Christmas Lane: A Christmas Tradition

The other day I had a thought:

As a child, growing up on Christmas Lane was normal.

As an adult looking back, it was a privilege.

Today, seeing the magic of Christmas {on Christmas Lane} through the eyes of my own children, it is PRICELESS.

You see, I’m one of many who can call Christmas Lane “home”.

One year ages ago, one man, with a larger than life kind of spirit, got together with a couple of neighbors in a small mill village and decided it was time to shake things up for Christmas.

And that year, Christmas Lane was born.

I’m very blessed to say that man, the creator, was my grand-daddy. He along, with three of his close friends and neighbors wanted to bring a special Christmas tradition to this small town in which they call, home.

It started out small…a few decorations, some lights, and a couple of displays.

What started with a little house and some elves grew to what we all know today as Candy Land.

But over the years it has grown to so much more. It’s grown to be a tradition for not only the families that live on the street, but to the locals who come every year to walk or ride down this lighted street. It’s even become a tradition to people who travel from far and wide to see this magical place.

I grew up at the “bottom of the hill”. I can remember standing outside and listening to all the sounds…the Christmas music playing, the displays with some of their certain sounds, and people meandering up and down the sidewalk oohing and aahing over their favorite displays.

My grand-daddy lived at the top of the hill and lived at the most popular house…Candy Land. In his yard, there stood a 27 foot tall castle, candy trees, and wooden elves…

and of course: Santa himself.

This Santa is full of hopes and dreams, and has been in our family for many, many years.

He has a story in itself, but I’ll leave that for my daddy to tell {he’s a much better story teller than me}.

None-the-less he is a part of our family. As a child, I remember playing princess in the castle in my grand-daddy’s front yard, and looking up at the oh so tall Santa, seeing the gleam in his eyes, and believing in the magic he brings.

Today, my parents live in this house, and I see that awe and excitement in my children’s eyes as they look up at this man who brings so much magic to all of us young and old.

Christmas Lane has lasted through the years, the wind storms, the rain, the neighbors who have come and gone, and even the original angels who now look down on this special place.

There are many displays on the street that are originals and have lasted all these years.

{This is Santa’s Round-up. This was the display that sat in my yard growing up. I always loved helping Mama and Daddy get it ready for Light-up. Today it sits up the street, and looks a little different from what I remember, but it’s an original, and one of my favorites.}

Other originals include:

Bugs Bunny and all his friends

Snoopy and Charlie Brown

Alvin and the Chipmunks and Winnie the Pooh and Friends

And The Littlest Angel

There have been many displays that have come and gone and so many that have meaning to each family who lives in the homes.

There’s Barbie and Ken and even Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs {sorry no pictures of these}.

There’s always the beautiful Manger Scene…

…which brings us the true meaning of Christmas.

And even Justin Bieber adorns the street wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Today I live over 500 miles from my parents and don’t get down every Christmas. It breaks my heart I don’t get to see it in person every year, but the tradition and the excitement lives inside me and has a very special place in my heart.

I was able to take my kids there this year for very quick trip. Some people thought I was a bit crazy to drive 8 hours {one way} to go down, but it was worth every second of the drive. To see the magic and excitement in their eyes brought me back to my childhood and made me really appreciate what Christmas is all about…family, traditions, believing in magic, and lots and lots of love.

We all have our Christmas traditions whether it’s where we live or who we see and celebrate this special time. I am very blessed to say I grew up in a small town on a street with a wonderful Christmas tradition.

I am so thankful I got to visit it with my own children this year and see the magic in their eyes that I remember as a child.

Whatever your Christmas tradition is or one’s you might be making this year, I wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Always believe in the magic of Christmas!

From “The Wilson Clan”

Chocolate Candy-Cane Cookies

I think peppermint is the theme of my game this year. I’m loving anything peppermint.

Here’s another treat I wanted to share with you.

1 pkg. (8oz) cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

4 squares Baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted

3 squares Baker’s white baking chocolate, melted

4 candy canes, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With a mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl until blended.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking soda. Add it slowly to the cream cheese mixture.

{It helps if you have a little friend helping. Yes, he has a red nose. Our elf, Max had a little fun last night.}

Blend in melted semi-sweet chocolate.

When all mixed in, scoop by 1 tablespoonful's on a cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

While you wait for them to cool, crush candy canes in a Ziploc bag.

When cookies are cooled, place on wax paper.

Melt white chocolate in microwave in 1 minute increments, stirring every 30 seconds until melted.

Use a spoon and drizzle over cookies.

While white chocolate is still melted sprinkle crushed candy canes on top.

Enjoy with a glass of milk!

Peppermint Angel Balls

There are so many things I love about Christmas. But one thing that I truly love is baking. I love the smells of all those goodies coming out of the oven. I love getting all messy and teaching my children the art of baking all those Christmas treats.

Here’s a quick and easy cookie that is a favorite here at our house and at cookie exchanges.

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

6 candy canes, crushed

3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.

Add egg and beat until blended.

Add flour and salt in slowly so it doesn’t slosh out. Mix thoroughly.

Here’s the fun part…time to crush those candy canes.

Unwrap those bad boys and place in a Ziploc bag and close it up.

Take a wooden spoon and beat those suckers until they’re crushed.

It literally takes a minute to do, so don’t be afraid of this part.

Add them to your dough and mix in…

And when it’s all mixed together, it’ll look like this:

Scoop 1 Tablespoon and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes until set. They do NOT turn brown.

Cool on pan a few minutes so they don’t crumble, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Once they’ve cooled, put your confectioner’s sugar in a bowl. Toss a few cookies at a time to coat with the sugar.

And there you have it…Peppermint Angel Balls

I hope you enjoy!!!

Merry Christmas!

Super 5th Super Hero Birthday

Well, seeing that I seem to be a day {or a couple of weeks} late and a dollar short, I guess it’s about time I post about my son’s 5th birthday.

Ha!

Hunter turned 5 on December 1, and we had a Super Hero Birthday for my little super hero.

It was so fun putting this party together. My little man LOVES to dress up. He wears costumes, multiple costumes, all day long. He wears them to school, to the store, and sometimes even to bed.

So, to have his friends come in their costumes to his party was right up his alley. We also decided to get a face painter to come as well.

As usual, I was a bit rushed with traveling for Thanksgiving and coming home to get into party mode, but it all came together and worked out perfectly.

I had a lot of fun scouring Pinterest to find super cute ideas for decorations. And my Silhouette and I became close again…if only for a week. Ha!

This was the entry table…dedicated to my little guy. I took the four pictures outside the house one after noon. We had so much fun doing these.

This was the food table. I made the city night scape with black poster board, silver permanent markers, and yellow paint. We used these to decorate our car for our church’s Trunk or Treat at Halloween. So, I hung on to them and they worked perfectly for the food table. I made the paper popcorn holders from scrapbook paper. The yellow canisters were purchased at the Dollar Spot at Target. I bought them a while back knowing they’d come in handy one day…yep, they sure did.

Eric was a trooper and hung spider webs for me all over the room. I mean what good is Spiderman without his spider web, right?

The bubble signs were also used for the trunk or treat. I made them with pre-cut poster board and letters I cut with my Silhouette.

The capes on the table were part of the party favors.

These were super simple. I purchased capes from Target {$2.00 each), my sister and law and I cut out the letters in felt, and I glued them on using this flexible fabric glue.

If you know me, you know I can’t have a party without water bottle labels. I printed these Spiderman inspired labels on my Silhouette. I also cut out the Batman logo, and then wrapped the juice boxes with black wrapping paper.

I think this table was the kids’ favorite. Once they found the candy…it was O.V.E.R.

I used shoe boxes to make the 3-D buildings and wrapped them with black wrapping paper. I also made the speech bubble signs for the kids to put in their party favor bags.

Behind the sweets table was another night city scape. I made it with black wrapping paper, silver permanent markers, and yellow paint. I loved how it turned out.

Above it was of course a Happy Birthday banner I made. I just love making these.

These are just a couple other shots of decorations.

Now, let’s get down to some serious party business…the cake.

My cake girl came through once again and the cake was awesome.

It was super cute and Hunter loved it. The kids all loved the cookies too!

Like I said before, we had a face painter come. “Sparkles” did a great job and the kids all stood in line so patiently waiting to get their faces painted.

But most of all the kids loved being dressed in their costumes playing super heroes.

Being in the South, you never know what kind of weather you’re going to get on December 1. A couple of years ago it snowed for Hunter’s party. This year it was 60 degrees! Perfect to send 14 little ones outside to play.

I had a couple of games to play and we had a great time.

First it was Pin the mask on the super hero.

I went to Staples and had a poster size picture of Hunter the Superman printed up.

I mean how stinking cute is that???

I blind-folded the kids and let them tape a paper mask to Hunter’s face.

They did a great job!

Next, we played Capture the bad guy.

Eric put on a “bandit” mask and hid in the bushes. I gathered the kids together and asked them, “What do super heroes do?” They all yelled, “Get the bad guys!” I gave each of them some toilet paper and told them to be on the look out for a bad guy. If they saw one they had to wrap him up with their paper.

Oh my goodness, so super fun!!!

Then it was cake time!!!

What a super duper fun time for my little super hero!