Homemade Christmas: Cinnamon Ornaments

In my last post I mentioned homemade cinnamon dough ornaments. These are so easy and only require 2 ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, applesauce and cinnamon. The children and I make these every year. They are really very simple and smell amazing. When I make up the dough, I usually triple it so everyone has enough dough to work with.

The recipe is:

1 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cup of cinnamon

To get started, preheat your oven to 200 and line a backing sheet with parchment paper.

Next, measure out your applesauce and cinnamon in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the paddle attachment until the dough comes together into a ball, adding more applesauce or cinnamon as needed. the dough will be thick, but you don't want it sticky or crumbling apart. You can also mix by hand.

After the dough has come together, sprinkle some cinnamon on your working surface and rolling pin. Roll out your dough to 1/4 inch thick.

Cut out your dough with cookie cutters.

It is also pretty to roll the impression of leaves or evergreens needles into your dough before cutting out.

Next, take a skewer and make a hole at the top and place them on your baking sheet.

Bake in your oven for 1 1/2 - 2 hours until the ornaments are dry and hard.

Tie string through the holes and hang them on your tree.

These also make very sweet gift tags or decorations for your Christmas gifts.

I must say that even though these are made with edible ingredients and smell good enough to eat, they are in fact not edible.

Slowing down this Christmas... How our family creates a meaningful Christmas

Christmas has always been a special time for us, though in the past, the season often seemed rushed and meaningless...

I struggled with guilt for not accomplishing enough on the 'to-do' list. Every other obligation seemed to rise above the things that were most important to me... I was deeply bothered by the commercialism, selfishness, covetousness, and lack of meaning surrounding this season.

homemade beeswax candles make a simple and beautiful table center piece

But last Christmas my husband and I made the decision to be intentional about what we do and how we spend our time. My focus turned to creating memories with the children instead of feeding their natural tendencies toward selfishness and covetousness.

jelly jar beeswax candle, bakers twine, pine cone, and an old pewter platter

So, every week I try to do at least one thing with the children to make memories and traditions. This time usually involves a crafting or baking project. But it is always something special, always something out of the normal, and always done as a family.

little hands exploring a homemade Christmas ornament

Some things we are doing and enjoying this Christmas season are

 hot chocolate from scratch, with homemade whipped cream and peppermint sticks

making cinnamon dough ornaments

decorating the Christmas tree

reading of the first Advent from the bible

baking cookies and listening to traditional Christmas music

driving around looking at Christmas lights

eating way too many cinnamon rolls

making wooden clothespin ornaments

dried oranges and cinnamon dough ornaments adorn our simple little Christmas tree

I hope you are able to slow down this Christmas season, take the time to be more intentional, and make this season meaningful.

ps look for a post soon with a recipe for cinnamon dough ornaments.

Cultivating Home

As the seasons meander one into the other, as summer greens fade into to autumn's reds and oranges,

time slows down in our home. The garden's production has slowed and so has our pace. Quiet reflecting often happens tucked in between moments of fall baking and home schooling...

This season is where I like to catch up on various home duties like cleaning closets and organizing them, dusting cobwebs, washing down the walls, scrubbing base boards... you get the idea. The kitchen also beckons me back with slow, simmering soups, and comforting baked treats. Also, bread baking begins again in earnest. With all of the duties of home, I find that I enjoy cultivating this lifestyle within my home; I love cultivating home.

So, what is cultivating home? For me it is creating an atmosphere of love, joy, peace, and contentment within my home, with Jesus Christ at the center of everything we do.

Cultivating home is bringing my children along side me in the kitchen as I cook from scratch, as I make beeswax candles, as we tidy the house, together. Its eating supper nightly around the dining room table by the glow of homemade candles. Cultivating home is sitting down in the evening for family Bible time and scripture memory, with the reward of getting to pick the next hymn we sing that evening for verses memorized.

It is the comfort my children have seeing the love their mother and father have for each other and the Lord. Cultivating home is enjoying time together as a family. It is the children working and learning beside their parents, the ones who God gave to teach, train, nourish, admonish, and nurture them.

What are some ways you cultivate home? I'd love to glean wisdom from y'all!