christmas gift on sale in July.  Sometimes I turn on Christmas Music in October, and I will admit that it’s hard for me to turn it off in January.

I love the feeling that Christmas Music evokes. . . and the remembrance of the birth of Christ, who I’ve learned through my experience IS the light, the truth and the way.

My favorite Christmas Song is O Holy Night.  Close your eyes as you listen to these beautiful words.

Using this series of prompts is a great way to record part of your personal history.  You may want to use these prompts with your Personal Historian software, and you’ll be a step ahead in documenting your personal history and preserving it for your posterity. I also enjoy scanning pictures with my Flip-pal mobile scanner. and storing the pictures in collections with my Heritage Collector Suite software.  Since Christmas is coming, you may want to find these items under your tree this year.

For gift-giving ideas, CLICK HERE.

Many thanks to Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com for hosting this each year.  It’s a lot of fun, and it links the Genealogy/Family History community each year in such a delightful, celebratory way.  If you’d like to share in the fun, go to http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com

Your comments are welcomed under the reference to this post at www.facebook.com/familytreegal. *****************
Note: Carolyn Calton, author of JOURNALriffic, will be offering FREE Ten Minute Treasure Telecalls in 2016.  Each week, using the principles outlined in JOURNALriffic, we will talk about a natural law/principle that will help you revitalize your inner worth and strengthen your meaningful relationships.  Join us for these encouraging calls by signing up for Early Bird Updates. If you can’t make it at the time of the call, the link will be emailed to you and the recording will be available for a limited time.  Click here for more information.

Connect with Carolyn at:

www.FamilyTreeQuest.com (Connecting generations through Family History)
www.CarolynCalton.com    (Spiritual messages of hope and INspiration)
www.LiahonaLightAcademy.com (INner worth and Relationship improvement,
                           Carolyn is CEO of Dr. Ron Newsom’s Liahona Light Institute)

www.twitter.com/familytreegal
www.facebook.com/familytreegal
www.linkedin.com/in/carolyncalton

************************
Disclosure of Material Connection: Although I do not receive a commission from Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers for writing these posts, I have taken great care to select many affiliates who I believe offer a great service to my web visitors. I make a small commission from sales in this post using these other hyperlinks--Flip-pal mobile scanner and Life Story Productions (Heritage Collector Suite).  This helps me to continue my work on the Internet.Lori Wiser is an affiliate with Amazon where Personal Historian 2 software can be purchased.  Thank you for using these links when making purchases. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”